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| Photo from Internet Movie Poster Awards |
Director: Jon M. Chu
Length: 2h 40m
Genre: Musical/Fantasy
Rating: PG
Released: Nov. 22, 2024
I can’t believe it’s already December!
The film of today's conversation is Wicked: Part 1. Like many others, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and have now watched it a couple times. Admittedly, I haven't seen the Broadway production or read the book. I have seen The Wizard of Oz, but I haven't watched it enough to be able to connect the two films on my own.
This film was highly anticipated by myself, but I believe by many others as well. I didn’t watch any media that would tell me what happened in the film regarding the plot, so most of the videos I watched before seeing the film were interviews. I don't like seeing anything that could give parts of the film away before actually watching it because I think it ruins the in-theater experience of seeing it for the first time.
Obviously the cast is fantastic. Ariana Grande played Glinda, Cynthia Erivo played Elphaba Thropp, Jonathan Bailey played Prince Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh played Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum played The Wizard of Oz. I think the casting director for this project excelled in their position.
I know a lot of people were apprehensive about Miss Grande playing Glinda but I don’t know if anyone else could have done as good of a job. I don’t say my opinion completely uneducated. I watched many clips of other Wicked productions with various castings. I think that she brought something new to the role of Glinda. She was a new kind of funny, she was cunning, it’s new.
I also want to point out that I didn't think she had such a range. Hearing her sing in the manner that she did, I am more of a fan than I previously was. I have never been a mega fan, but I did often watch Victorious growing up.
My favorite thing I learned about Ariana Grande that is non-film related is that she loves her iPad. Allegedly, she loves playing games to pass the time. I like this because it makes her seem more normal; not like an unattainable celebrity.
I cannot say enough about Cynthia Erivo. One of my favorite things that I learned about her was that she did her own stunts for the film while singing. I can’t even imagine how difficult that must be. She was very committed to the role of Elphaba but, I think that is expected since this is a momentous occasion. Truly there is a lot to love about Mrs. Erivo.
I loved Johnathan Bailey, of course. Since I had only watched Bridgerton, I didn’t know that Mr. Bailey had done musical theater. I didn’t know he could sing. There are so many things that I was pleasantly surprised with from him. Of course I have a favorite fact about him as well. I learned that he was filming Wicked, Bridgerton and Fellow Travelers at the same time. That is absolutely crazy.
The whole cast is important and every one of them helped make the musical so good. I just wanted to point out the main characters.
I think since I haven’t seen the Broadway productions or read the books it makes for good insight about the film from the perspective of new fans. It’s obvious that there are certain audiences that are going to be more interested in Wicked than others, but I do like how many different audiences (from what I've seen) Wicked has been able to attract.
To conclude, I loved it. I also loved the soundtrack; maybe i’ll come back to this and write a little bonus about the soundtrack. I will be updating this post when I think of new things, however that means this post might then conclude spoilers. I will add a warning if that ends up being what happens.