No One Mourns the WICKED
“Are People Born Wicked, or Do They Have Wickedness Thrust Upon Them?” — Glinda
From the very first image of the film, we hear voiceovers of the witch, being the wickedest of them all. We hear Glinda addressing the rumors of her friendship with the witch. We see the witch’s hat on top of a puddle of water. All these images and voiceovers reeled us into the story itself, giving us a clear indication of whose story it is. It’s about the Wicked Witch with Glinda playing the supporting role. It was an intricately designed opening but then it does something even greater.
The film features these winged monkeys who flew out of this place and away, mourning the loss of their witch. Then the film pans through them flying around the world of Oz. This is where you see and feel the world’s wonders, details, and delicacy. You feel as if you were on a roller coaster, being transported into the world of Oz.
The first thing I found amusing about this film is how it constructs its world. It does not rely on petty exposition or random stuff shown that does not matter. It is based on the character’s reactions and knowledge to give us a picture of this world.
We know that this world values magic as a prestigious talent and when Madame Morrible saw Elphaba do it, she was amazed despite her being an outcast. We see how she uses magic and what drives her to perform it. We understand that this world has few talented magicians and Elphaba is one of them. The school as you can see is shown pretty nicely. We’re not constantly outside doing stuff, we would always be inside seeing what these people are doing in the background as they go through their daily lives. We see these little details that are not the same as our world like an animal professor, high heels that can be extended, an underwater ballroom and a library with shelves that spin. Not only that, but most of the sets here were also practically designed which adds up to the realism.
This world which the film intricately creates has become the most recognizable of all media. When you see animal professors or an emerald city (as we see the emotional value behind it) we know that this is Oz and the musical number only helps to seal the deal on the wonders of this world.
Elphaba
With that let’s get back to the opening. As the monkeys fly away, the camera pans above a rainbow and moves higher as the Munchkins celebrate the witch’s death. This is where Glinda arrives and celebrates with them as well as singing along to how good always prevails against evil. This was very odd to me.
For one, no matter how evil someone is, maybe it would not be the most moral for you to celebrate their death. I mean if you’re celebrating a terrible guy’s death, it still seems disrespectful. After all, it is still a life so how are we any better than the wicked? So when I watched Glinda singing along, I felt very conflicted, and wow… That was what they were going for the whole time. That was the thematic message of the film which I will get into.
Glinda then questions whether someone is born wicked or has a transformation to be wicked. This question was slowly answered throughout the whole movie.
We would first be presented with how Elphaba was born. She was born green and could make things float which seems pretty scary. At this point, everything about Elphaba screams wicked. She was a disgrace to the whole family for being green. She makes stuff float and scares away everyone. She is just so… but that really isn’t her fault. People saw her as wicked because they just didn’t like her so is she then born wicked?
We then would see Elphaba’s gradual growth, kids and everyone around her constantly bullying her because of her green skin. She cares for her sister but we know her sister secretly despises her. She is just an embarrassment to her.
When she went to school, she would immediately make a scene with her powers. We see her insecurity of needing to protect and satisfy her father from her rambling her skin and her desperation to protect her sister. This is when we see the shift in her character’s journey. Madame Morrible takes her in and turns her greatest embarrassment into a gift. Finally, her life means something. She could dream and hope as she would soon be close to the wizard himself. Still, there is this lingering sense of wickedness inside her.
We all know that being good is never about acceptance or recognition but performing an act of kindness even if no one knows is what defines you as good. Elphaba wanted to be with the wizard just so people could like her. She wants people’s recognition more than actually wanting to be good. It seems this would be her path to becoming wicked if it were not for Glinda.
Ozdust Duel
Glinda hates Elphaba. There was even an entire song dedicated to their feelings for each other. Glinda tries to sabotage her by giving her an ugly hat and pretending it is cool or whatever. Elphaba, thinking that she genuinely liked her, opened up her heart to Madame Morrible to have Glinda as a student. At that point, she saw that maybe her being good could lead to something great, so she did this one act of kindness. So, it was painful to see how she got humiliated by everyone there all because of Glinda’s little prank. This would have been the final straw. If everyone had humiliated her, she might as well have just left and become the witch but that was not the case. Glinda stepped forward.
