In this episode the guys swiftly break down the smash hit movie of 24/25 - WICKED!

You can use this podcast in the following ways:

• Quickly learn what a movie is about without spoilers.

• Decide if a movie you haven't seen is worth your time.

• Learn something new about your favourite movies.

• Address that embarrassing list of movies you haven't seen.

• Get a nudge in the direction of your next watch.

Socials:

Movies In A Nutshell

Instagram - www.instagram.com/moviesinanut

Facebook - www.facebook.com/moviesinanut

Marc Farquhar

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marcfarquhar

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/themarcfarquhar

Darren Horne

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedarrenhorne

Paul Day

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pauldaylive23

Recorded at Sunbeams Studios - https://.thestudioatsunbeams.co.uk/

Music

Main Theme:

BreakzStudios - https://pixabay.com/users/breakzstudios-38548419/

Music Bed:

ProtoFunk - Kevin MacLeod (https://www.incompetech.com)

All music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to Movies in a Nutshell with me, Mark Farquhar, myself, Darren Horne

and I, Paul Day.

Together, we're here to bring you quick, simple, entertaining breakdowns of movies, whether you've seen them or not.

From timeless classics to hidden gems or the latest blockbusters in cinemas, this is your movie safe space.

But unlike most movie podcasts, we're not a review show. That means no endless deep dives, no unnecessary opinions, just value for your time.

If it's a movie you've seen, you will probably learn something new. And if it's a movie you haven't seen yet, we'll help you decide if it's worth your time.

Don't stress if you haven't seen that. Must watch classic. We've got you covered with everything you need to know.

Now there's a moment in every episode where we'll give you the choice. You can pause the podcast, go and watch the movie, come back and join us as we head into Spoiler City, or you can just come with us for the ride.

So grab some popcorn, settle in and let's dive into this week's movie. Let's discuss Wicked. So we actually went to the cinema.

Did we had a road trip.

Actually went to the cinema together.

3:40 Something men made it to the cinema.

We did our local cinema. I wonder how many people go to their local cinema these days.

I don't know. They should, though.

They should.

Definitely not enough. They're all closing.

We enjoyed our experience, though.

We did. Let's look into the diagnostics. So it's available in cinema? It's still in the cinema.

Still in the cinema.

It's been. I think it was in November. It came out.

Go support your local cinema. There you go.

It's rated PG. It's 2 hours 40. The genre is musical slash fantasy. Seems right, Yep.

Stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum, as we discovered. Well, you guys knew that anyway, didn't you?

We knew that. We knew that.

So it's from Universal Pictures, directed by John M. Chu. It was written by. It's technically. It's a weird one. Who this was written by because. Comes from Wicked.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Swartz.

Does anyone know his Work. Never heard him before.

He's done lots of things, I think. I think he's done some of the Disney stuff over the years and things.

Yeah, it rang a bell. I have seen it before and stuff. The budget was 150 million, which is.

Pretty solid for now.

Yeah, I would say so.

Well, they knew such a big production.

It already has a brand. It always has a name. The only things expanding on the wizard of Oz is going to be.

I mean, I'm guessing that's for part one, though. So maybe like. Yeah, for part two, maybe.

Haven't they. Have they shot part two yet?

I think they did it back to back.

Yeah. You would do that, wouldn't you?

Some of you would. But it's already taken 640 million.

Yeah.

So less than two months. It's taken over half a billion and.

Then tons of merchandise and stuff.

This is why I recommended it, because this was the big film of the year. Was.

It was your choice.

It was my choice, as I said. We need to see this.

It's your synopsis first, or should I read the official one first?

I'll try mine first.

Okay.

So I did struggle with this when I went to write it because of what you just said, that it's based on so many past things.

Okay.

So you know, if you haven't got any knowledge of the wizard of Oz or the books or any old or even the musical, it's like. So I tried and then you can tell me it's rubbish and tell me what the official one is.

So I've put In the magical land of Oz, we join the talented green skinned witch Elphaba as she befriends popular girl Glinda in university as they embark on an adventure that leads them to the wonderful wizard of Oz in part one of this film adaptation of the very popular musical. So I did try and put a bit of context behind it.

Yeah, that's valid. With the movie wizard of Oz and then the Wicked show, everyone kind of knows.

I feel like people must have a bit of content.

Can be a bit vague.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's my thing.

That was good. That was solid.

Okay. So what did they say?

They said the official says, misunderstood because of her green skin, a young woman named Elphaba forges an unlikely but profound relationship with Glinda, a student with unflinching desire for popularity. Following an encounter with the wizard of Oz, their relationship soon reaches the crossroads as their lives begin to take a very different paths.

Yeah, that's good.

That's.

I get that. Because that, because the bit for me was. How do you describe this if you haven't got that back? Knowledge. But that, that, that does it pretty well.

Yeah.

So story wise, going like A to B to C for someone who hasn't seen this.

Yeah.

Choose many people, it seems.

No.

What's, what's the story? What's this about?

This is about. It's all the things you would think it's about. It's about racism, it's about oppression, it's about people being other than and therefore hated.

It's about fear. And it's also about trying to overcome those things and overcome those differences.

