Wicked: The Musical: The Movie

[Farerb]

A decade ago I would have been excited to see this film, but I don't think I care about these "The villain is not actually bad, they actually have a point" narratives anymore. I still plan to watch it but I'm not as excited about it as I would have been. It's definitely not going to be better than The Wizard of Oz.

[Thumper_93]

The film doesn't want to be as good as The wizard of Oz and is not fair to compare them because they don't even have the same plot.
To be honest and fair this story is much older than all the new stories of villains that are not actually villains and are good. The musical has 20 years and the novel is much older, it is from 1995.
Big part of the films that used these kind of plot is thanks to Wicked.

[Disney Duster]

I agree, well said, Thumper! I am sorry you are leas excited, Farerb. I am less excited than I would have been in my late teens as well, only because I have depression, and it's two movies so they may bloat it. The same reason Thumper and Brelly were worried about the two movie thing.

[Disney's Divinity]

They have a new release of The Wizard of Oz coming out next month to coincide with this film, I assume. The cover would make you think the Wicked Witch is the main character. I might get it if the price comes down to a reasonable level; they have it priced around $75 right now.

[Disney Duster]

I already have that witch over crystal ball cover for the three-disc collector's edition and the Dorothy in the poppies covered 4K version, I don't need anymore versions of my second favorite live-action movie until the add something really amazing. The 100th anniversary surely will.

[Thumper_93]

A new edition from the film is not neccesary right now. Ii's clear that they wanted to take some advantage of Wicked film and deceided to release it in order to sell more. It must be really hard to see that other studio is making a movie inspired in the universe of one of your greatest movies of all time and that everybody is excited about it. I'm sure that they would have loved to have the rights from Wicked and be the one to make the movie instead of Universal.

[Mooky]

WB has continually been putting out new releases of TWoO in 5-year intervals for every anniversary that ends in 0 or 5. The latest one would have come out with or without Wicked in theaters, but I guess some cross-promotion doesn’t hurt.

[Thumper_93]

WB has continually been putting out new releases of TWoO in 5-year intervals for every anniversary that ends in 0 or 5. The latest one would have come out with or without Wicked in theaters, but I guess some cross-promotion doesn’t hurt.

Releasing the movie with the wicked witch in the cover just at the same time than Wicked is going to be released in theaters is a marketing movement. Obviously they release the movie every few years but this time they are trying to take some advantage from the new film.

[Mooky]

Hence my cross-promotion comment.

It's not like they're trying to trick people into buying a random movie no one's ever heard of. I'd assume most Wicked fans are already fans or at least familiar with The Wizard of Oz, and they already own multiple copies, so why not play up the connection a bit more for uber fans. Furthermore, the Wicked Witch is prominent only on the steelbook, the actual packaging features the same cover art as the 2005 3-disc DVD.

[Disney's Divinity]

The film looks so good. I already knew that, but the longer ads have made me even more excited. Definitely seeing this in theaters. Part II is planned for 2025, right? Just hoping it's not too far away, want to see how Erivo and Grande handle "For Good," "Thank Goodness," and the ending reprise of "No One Mourns the Wicked." They were really good choices since Menzel and Chenoweth were too old ( ). And the choices for Morrible and the Wizard are great, too! BTW, Grande was hilarious in the Jennifer Coolidge skit on SNL this past weekend.

I suppose the whole split of Frozen III and IV as a two-parter was probably inspired by this and the Spiderverse films doing the same. It's a shame Chenoweth doesn't have a film / character similar to Menzel with Frozen; I still wonder how different Tangled would've been with her. Of course, Moore did do a great job with the speaking lines / acting for Rapunzel and okay in the singing parts. I suppose Chenoweth would've played Rapunzel a little too sassy. You know, I could actually see Chenoweth doing a decent job as a Disney villainess with the right type of character simply going by her performance in Hairspray Live, as long as they keep her from taking it too far into the comical.

[Disney Duster]

Agreed, the film looks to be great. Yup, 2025 is part 2. Can't wait to see how the leads do that one, too. I need to look for the Jennifer Coolidge skit.

I must have forgot Cheno was almost Rapunzel, that seems far out! But Mandy feels more like she can pull off innocence better.

[Thumper_93]

The film looks so good. I already knew that, but the longer ads have made me even more excited. Definitely seeing this in theaters. Part II is planned for 2025, right? Just hoping it's not too far away, want to see how Erivo and Grande handle "For Good," "Thank Goodness," and the ending reprise of "No One Mourns the Wicked." They were really good choices since Menzel and Chenoweth were too old ( ). And the choices for Morrible and the Wizard are great, too! BTW, Grande was hilarious in the Jennifer Coolidge skit on SNL this past weekend.

I suppose the whole split of Frozen III and IV as a two-parter was probably inspired by this and the Spiderverse films doing the same. It's a shame Chenoweth doesn't have a film / character similar to Menzel with Frozen; I still wonder how different Tangled would've been with her. Of course, Moore did do a great job with the speaking lines / acting for Rapunzel and okay in the singing parts. I suppose Chenoweth would've played Rapunzel a little too sassy. You know, I could actually see Chenoweth doing a decent job as a Disney villainess with the right type of character simply going by her performance in Hairspray Live, as long as they keep her from taking it too far into the comical.

