I saw Wicked: Part One a couple weeks after it came out, and I was very impressed with it. It is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and based on the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire. It follows the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). The movie shows the bond formed between Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba during their years at school. Though, throughout her journey, Elphaba must learn who she can really trust.
The movie has 7.8/10 stars on IMDB which I think is an accurate score, but it does need mentioning that some of the directorial choices were interesting at best. Something about all the kids in Munchkinland freaked me out! I don’t know if it was the acting or the bright red hair, but those kids made me uncomfortable. Then of course I must mention Glinda’s eyebrows. Her eyebrows totally washed her out and made her look like a creepy old doll.
Truthfully, there were more things about the musical I liked than disliked. One thing that made the movie infinitely better was the color grading. The bright colors in Munchkinland and Oz show that everything is seemingly amazing but make the viewer wonder if it is too good to be true. I was also very pleasantly surprised with the singing. Most movie musicals like Mean Girls (2024), have subpar songs and vocals, but with singers like Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey (and just the overall composition of the songs), the movie way above average.
I am most impressed with how the writers and director displayed the message of the story. They immediately portrayed Elphaba as a horrible person, but in reality, she just had different colored skin. This message resonates deeply with me and many other fans because of how the world can fear that which is different. But as the story goes on we see Glinda and Elphaba bond despite their differences, proving that being different isn’t so bad. Unfortunately, Glinda’s strive for power makes her side with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and portrays Elphaba as a danger to Oz. The character’s reasoning behind this is that “nothing brings people together more than a common enemy.”
Overall, I think the message and quality overshadow some of the questionable directorial choices. I deem Wicked: Part One as a must-watch!