So the main plot themes, everything you've just said, but is anything in the background? Anything?

Well, the bit I hadn't seen the musical, so I'm very familiar with the wizard of Oz. Hadn't seen the musical Wicked. I'd heard some of the songs. So the bit that I didn't know was going to be in it.

And this is kind of a comparison for people who like these films, but it had a kind of Harry Potter world building feel to it for me because they were in this university. Again, that's not spoiling anything because it's in the synopsis.

But they're in this university world and it was like, okay, they've got this kind of Harry Potter world thing going on with the teachers.

And also if people have seen the Wednesday show on Netflix, the Addams Family spin off Wednesday with Jenna Ortega, it had that kind of thing for me as well, which I wasn't expecting. But I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that element of it.

Anything else to add?

It's. We might get into it a bit later, but it is, it's very apt that it's made now because it's kind of about Gaza.

Okay.

Because it's about the oppression of excluding people from their land and, and taking over, doing a power grab.

And there's also lots of songs and musical fantasy.

Okay. So we'll go on to ratings and reviews, see what the grown ups thought. So grown Ups Rotten Tomatoes gave it.

The critic review was 89, which is high for a critical review. And the users are 95. So it's not much in it.

No, it feels like it's got very positive.

I'm kind of jumping into some of the facts later, but a lot of the people who were linked to some of the legacy stuff of wizard of Oz have give this lots of praise as well.

Yeah.

And it's not just skewed to the fact that it's brand new. It's had thousands and thousands of reviews.

So it's not like it's just because, you know, something new gets a few reviews and all good makes it seem better than it is. This is like now this is. Everyone loves this film.

Been warmly embraced by the sounds of it.

Yeah. IMDb was 7.9 10, as you know, Metacritic 73 was the critic 1 out of 100 and the users was 7.9 out of 10. So across the board it's pretty.

I think they're kind of harsh.

I think they're harsh.

I think because it's so popular, maybe people are being dragged to it who don't really want to see it and then they go and review it down.

Yeah, there is that. It's a very specific film genre, isn't it? Musical theater? Sort of, yeah.

And who goes on IMDb and rates a film? What's that demographic like? We don't do that.

I'll tell you now, thousands upon thousands of people do. Critics and just general public a lot.

And I always get to that bit where it says sign in to review and I'm like, nah, it's okay. Enough people have reviewed it.

We need one of our listeners to message in and tell us if they've ever reviewed something or rated something on IMDb. I don't think these people exist. It's bots.

Please let us know if you have. And what you said, what was the film? What did you say? Because some people just like to go to on things like just hit.

But and obviously this is across the board good. So people are going on to just.

Give it good reviews but positively glowing.

Very well received and obviously still in the cinemas right now. So let's see what the grown ups thought. I've picked a few, obviously I try and pick a good and bad. Yeah, yeah, Indifferent.

So Tom Ernst of Original Sin. That's original. Dash C I N I guess that's original play on original cinema. See what they did there?

He says Wicked can at times feel like a movie that's one brick short of a road. But when all is said and sung, it's still a road paved in gold.

I hate the way he must have come up with that in the shower and got so excited and rushed to put it in his article. And it's kind of lame, Darren being.

Critical of the critics there.

Roger Moore, his Back from the Dead.

Oh my, did he raise an eyebrow.

And Roger Moore of Movie Nation.

This picture should have passed by in a sprint, not slogged past like an overlong, over budgeted, Macy's Parade with music that would test the patience of anyone, including the toughest PG audience of all kids.

Roger Moore.

He wasn't a fan.

Roger Moore. Not liking it.

No.

I'm always wary of that. Because if you're a critic, can you let your personal opinion impact it? Or should it just be like, was it in focus? Like, was this.

Is that what reviews are? Just a bunch of people's opinions?

I always used to like Jonathan Ross because he would go watch a kids movie and take his kids and he would say, I thought this, but my kids loved it. And I'm like, okay, good, you took the target audience with you.

It depends if the reviewer is the target audience.

Yeah, totally.

There's a few kids in there when we saw it, and I feel like we're quiet. They were quiet and glued to the screen the whole time.

That is true. That is true.

Yeah. In our experience, when we went, there.

Was a cross section of people.

Yeah, there really was.

Although we were almost the only guys.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, that's true. Interesting. But across the board, I don't think that's the case.

We were defying gravity. See what I did there?

Okay. And our good friend Peter Travers.

Oh, go on.

PM this time writing for ABC News, not Rolling Stone.

Cheating.

He. I looked him up. He writes for all of the big hitters. ABC News. He's put. How do I love the film of the hit stage musical? Let me count the ways.

Starting with the way Cynthia Enviro and Ariana Grande set the screen ablaze as frenemy witches and sets costumes and songs to die for. Seeing this joyous eruption once is not enough. He was a big fan.

Peter's liking it. He's normally fair.

Okay, yeah, that's fine.

We respect the hell out of that guy.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, we, we generally knew that before even we saw it that this was well received.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it just depends on you as the viewer whether you're the target audience or not. It's interesting what makes something click with the masses and what doesn't.

Yeah, I'm fascinated by that.

