Movies, books, and musicals about the Land of Oz have been around for decades!
If you didn’t know, the book that started it all – “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” – was written by L. Frank Baum in 1900.
After hearing several people shower the musical film with recognition, I decided to check “Wicked: Part 1” out for myself last week.
I do have to say off the bat that if you’re expecting 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland in it – you’ll be disappointed.
Wicked may be the highest-grossing Oz-related film so far, but it’s also still a musical and takes a different look at the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good that most aren’t prepared to see.
Still, I enjoyed the blending of practical effects and CGI along with the casting choices made.
Musicals are better enjoyed when the actors can actually sing rather than lip-syncing all the time.
Wicked is a musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox.
It is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which is loosely based on the 1995 novel, in turn based on the Oz books and the 1939 film.
The film covers the musical’s first act.
It stars Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Marissa Bode, Courtney Mae-Briggs, and Jeff Goldblum as the principal cast.
The movie is 160 minutes long and rated PG for some scary action, thematic material and brief suggestive material.
In the Land of Oz, the citizens of Munchkinland celebrate the recent death of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Glinda the Good (Butera) joins the festivities and tells the Witch’s story: born from an affair between the wife of then-Governor Thropp (Briggs) and a traveling salesman, she was ostracized from birth due to her unnaturally green skin and suffered a troubled childhood.
When asked if she and the Witch were friends, Glinda reveals they knew each other from their school days.
Years earlier, Elphaba Thropp (Erivo) arrives at Shiz University to see off her paraplegic younger sister Nessarose (Bode).
Shiz’s Dean of Sorcery Studies Madame Morrible (Yeoh) offers to privately tutor Elphaba after witnessing an unintentional display of her magical abilities.
Elphaba accepts in the hopes that it will allow her to meet Oz’s ruler, the Wizard (Goldblum), and be “de-greenified”.
To her discontent, she is forced to room with bubbly Galinda Upland; the two clash constantly.
One night, Elphaba follows Dr. Dillamond (Dinklage), a talking Goat who faces discrimination as one of Shiz’s last animal professors, to a meeting of animals off-campus.
Dillamond reveals that other animals are losing their civil rights and ability to speak, but Elphaba assures him that the Wizard will set things right.
Rebellious transfer student Fiyero Tigelaar (Bailey) arranges to take a group of students to the Ozdust Ballroom.
Galinda convinces Boq Woodsman (Slater), a happy-go-lucky Munchkin with a crush on her, to invite Nessarose so she can accompany Fiyero.
At the Ozdust, Galinda learns from a begrudging Morrible that she will be allowed to join the sorcery seminar at Elphaba’s request.
As Galinda and Elphaba become friends, things get harder for the witches and it definitely sets the stage for interesting interactions in the second film.
However, I’m not holding my breath until November 2025 for part two – just like I waited for the crowds to die down this time, too!
