Wicked - The Movie

I went to see the movie Wicked. It took place at Odeon cinema.

I went with my sister and friends. I saw that a lot of people online were wearing pink and green/black to represent the two main characters so we decided to do the same.

Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, a misunderstood young woman because of her green skin, the movie tells us how she became the wicked witch of the west. Along the way she meets Glinda, a popular girl whose dream is to become a witch herself; they both go to Shiz University in the Land of Oz. Both have very different ambitions and after an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads. The story will continue in the next movie which is released in November 2025.  

The things I liked about Wicked the movie and why.

I really liked three of the songs : Defying Gravity, What Is This Feeling and Popular for every song and in every scene they sang live on set. You can really feel this in the movie, it made it twice as good.

Cynthia said “that they chose to sing live so that they were further connected to the words that they were singing and to each other.”.

Ariana said “ It was a no brainer for Cynthia and I. We both were like well of course we are singing live.”. 

I think you can tell they sang live, the movie really draws you in. They are the best singers in the world. It's really special and you can see their reactions to each other as they sing.

Cynthia also said “It feels really powerful to be able to be singing in that way.”.

Jonathan says “ You feel it that the effect that they both have on the set.”.

As well as the movie I watched a behind the scenes video and you can see the other cast and crew get very emotional while the witches are singing. The movie really stayed true to being a musical which I love!

Ariana also said “ When ever we got to the end of an incredible 

Emotional day, Cynthia and I referred to ourselves as husks. Haven given everything we’ve got”

I loved the vibe and the energy of this movie, it's so passionate and emotional you can tell the actors gave it everything.

Scenery

I really liked the design of Munchkinland . They grew 9 million tulips for the fields around the land, the artistic director had to learn how to grow the tulips and when each of the different tulips flowered and how to get them all flowering at the same time. I think this is a really cool idea and should be used more instead of CGI in movies as it gives that extra effect. 

They filmed in lots of different locations across the UK and edited them together, one scene where Elphaba is singing she runs through Bournemouth where Schiz university is located but the scene ends on a cliff in Sussex. 

The Seven sister rivers were used for filming the arrival at Shiz university. The university set itself was built inside a huge tank. It must be hard to go from one location to the next one and get a seamless transition. 

The boats at the university were built by a boat builder in Prague and they were pushed by men in green suits that were then removed using CGI. Using and building a real set is really cool. It makes me want to go and visit the set.

The sets were real and all built. It made the whole experience look so real on screen and feel real for the cast. These sets were inspired by real buildings so are familiar to look at but still have new and original designs, the director said they did it  to give the audience a feeling of nostalgia and familiarity. It's the biggest set the art director has ever built. They even had to plan how the sun moved over the set and how that shows the colours and effects the scene and mood, all things that are difficult but make the movie spectacular.

Brighton pavilion inspired the dorm room. It's a mix of Chinese, Indian and British architecture. I loved how the dorms were designed. It made it feel like there were two rooms, not one. It also shows how different each of them are as one side of the room is pink with a fancy bed and the other side has a simple bed with some storage and lighting. Glinders side is pink and fancy but Elphaba's side is simple and bland. This shows Glinda's confidence and that Elphaba doesn't care.

In the film I loved it when the witches visited Oz, the best surprise was when Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth appeared and sang in the town, they were the original witches from the on stage musical. I loved the emerald city, on the set you will mainly see green but you will also see navy, orange, gold and bronze. These colours break up the greens to create definition. It can't all just be green it would have looked terrible , it's really clever how they do this.

The puppet head  used by the wizard is real and not CGI, it is 15ft tall and 8 ft off the ground. I would love to go and see it, the one in the live musical was big and intimidating, the one in the movie would be epic. The string art around the puppet is used to create the feeling of a theatre curtain giving more drama to the mask.

In the stage musical I loved the curtain map of Munchkinland and Oz. In the movie they took it to the next level. It looks like a picture but thats just an illusion and the wizard steps into it and it’s a miniature 3D map of the area that was all hand painted. 

Characters

I loved the actors that were chosen for Madame Morrible, Elphaba and Glinda. They were perfect for the roles they were given. They matched how I imagined the characters, I could tell when they were acting they were totally immersed in the role and they were really believable, I experienced the story with them.

On stage Dr Dillamond was one of my favourite characters, in the movie he had a different style and I totally loved it. He was brave and ambitious and wanted to stay being a teacher until the end. I love the friendship between him and Elphaba.

I would recommend this movie, I 100% think you should go and see it!