There's no, there's no formula for this.

Yeah.

Like something that wasn't destined to be a hit can be. And something that everyone says, oh, it's a no brainer. Doesn't.

That was true of Slumdog Millionaire. Nearly didn't get distributor.

Yeah.

And who would have thought that March of the Penguins, a documentary about penguins, would have been the hit that it was like 10 years ago or whatever. That's yeah, there's a. There's a film writer called William Goldman who wrote like Rich Cassie and the Sundance Kid and Stephanie, Princess Bride.

Yeah.

And he always says nobody knows anything when it comes to Hollywood. They just have no clue something's going to be a hit or not.

And with this one, it could have gone either way, really. Because, you know, obviously fans of the Broadway musical, they're going to be a big target audience.

Fans of musical, sort of films, Greatest Showman, that kind of thing, probably going to be the audience. But this, when it hits bigger, like this one seems to have, it's like, how did it get there? And then how did the kids get in?

You know, three hours with adverts. That's going to put a lot of people off as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, true. That was your first thing, I think you said, Mark. Oh, no, it's really long.

That is true.

So it's, it's pushed through. It sort of pushed through that next level of cultural significance almost, doesn't it? It's been one of the biggest hits of last year, I think.

So it's finished off on this, this section. It's pretty much, if anyone doesn't know, it's the story of how the Wicked Witch of the west became that.

Yes.

At the very beginning. Like, where does that journey start?

It's your prequel of the wizard of Oz, isn't it? But in musical form. So.

So you may have seen a film which I quite liked, but it had more of a pattern than this one did, called Oz the Great and the Powerful. And that was kind of the story of how the wizard of Oz got to Oz and all that kind of thing.

So it's not that story, but it's that kind of thing where it's sort of setting up how the which of Evil Witch of the west became the Evil Witch of the west. That kind of in musical form as well. And like you said about it was.

That then went to the stage and.

That was adapted to a musical and the music, the movies come from this musical version. So.

And I was, I was reading before how the director said, you know, they were going to try and do it in one big film, but then they felt it wouldn't give it justice. So that's why they ended up splitting into power.

They saw the franchise money, didn't they? So he didn't say that.

But you never know. That producer stepped in and said, oh, hang on a second, let's get this one up.

So in a Nutshell. That is wicked. Now it's time to enter into Spoiler City.

So this, for anyone listening, this is at this point, if you haven't seen it, there aren't many of you left. But pause this podcast, go watch the movie, come back if you don't want to hear any spoilers.

It doesn't mean to say we are going to go out of our way to spoil this film. It just means you're going to hear some of our opinions. So we're probably going to give away some of the plots, some of the things that happen.

So it's just to beware. So is your choice.

We may even sing some of the songs. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah.

Okay, let's head into Spoiler City. Let's start with what did we miss? What else is this movie about? Or are there any plot holes, errors? Was there cameos, Easter eggs?

And Paul's gonna give us a top five.

Give you some of those.

Okay.

Yeah.

Darren, I'll start with you.

Like I was saying, I think there's a political feel to this. I mean, it always was, even with the movie in the show. In terms of racism.

I mean, her being green is a substitute for any kind of other that you think of. Any other difference? Absolutely.

I think it would have been nice if it hammered that nail a little bit harder, particularly in terms of kind of like creeping fascism and right wing politics and I don't know a great deal about politics, you know, pay a little bit of attention. But we're in a really scary situation right now where lots of governments are leaning towards the right. Lots of.

There's this thing, I keep seeing this recurring theme that young boys are leaning to the right and young women are leaning to the left. And this is why. Why they're not kind of connecting anymore.

Then you look at what's going on with Russia and Ukraine, you look at what's going on in Israel with Gaza, which is absolutely devastating. And then you've got this movie where it's basically very similar.

You've got the other where, like, she's bad, she's different from us, she's a different color, we don't understand her, so we will mock her and, and exclude her and do all these horrible things. And then you've got obviously the wizard of Oz who's going around rounding up the animals and is almost kind of dumbing them down as well.

It's taken away their ability to speak.

That's right.

Which is a really scary thing because that's kind of happening. Palestine. Have Just banned the news station Al Jazeera from broadcasting in their country because they were criticizing the government.

Wow.

And that's. Look at how Trump went after the news and fake news. I'm going to shut you down.

Like, they're silencing people's voices and at the same time there is this massive issue. It's not even just Gaza. That's just the main one that we talk about.

There's plenty of other countries where horrible things are happening and I think this movie. Some people will get that. Movies could be talking about that. But I wish they just made it a little bit more explicit. Like, I wish the animals had.

Like, yeah, they were intermingling, but I wish they had their own land as well.

Yeah.

And the wizard of Oz was trying to take over through the resources or something like that.

Yeah, they kind of. They kind of did some of the obvious stuff. Like everyone's staring at her because she's different.

Yeah.

Initial treatments and stuff like that, but they didn't really go into it a bit more. Push it a bit more.

Yeah.

Highlight what it feels like.

And it wasn't quite clear yet why he wanted to get rid of the animals. Like why?

