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Wicked: Part I
(aka: Wicked Part One)

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For the books, see here. For the musical, see here.


  • Accidental Innuendo: One of the trailers plays a selection from "Dancing Through Life" as part of a medley, but cuts off the lyric "Make sure you're where less trouble is rife" early, making it sound like "Make sure you wear less."
  • Actor Shipping: A lot of fans online ship Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande due to their real-life friendship and them being very touchy-feely in interviews. The fact that Erivo is bisexual helps, as does Grande shipping the characters Elphaba/Glinda. The fact that they are seeing other people and have described the relationship as sisterly at best doesn't stop these shippers. These shippers tend to refer to them under the ship name "Cynthiana".
  • Adorkable:
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Despite their mutual loathing (at first), there's a case to be made that Galinda actually doesn't care that Elphaba is green. While she's understandably shocked to see her, she also seems to genuinely want to help her, and as selfish as her intentions are she does initially attempt to get in Elphaba's good books, and is curious about her magical powers instead of scared of them. Notably, she doesn't even describe Elphaba as green while describing her to her parents in a letter. She's clearly jealous of the attention Elphaba gets from Madame Morrible, and it could be said that Elphaba's prickly personality, dark aesthetic, the inconvenience she causes her, and the fact that she dislikes Glinda at first is so at odds with what Glinda is familiar with that she simply has trouble connecting with her, and her selfishness would lead to her treating anyone poorly if she was forced to share her room with them.
    • Does Galinda only encourage Boq to invite Nessarose to the Ozdust because she was still free and available to get him away from herself, or was she genuinely sad that the girl would be left out and alone? Perhaps a little bit of both? Fiyero’s impressed approval of it seems to indicate Galinda was acting on some manipulation there, though she doesn’t outright confirm it.
    • On some level, does Elphaba enjoy her feud with Galinda? It's notable that for all their mutual snarking, there are a few moments during "What is This Feeling" where Elphaba seems to be genuinely happy, delighting in getting one up on her roommate. It's possible that even though Galinda initially dislikes her, the fact that much (or all, if the above possibility of her not caring about Elphaba's skin colour is taken into account) of that is possibly due to personal reasons may be a refreshing change. It may be that Elphaba appreciates the fact that Galinda's own narcissism means she's one of the few people who actually sees Elphaba for who she really is, and whether she likes Elphaba or not is irrelevant. Notably, Elphaba is visibly distraught at the Ozdust due to her believing that Galinda genuinely wanted to befriend her, and quick to forgive her when she attempts to make amends, whereas previously she'd merely acted annoyed or exasperated at people making fun at her, or else simply laughed it off to an extent. Despite her suspicious personality, it never occurred to her that the gift was insincere, and it likely never occurred to her that Galinda disliked her to the point of organizing public humiliation on that scale. Given that the hat becomes a part of her ensemble afterwards, it's likely that she genuinely did like the hat, and was touched by the gesture.
      • This interpretation is somewhat backed up by Cynthia and Ariana, who have likened the rivalry between the characters to a chess match, most notably referencing Glinda's nod to Elphaba following her "Looks like the artichoke is steamed" comment as announcing that it's time for Elphaba's move.
    • Did Elphaba's mother care for her? In the play, she visibly reaches for her daughter when she's born, while that aspect is absent here. Was she simply exhausted and overwhelmed, or did she share her husband's disgust and confusion? Or is it possible she was frightened because she knew exactly what caused her daughter’s skin color to be that way (the tonic she took during her affair) and was worried that her secret was about to come to light? Unlike the stage version, Elphaba is raised by her Nanny Dulcibear, but she does keep the green bottle her mother owned which suggests that there was some level of love between them. However, when she talks about the bottle, her focus is on how she "caused" Nessa's disability and her mother's death, so keeping the bottle may be less a matter of affection and more a manner of guilt-tripping herself. The fact that Elphaba was only three years old when her mother died – according to the script, Nessa is three years younger than Elphaba – makes it unclear how well she remembers her mother either way.
    • Miss Coddle looks genuinely distressed as Dr. Dillamond is not only forcibly removed from teaching at Shiz but dragged off protesting. Is she following the Wizard's decree with some reluctance, or does she honestly hate what's happening but doesn't see any way she can stop it and fears the wrath of the Wizard and Morrible? When Elphaba tries to speak up Coddle tells her to sit down, but she seems worried and scared rather than annoyed; she could be legitimately afraid that Elphaba would get in trouble and is trying to protect her.
