“Wicked”: this musical comedy with Ariana Grande makes us green with rage!

If a good Broadway musical necessarily led to a successful adaptation on the big screen, we would know. We are not going to detail here the too long list of terrible filmed versions of “musicals”, but we can at least recall the cases of “Cats” (2018), “The Phantom of the Opera” (2015) or “Annie” in its 2014 version. We will be able to add to these disasters the title of “Wicked”, in theaters this Wednesday.

For those who are not fans of the extraordinary and cult “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) by Victor Fleming and King Vidor with Judy Garland, it should be noted that “Wicked: the true story of the witch of the West » is a work in the form of a prequel based on one of the characters who disappears at the start of “The Wizard of Oz”, and which gave rise to a successful musical comedy, created on Broadway in 2003.

Americans and Brits love “Wicked”

A story set before “The Wizard of Oz”? What a funny idea, even what sacrilege, non-Anglo-Saxon fans of the film will say to themselves. The only thing is: the Americans and the British love “Wicked”: the book is read by most children in the United States, and the “musical” has enjoyed gigantic success since its launch.

Which, obviously, deserved a cinema version… Well, no, three times no, we can say after seeing it. The action takes place thirty years before that of the “Wizard of Oz” and follows the arrival, in Shiz University from the fantastical world of Oz, of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), who comes to accompany her disabled younger sister.

An insult to the enchanting world of “The Wizard of Oz”

Everything is hyper-colored to the extreme, hideous and seems manufactured in “Wicked”, ad nauseum. The ugly cardboard sets of the university are followed by the ugly special effects buildings of the city of Oz, while these digital effects completely spoil the various creatures of this universe.

We will long remember this jungle sequence entirely created by computer welcoming a terribly unsuccessful 100% digital lion cub. So much ugliness is an insult to the enchanting, beautifully cobbled-together universe of the “Wizard of Oz”: sacrilege, that’s what it is…

Basically, the “inclusive” message of the film is pounded with a hammer: a green heroine played by a black actress, and whose sister is disabled, the fine metaphors here, all the more so when they are repeated non- stop at film length.

Speaking of length, it should be noted that “Wicked” lasts… 2h40. It will seem interminable to those to whom these screaming images of colors will cause retching. The film is nevertheless subtitled “Part 1” because it is adapted from only the first act of the musical which nevertheless had a total duration of 2 hours 25 minutes. The second part is scheduled to hit theaters on November 26, 2025, you have been warned…

Musical-style songs from thirty years ago…

On the interpretation side, not much to report with a Cynthia Erivo for whom acting seems to mean displaying a sulky air, and an Ariana Grande who is astonishingly thin and who, for her part, seems to have worked on the frozen idiotic smile as the only one line of play. And the songs? Not exceptional and pompously orchestrated, like musical comedies of thirty years ago… This adds to the outdated effect of the whole.

Is a flop predictable? Not in the Anglo-Saxon countries, where it is even the opposite: “Wicked”, whose libretto is adored there, had a record start ten days ago in the United States. With us, it will be a different story. Even the film's defenders agree that the concept doesn't say much to European audiences, who might have no expectations from this story.

We will add a little perfidiously that those who risk it might find the time long, the level of coloring repellent and the story of a sidereal void, which might not encourage significant word of mouth…