I've seen Wicked: For Good 3 times now so here is a comprehensive list of all the things I noticed and thought about the film.
Spoilers Below!!
They really expanded the opening with world building that you don’t get the time to touch on in the stage production. This is in part due to act 2 being significantly shorter and to make For Good a feature length film that holds up to part 1 they needed to flesh things out. I think overall they did a really good job of adding to the source martial and adding in elements from the books that were left out in the stage show.
Things I enjoyed
The Tulips in the title card of the movie were the Lesbian flag colours and they’re the same field of flowers that is behind Glinda during No One Mourns The Wicked.
Actually seeing what Elphaba has been up to int he 5 years between the two parts. Helping the animals. Fighting against the lies spread by Madame Morrible, the Wizard and the rest of Oz.
The sheer amount of queer coding. It would be less gay if Elphaba and Glinda just kissed at this point.
Elphaba’s new song! It’s a little on the nose but it’s a good song on it’s own.
That they included Glinda in Wonderful. I think this was a very smart choice given how they characterised the Wizard.
Ethan’s portrayal of the Tin Man.
Cynthia’s opt ups and run changes in No Good Deed. They really scratch an itch for me. Especially the final notes, so scrumptious.
The film opens with the yellow brick road being built
Deforestation to clear the way for the road. Oz has the engineering capabilities to create a train and a bricklayer but still needed animal slave labour to tow the bricklayer like some messed up ox and cart situation.
Loved watching Elphie beat the crap out of he soldiers.
Why did she throw her broom down like a skateboard if she was just going to fly off on it normally? Was cool to watch but it literally served no purpose than to show off. I felt that quite a bit through this film. There were a lot of shots and elements that were placed just because they could that didn’t really serve much purpose.
Soldier running through the tulip field perpendicular to the rows rather than literally everyone else who ran parallel to the rows? Couldn’t tell if that meant he was heading towards the Emerald City but would make more sense if he was heading to Munchkin Land? Did he just not care about the tulips?
Every Day More Wicked/Reprised songs
EDMW is an extension of No One Mourns The Wicked.
Elphaba gets a reprise of The Wizard and I where she expresses her want to expose the Wizard for who he truly is and how “All Oz will applaud” when they are saved from him.
We get our first look at her hideout in this scene at how she’s decorated it with her plans and with the defamatory posters that show her as the Wicked Witch.
Glinda gets a Popular and What Is This Feeling reprise in one. This is a look into what her life has been these past few years. She’s signing orders and making decisions while the Wizard is tucked away in his tower. She’s played her cards well and amassed actual political power in Oz.
The pamphlets that are raining down from the printing room are only one sided but are double sided whenever anyone picks them up. Ngl this really took me out of the moment when I watched it the first time.
First look at Glinda’s room. Everything is pink any everything is round. So many shots are set up to look like she’s surrounded by something round in the room - call back and call forward to being in a bubble.
Madame Morrible gives Glinda the bubble and her new wand.
We get a flashback to young Glinda receiving her first wand as a birthday gift at a party and not being able to cast real magic with it. One of the children points to a rainbow and asks if it was her and she lets them believe it.
The dress the young Glinda wears is a beautiful homage to her first/final pink bubble dress.
The wand has a bubble on top and she see’s her reflection in it. Even as a young girl she’s enclosed and isolated by her status.
Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier
The pink bubble dancers? Wtf? Yes I get it, we’re celebrating the “Glinda way” but they looks so silly.
The costumes are cool tho - the spirally flowers are the same as on her pink sheer robe in Popular.
Glinda to Fiyero: “She’s (Elphaba) made her choice”
Fiyero is contemplating his own choices here. It’s nice to see some moments of doubt and unease that lead to him siding and leaving with Elphaba at the end of Wonderful
Second part of I Couldn’t Be Happier where Glinda is talking about loosing Elphaba all the confetti stops moving and everything seems to slow or come to stand still almost like she’s singing this to herself, except you can still see the Munchkins and Madam Morrible moving around so it’s kinda confusing.
Elphaba arrives and writes “our wizard lies” in the clouds which Madam Morrible changes quickly to say “oz dies” and we hear her say “She wants to kill us all” the first time. We see time and again the Morrible is a master manipulator and and is able to spin almost anything to her advantage.