    • Did Galinda change her name to Glinda to impress Fiyero or Elphaba? Or both? On the one hand, she was worried about Fiyero slipping away and might have wanted to impress him; showing that she cares like Elphaba might have been her attempt to win him over. On the other hand, she had no way of knowing he cared about Doctor Dillamond and Fiyero wasn't there when Dillamond mispronounced her name. Meanwhile, Glinda knew that Elphaba cares about Animals and defended Dillamond's mispronunciation. Add to that the fact that Elphaba was leaving, and Glinda might have wanted to show Elphaba that she did in fact care about Animals.
    • Almost every time she makes a decision, Galinda has always gone with the option that would keep her "popular" and adored. How much of this factored into her desire for Fiyero? Did she want to marry him because he's perfect, she's perfect, so they're perfect together - the very model of the popular girl and the rebellious playboy? Was she attracted to him because she saw traits in him that echoes her own (popularity, shallow "Goodness", palatability to the student body, perpetual adoration by everyone around them) or the traits that echoes Elphaba (not caring what others think about them, willingness to stand up for the underdog, willingness to break the rules of society that Galinda tries so hard to fit into)? If Galinda was in the closet (per Ariana Grande's opinion) and/or oblivious to her queerness, how much of her feelings towards Fiyero are her projecting her affection for Elphaba onto a similar person to her beloved, who is of a socially acceptable gender for Galinda to date/marry, unlike Elphaba?
      • Is it also possible that she was still projecting that image onto Fiyero when she claimed she still wanted him even after he “changed”?
    • Is there an actual prophecy about someone capable of reading the Grimmerie that the Wizard took advantage of to seize power, or is the prophecy just another part of the propaganda campaign Wiz-O-Mania is a part of, to shore up the Wizard's political legitimacy? Elphaba is able to read it, but Nessa could as well in the musical (although she pronounces the words wrong).
    • Does Nessa resent Elphaba for her disability? Their father forced their mother to chew milk flowers to ensure she had a regular skin tone, which resulted in her premature birth, disability, and the death of their mother. Despite knowing Elphaba can't control her powers she still grows angry at her when she uses them inadvertently, and she's quick to insist that Elphaba drops her grudge against Glinda after she arranged for Boq to ask her on a date, despite the fact that Glinda's dislike of Elphaba has turned the latter into a social pariah. She also grows upset when Elphaba turns up at initiation as it would be embarrassing for her.
    • A far more humorous example when Fiyero meets Elphaba. Did he really eat grass as a child or was he simply attempting to make light of the situation they were in? Or both?
    • This post suggests that Boq doesn’t see their relationship as anything more than platonic before the train scene reveals that Nessa thinks it was romantic. He’s notably confused when Nessa’s father says to “take good care of her” and a deleted scene leans into this, as he doesn’t want to hurt Nessa’s feelings by telling her the truth.
  • And You Thought It Would Fail:
    • Many were skeptical of splitting Wicked, a play which runs about 2 hours and 45 minutes altogether, into two parts, with Part 1 alone running nearly as long as the entire play. The fact that Universal’s previous takes at turning Broadway musicals into movies were the much reviled Cats and Dear Evan Hansen film adaptations also brought a lot of doubt about how it was going to turn out, and a surge of dislike for musicals in general occurring in The New '20s didn’t help as well. Luckily, however, giving more time to the first half of the story turned out to be a strong move, as it allowed for better world building and extended musical sequences without cutting any songs for time, not to mention ending the first film on the show-stopping "Defying Gravity". Before the year ended, it displaced Mamma Mia! as the highest-grossing movie adapted from a Broadway musical (not adjusted for inflation).
    • Some people also criticized the decision to release all of the songs before the film's release. But this did not diminish audiences' enjoyment of the songs in the cinema, owing to the fact that 1) the versions of the songs that were released are different from the raw live singing in the film, and 2) it still hits different when you're listening to the vocals inside the theater with a big screen and the venue's full sound system. The final act and scene also garnered acclaim from critics and audiences alike, even though the film's very last shot of Elphaba flying in the sky with her cloak billowing out as she belts out the battle cry in "Defying Gravity" was already spoiled by promotional material — it seems context does still matter!