Elphaba did a humiliating dance to herself as if it were some farewell of sorts, but Glinda would come out and do it with her. This was something new and different. Elphaba had everyone feel embarrassed and stayed away from her all her life so having Glinda come out and accept her is a testimony of her worth and what it truly means to be good. If you did something good, then maybe something great will happen to you and it shows. It was a sign and moment that made her realize she could and is good. She is not just doing it for that recognition.
From here on out, they were friends, and everything seemed to be perfect. She even developed a bond with Fiyero which may come into play soon. Despite all that, there was still one lingering issue. We all know that Elphaba has been prone to abide by the rules of everyone, but we also know that she can accomplish good when she does break the rules.
This then takes us into the section about the animals but before we get onto that we have to go back again to the opening.
Glinda
At this stage, Glinda is contempt that the witch is dead, but it all feels too much of a pretense especially after we know that it was she who made Elphaba change her entire life’s discourse. So why exactly does she feel so happy about the death of a friend? Maybe she didn’t.
Our first impression of Glinda is that she is a rich spoiled girl who gets everything she wants. She wants to be a magician and aspires to be the best and most popular of everyone no matter what it takes. That was clear when she first met Elphaba. To her, Elphaba is her greatest way to achieve all that She sees Elphaba as a tool to get people’s attention and love. She cares and tries to offer help in a pretentious way so people can like her. This would then lead to her own demise by needing to share a room with Elphaba.
At this point, we know that she is not actually good but only desires to sound and look good to the public. It is a big red flag for someone who is well…not good. Due to her pretense, she constantly held in all her feelings until they finally burst out in What is this Feeling? I liked how the film establishes this central conflict of her whole character from this song which even shows how Elphaba beats Glinda to everything. With that, she keeps the pretense to be popular and even hangs out with the handsome prince. Deep down that pretense, her hatred towards Elphaba is still buried so she gives her the ugly hat and pretends just as she always does that it was a gift.
Glinda didn’t know that Elphaba was willing to offer up a seat for her in Madame Morrible’s class as it was pretty much her dream. Seeing someone who had been laughed at and bullied all the time and even by her to do something this purely good was a shock. Glinda feels this touch of emotion and seeing how she had set her up for embarrassment only made her feel worse. This was the moment Glinda realized that sometimes the needs of others are more important than our own just as Elphaba sacrificed her hatred for Glinda to give her the chance of achieving her dream. Glinda did this embarrassing dance for everyone to laugh at to fix her mistakes. Through that, she understood and viewed Elphaba’s perspective on how she would feel.
Politics of Oz
Now that we have seen their character arcs, we could look at the inner political landscape that would soon be important. The main central political plotline is on animal rights.
In Oz, animals used to be able to speak and do normal stuff like everyone, but soon more and more animals were starting to lose their abilities to talk, losing their jobs and even their life. All this seems terrible as animals should not be treated this way and should be seen and heard just as everyone else, not acting as a petty slave. This whole plot line serves as the central middle ground of what exactly is wicked in the form of the public eye. The movie smartly delivers all this through Dr Dillamond.
In his initial appearance, it seems he would be a literal joke. Dr Dillamond was a goat professor at a university. That instantly seems like something to easily be joked about, but the film never does that. Glinda constantly tries to correct his pronunciation of her name, but he can’t due to his animal voice. Elphaba steps up and speaks out for him, giving him a chance to show what animals are supposed to live like. Then before he could finish there would be a message on the board discriminating against him on how animals should only be seen.
This whole scene perfectly captures everything wrong about its political landscape. We know that there are people like Glinda who do not care if these animals are different from us so they just cast them aside. There are people like Elphaba who are willing to protect the integrity and life of an animal just as their own as if they too were an outcast to the world. Of course, there is Dr Dillamond himself who speaks of his rights but would be torn apart by the harmful words from others. We then see how he wants to fight for his rights only to be thrown right out later on and we would see this from Elphaba who is also an outcast so we too could relate to Dr Dillamond and the other animals.
Musical
Looking back at the opening, the film would start with a musical number with No One Mourns the Wicked. The number features a large cast of extras performing and giving out this lively feel with Glinda being the central part of this performance.
Now at this point, I want to talk about the musical numbers. This film features something that I have always wanted from a musical. That being a large story told in various musical numbers. I know West Side Story or In the Heights had done a better job in its songs but the scale in this one simply deserves the large cast.