The Gale Force (Are they called that in the book because that’s a stupid fucking name and I’m so fed up with all the storm and tornado imagery and call backs, it gets old real quick) goes after her alongside the Monkeys. The nets they throw have a space in the centre so that when they get thrown kn that spiral manner they look like the eye of a tornado (More imagery!! By this stage there’s no nuance to these motifs. I really think they just kept thinking of things that could be related and just went - Oh yeah sick, another one! Add it in!)
Back at Elphaba’s hideout
Newspaper clippings on the wall. We see a shot moving from her Father’s Obituary to the appointment of her sister as Governor after his death.
Nice change here from the stage production. It makes sense that she would have found out through other means than her sister telling her 5 years later when they finally see each other again. It also is a nice lead in to the next scene.
Nessa’s Office
We see her and Boq talking about new policies that would restrict the rights of animals in Munchkin Land. Nessa is getting heat from the other Governors to sign and she expresses that she doesn’t want to be labeled as being a sympathiser like her sister. Boq begins to pull away from her.
Nessa’s Governess dress looks a lot like Elphaba’s dress when we first see her at Shiz the style and shaping of it but the neckline is twisted around her neck like she’s being choked or strangled, possibly by the weight of her responsibilities. It could also be another tornado motif.
Nessa signs the laws into affect that would require all animals to have permission from her to leave but adds the Munchkins to this as well.
This is an interesting way of showing that even if only one group is targeted at the beginning of a fascist regime that anyone can become targets and that no one is ever truly safe from persecution.
Elphaba in the woods with the animals/First of the new songs - No Place Like Home
Vision of her and Fiyero in the badlands (foreshadowing the end of the film)
The lyrics: A promise, an idea – the American Dream? Wanting to stay and make it come true the way it was intended.
Appreciate the cape billowing very cool.
First look at the cowardly lion.
Exposes Elphaba to having put the spell on the Monkeys.
We see her show remorse for her actions and we see the Monkeys are in the trees watching this unfold. Nice little piece of context to them siding with her and Fiyero later on.
Back to Munchkin Land
Boq chopping wood. The First of many nods to him as the tin man. Pretty much all the shots of him moving forward start on the axe. Which is really annoying after a while.
He’s stuck with Nessa now unless she says so and is very hostile towards her.
Elphaba arrives. The mirror cracks when Nessa sees her.
THE SPELL ELPHABA CASTS DOESN’T CURE HER BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T ASK TO BE CURED
She asks to feel the way she did back at the Ozdust Ballroom to “lift her spirits” which is why the spell wears off when Boq asks to leave.
The rest of the scene is almost a beat for beat of the musical except we get to see a little bit of Boq’s transformation (Wish we got more of the transformation scene but the snippets we get are very cool. Tin and silver objects attaching to him like he’s been magnetised is a very cool visual, very body horror esque)
Nessa tells Elphie that she’s going to Oz just to see Fiyero.
Elphie say’s she’s “Off to see the Wizard”
THE NEXT SCENE SHE GOES STRAIGHT TO GLINDA.
Boq as the tin man with the axe again…
Boq runs off and we hear Nessa yell is name like Elphaba and Glinda do with Fiyero.
Oz
The glass cracks the same way it does in their doors at the beginning of WITF
The “We can’t all come and go by bubble” line is moved to this scene!! Love that. Very adorable interaction instead of it being a hateful and cruel line later in the show.
Wonderful
Glinda is in her white wedding dress and Elphaba is in black but they’ve framed it so they’re standing at the top of the platform in her room and the doorway is framing them it looks like a wedding shot.
They add in more at the beginning of this scene. Really driving home that no matter what they tell the people of Oz, they will believe what they want. And they want to believe the Wizard is wonderful.
They’re not making it subtle that this is about America at this point.
GLINDA IS IN THIS SCENE NOW AND I LOVE IT!
I think she needed to be in this scene. With the way they had characterised the wizard as this bumbling buffoon, an old man who’s isolation and drinking was making him senile, there was no way Elphaba would have been convinced by him alone. The version of him that she had built up was well and truly shattered. With Glinda there as the hook for her it just made so much more sense for their characters.
The whole time he’s talking he’s doing parlour tricks and showing off to misdirect and obfuscate what he’s saying.
Showing what he’s been doing to the Ozians.
Glinda seems amused by him but in a way that is like ‘look he’s harmless’
We hear her say earlier that she knows how to talk to him and this makes me think that she knows how to get what she wants from him by letting him do his goofy little thing while she and Morrible basically run the show. He’s done his part to convince the people so he’s no longer needed and can just descend into obscurity and myth.