Yeah, like. Yeah, they didn't really explain that, did they? It was sort of. I put a question mark on that on my notes. Like the animals, why. Why was he after it?

So I like. I mean, I feel like I'm a bit down because it really does make you think about how this is not fiction.

Yeah. It's a classic tale of someone being different, being ostracized or being segregated for. For the way they look.

And her acting is superb. And you know, I read a few reviews that were saying if I work.

I'm a film lecturer and I work with performing arts lecturers who are exactly as you would imagine them to be and they are musical, just theater lovers and they prefer the film to the show. And I think one of the reasons is you get to do a close up of these actors and you get to see Elphaba. Is that her name? Yeah, her close ups.

She eats up the screen. She's a phenomenal actress and she shows. She has an ability to show the quiet scars that she has that have built up over like two decades.

And she deals with it with so much poise and so much strength and is just a phenomenal character.

So, yeah, I think that's predominantly my take and also obviously it was going to be quite gay because wizard of Oz is like an icon of the kind of gay community and it would Be horrendous to take that away. And I think. And I've read some stuff online about this as well, but I think the gay community are very, very happy. You've got.

You've got some actors who are openly gay. I think the lead is Cynthia, isn't it?

Cynthia?

Fairly sure she's openly gay. There's. There's a character in the background. Was it called Fiera or something?

Yeah. Was it Prince? Was it Prince?

But he was going around that kind of party, just flirting with everyone in sight, and it was just wonderful. And everyone was there for it. Like, I feel like Oz is quite a bisexual place to be.

Oh, yeah. Jonathan Bailey's character. Yeah. The main Prince sort of guy.

And, yeah, that was really, really cool. So, yeah, I think it's great.

I think if people watch it, maybe they won't get the political thing, but if kids learn that it's okay to be different, that's wonderful. And if it's okay to be gay or bisexual, that's good. And I think the tension between the two leads was there.

I think, you know, I joked about them being friends earlier because, you know, that could easily be a story when they're 70 years old, live together, died, never married, because they were like, oh, they were just friends. And that. That was. That was nicely done. It was a little bit.

It wasn't overt, but particularly there were times when there was a nice kind of tension between them where it was just like this.

It's different in this one because we all know where this ends.

Yeah.

So it's like we're trying to work out. Okay. Which is the point where she goes that way.

Yeah. But I don't know.

Well, that's obviously part two or three.

Whatever I think they're doing, too.

I think when we get there, we'll reveal that. But it's. It's all the signs along the way of, like, okay, she's had that obstacle.

Yeah.

She's.

This unfortunate event has happened to her and the two very different people who've come together and it's what's going to lead them to go in the opposite direction.

Yeah. But also they might mess with our expectations. You know, Tarantino.

I would like it if they did. I would like it if they did mess with our expectations.

See, for.

For me, a lot of my attention was kind of the musical side of it and the sets and the costumes and kind of the production value of it, which, when I get to my facts in a minute, they did a lot of it practically, rather than CGI computer graphic effects, which I thought was nice. But we're so used to watching computer graphic effects. Sometimes I think we just assume everything's computer graphics now.

And it wasn't until I was reading it, I was like, oh, okay, maybe I was watching it thinking it was computer. But actually a lot of it was practical sets.

So I enjoyed the spectacle side of it as well, you know, because obviously that's what they used to do in the big.

It was quite immersive, wasn't it?

Very immersive world. So I always enjoy that element of it, whether it's sci fi fantasy or whatever. So, yeah, I think I spent most of.

It's one of them I want to see again so I can appreciate other bits or even more of the sets and the world that they've built there. And that was one of the things that made the length of the film.

Because at one point I did think, oh, this is, you know, maybe they could have got to things quicker. But then if they did that, you'd have lost the subtleties of the acting, like you were saying before, which is really, really good.

And you'd have lost some of that detail probably of some of the sets and the things.

So that's the part I enjoyed the most, I think, taken away from me and how they normally have it on a Broadway stage, which obviously you got limitations. And now they said the world is yours to do what you want. And they've built this world of Oz.

So maybe that's why you were saying they prefer this version potentially, because it's got that big scope.

Another thing, again, I'm seeing this a lot, you know, what's happening to young men and young men are getting a kind of going to dark places at the moment.

And I've read some stuff about it and it's that on the whole, young white guys have been told that they're worthless and they're the cause of all the issues. And we hear about the patriarchy being the issues.

You know, I think I said when we were putting this together, does the world really need to hear from like 34 year old white, straight cisgender men? But, you know, here we are, we can do this. And.

But again, and I'm okay with it, but I think at some point I'm hoping we can change the narrative because, you know, you've got this amazing world. It's run by an old white guy. He's evil and he's dominating all the other species and other ethnicities and everything. And I just.

There was just A moment to release this kind of sadness about that. Yeah, we're talking about race, and obviously the white guys, the bad guy. And I get that on the whole, we have done bad things.

Not us three or me, but not you guys. For yourself.

Evil manufacturer.

Well, I mean, anytime conversations like this happen, I think if. If it helps anybody, then it's. It's worth doing. But also, we're just. We're just entertainment show. So it's not like we don't. We don't have.

