General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Lost in Oz

Lost in Oz is an American animated children's television series loosely based on L. Frank Baum's Oz books, produced as an original for Amazon Prime Video. It follows a 12-year-old Dorothy Gale who is transported with her dog Toto to a modern, metropolitan Emerald City and must gather Oz's magic to return home to Kansas.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Full CG animated series for children ages 6 to 11, streaming on Amazon Prime Video²^•¹
Creators	Developed, produced, and created by Bureau of Magic's Mark Warshaw, Darin Mark, Jared Mark, and Abram Makowka¹
Key dates	Pilot released June 26, 2015; special Lost in Oz: Extended Adventure on December 2, 2016; series premiere August 4, 2017; final episode June 7, 2018³^•⁴
Awards	Three Daytime Emmy Awards in 2017 for the Extended Adventure special; a 2018 Emmy nomination and a 2018 Annie Award nomination for the series⁵^•⁶
Main voice cast	Ashley Boettcher (Dorothy), Nika Futterman (West), Jorge Diaz (Ojo), Gina Gershon (Langwidere)²^•⁷
Audience rating	7.5/10 on IMDb from about 704 user ratings⁸

Spoilers

Premise

In the series, 12-year-old Dorothy Gale discovers her mother's magical travel journal hidden beneath the floorboards of the family's Kansas home. The book triggers a tornado that rips the house from its foundation and carries Dorothy and Toto to Emerald City, a bustling, modern metropolis. To get home, Dorothy learns she must acquire every element on Oz's "periodic table of magic" while the city faces its worst magic drought in eons. Along the way she and Toto meet allies including West, a young witch drawn to dark enchantments; Ojo, a giant Munchkin; Reigh the Lion; the Scarecrow; and Glinda the Good.²

The show is a generational continuation rather than a retelling. Co-creator Mark Warshaw described it as a modern continuation of the original Oz stories in which Dorothy Gale is the great-granddaughter of the original Dorothy and West is the great-granddaughter of the Wicked Witch of the West, set in an evolved, reimagined Emerald City grown through migration and natural expansion.⁹

Production and development

Origin. The series was created and produced by Bureau of Magic, a Los Angeles production company founded in 2014. According to the creators, the project began when a former employee told them Amazon Studios was looking for a new take on Oz; the team developed its pitch in response.¹^•⁹ A pilot was released on June 26, 2015, the opening day of Amazon's "Fifth Pilot Season," in which customers voted on which of six competing children's shows would be picked up; the series was subsequently greenlit.³

Animation and design. Animation production was handled by the Japanese studio Polygon Pictures in full CG.¹ The visual design came from Flaunt Productions, part of the UK-based Axis group, whose work on the Lost in Oz pilot became the first production of its newly created long-form division; Flaunt continued to provide design development and art direction through 2016 under director and art director Stephen Donnelly.¹⁰ India-based Xentrix Studios contributed modeling, rigging, and surfacing work for Polygon Pictures on the first season.¹¹ The crew used the virtual workspace Bluescape as a hub for developing concepts, gathering reference material, and reviewing boards.¹²

Music and sound. The score is by Adam Berry and the theme music by Mark Mothersbaugh; sound design was by Bang Zoom! Studios.¹^•⁶

Release and awards

The special Lost in Oz: Extended Adventure premiered on Prime Video on December 2, 2016. For the series launch on August 4, 2017, this special was broken into three separate episodes and ten new episodes were added, available exclusively to Prime members in the US and UK.² The special won three Daytime Emmy Awards in 2017: Outstanding Children's Animated Program, Outstanding Sound Mixing for Animation, and Outstanding Sound Editing for Animation.⁵ The series was later nominated for the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Children's Animated Series and a 2018 Annie Award for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Children.⁶

The second season concluded on June 7, 2018, with the finale "We Speak Mirror," in which Dorothy and her friends must outwit Guph to retrieve the Nome King's Belt and save Emerald City.⁴

Reception and content

Common Sense Media rated the series for ages 6 and up, calling it a sweet series filled with action, adventure, and positive role models, milder than the 1939 film, and noting that Dorothy's perseverance, optimism, and teamwork make her a strong role model. The review flagged the winged monkeys, described as more like sinister rottweilers, as scary and menacing, along with their "water balloons of oblivion," which make targets forget things.¹³ Parent reviews on the site praised the animation, story, and messages about friendship, while some raised concerns about darker themes and occasional scary moments.¹³ A review in the International Wizard of Oz Club's publication praised the show for making "no concession to audience expectation" and highlighted West's temptation toward dark magic by her aunt Langwidere as one of its central storylines.⁷

Aftermath

Instead of a second-season continuation on Prime Video, the story advanced through a four-minute short film, "Packing Magic," released on YouTube on November 10, 2022, alongside the announcement of a full-length Lost in Oz: The Movie and an official fansite, PassportToOz.com. Bureau of Magic teamed with Bang Zoom! Studios and Polygon Pictures to continue the property.³^•¹² The series remains available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Children's animated adventure and fantasy series › Fantasy and magical series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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