  • Applicability: Wicked is generally seen as an allegory for politics, which is certainly intentional — Gregory Maguire, author of the original books, confirmed he had Nixon, Reagan, and to a lesser extent Bush in mind while writing, and Jon M. Chu has alluded to the film being a Take That! against the USA's vilification of female politicians. However, it may also be interpreted as an allegory for racism, especially anti-Black racism, and colorism:
    • Elphaba is a young woman played by a Black actress who is dark-skinned in real life; her skin is green, and her sister Nessa, while Black herself, is light-skinned. Elphaba even wryly acknowledges that Nessa is a "perfectly acceptable color" when the other Shiz University students meet them for the first time. "Acceptable" brownness is a common topic among non-white communities, especially the Black community.
    • She gets demonized after she goes against an extremely powerful white man, who exploits her because he doesn't have the skills needed for his goals. She's heartbroken when Madame Morrible sends out an announcement to all of Oz warning that Elphaba's green skin color reflects her inner wickedness.
    • Lastly, the two prominent characters of Asian descent, Madame Morrible and Pfannee, are both subservient to white leaders — Morrible is The Wizard's right-hand man, while Pfannee is little more than the blonde, white, upper upper-class Glinda's lackey. This may allude to the Asian-American model minority myth.
    • Although the original musical viewed Elphaba's societal struggles through the lens of antisemitism rather than racism (hence Elphaba typically being played by white Jewish actresses like Idina Menzel), Kathleen Newman-Bremang of Refinery29 has written about how Elphaba has always been "Black-coded," and Erivo's statements about consciously playing Elphaba as Black certainly add to it. The original lyricist for Wicked, Stephen Schwartz, has also acknowledged that marginalized folks, including Black people, will immediately identify with Elphaba's struggles.
      • This particular shift is represented in the change in design of the anti-Wicked Witch propaganda posters; onstage, they resemble those designed by Nazi Germany during World War II, whereas in the film they more closely resemble Jim Crow-era caricatures of Black Americans.
    • There's also parallels with ableism as well. This is most obvious with Nessarose, but the plight of the Animals can also be thought of as a metaphor for disability. The film takes the time to show the accommodations they use to function in a society that mainly caters to humans, such as Dr. Dillamond's specially designed equipment that he uses to operate his blackboard and projector, which is similar to disabled people in real life. The Animals losing their ability to speak after being excluded from society can be thought of as symbolic of how exclusion from society via prejudice and lack of accommodations can make disabilities more severe than they have to be, especially with regards to neurodivergent people.
      • Speaking of Dillamond, the scene where he gets arrested on the spot in class before he could properly give proper farewells to his students has unfortunate parallels to the fact that teachers in real life, even today, have been fired from their jobs for teaching about LGBTQ+ topics.
    • The Animals' oppressors blaming them for emergencies could call to mind the rise in anti-Asian-American rhetoric and incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially since Jon M. Chu spoke up for his community in various platforms.
  • Award Snub:
    • The film lost its Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Film to Emilia Pérez. While critics adored the latter, audiences have taken issue with the quality of its musical numbers, as well as its portrayal of Mexico and trans people.
    • While the film did very well in terms of Oscar nominations with 10 total (the second-most of the ceremony), Jon M. Chu was not nominated for Best Director. He did win the Critics' Choice Award, in the first instance of the CCA's undisputed majority choosing a director without an Oscar nominationnote . Because Orlando Bloom reported that the past seven winners of the Critics Choice Award for Best Director went on to earn the year's Oscar, Chu sarcastically cheered in his improvised acceptance speech that now he would win one as well.
  • Awesome Music:
    • "The Wizard and I", the first song in the show that "everybody knows", was absolutely flawless, with Cynthia Erivo perfectly capturing Elphie's innocence and joy. The ending, paused at the edge of a cliff, even recreates the famous onstage moment where she lifts both arms to the sky as she belts out the final notes, capturing the magic of the stage version in the film.
    • "What Is This Feeling" absolutely captures rivalry and Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's voices work together amazingly. It also adds hints at Elphaba and Glinda's future friendship. In fact, this version did numbers on the Billboard Hot 100.
    • "Dancing Through Life", while a fabulous group number, is also a tour de force from Jonathan Bailey, whose playful dancing, lighthearted spirit, and glorious vocals made it excruciatingly clear why he was cast as Fiyero — and that doing so was absolutely the right decision.
