An emerald-green planet grows on screen as the word “Universal” shines in gold. “No One Mourns the Wicked” blares through the movie theatre speakers as Glinda the Good Witch declares to her loyal citizens that the wicked witch is dead. The citizens of Oz cheer because victory is theirs, while Glinda does indeed mourn the “Wicked.” When a citizen asks the good witch how she knew the wicked witch, or Elphaba, she tells the tale of a popular privileged girl becoming friends with an intelligent outcast at Shiz University many years ago.
Wicked broke the record for movies based on Broadway musicals as it grossed over $164 million in the first weekend after its debut on November 22nd(Business Insider). This movie brought out so many new levels of emotion as many have waited as long as 21 years to watch the Broadway production turn cinematic. There was something for everyone: aunts, uncles, fathers, daughters, and even grandmothers who read the book.
The cast list was loaded with A-list stars shining right through the screen. New viewers watched Ariana Grande have her first lead role in a movie in years while old fans celebrated what was years in the making. Broadway stars like the amazing Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero (Screenrant). Even the controversial Ethan Slater played Boq, a munchkin who was in love with Elphaba’s sister, after being well known as Ariana’s boyfriend and Broadway’s very own SpongeBob. The actor playing Boq was labelled as controversial after he started dating Grande and left his pregnant wife.
While the cast was phenomenal, the promotion team hit every market they could. They had spent $250 million dollars making target commercials, selling pink and green mac and cheese, and making Wicked Crocs (Deadline). There were even collaborations with Lexus, Xfinity, and Lego; they hit every market possible.
Many fans wanted technicolor to spread the screen and were surprised to see director Jon M. Chu’s choice to use desaturated color gradients. When speaking to interviewers, he said he wanted to create a real place (NBC Insider). It should also be noticed that the colors pink, green, and yellow are emphasized throughout the movie. Chu showed true genius as he used lighting and shadows to create an even more beautifully told story line. From Elphaba looking a natural skin color during “The Wizard and I” when she was speaking about wanting to be treated normally to when a window created a halo over Glinda in “What is This Feeling?”.
The real-world themes were also so respectfully played out as Doctor Dillamond went through discrimination throughout the film. His treatment first begins as minor aggressions that people could pass up for nothing, like when the students don’t want to hear about animal history, building up to what becomes a full-blown extermination of animals. On either side, this was the perfect time for the movie to come out. Students at Shiz had no idea about the terror the animals were going through until it was right in front of them, in the form of a threat on a chalkboard. Elphaba’s relation to Dillamond is beautiful in that she listens to him knowing it’s not her own story but knowing the implication that his treatment has on her future.
After watching the Wizard of Oz and the Broadway production of Wicked, foreshadowing is spread through the entire play with quotes like “you might melt” and “stuff it.” Even the treatment of Dillamond is foreshadowing of what would happen to the Monkeys and Elphaba herself. The creators really felt like they understood the stories that they were basing the movie off of. They had taken an hour-long act and created a 2 hour and 40-minute-long recreation which held true to everything the musical was. The Wizard is already set up to be a coward and maybe a bigger antagonist than the caring “father” he led on for people to believe him to be.
The movie ending builds upon the times to come in Emerald City. Aggrieved flying monkeys search for Elphaba as The Wizard hides behind the citizen’s biases, waiting for the guards to capture the wicked witch. Lightning flashes and the sky becomes dark as Glinda fights to help her dear friend. Elphaba rises to her highest heights, belting out the beloved “Defying Gravity,” as the people in theatre felt tears soak their cheeks. As Fiyero runs away and Boq looks to the blackened sky, the screen turns black. A 1930s “The End” screen appears, signaling to the movie that started it all. As the lights in the theatre turned on, the audience realized they witnessed cinematic history. Overall, the movie is a must watch and completely deserves the uproar it caused.