Well Kristen was the voice of Rosetta in the Tinker Bell series and she did a pretty good job. Rosetta is one of my favourites Disney characters

[blackcauldron85]

I must have forgot Cheno was almost Rapunzel, that seems far out! But Mandy feels more like she can pull off innocence better.

Kristin was going to play Rapunzel-as-a-squirrel in Rapunzel Unbraided (I mean, maybe we would have seen Rapunzel and the prince as humans for a little bit, but Claire and Vince were the "real world teenagers" who would have been the lead.)

I agree that Wicked looks really good!

[Disney Duster]

Oh yeah, I forgot! Thanks, Amy!

[UmbrellaFish]

The marketing for this movie has got me so pumped! It looks like a big, splashy, unashamed fantasy musical. It doesn’t hurt that I have so much nostalgia for the original stage show. Growing up, Wicked was the Broadway musical— its poster could be used as shorthand for “Broadway.”

[Disney Duster]

I first heard of Wicked when I found the book. I was confused that the book had two versions, one with the original cover and one with the Broadway poster as a cover. I had no idea that Broadway poster cover was for a stage show. I read the book and thought it was very good. I find it odd that it could be, but it must have been in my last year of middle school or first years of high school I read it, because my best friend asked to borrow it and we were in high school together, though I was a year ahead. She told me she was interested because she had seen the stage show, and I was like "what stage show?!" To be honest, my memories are a little fuzzy on when she told me of the show, whether I had told her about the book first or she told me about the show first and then I said there was a book, too. But either way, it was in high school for me that it, indeed, was the show of theater kids!

[UmbrellaFish]

I can’t remember the first time I became aware of Wicked. It’s one of those things that always seemed to be there, y’know? The musical debuted on Broadway when I was 8 years old. Some of my earliest interactions with the property… I remember seeing the billboard for Wicked in the Times Square scenes in Enchanted. There was a PBS documentary series about the history of American musical theatre that happened to end with filmed coverage of the opening of Wicked (I initially only watched the doc because it was hosted by Julie Andrews!). I also had the book with the Broadway poster cover— I still have that copy, in fact! I remember reading it in 7th grade, and poring over the glossy pages with photos from the Broadway production. And then of course, Glee, listening to Lea Michele and Chris Colfer’s covers of “Defying Gravity” when I was about 15. I think that’s probably around the time I first watched any bootlegs of Wicked. I watched a crappy recording of Idina’s last show, and I also saw a recording with Megan Hilty as Glinda before she was as famous as she is now. When I was in college, I had a theatre professor who was very dismissive of the show— Wicked is not a perfect show, but his criticisms seemed to begin and end in the audience with which it was popular (read: teenage girls). I’m thankful I saw through that and was secure enough in my own opinions to not take what he said to heart. It seemed a really crazy thing for him to say, too, since I guarantee Wicked played an important role in many of his students’ decisions to pursue a degree in theatre. Read the room, dude! Lol

It is a property that has meant a lot to me over the years! There was talk earlier in the thread about Wicked feeling old hat because, since the musical premiered, so many movies have come out telling the “true” story from the villain’s perspective, or an otherwise subversive take on fairytales. But Wicked has earned classic status in and of itself. It really is an event movie!

[Disney Duster]

Oh, Brelly, I looooved reading all of that! I am super surprised you are that much younger than me! It's so cool how Wicked was so in your young life, you don't even know where it first started. I can't imagine how lovely it must have been to read the book with some splashy photos from the musical to accompany it! I think Wicked is almost perfect. Just needs better songs for Dr. Dillamond and Mr. Wizard. Also, I think Wicked was one of the first, and best and most iconic examples of "told from the villain's side, and turns out they weren't a villain" stories, so it deserves this event status! Not sure it deserves two movies, but I'd love to be proven wrong!

Oh, and I have seen, and loooove that American musical theater doc with Julie Andrews! "Let's not even go to New York. No, let's do. Let's do." LOL!

Brelly, I just realized I don't know if you have seen the show live. I saw it when I was 18 for my birthday. I had stayed up till 2am the night before, so even though I love The Wizard of Oz and Wicked itself, I fell asleep during the beginning of the second act, and only woke up like in the middle to finish seeing the rest! So I only saw the full thing in an Idina and Kristen starring bootleg! Lol!

[UmbrellaFish]

Oh no, you feel asleep! Understandable circumstances, though! No, I’ve never seen it live. I’ve never been to NYC, and I’ve never seen a touring production. One day!

[Disney Duster]

Aw, Brelly, no live show of it, and never been to NYC?! You are a theater kid! I really, really, really, really hope you get to see both of those things someday soon!

Someone on BroadwayWorld, "sherie_worshipper" posted this:

If you go back to my earlier posts on this thread when the director and leading ladies were announced, you will see that I was very skeptical about every choice that was made by the producers. Some of my posts were downright vicious. I wasn’t impressed by the In the Heights movie and I didn’t think Cynthia and Ariana would work as a pair, so I had to vent about it. Well, I’m happy to admit that I was absolutely wrong. May my earlier posts always remind me not to judge a project before it’s finished. The producers knew exactly what they were doing here. I was lucky enough to catch an early screening of the movie and, though I’m not allowed to say anything about it, I think Universal won’t mind if I say that this is an instant classic. One of the best movie musicals I’ve ever seen. A genuine miracle made with a lot of care by the best of the best. I can’t wait for Part Two!

Yaaaaay!