Wicked (2024)

What earned the score

• Systematic DEI Race-Swapping

  The film race-swaps iconic roles: Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, Black), Nessarose (Marissa Bode, wheelchair user), and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, Asian) — traditionally white, able-bodied characters — prioritizing identity checkboxes over fidelity to the beloved source material.

• Green Skin as Racial Allegory

  Elphaba's green skin functions as an explicit, heavy-handed visual metaphor for racial discrimination, with characters despising and rejecting her from birth solely based on skin color, turning a fantasy trait into a didactic racism lecture.

• Animal Persecution as Oppression Allegory

  Sentient Animals (including a Goat professor voiced by Peter Dinklage) are systematically caged, silenced, and stripped of rights by the Wizard's regime, serving as a blunt-force allegory for marginalized identity groups that overwhelms the fantasy narrative.

• Injected LGBTQ+ Representation

  The film adds queer elements absent from the stage musical: an effeminate male student flirts with another male student, and Fiyero is explicitly described as desired by both men and women, forcing modern sexual politics into a pre-existing story.

• Normalized Gender Non-Conformity

  Male students at Shiz University wear skirt-like uniforms and display effeminate mannerisms as a matter-of-course background detail, presenting gender non-conformity as an unremarkable norm rather than a character-driven choice.

• Villain Reframed as Oppressed Activist

  The narrative reframes the Wicked Witch of the West as a sympathetic political activist and victim of systemic oppression, posing 'Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?' to justify rebellion through identity-based victimhood.

• Fraudulent Male Oppressor vs Female Power

  The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is exposed as a fraudulent male tyrant maintaining power through propaganda and minority persecution, while true moral agency and magical authority reside entirely with female characters (Elphaba, Morrible, Glinda).

• Wickedness Reclaimed as Liberation

  The climax centers on Elphaba embracing the 'Wicked Witch' label as defiant empowerment, reclaiming a slur and framing the collapse of traditional moral categories as progressive liberation against a corrupt system.

Details

In the land of Oz, ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda at Shiz University, and the two's unlikely friendship is tested as they begin to fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Starring

Cynthia ErivoAriana GrandeMichelle YeohJonathan BaileyEthan Slater

Director

Jon M. Chu

Writer

L. Frank BaumWinnie HolzmanDana FoxStephen SchwartzGregory Maguire

Genre

DramaRomanceFantasy

Release Date

Oct 16, 2024

Parents Guide

• Sex None

  In the first song when the Mother has the surprise visitor, they dance suggestively.

  Glinda wears a short nightgown during 'Popular,' showing a lot of leg, especially while dancing on the floor.

  In "No One Mourns The Wicked", Melena Thropp, Elphaba's mother, dances seductively with another man after her husband leaves for the night. It is implied that she had an affair and slept with the other man.

  A scene in the beginning showing a woman giving birth. Nothing explicit is seen, however, the woman screams and sighs.

• Violence Mild

  A character is shown to have a cut on their forehead. Minor blood.

  Elphaba has telekinesis triggered by anger that she can't control, and occasionally this causes damage, such as breaking a window.

  Some mild action fantasy violence.

  Elphaba punches a few guys off of the hot air balloon along with Galinda pushing a guy off of the hot air balloon.

• Profanity None

  Elphaba tells another character to "Get stuffed!"

  "Oh my God" is used once by Galinda.

• Drugs None

  Nurses drink alcohol.

• Frightening Scenes Mild

  Mild themes, fantasy violence, animal cruelty and innuendo.

  Several mildly intense scenes.

  Can be potentially viewed as a political allegory for devolving society and how the government mistreats individuals who appear different and demonize them. How individuals can be targeted, demeaned and dehumanized just for existing as they are.

  The revolving bookcases in the dancing through life scene may make some viewers dizzy.

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