    • And of course, the movie's closer, "Defying Gravity," is no less of a showstopper here than it is on stage, especially knowing that Cynthia Erivo performed the song live on-set and did her own stunts!
  • Base-Breaking Character: Similar to the play, a lot of fans are split on the film version of Fiyero. One side loves him for his romance with Elphaba, Jonathan Bailey's natural charisma and good performance, and feel that the movie adds a lot more depth to the character. However, an equal side dislikes this character, feeling that his romance with Elphaba is rushed, that the character is unneeded for the film, and that the character is still ultimately dull.
  • Die for Our Ship: Like with the play, it didn't take long for many Elphaba/Glinda shippers to start hating on Fiyero and his relationships with both girls. These fans often try to make him out to be a two-timing jerk while ignoring his Hidden Depths. It's even believed that Ariana Grande disliked Fiyero due to preferring Elphaba/Glinda, as she spends a good portion of her bonus commentary expressing dislike for his scenes and the dynamic between Fiyero and Elphaba.
  • Epileptic Trees: In the first look trailer, there’s a scene of Glinda walking down the aisle. While some people think it means Fiyero is going to leave Glinda on their wedding day instead of their engagement party, others think it’s an Imagine Spot of what Glinda thinks their wedding will be like or even of her getting married to Elphaba.
  • Evil Is Cool:
    • Despite his short screentime, Jeff Goldblum nails the Wizard's Affably Evil nature and makes him an enjoyable presence.
    • Michelle Yeoh makes Madame Morrible memorable, with her icily cold presence and intimidating appearance creating a great Love to Hate villain.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: A lot of fan works for the film change the ending so that Glinda runs away with Elphaba instead of staying with the Wizard. These fics often have them also start a romantic relationship and often add back the two's kiss from the book that was absent from the musical and film.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content: In a deleted scene originally following "I'm Not That Girl," Glinda tells Elphaba that if the poppies didn't knock her out, she would have agreed to help free the lion cub, convincing Elphie to promise, "I won't leave you behind again." Jon M. Chu cut it for pacing, and to add some surprise when Elphaba invites Glinda to join her trip to the Emerald City. However, several of the scene's viewers believe that it would've added more depth to the girls' friendship, and tragedy to Glinda deciding to stay behind during "Defying Gravity."
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • Fans of this film and Gladiator II get along very well, due to both releasing on the same day, both being connected to popular films (The Wizard of Oz and Gladiator respectively), and both having large amounts of practical effects alongside the CGI. The fandoms have even given them multiple nicknames, most notably "Glicked".
    • Fans also get along with fans of Transformers One due to how they have similar social themes, especially with a corrupt male authority figure using his position to influence the population to oppress a marginalized group, and the Ho Yay between their two leads respectively.
    • For the most part, fans of this movie and fans of Agatha All Along tend to get along as both properties can be boiled down to "badass lesbian witches who don't play by society's rules".
    • Fans of Final Fantasy XIV have flocked to the movie, many spurred by Jonathan Bailey's casting (having played fan favorite the Crystal Exarch/G'raha Tia in the game), and been welcomed with open arms.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: Nessa's film incarnation has been widely praised as an Improved Second Attempt compared to the stage version, especially in casting a wheelchair-using actress, Marissa Bode, which hadn't yet happened onstage. The producers of the stage show apparently noticed this, since a couple months after the movie's premiere, Jenna Bainbridge, an ambulatory wheelchair usernote , was cast as Nessa, making her the first wheelchair-using actress to play the character onstage.
  • Hollywood Homely: In true Wicked tradition, the perfectly lovely-looking Cynthia Erivo is put in green body paint but also lots of pretty flattering clothes and styling. So the other characters act like she's a hideous beast just because she's green, but a lot of people in the audience might still think she looks nice, just... well... green.
  • I Knew It!: Even if you don't know much about the original musical, it's not exactly difficult to figure out that Madame Morrible is going to be a villain, with a name like that and all.