Not to mention, the songs here were all able to evoke some level of emotions and development of its characters. These kinds of musical numbers are the ones that feel worthy and fun to watch instead of simply trying to seem cool and fancy by being a musical. Some major standouts for me are Defying Gravity, Dancing through Life and What is This Feeling?
Flaws
Now we have to talk about the elephant in the room as to why this isn’t perfect. The film does a lot right but there were also a few issues here and there.
For one I wished the pacing would have been better. The animal rights plotline should have been more of a focus instead of this other plotline with the prince. Look I enjoyed that plotline, but it would have been better if the focus was more on the animals.
I also noticed that this film had a similar story structure to Across the Spider-Verse, but the emotional impact was not as strong. Like in that film, Gwen’s story was insanely sad with her running away from her problems and sacrificing her relationship with her father. This film also begins with a supporting character, Glinda and she has a pretty good story too, but the emotional weight is not as strong. There are no sacrifices or emotional decisions (except that one). There is also the lingering plot thread of the Spot just as the plot thread of Elphaba’s love for the prince here. Both were plot threads that would pay off in the next part only one would have major repercussions while the other would not get mentioned again. Still, does this make the film bad? No, it’s just that it could have been better even if I don’t think Spiderverse is comparable. The film could have hit harder if they leaned in to the character’s emotions more often.
Visually, I think the film looks fine. People say it feels colorless but when the story is about someone who had been laughed at all her life, I don’t think she would be seeing the world in colors.
Defying Gravity
Finally, let’s talk about that climax. The culmination of the buildup on Elphaba and Glinda’s arcs and relationship would all come together here. Again, the worldbuilding is great with its musical number to establish the people’s devotion to the wizard. When we finally got in and met the wizard everything seemed to be good. Elphaba was getting everything she had ever wanted; to be by the wizard’s side and be loved by everyone. Everything seems to be going well with Glinda even supporting her as she learns to put others’ needs before her own. She even impressed her teacher and the wizard when she could cast a powerful spell.
The only problem was that it would seem that no matter what she did, even with good intentions, she would still hurt others. Her spell gave the monkeys wings and made them to be in pain. She didn’t want this and would do anything to stop it all but she can’t. It was then when she realized how happy the wizard and her teacher were that she knew the truth.
This was all just a ploy. A ploy to get rid of all the animals and she played right into it. All her dreams were crushed. No longer had she decided to be loved by all. She realized that serving justice and giving back the rights to these animals was what she needed to do. She was willing to fight for them. For their lives. The wizard is a con simply sealed that deal.
In Defying Gravity, Glinda tries to convince Elphaba to go back. This was not her change of character, but she simply wanted her friend to not be harmed in any way. She was mad, sad, confused and knew that everything was bound to change. She wanted to keep her friend and she was willing to go with her.
Elphaba knew that if she were to go back then she would truly be a puppet of the dictatorial government. The wizard was never doing anything righteous. He was a dictatorial leader, seeking control of his people through genocide. She did not want to play in his games. She did not want to be in control of people’s lives. She was being controlled all her life already, nobody else should suffer the same.
I think that was what the climax was ultimately about. You have someone who doesn’t abide by the rules and has their train of thought, knowing what is right and wrong. For so long, we were fed on the idea of what is right and wrong that we never really knew the fine line between the two. Why must people be drawing those lines for us when we can decide what is right and wrong? The rules of others shouldn’t bind society, instead, it should be based on what we define as right or wrong. That way we won’t fall prey to propagandic ideals the government tries to introduce.
Ending
The ending was simply both poetic and ironic. Elphaba was flying away as a villain, freely as she devises a plan to free the animals. Glinda though was taken away as a hero to be the symbol of hope for the people and a puppet for the dictatorial leaders.
Conclusion
In the beginning, the film poses the ultimate question of what exactly makes someone wicked. Were they born wicked or had they slowly transformed into one? The answer by the end was simple.
People aren’t wicked.
The government, media, and perception of the world are what makes someone seem wicked. Through the screens, text, and news we don’t know if some criminal that got arrested is wicked or had been set up by the government to seem that way. We would never know if our favorite celebrities were as kind as they seem, especially because of their image. The public perception is never one to be trusted but when we know of these people, it would then be our choice to judge whether they are truly wicked or not?
Wicked is now available on digital