Little interlude where the Unlimited theme plays that leads into the beginning of Defying Gravity
TWO BROOMS AND THEY’RE SCISSORING AND THEY SIT ON THE BROOMS AND THEY FLOAT THROUGH THE AIR ON THE BROOM SWING - THEY’RE SWINGING ON THE SCISSORING BROOMS!!
They never actually sing the line “defying gravity” because in this moment isn’t about rising above and becoming more than you though you were, it’s about compromise and settling and stopping the fight. It’s them bringing Elphaba down to their level.
Back to the main song, they do the Ozdust dance in the rainbow lights.
The Wizards line changes to “you’ll make ME wonderful”
The eye in the wizards cravat disappears at some point and I’m not sure if it’s a continuity thing or because he’s lost his spies in the skies when he agrees to release the monkeys.
The parallels of Glinda walking down the aisle to the alter amongst the crowds of people from oz and Elphie walking through the rows of cages in the wizards tower.
When Elphaba tells the wizard to run… chills omg so hot.
Madam Morrible says the “she wants to kill us all” line again before she’s pushed into the cake.
Elphaba to the wizard “how does it feel to have your voice taken away.”
Glinda repeats the “you deserve each other” line when Fiyero goes with Elphie.
I’m Not That Girl Reprise
Sung in the remains of the ruined wedding.
As Long As Your Mine
Elphaba’s Arrrrrms.
Fiyero sees the posters of Elphaba and turns to tell her she’s beautiful - he’s telling her she’s not how they see her.
Shot is set up so that they’re in the round opening of the hideout - Like they’re in their own bubble - call back to Glinda.
They then are floating through the air.
This is the second time in the film that Elphaba has floated through the air with a person she loves.
We see Madam Morrible cast the spell that brings the Tornado - spotlights of Oz on her. Very stunning shot of her.
Nessa is outside searching for Boq.
We actually see the house fall on her.
Mourning Scene
Elphaba’s line “I seem to have that effect on people” is said to Glinda here instead of to Nessarose in Munchkinland.
In this scene instead of the “We can’t all come and go by bubble” leading to Glinda accusing Elphaba of “..taking things that don’t belong to [her]” Elphaba tells Glinda that the shoes were not hers to give away.
The rest of the scene plays out beat for beat like the stage show, some things are draw out a little more but not too much.
Fiyero shows up with the monkeys and tells them to look after Elphaba.
No Good Deed
Glinda sings the Fiyero line at the beginning – Elphaba doesn’t sing it at all.
Rock floating to light the fire. Call back to the floating rocks in the flashback of her as a child in the first movie.
Tin Man with the axe shown AGAIN.
Girl In The Bubble
The tone shift is quite abrupt.
The lyrics are sloppy and under developed.
All the shots frame her in the round - in a bubble.
The stairs in the room are in a circle and she goes up one side at the beginning of the song and goes down the other side at the end - coming full circle.
She started the story alone at the top (I would barely call Phanny and Shen Shen on the same level as her at all) and now she’s alone again at the top floating above everyone.
She see’s her reflection in the bubble on the balcony - like the flashback of her as a child seeing her reflection in the wand.
Oz is also reflected in the bubble, because it is. The bubble is a reflection of oz. It’s a facade and all built on a lie.
GLINDA PICK UP ELPHABA’S BOOTS - SHE IS LITERALLY STEPPING INTO HER SHOES.
For Good
“Not with your eyes, but with theirs”
Elphaba knows how Glinda sees her, knows she thinks she’s still unlimited (like she says in Wonderful)
“For both of us” THEY LOOK LIKE THEY’RE ABOUT TO KISS WHY WOULD THEY BAIT US LIKE THIS!!!
THEY SAY I LOVE YOU!!! AND THEN THEN PUT GLINDA BACK IN THE CLOSET!!!
AND THEN THEY DOOMSDAY THEM OMFGGGG
Glinda back in Oz
Battle music playing when she puts on her crown – it’s her armour. Her facade. A brave face for the people.
She puts the wand down to talk to the Munchkins because she doesn’t need to “sell it” anymore. She wants them to see her as she is.
For Good Reprise
The page opens to two hands open and the next shot Elphie and Fiyero reach for each other out in the badlands.
Flashback to the day in the field and they recreate the musical poster image.
Defying Gravity the,e plays at the start of the credits.
I'm going to post more about Wicked: For Good soon but just a thought now that the album is out:
Has anyone else noticed the line change in No Good Deed? Elphaba sings "And since I can't succeed, Fiyero, saving you" instead of "Since I cannot succeed"
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