  • Improved Second Attempt:
    • The portrayal of Nessa's disability has been better-received by audiences this time around. In the stage show, Nessa is rarely (if ever) portrayed by a disabled actress Act 2 Spoilers, and she's almost always shown being pushed in her wheelchair by other characters, which she never seems to have a problem with. This has been criticized (especially in the years since the show premiered in 2003) as portraying the sole disabled character as helpless and passive. In the film, Nessa is played by a paraplegic actress, and while some characters treat her as incapable, the narrative does not — she's shown as being frustrated at able-bodied people pitying her and assuming she needs to be babied, and a character pushing her wheelchair for her without permission is shown as being invasive and condescending. Another change is that in the stage show, Elphaba is sent to Shiz by their father specifically so she can be Nessa's caretaker; in the film Nessa is trying to get a fresh start and live a more independent life, Elphaba is only present at the arrival day of the Shiz students to be supportive and see her sister off, telling their father that Nessa will be fine on her own, and Elphaba ends up attending Shiz for other reasons. These changes have been praised both for making Nessa more three-dimensional, and for pushing back against the ableist undertones of her stage incarnation. Act 2 Spoilers
    • Fiyero's portrayal has been widely praised and won many people who did not care for the character in the stage show. The stage version is often played like a Dumb Jock Fratbro who could easily come across as too genuine in being shallow and unthinking, making the idea that he's hiding Hidden Depths come off as an Informed Attribute, rendering him an unsympathetic Flat Character prior to Act 2. In the film, Johnathan Bailey's performance is amicable and charismatic and his visible reactions to the events around him are given more focus. His Hidden Depths are played as sincere, and it is suggested that his "brainless" facade is put upon because he wants a carefree lifestyle with no expectations set for him and no required effort to be anything more than what he believes a person like him to be capable of. The film also explains why Fiyero and Elphaba fall in love better (a shared interest in animal rights) and adds a couple interactions before their romance starts, which did help win over some who were not fans of their romance in the play.
    • Viewers familiar with the stage show praised this portrayal of Madame Morrible. In the original musical Morrible is so clearly bad news (especially her part in the firing of Dr. Dillamond) that it isn't really a surprise when she turns out to have been Evil All Along, whereas in the film her more Obviously Evil actions at Shiz University are given to Miss Coddle, she has several 'positive' moments such as covering for Elphaba's outburst of magic, and Michelle Yeoh does an excellent job convincing the audience that Morrible is a Reasonable Authority Figure who has Elphaba's best interests at heart — which makes her ultimate betrayal and smear campaign against Elphaba all the more painful.
  • Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: While the Wizard and Madame Morrible are the main villains, they are also enjoyable to watch, and the actors bring a lot of charisma. Governor Thropp, on the other hand, is just a jerk abusive father who blames his older daughter for things that aren't her fault, even if he never crosses into actual villainy. Needless to say, most fans hate Thropp over the actual villains.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: A number of people expressed wanting to see the film just for Ariana Grande.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Many viewers, especially first-time viewers, leave the film with a Black-and-White Morality approach to the story, usually claiming Glinda is the "real villain" of the film, with some even believing that was the film's intention. Part of this is due to the film not yet showing the latter half of the story, which better showcases Glinda's adulthood and Character Development, but the greater message of the story has always been to question the narrative of "wickedness," not suggest that the "good witch" is actually the "wicked" one. Glinda's hesitation to join Elphaba in rebelling against the Wizard is also shown quite clearly to be based in fear and not wanting herself nor Elphaba to be hurt and lose their chances for a good future. The two friends part ways still at least trying to be loving and understanding of each other, wishing each other happiness in the path they've chosen, so casting Glinda as the villain was very clearly not the intention of the film.
  • Moe: Toddler Nessa only appears in an early flashback, but she's beloved for her cute expression and the memetically chirpy way she says, "Yeah!"
  • Narm Charm: The Animals in the movie resemble real (CGI) animals a lot more than the stage production, so you'd expect it to be harder to take the Fantastic Racism they face seriously. However, the film gives the Animals more focus and cuts down on the jokes in Dr. Dillamond's scenes (for example, he no longer eats the paper from Elphaba's lunch), allowing the audience to take the issue more seriously. This, combined with Peter Dinklage's genuine vocal performance, means that even as the CGI goat stares in horror upon the threatening message written on his blackboard, you'll be far more horrified for him than amused at the situation.
  • Older Than They Think: This duology doesn't mark Paul Tazewell's first time designing award-winning costumes for a black actress-led NBCUniversal musical set in the Land of Oz; he also designed outfits for The Wiz Live!, which aired on NBC nine years before this movie's release (and earned him an Emmy).
  • One-Scene Wonder: The Remake Cameos from Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel as performers in the Show Within a Show play during “One Short Day”, complete with them briefly interacting with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in a meta bit of Passing the Torch and belting out Glinda and Elphaba’s signature riffs from “No One Mourns The Wicked” and “Defying Gravity”.
