Wicked (2024)

[00:00:00] Barbecue Jumbo Shrimp! You motherfuckin'- Get back in the fuckin' car, dammit!

[00:00:06] Let's go rescue you, sir. You're a cool.

[00:00:09] Uh, now eventually you might have dinosaurs on your dinosaur moray.

[00:00:15] Icarus, help me through the maze. I have something wonderful to show him.

[00:00:20] I forgot my mantra.

[00:00:23] Listening. We are here. Listening.

[00:00:28] Hello and welcome to episode 93 of The Complete Works season 2,

[00:00:34] a deep dive into the career and films of actor Jeff Goldblum.

[00:00:38] And also welcome to episode 58 of The Complete Works season 3,

[00:00:44] a deep dive into the career and films of actor Michelle Yeoh.

[00:00:48] My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey into the world according to Jeff Goldblum and also the Yo-iverse

[00:00:55] is my friend, co-host, and fellow Goldblumaniac slash psychopath.

[00:01:01] Mike, Mike, Decrecio, Decrecio? I don't know how to do it twice.

[00:01:04] Malkovich, Malkovich?

[00:01:07] How you doing today, Mike?

[00:01:08] I'm doing great.

[00:01:10] Whoa, it's the future!

[00:01:12] Anything's possible. We're doing two seasons at one time.

[00:01:15] Yes.

[00:01:16] Uh, yeah, no, today is a momentous day on the podcast, Mike,

[00:01:20] because never before have two of our subjects been in the same movie together until now.

[00:01:27] Actually, we have explicit rules against that normally.

[00:01:30] Yes, uh, yeah. And, uh, not only are they're in the same movie together,

[00:01:33] but the movie is on track to be one of the biggest movies of the year.

[00:01:36] So, this isn't like, you know, we're wasting this on like, if Jeff Goldblum happened to be in Tiger's Apprentice or something.

[00:01:42] Right? This is...

[00:01:43] Some bullshit direct-to-streaming, like whatever series.

[00:01:48] Yeah, Michelle Yeoh as a cameo in Chaos or whatever.

[00:01:50] No, we're not wasting it on that.

[00:01:52] No, this is a huge event that we're talking about here, Mike.

[00:01:55] It's a big deal. It's a cultural milestone.

[00:01:58] Yes, absolutely.

[00:02:00] So, before we get into it, we should talk about the long journey of getting today's film made, Mike,

[00:02:05] because it has been a journey.

[00:02:07] Has it? Okay.

[00:02:08] Yeah.

[00:02:09] Well, in 1995...

[00:02:11] See, we're going all the way back.

[00:02:12] All the way back.

[00:02:13] Novelist Gregory Maguire published a book called Wicked,

[00:02:17] The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,

[00:02:19] which was a revisionist take on the Wizard of Oz story,

[00:02:23] centering on the Wicked Witch.

[00:02:25] And then in 2003, eight years later, acclaimed musical theater composer Stephen Schwartz,

[00:02:30] who also wrote Pippin and Godspell, among others,

[00:02:32] he discovered the book and he began working on a musical adaptation simply known as Wicked.

[00:02:37] How familiar are you with Wicked, Mike?

[00:02:39] Just before this movie came out, like, what was your take on Wicked?

[00:02:43] Did you have a take on Wicked?

[00:02:44] I did not particularly have a take on Wicked.

[00:02:47] The author of the novel went to SUNY Albany, where I went to college also.

[00:02:51] Oh, cool.

[00:02:51] So that was pretty cool.

[00:02:52] They had a lot of notable alumni posters all over campus, and his was one of them.

[00:02:56] Yeah.

[00:02:56] So that was pretty neat.

[00:02:58] But then also just growing up in and around New York City and stuff, post 2003,

[00:03:04] Wicked posters are everywhere and probably still are everywhere.

[00:03:08] I saw Wicked on Broadway a few years ago and can confirm, yeah, no, it's still everywhere.

[00:03:13] Yeah.

[00:03:14] If not as big, it's maybe bigger than it's ever been.

[00:03:17] I mean, especially now.

[00:03:18] Right now, yeah.

[00:03:19] But I never saw the play, actually.

[00:03:21] I never saw the musical, which is interesting, because I've seen a bunch.

[00:03:26] Not a lot, but I'm not a huge musical theater guy.

[00:03:29] Sure.

[00:03:29] But you live in New York, so you've seen some Broadway shows here and there.

[00:03:32] Yeah.

[00:03:32] And every now and then, a birthday or a Christmas present or whatever from my parents would

[00:03:35] be like, I got all of us tickets to this thing that one of my parents wanted to go

[00:03:39] to.

[00:03:39] And so it's my birthday present.

[00:03:41] It's like, okay, sure, whatever.

[00:03:43] So yeah, we would go to a lot of plays and stuff.

[00:03:44] But yeah, I never saw Wicked, but I was broadly familiar with the like, oh, it's the prequel

[00:03:50] or whatever.

[00:03:51] It tells the story of how the Wicked Witch became the Wicked Witch type thing.