We don't bear this responsibility to, like, make people think or feel a certain way. We just. We just break down movies. But in.

In doing that, we end up having these diversions where we enter into serious conversation, which the film has brought up in the first place.

Although maybe I was just sad that it was Jeff Goldblum being mean. It's like, dude, what are you doing?

Jeff finds a way.

But I did like, he's a love. See, Michelle. Yeah. Honestly, since doing everything everywhere all at once, she's been getting some great parts.

She was phenomenal in this and really, again, gutted about the twist with her, but loved her fashion. She would. I saw on a website, it was called Obsessed, that she would be great on, like, RuPaul's Drag Race.

I was like, yes, I would love her to be a judge. That would be amazing.

And I. And of course, Jeff. I do love Jeff. I was thinking, how can I. That's what I was thinking. I was like, how can I praise Jeff?

Because, yeah, I just love the way he takes a phrase and makes it very natural and then takes it in his own Jeff way. And if I was like, oh, it's just Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum, it's like, I don't care. That's what I love about Jeff Goldblum. That is him.

So, yeah, I'm all for, you know, killing those in charge.

But Jeff Goldblum.

Yeah, that's it.

So that's probably what, like, you say it makes the betrayal even harder because, you know, we're used to loving Jeff doing his thing.

The other bit you might have missed, I was almost going to put it my top five facts, but let's just throw it out there because the musical fans are going to know this straight off anyway.

There's a scene where they go into the town in the land of Oz, and there's a musical scene talking about the history of Oz and everything, and these two characters pop up singing about the history of Oz, and it's actually the two original actresses From Broadway.

That's cool.

Singing the song. So one of them being, hopefully I'll say these names right, Kristin Chenworth, who was the original Glinda and Adina Menzel.

Oh God, she's phenomenal.

Who was the original Elphaba on Broadway. So some of you will know her as the voice of Elsa in the frozen films. The voice of Let it Go.

So do you remember the bit I'm talking about where there's like a stage and then they pop up in the song? So they're actually the original stars of Broadway.

And I was geeky enough to know that and I was like, oh, oh, that's a good Easter egg for, you know, the wicked fans of Broadway musical. Because they were like telling the past that I'm like, oh, well that that makes sense because they were the past.

And they've both got incredible voices too.

Facts of the Day. I'm going, I'm still calling it Facts of the Day until someone tells us.

Facts of the Day is good. That works. There's a play on my name. It's all good.

What do you got?

So there is a lot of facts is what I learned. So if you want to go fact hunting, you will find a lot of facts for this film.

We have a maximum of five, I would say.

Yeah, I'm just going to pick some up and throw. Throw some out here. Go for it. I'd also recommend if you get the chance to listen to the composer, Stephen Swartz. I watched a clip on.

It was Instagram or TikTok or something. Him talking about the themes and he sat with a piano and it's amazing how much like stuff. You would miss that.

Subtly in the background of the themes and the music, he starts talking about how he's got this little thing where he's used the notes of Somewhere over the Rainbow but he changes it slightly in the theme. And. And also he talks about the themes of the music that he uses for the. I'll call the Wicked Witch. But she's not that yet, is she?

So Elphaba, there's themes he uses to make it what you were saying where they're mocking her at the start, but then they use them same themes in Defying Gravity where it changes up top. Yes.

It was also just why you've mentioned that Defying Gravity was the way to end that first part.

That was big curtain, closer, finale and.

It just kept going.

Yeah. And he talks about that in this little clip I watched as well.

He talks about how he wanted to make it feel like it kept building and building and building. So anyway, anyway, let's give you some facts.

So as we said, practical sets were built and supplemented with cgi rather than being filmed on green or blue screens. The director wanted the world of Oz to feel like a real place rather than just computer generated.

And this included planting 9 million tulips to serve as part of the landscape for Munchkin Land. So that's what I mean. We're used to cgi, so we're thinking, oh, it's probably just. It's like, no, no, they planted 9 million tulips.

And one of his influences was Hook, Steven Spielberg's Hook, which used practical effects and they built the pirate ships. And I think there was a lot of production hell on that thing. But he looked at Hook and said, yeah, I want to build Oz as much as I can.

They got that one. Steven Swartz, we were just talking about the composer and lyricist of the film.

He wanted to modernize Galinda's big number, popular by giving it a more hip hop style rhythm and changing it to make it a bit cooler. Ariana grand did, was dead against the suggestion and said, absolutely not. Don't do it. I want to be Glinda.

I don't want to be Ariana Grande playing Glinda. So fortunately, in the finished show, the number is much like it was on Broadway.

A shame. Exactly. I think that song landed.

You think? Do you know? Oh, well, there you go. Blame Ariana Grande for not wanting to. Ariana Grande. So many facts. So many facts.

I'll give you a few more and then stop me when you get bored. I'll just edit them out. You won't know that listener. You'll just edit them out. You'll never know.

So the name which I keep struggling to pronounce, the Wicked Witch Elphabar, was created by taking the phonetic pronunciation of the original wizard of Oz author L.

Frank Baum's initials, lfb, which became Elphaba, which I wish I'd read before because it might have helped me pronounce it through the rest of this podcast.