  • One True Threesome: A lot of fans decided to side-step the Ship-to-Ship Combat of Elphaba/Glinda and Elphaba/Fiyero and ship the three together. It helps that the three all have chemistry and that you could make an argument for them each being interested in the other at a certain point of the film.
  • Questionable Casting: The casting of Ariana Grande, known for her work on Nickelodeon and in pop music, as Glinda raised eyebrows when it was first announced, criticized as stunt casting, but Grande's theater background and love of the original musical eventually made it clear the role was in good hands. By the time of the movie's release, fans had more than come around and even began openly calling for her to reprise the role on Broadway.
  • Realism-Induced Horror: By gods, the governor. Between the treatment of his eldest her entire life, forcing his wife to eat toxic flowers “for the baby” which ended up killing her, and the casual ableism he shows towards Nessa, the bog standard domestic abuse towards his entire family is viscerally mundane. It's also clear that he doesn't see himself as a bad guy, and doesn't do horrible things to be evil; he thinks his treatment of his wife was necessary, he really thinks Elphaba was responsible for Nessa's disability (to the extent that he's even convinced Elphaba this is true), and he thinks he's a good parent to Nessa, even seeming to truly love her. Part of what makes him so unsettling is because it's easy to see how he's able to go through life thinking he's a good person, and not see his actions as abusive.
  • Ron the Death Eater: While Nessarose is far from a perfect person, from the way some fans talk about her, you’d think she was a pure Alpha Bitch who was singlehandedly responsible for all of the ills that Elphaba experiences. Some have even particularly egregiously stated her to be the true villain of the story, ignoring characters like the Wizard and Madame Morrible, who at this point in the story have done infinitely worse things than Nessarose has. This is discounting her future actions in Act II, which make her more of a Jerkass. As of the first movie, Nessa’s worst offense is her reluctance to stand up for her sister. While this is obviously wrong, the film more strongly emphasizes her desire to be independent from her family and not coddled because of her disability, making her reluctance more nuanced than in the musical, and she does show Elphaba kindness before she goes to school. Despite this, fans act like she doesn't care about her sister at all, and ignore the casual ableism her character faces in-universe despite calling out the Fantastic Racism that Elphaba and the Animals face.
  • She Really Can Act: Ariana Grande is better known as a pop musician, but few know that she actually appeared on Broadway as Charlotte in the original cast of 13, so her acting ability, as well as her ability to do the various operatic sections of the score, came to the surprise of many. Even those that knew of her acting talents knew her primarily as a comedienne, from her guest stints on Saturday Night Live and Scream Queens (2015), and her role on Victorious, and were pleasantly surprised at how well she handled the more dramatic and tragic moments in Wicked.
  • Ship Mates: A lot of Elphaba/Glinda took pairing Fiyero with Boq in order to keep him out of the way. It helps that Fiyero and Boq will become the Scarecrow and Tinman who are already a popular ship from the books.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • While most songs were left intact to avoid such a reaction, "Defying Gravity" received alterations in the pacing (specifically, Elphaba falling off the tower, seeing an image of her child self, and trying to grab her levitating broomstick before flying back to face the guards), likely to make it serve as a more intense climax to Part One. This received criticism from some fans for chopping up the momentum of the famous final verse.
    • Including Glinda in the class with the lion cub and having her as one of the students knocked out by Elphaba's poppy spell, when she was not there in the play, was not well received by many fans. While it is addressed in a deleted scene it was cut for pacing, and as such many fans would have preferred that she was not included in the scene.
    • While the costuming of the movie has been praised otherwise, some fans were not thrilled that Glinda wears exclusively pink in the movie, as opposed to the show where she wears blue as the Good Witch, white when first arriving at Shiz, and yellow when going to the Emerald City.
    • Many were disappointed that this funny Mythology Gag exchange from the show was not present:
      Nessarose: What was in the punch?
      Boq: Lemons and melons and pears.
      Nessarose: Oh my!
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The tunnel of books in Shiz's library during the first part of "Dancing Through Life" was done entirely practically, albeit with safety measures in place to make sure none of the actors got crushed. Special mention goes to the sequence where a dancer does a flip out of the tunnel and into the library proper— that was all done in one shot, no splicing.

Alternative Title(s): Wicked Part One

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