[00:03:54] Right.

[00:03:55] Beyond that, I didn't really know any specifics.

[00:03:58] Yeah.

[00:03:58] I will say, so Wicked premiered in 2003.

[00:04:01] It was an instant sensation, turned its two lead actresses into Broadway legends, Idina Menzel,

[00:04:06] Christian Chenoweth, got nominated for 10 Tony Awards.

[00:04:09] It did not win Best Musical.

[00:04:11] Wow.

[00:04:11] At the time.

[00:04:12] Do you know what did win?

[00:04:13] You think I'm going to know what won the Best Musical Tony Award?

[00:04:18] It's a musical I really love.

[00:04:19] I mean, I don't know.

[00:04:20] How familiar are you with Avenue Q?

[00:04:21] Because that's the one that won the Best Musical that year.

[00:04:24] I do know Avenue Q.

[00:04:25] Avenue Q rocks.

[00:04:27] I'm sure some of those songs maybe don't hold up in 2024, but-

[00:04:30] The Puppets Who Fuck.

[00:04:31] Was that?

[00:04:32] Yeah, Puppets Who Fuck.

[00:04:33] I mean, that's a timeless thing.

[00:04:35] Yes.

[00:04:35] But yeah, no, when Wicked premiered, it was in 2003, and I was in high school in like 2007,

[00:04:41] 2008.

[00:04:42] There was an English class trip.

[00:04:44] Like my English class was all going to go see Wicked.

[00:04:46] Nice.

[00:04:47] That was the thing.

[00:04:48] And I didn't go.

[00:04:50] You're too cool.

[00:04:51] I can't go see Wicked.

[00:04:52] I was too cool.

[00:04:53] No, I had like three or four friends in that class and none of them were going.

[00:04:57] And I was like, well, if they're not going, I'm not going to go.

[00:04:59] And so why waste the money?

[00:05:02] Like why spend this money on going to see Wicked?

[00:05:04] So I didn't go.

[00:05:05] And then the next day, like the rest of the class came back and they were talking about

[00:05:08] how great it was and all that stuff.

[00:05:10] And I was like, I probably should have gone.

[00:05:11] And then I saw it a few years ago.

[00:05:14] I took my girlfriend to go see it because we were visiting New York and I was like, she

[00:05:17] had never been there before.

[00:05:17] It's like a quintessentially New York thing to go see Wicked on Broadway.

[00:05:22] Got to go with a Broadway show for sure.

[00:05:24] So, yeah, the show's reputation has only continued to grow over the years.

[00:05:27] Premiered on Broadway in 2003.

[00:05:29] It continues to this day and has remained one of the most reliable musicals in history.

[00:05:34] Pack in the house pretty much every single night.

[00:05:37] It is the fourth longest running show in Broadway history.

[00:05:40] Damn.

[00:05:41] Over 8,100 performances and counting.

[00:05:44] Do you know what the other three are, Mike?

[00:05:45] One of them is Cats, I think.

[00:05:48] Actually, no.

[00:05:48] Cats, I think, is number five, I want to say.

[00:05:51] Wow.

[00:05:51] Phantom of the Opera?

[00:05:52] Phantom of the Opera is number one.

[00:05:54] And Phantom of the Opera is no longer running.

[00:05:55] So, whatever, or number two is Chicago.

[00:05:58] Okay.

[00:05:59] And that could potentially, if it keeps running, pass Phantom of the Opera.

[00:06:03] And then The Lion King is number three.

[00:06:05] Huh.

[00:06:06] That makes sense, I guess.

[00:06:07] Yeah.

[00:06:07] So, yeah, Wicked is number four.

[00:06:09] And yeah, it's still going strong.

[00:06:10] It's been 20 plus years and it's still happening.

[00:06:12] Uh, the show's soundtrack, especially the song Defying Gravity, just became one of the best

[00:06:16] known musical soundtracks of the modern age.

[00:06:19] So, of course, at some point they were going to try to make a movie out of it.

[00:06:24] Naturally.

[00:06:25] Uh, and movie talks actually began as early as 2004, uh, just a few months after the show

[00:06:31] first premiered.

[00:06:32] And so there was talks that didn't really kind of amount to anything.

[00:06:34] I think there's usually a weird thing with Broadway shows where like, there's a certain number

[00:06:39] of years that you have to wait before you can actually make a movie.

[00:06:42] That sounds right.

[00:06:43] Even if it's, even if it's not true, I'm going to, we were going to say it's true.

[00:06:46] I think it's an exclusivity thing where it's like, you want people to, uh, you know,

[00:06:49] come to New York city and come see the show on Broadway or go see it when it's touring

[00:06:53] or whatever.

[00:06:54] Uh, and so I think for a lot of, a lot of shows, like you would have thought that like, you

[00:06:59] know, as soon as Hamilton was a big hit, sure, surely the movie must be coming in

[00:07:02] a year from a year from now.

[00:07:03] Uh, and it hasn't, I mean, we, there's the concert film, there's the actual like stage

[00:07:08] like production of it.