The vocals for the ensemble parts were pre recorded by a number of Broadway performers, including some of the Illuminate from the Wicked on Broadway, as opposed to being sung live on set like the lead vocals were, which is one of my other facts, which is she actually sings Defying Gravity live on the set. I think. I think a lot of them did it live on the set. A bit like Les Mis, where the idea pieces, that kind of thing in.

Okay, one more impressive One more.

Okay, let's have a look. This is the first non Disney musical to gross over $100 million domestically in its open weekend.

Impressive. So it's time for takeaways, which is where we give our opinions on the film. Our thoughts. I'll start with Paul, because it's your choice.

Okay. I enjoyed it. I was, like I said earlier, wrapped up in the world.

Thought the performances were amazing, thought the actual production design was amazing. Jeff Goldblum's in it. I love that. Even though. Boo. Damn you, Jeff.

The only thing I would say though is I probably need to see it again to appreciate it more. There's other musicals maybe that I saw first time that enjoyed more.

I feel like, like I'm cheating all the critics and all the public who love this film by saying that, but if that makes sense. So the first time I maybe came out of. I use Greatest Showman as an example. I came out of that like, oh, that hit me right in the spot.

This one was a bit more. It hit me a bit later when I was thinking about it more.

So I feel like when I watch it again, I'm going to appreciate it more because I wasn't familiar with the songs as much because I think with the Greatest Shaman, I had the album on before I even went to see the film. That kind of thing. Or there's other musicals that I've just watched since I was a kid that just ingrained in your brain.

Whereas this one obviously was brand new to me. I've never seen the Broadway. I've only heard the song Defying Gravity. So all the other ones were new.

So it took me a while to kind of get into that new world and everything.

But I feel like when I watch it again, I can appreciate it more, especially knowing how much practical set stuff went into it because I like that kind of behind the scenes filmmaking. So for me, excellent film, really enjoyed it. But I think next time I watch it, I'll get more out of it than I did on the first few.

And because the first time I was a bit like just taking it all in.

There was a lot to take and.

There was a lot to take in. So. Yeah, but yeah, if you're a fan of musical theatre, if you're a fan of obviously this kind of genre, go and see it.

If you're not and you hate people jumping into songs every so often, maybe it's not for you. But then again, if you like a Disney film potentially where they do a song now and again, I think you might still be okay.

But I'm guessing you guys will back me up on that or disagree.

The thing with Jeff Goldblum, I think that made me the saddest part. He isn't that, you know, he was a white guy.

It was the impact on those monkeys because you could tell really early on that they were like beaten down. And when he's saying, oh, so and so has always had this dream of flying and you look at his face. No, he hasn't.

Then later on, it's like, you want to see your family again, find her. Like these monkeys are slaves. Like, oh, yeah, that's a good angle.

Actually, the fact that they're hurting animals, you know, because that's like you, you immediately hate the person who's doing it.

Yeah. Your thoughts and down.

Overall, there's lots of good things about it. I mean, there's talent involved. Clearly, it's phenomenal. And I love all the messages that we've talked about.

And you know, I love the fact you've got a woman of color as the lead who is phenomenal.

And not just as a phenomenal singer, but like I was saying earlier, with her strength, her poise, her resilience, just amazing to see that, you know, she's.

A Broadway actress and she's like, she's come from. I'm sure.

I think I've heard that that's where she comes from because I was surprised at how. Because just because you can do Broadway doesn't mean you work on screen.

No. This is what I'm thinking. So that for her must be a big breakthrough.

The chemistry, those two was electric.

Absolutely. So I love the fact, and particularly she's a gay actress as well, that's phenomenal.

So basically, if you're any kind of like, other than you've got a hero here and you know, we're incredibly, incredibly privileged because we grew up with so many heroes.

Oh yeah.

Indiana Jones, James Bond, most of the Marvel cast, you know, loved it when Black Panther finally got made. But yes, you know, it's great when people can see themselves on screen. It's important. So I love that. Love the messaging.

I thought Aviana, I couldn't work out if she was acting brilliantly or awfully. And what I mean by that is Glinda was like this empty headed, vacuous nothing.

And I, I don't think, I think when ever Elphaba was on screen, I forgot Ariana Grande was there. She would just kind of disappear.

She would dominate, wouldn't she?

Yeah, Elphaba would.

Yeah.

Even when she even when she was doing nothing, my eyes were always on her.

So either she was an intense character.

Yeah.

I feel like maybe that was the point, though. I'm gonna go in Ariana's defense and say that they were pretty much opposites, aren't they opposite?

So she's meant to be that, like, vacuum, but like you say, there's nothing there.

No, exactly.

Whereas Elphaba had everything.

Yeah.

She's got the depth yet because that character's surface. I want to be popular. I want pretty pink things. And yes, that was. I was kind of curious about that also.

Because of that, she has nothing to deal with in life, whereas Elphaba's got to fight for everything.

This is also another interesting thing that I think about life is that you only grow as a character through pain.

Yeah.

And if Glinda has had no pain and failure and. Exactly.

There's a lot more to be learned from that than everything being given to our plate.

Devastating lesson of life think is that you have to experience pain to grow. And it's.

