With the Wicked The Musical being Broadway’s biggest blockbuster for over two decades, comes a movie adaptation of the beloved story of the witches of Oz. The film explores themes of friendship, trust and inclusion. The movie was released on Nov 22, 2024. The movie is a two part movie, with the second part scheduled to release Nov 21, 2025. Winnie Holzman wrote the movie, Stephen Schwartz wrote the music, John M. Chu directed the movie and produced it with Universal pictures and Marc Platt. The movie features iconic songs from the musical such as “Defying Gravity”, “Popular” and “Dancing Through Life”
Where to stream Wicked
You can rent or purchase it on various streaming platforms, such as Amazon Prime or Xfinity, as of December 31, 2024.
Age rating
Rating: PG
Length of movie
Wicked runs for 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Actors
The movie stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande as Glinda Upland, with a cast of Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum.
Awards
Despite being a relatively new movie, it has won one award and been nominated for 14 awards. These awards include Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Cynthia Erivo), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Ariana Grande).
Summary
When dropping off her sister, Nessarose, Elphaba Thopp meets Glinda Upland at Shiz university, a school for Witches and Wizards. Despite their differences and rivalry, the two become friends. As they become closer, Elphaba becomes very frustrated with the injustices and corruption of Oz.
Meanwhile, Galinda is occupied with Charing Prince Fiyero, another student at Shiz University. When Elphaba’s feeling grow stronger for Fiyero, she finds herself in-between her friendship and her own feelings.
As tension rises, Elphaba’s decisions become more radical, which turns her into the Wicked witch of the West. leading to the second part, “Wicked: For Good”.
Elphaba Thropp
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is a complex character and has a combination of intelligence, kindness and emotional vulnerability. She has the strengths of courage, determination, and empathy, but also has weaknesses such as self doubt, impulsiveness and tendencies to isolate herself from the rest of the world.
Glinda Upland
Glinda (Ariana Grande) is very popular at Shiz and she is a lot smarter than she acts. She is very bubbly and funny. She is also very loyal to her friends. Throughout the movie, her character evolves from being rude to Elphaba to being Elphaba’s best friend.
Fiyero Tigelaar
Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is a charming prince from Winkie Country who is a carefree prince. He is Glinda’s love interest and the person that makes Elphaba in-between her friendship with Glinda.
Nessarose Thropp
Nessarose is elphaba’s younger sister. Known as “tragically beautiful,” she is wheelchair bound. Nessa is her father’s favorite child. She doesn’t want or need anyones help. She desires her independence throughout the movie, and is seen as a complex character.
Opinion
All in all, for a movie adaptation, I really enjoyed it. The music is light hearted and fun to listen to. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande sing impressive vocals that stay true to the Broadway show.The storyline is engaging and offers a fresh take on the musical.
