Wicked the Movie Review
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Random blog day boo yah. As you should know Fridays is random blog day were we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is a Movie Review of the 2024 movie WICKED (Part One).
Wicked; Titled on screen as Wicked Part 1 is a 2024 American Musical Fantasy Film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, It is the first instalment of a two part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name, which is loosely based on the 1995 book of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which in turn is based on the 1939 movie The Wizard of OZ and the OZ books written by L. Frank Baum,
The film covers the first act of the Musicals first act and stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande-Butera as Galinda Upland with Johnathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dicklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldbloom rounds up the principal cast. Set in the land of Oz The story of Wicked follows Elphaba the future wicked witch of the west and her friendship with her classmate Galinda who becomes Glinda the good.
Universal Pictures and Marc Platt, who produced the stage musical announced the film adaption back in 2012, After multiple delays including COVID-19, Chu was hired to direct with Erivo and Grande being hired in 2021. The adaption was eventually green lit to be two films to avoid unnecessary cutting of material and adding extra to make Characters journeys and friendships flow better. Principal photography began in England in December of 2022 and completed in January of 2024 due in part to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA Strike.
Wicked premiered first on November 3rd 2024 at the State Theatre in Sydney, Australia followed by the theatrical release in the US on November 22nd 2024. receiving positive reviews from the critics the movie was named one of the best films of 2024 by the AFI and won best film at the National Board of Review. Other accolades the film has grossed includes four nominations at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, winning Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. The movie also tied with Conclave for a leading 11 nominations at the 30th Critics Choice awards which included Best Picture. At the moment of this blog (being written and posted), The movie has grossed $680.6 million worldwide more than doubling its $150 million budget. Wicked has become the highest grossing OZ related movie in recent history. The highest grossing musical film release by universal pictures and the sixth highest film of 2024. Its sexual titled Wicked; For Good is scheduled for release in November 2025.
Due in part to the local cinema I have a pass at being closed for renovation, I did not see the movie on the big screen though I did see it via Amazon Prime. Thanks to this I was able to watch others reviews which were posted to Youtube, which only fuelled my yearning for the watch.
I love the fact the movies introduction starts in Kiamo Ko and covers several beats from the start of the musical before arriving in Munchkin land and starting no-one mourns the wicked, there's several
Easter eggs in the intro as well including the sight of Dorothy, Toto, The scarecrow, the Tin-man and the cowardly lion walking down the yellow brick road back to The Emerald City with Elphaba's Broom. I love Grande as Glinda but I do feel there could be others who are better for the role, Erivo is near perfect as Elphaba. I love Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, shes one of the few actresses who can definitely play Morrible's eccentricities and toes the fine line through the musical between liked and disliked. Dinklege as Dr Dillamond is great, and Keala Settle is also fab as Miss Coddle, I kinda hope shes in the next film and sings in it too. Both the actor and Actress for Boq and Nessarose has been well cast. Goldbloom as the wizard is a good choice.
Costuming and Set design have been fantastic, everything has definitely made the movie a great watch. I particularly like the train and the library, both have feats of engineering built into them.
Some of the shifts in the movie makes it better, IE: Elphaba and Fyero's first meeting being in the forest and Dr Dillamond's song being with other Animals. I also love the change of The Ozdust Ballroom being a nightclub rather than a dance hall it gives it a more salacious moment.
Yeoh's delivery Morrible's line of “I hope you prove me wrong...I doubt you will” made my ears tingle with happiness. Cynthia Erivo is a great singer and she definitely brings the emotion up through her singing (it shows in “I'm not that girl”).
The Oz Players is a great edition to “One Short Day” because it allows some OZ History to be added and how important The Grimmerie is. The inclusion of the OG Glinda and Elphaba is sweet (That is Christen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel). I also like the fact that when Elphaba reads/speaks aloud from The Grimmerie It's more as if shes under it's spell than mere curiosity. I also love the fact the Grimmerie is not a normal book shape.
The use of the balloon in their attempt to leave is great, plus I appreciate the films showing of Elphaba finding The wizards circus merch and the fact when during the moment When Glinda gives Elphaba her cloak, she skims over the green clothing and gives her a black cloak. Plus I love the shot of seeing Elphaba brush the cloak back and it billows out a bit, reminds me of one of the books previous covers.
I Love this movie and very much appreciate everyone's hard work in the making of it from the writers down to the grips in the crew. I hope others appreciate the time effort and dedication that others have for their jobs and their crafts. As such I recommend you go watch the movie and I give it an 8/10.
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THE WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_(2024_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_(musical)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Schwartz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Holzman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_(Maguire_novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Maguire
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https://www.instagram.com/thebandersnatchblog/?hl=en
https://www.tiktok.com/@thebandersnatchuk
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