I feel like she learns from Alphabet as the story goes on.

Yes.

I warmed to her as the film was going along because she was obviously the warming to her and I sort of felt that, yeah, I think it was a good job.

And also there's lots. I mean, it's a. It's a movie with lots of two dimensional characters, you know, just kind of in the background.

And you know, they say, oh, that his personality trait is he's flirty. Okay. But that's fine because Alphabet kind of carries it.

But it also made me realize that I can never really understand when people say, oh, I don't like Marvel movies or Star wars or Lord of the Rings. I said, you just need to sit with me and I will give you a PowerPoint presentation about why it's amazing.

And I think 10 minutes in I was like, this is what people mean when they say they don't like Star wars or Marvel. Because I couldn't stand this movie. I was bored from minute one. And I did well up at one point because how can you not?

I mean, there's some emotional scenes. You know, Defying gravity was powerful, but I was just bored. And I'm. I'm fully aware that I'm in no way, shape or form the target audience for this.

I would. There's plenty of people I would recommend it to, people who, who love the show or the messages that it gives. The messages they get, they love it.

But I definitely wasn't the target audience. Didn't really Enjoy it at all. I probably. I'm not. I don't think I would even watch the second part.

Okay. Well, I thought I was gonna shit on this film.

Came from nowhere there. He'd praise so much. I was like, he must have really enjoyed this.

I'm of a similar vein, but I did. There was part of it I enjoyed. I'm not a musical fan, so for me, the longer it went on and it was a long film, every time.

Every time they used a song to carry the story, that's when it went downhill for me.

Yeah.

If I could listen to a version of that without some of the music, especially towards the end. Yeah, it was. There was too much of it. But some of the scenes were really intense and I was quite enjoying the story of it.

But, yeah, the musical side of it just, I. For me, you bursting into song and dance to as part of the story just doesn't work for me. I'm the same as you.

I'm not the target audience for this, but. But, yeah, I thought, like, this one, the CGI and the fact it was real, real sets and stuff, I really enjoyed that.

And there was some powerful scenes in there, like, quite emotional, like you said, Darren. But, yeah, I'm not the target audience. There was. Towards the end, I was bored.

And I do like, you know, I like the Greatest Showman. My daughter gets me playing the soundtrack to that in the car all the time. It's solid.

Loved Hamilton thought that was superb, but I didn't like things like I. Was it into the Woods.

Yeah, into the Woods I struggled with. Yeah, I struggled with that one. I enjoyed bits of it, but, yeah, that was another similar. If into the woods is your bag, this is on your wavelength.

And if I did give it. If I did give it one criticism, which I maybe held back on before, it was the length of the film.

And, you know, I'm fine with longer films, but this just felt like there was a short movie in there that was a bit snappier somewhere. And if they were going to do it in two halves, you know, two short halves would have maybe been a bit punchier. There were that moment.

The bits that dragged are probably different from me to you because obviously I quite like the musical bits of it, but I get what you're saying. So for me, maybe some of the talkie bits was like, oh, come on, when's the next?

I think we all thought it was too long, but for different reasons.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And again, if I had to pick, if you put Oz the Great and The Powerful, with James Franco and Michelle Williams and Zach Braff.

And I'm trying to remember who else was in that film. What's she called? From Family Guy? Me. I always say her name wrong. Mila. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd probably.

If I had the two films to watch right now, I'd probably pick that one, because I did enjoy that one. But again, if you look at the critical reviews, you'd be like, no, no, that film's terrible, but this one's better. So it's what you're into.

And as a kind of prequel, wizard of Oz. Probably pick that one again. I can imagine the people screaming at me now at home, saying, what? But I enjoyed them both.

Okay, that's what we thought. So to finish off this section, let's do Test of Time. I think we had a thought of. It was totally flipping on its head.

Hold up. The Test of Time.

If this was released 20 years ago. Because obviously, if something was.

Yeah, we do the flip.

If we were talking about something that was released 20 years ago, we would talk about what would happen if it's released now. But if something's out now. If this was released in 20 years ago, what would happen?

I said 20 years ago. I thought you meant the 80s.

2004.

Okay. I'm trying to remember. So make sure it's come out in 99. We're kind of looking. I don't. I think it.

I don't think it would have done the money that it's doing now. I think we weren't quite ready with diversity. And, I mean, 20. Had Black Panther come out then.

No, no.

If you're pre Black Panther. Yeah, you're it. It's. I don't think we've actually come along really, really far in the last 20 years.

And looking at the generation, you know, that I teach, the teenagers, they're so much more open with. With their own identities. There's so much more acceptance about everything.

I think it would have struggled, and I think it would have been critiqued a lot more. Like people are saying it's too woke now.

Oh, yeah.

So the only way I can see it would have done well is kind of if it had gone on the Chicago wave, because I think that did pretty well. Didn't it?

Maybe the Broadway musical version would have done okay, but not the movie.

Movie, yeah, back then, potentially. So the only way I can see it doing as well as it done now, but probably nowhere near the figures it's getting, is it? Sort of.

But if that had come out before Chicago, I think, yeah, maybe it's too much.

