Wicked (Part 1) featuring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo is the most anticipated and one of the best movie adaptations of a musical in recent memory.
Popstar Ariana Grande stars as the Good Witch of the South (Glinda) and Cynthia Erivo stars as the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) to bring the story of the two wicked witches to life as it follows the story of Elphaba and Glinda through their relationship at Shiz Academy.
The movie has a 8.7/10 on IMDb and an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. One of critics’ biggest complaints about the movie is the fact that the movie is almost three hours long, especially for a movie that is left on a cliffhanger.
Another criticism of the movie was from people who did not like musicals. While the movie is based on the Broadway musical by Winnie Holzman, which was based on the book by Gregory Maguire, a lot of viewers were not fans of musical aspect of the movie
However, a majority of the viewers were delighted with the musical and the songs. The most popular songs being “Popular,” “Defying Gravity,” and “What is this feeling?”. The songs became so popular that trends on several social media platforms have been created from them. An example of this would be people trying to sing Cynthia Erivo’s riff at the end of “Defying Gravity.” #Wicked on TikTok currently has 1.4 million posts and the WickedMovie TikTok account has 1.1 Million followers.
When videos trend, they do for a reason. Wicked was an incredibly crafted film with a fun and engaging storyline, as well as amazing singing and talented actors.
Ariana Grande did not disappoint with her role as Glinda, and the way she was able to integrate her charm into her character made the movie more fun. For example,the scene where the song “Popular” is sung, the way Ariana dances makes for bright visuals to show how Glinda is very passionate about popularity. The reversal of roles, to see how Cynthia Erivo is able to encapsulate Elphaba’s erratic and cold behaviour, like in scenes where Elphaba’s anger causes her to make things break and levitate, Cynthia puts on tons of emotions to channel the anger that the character is feeling. To see how the Wicked Witch was never actually wicked, but misunderstood.
Fans are already excited and waiting for Wicked part 2 to come out in November of 2025 to see the ending to the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South.
Wicked (Part 1) was an amazing movie adaptation of the original musical and a great film overall.
