The musical film with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in review

review

Green is the new pink: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are supposed to save the Christmas business for Hollywood. However, the musical film adaptation “Wicked” is very long – and that’s just the beginning.

Tobias Sedlmaier / ch media

The cinema summer of 2023 shone pink, this Christmas there will be unmissable green. “Wicked” follows in the footsteps of “Barbie”: a colorful, fun blockbuster with a decided message, carried by female stars. Even the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon was invoked again – probably by clever marketing. This time in vain. The double success of “Wicked” and “Gladiator 2” (“Glicked”) failed to materialize, and the sandal film clearly lost to the musical adaptation at the US box office.

The omnipresent advertising buzz for “Wicked” had been buzzing for months in advance. Online through memes, in the department store with stacks of merchandise. These included Barbie dolls of the main characters Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). Because of them, toy manufacturer Mattel is facing a million-dollar lawsuit from a concerned mother: a link to the porn site Wicked was accidentally printed on the packaging. This strange faux pas shouldn't be an obstacle to your chances of getting numerous Oscar nominations.

She looks evil, but is she really? The witch Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in “Wicked”.Image: Universal Studios

The long-running hit on Broadway

“Barbie” and “Wicked” are also fundamentally similar when they attempt a new interpretation and ask when a myth solidifies into a brand – or possibly vice versa. In two cases it's about image correction: in one film it's a doll that wants to be more than an artificial object. The other is about a green-faced witch who wants good and is mistaken for evil.

“Wicked” tells the backstory of the characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” a central text in American literature. Where did the three companions (the dispirited lion, the heartless tin man, the mindless scarecrow) come from who helped the girl Dorothy find her way from the magical land of Oz back to Kansas? Why is one witch, Glinda, so clearly good, while the other, Elphaba, is evil? Is it possible that the story told in “The Wizard of Oz” isn’t true at all?

The children's book by L. Frank Baum, published in 1900, negotiates personal freedom and liberation under its imaginative fairytale level. The longing for belonging. And the ability to take your dreams into your own hands when political leaders turn out to be fakers. The film adaptation of the book from 1939 with Judy Garland as Dorothy is immortally burned into pop culture memory.

Since then, adaptations of the material have regularly hit the cinema, such as the African-American version of “The Wiz” with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. The Muppets were also able to let off steam in the land of Oz. By far the most popular adaptation of the material is “Wicked,” also based on a book. The musical has been one of the most successful long-running hits on Broadway since 2003. Will the film adaptation automatically become a sure-fire success?

A tearful misunderstanding

The film begins with a great, dynamic landscape pan from the castle of the evil witch Elpheba. Dorothy poured a bucket of water over her black pointed hat, whereupon she dissolved. While the residents of Munchkinland happily sing about the end of the witch, Glinda from the people has to put up with the question of whether she was once not friends with her opponent? Yes, she was. Then she tells the story that turns everything upside down.

Elphaba was born with green skin, making her a constantly ridiculed outsider. At Shiz University she meets the snobbish Galinda, who will later call herself Glinda. She is neither delighted by Elphaba's explosive magical abilities nor by having to share the room with her. The rivalry between pink-blonde-superficial and green-dark-white-desire turns into something like friendship. Or something like that, after all, Glinda's main concern is how to look as glamorous as possible in public (song: “Popular”).

Quite different friends: Glinda (left, Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (right, Cynthia Erivo).Image: universal images

The two travel on a steampunk train to the Emerald City, to the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum). Who we know is just a normal guy with impressive carnival magic. Since he cannot perform miracles, he tries to unite the people by removing the talking animals from social life. So that the image of the scapegoat is really clear to everyone, it is embodied by the goat Dr. Dillamond (Peter Dinklage), who is expelled from his professorship at the university.

Of course, tolerance and friendship are important values. A message that the two leading actresses constantly announce on their promotional tour in an annoyingly tearful way: It's all so emotional, being different is so “healing” and “moving”. Really? Ultimately, the musical does not ingeniously focus on the constructional nature of narratives: it is about interpretive sovereignty and unpleasant political truths. That we only like to believe what we want to believe. That appearances determine existence and that good things aren't even that good.

Overall, over five hours of running time

Visually, the film, confidently directed by director Jon M. Chu, is a fireworks display of computer animation. Great in places – and at the same time a generic amalgam of every fantasy film of the last few years. The live recorded vocals are powerful, although some songs are too drawn out. And that is the basic problem: “Wicked” is unfortunately only part 1 of the story. What the stage play tells in just under three hours requires two films with a total running time of over five hours.

This leads to narrative idleness, in which nothing is deepened compared to the musical. On the contrary: some gaps in the story can be quickly ignored on stage, but not in the film. In addition, all the spectacular revelations will only follow in the sequel. In the theater you would wait 20 minutes for it during intermission. In the cinema for almost a year now. Real fans will endure this. Everyone else should also be happy with the musical.

“Wicked” will be in Swiss cinemas from December 12th.

Trailer:

More about “Wicked”:

In the past, as now, humanity has always had clear ideas about what the future will one day look like. But as is often the case, imagination and reality sometimes diverge completely.