We've got good stuff happening. Like, I like the fact that Little Mermaids played by a black actress as well. Like, most recently, we're making interesting changes.

I like the fact there's discussion around James Bond potentially being black as well.

Oh, I have no problem with that whatsoever.

No, quite right. And there's some really cool actors who could do that role. And then who else would have Doctor who?

So, yeah, we've got some cool stuff kind of happening.

Okay, so we're exiting Spoiler city. That ends that section. So this was your movie choice?

Was.

So it's. You're worth a watch, Paul.

Foreign Worth a watch. Okay. This kind of ties in with the monkeys thing, which I didn't realize until you started talking about monkeys.

So I'm currently watching a TV show at the moment. It's based off the Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stove film, the Terry Gillingham film 12 Monkeys, which came out in what, 90 something?

Yeah, somewhere in the 90s. So if you've seen that film, this is the TV show adaptation of that film. However, you don't really need to have seen the film to watch this TV show.

Of course you are. Of course I am.

Because I missed the physical media. I haven't actually looked where else you can watch it, but I think it is on a few things or it's at least. Okay, he's looking for you.

I'll talk about it while he's.

Haven't seen on any of the main ones.

Well, I'd heard about it, so I looked it up and there it was on Blu Ray.

So gonna be HBO or Paramount or something.

I feel it's gonna be on something like that. It was on the Sci Fi Channel. I think it was made by the Sci Fi Channel.

Oh, it's on ITVX free of charge.

There you go.

People in the uk. Itvx.

Well you need TV license.

You do?

I think so, yeah.

Obviously it's available Amazon prime. You can buy it for 189. YouTube 199.

Really? For the whole season?

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

You don't get four seasons.

Don't get that four seasons.

You don't get that Blu ray quality. Just saying.

Does it need four seasons? How far are you in?

Okay, so I'm in season two. So season one had me hooked in season two. Like I probably should have seen the whole series before.

I recommend it but from everything everyone's saying it seems to keep building and actually it's quite satisfying ending and that's the people doing it.

Dark and gripping.

It's very dark. It's very gripping. It's very confusing. There's time travel all over the place. There's timelines everywhere. There's paradoxes kicking off.

If you're into sci fi, paradox, time travel stuff. I'm really enjoying this series. It's not trying to be the movie. The first episode you see themes of the film. There's characters.

Brad Pitt's character is actually played by a woman. Talking about some of you saying and actually it's a really good fit as to that character. But yeah, I'm almost at the end of season.

No, I've just started season three. I tell I was in a binge watch mood the other day after Christmas. I was battling through them.

I say battling through I couldn't wait to watch the next thing because there's so many things going on right then.

So we put out, we put out some callers last couple of episodes asking for our listeners to choose some movie breakdowns. Considering all choice and considering this was done before we'd even launched we got quite a few recommendations.

So thank you.

We've gone through it, we've gone back and forth usually I think in the future if we get whatever it gets the most, if we get the same movie mentioned a few times we'll just go with that. But this time we got a wide cross section from various people so we've chosen Rosie Hodgson's choice is Shawshank Redemption.

That's what we're going to go for. Absolute classic. So that like as we've discussed before it's always in the top three of on all of the critics websites it's always up there.

Some sits number one, sometimes it's number three.

Big thank you Rosie. It means I get to watch it again.

Yeah, we've all seen it. We all know I haven't watched it in a long time, but I really enjoyed it.

It's a weird movie because, I don't know, it's almost like Shinda's list, like what kind of mood you have to be in to be like, oh, you know what, I'm going to pop that movie on tonight. Yeah, it's not a date movie.

Depends on your date. Yeah, it does, but okay, so that's what we're going to. Next time it will be Shawshank Redemption chosen by our listener, Rosie Hodgson. Right.

So thanks for listening guys.

At some point we need to get branded mugs so that Rosie would get like a mug with her name on it.

Yeah, yeah, we can do that. We could do that at some point. Download. I mean we've only just literally right of the gate, we're doing merchandise. Wow. Thinking way ahead.

Merchandise. I like it. Okay, so thanks for listening guys. If you have any thoughts on today's episode, on the movie, did you go and see it? What did you think?

Do you a naysayer or did it. Was it what you wanted it to be? Let us know what you thought.

Also, if you've got any ideas of what films you'd like us to break down, please do send them in. We will get a cross section of those. If any movies jump out us, we will probably take that into consideration and give it a go.

And we will also give you a shout out on the show as well if you've got any questions or if you're any movie related stories, anything funny, inspirational or embarrassing happened while the cinema. While you're watching the movies. We'd love to. If we get some good ones, we will definitely read those out on the show.

All our contact details are in the show notes. Please get in touch, let us know what you think. We'd like to hear from you guys and also if you want to help us, we're just brand new.

Best thing you can do is just share the show. Share this episode. Hit the share button on whatever app you're listening to. Give us a like a rating, a review.

All these things help us, especially for a new show, get noticed. Okay, so this is me, Mark saying.

Goodbye and me Darren saying adios and.

Me trying to think of a quote from Wicked. Something has changed within me.

There we go.

There you go.

Thanks, Paul. Bye.