[00:07:09] Uh, but they haven't done a Hamilton movie yet.

[00:07:11] I bet post this wicked box office.

[00:07:13] We may see that.

[00:07:14] Uh, but so a few years passed in 2010, there's a director shortlist, uh, which included names

[00:07:21] like JJ Abrams, James Mangold, Ryan Murphy and Rob Marshall.

[00:07:25] And that got me thinking like, man, what, what would our lives be like if JJ Abrams had directed

[00:07:29] wicked in 2010?

[00:07:30] Imagine what would the lens flare be in the 2010 version of wicked?

[00:07:34] That's crazy.

[00:07:35] Uh, yeah, that would have been like the year after he made star Trek.

[00:07:38] Yeah.

[00:07:38] Um, like, does he do star Wars after that?

[00:07:40] Or is he like locked into wicked for a few years and somebody and somebody else takes

[00:07:44] over the first, uh, Disney star Wars movie.

[00:07:46] Well, that was really where the timeline diverged.

[00:07:48] We all thought it was 2016, but no, it was JJ Abrams in 2010.

[00:07:53] Yes.

[00:07:54] Didn't end up doing wicked.

[00:07:55] Uh, but in 2012, uh, Universal announced that Steven Daldry, uh, director of Billy

[00:08:00] Elliot and the hours, uh, would be directing the film.

[00:08:03] And he was attached for a long time.

[00:08:05] Uh, he finally dropped out in 2020.

[00:08:07] So eight years later when the film was delayed yet again, uh, due to COVID at the time, like

[00:08:12] the, the movie had several like delays and rescheduling things, all that kind of stuff.

[00:08:15] They never really announced any kind of actors during that time.

[00:08:19] But Steven Daldry was attached as a director for eight years.

[00:08:22] And then finally COVID was like, fuck it.

[00:08:24] I can't do this.

[00:08:25] I'm out of here.

[00:08:26] Uh, so John M Chu was brought on to take over as director fresh off of making another movie

[00:08:32] musical adaptation, uh, in the Heights, uh, which came out in 2021.

[00:08:35] Uh, he cast Cindy Arrivo and Ariana Grande and also made the decision to split the movie

[00:08:40] into two parts saying it became impossible to wrestle the story into one film without doing

[00:08:45] some serious damage to it.

[00:08:46] And since both Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh are in it, it is time to talk about wicked.

[00:08:54] The best way to bring folks together.

[00:09:01] Is to give them a real good enemy.

[00:09:06] You're green.

[00:09:08] I am.

[00:09:13] Something just takes over me.

[00:09:15] And when it does, bad things happen.

[00:09:21] Once you learn to harness your emotions, the sky's the limit.

[00:09:33] Bring her to me.

[00:09:41] Be afraid.

[00:09:43] I'm not afraid.

[00:09:45] It's the wizard who should be afraid of me.

[00:09:53] Now everyone knows the real stars of wicked are the wizard and Madame Morrible, right?

[00:09:58] Yeah.

[00:09:58] Everyone's favorite characters.

[00:10:00] The two biggest names.

[00:10:02] They are, they are probably the biggest names in the movie.

[00:10:04] Realistically.

[00:10:04] Like the actors who are playing.

[00:10:05] Oh yeah.

[00:10:06] Yeah.

[00:10:07] I think so.

[00:10:08] I mean, I guess Ariana Grande is a big name.

[00:10:10] Uh, you know, just in terms of like pop culture.

[00:10:12] Sure.

[00:10:13] As a mega pop star, but like as an actor, isn't really in a ton of stuff outside of Nickelodeon

[00:10:17] from when she was much younger.

[00:10:19] Uh, but Jeff Goldblum plays the wonderful wizard of Oz, uh, in this movie.

[00:10:23] And, uh, Michelle Yeo reunites with director John Chu because he also directed crazy rich

[00:10:27] Asians to play Madame Morrible, the Dean of sorcery at shiz university.

[00:10:31] No, of course, wicked lives or dies by who is playing the two lead characters.

[00:10:35] And in this film, it is Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, AKA the wicked witch.

[00:10:39] Uh, you may know her from films like widows or bad times of the El Royale.

[00:10:43] Uh, she was nominated for an Oscar for playing Harriet Tubman in the Harriet movie or the

[00:10:47] movie that's just called Harriet.

[00:10:48] Yep.

[00:10:48] And Ariana Grande plays Galinda, who is of course one of the biggest pop stars on the

[00:10:52] planet.

[00:10:52] Uh, did also act in Nickelodeon back in the day.

[00:10:55] Uh, other than a very brief role in Adam McKay's don't look up, I think it's fair to say this

[00:10:59] is kind of her first major film.

[00:11:01] But if the movie had been made in 2004, the plan was for Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth

[00:11:05] to just do it, to just reprise their roles.

[00:11:07] That makes sense, honestly.

[00:11:08] Which, yeah, would totally make sense.

[00:11:10] Uh, that didn't really end up happening over the years.

[00:11:12] Apparently Leah Michelle and Amy Adams had also been talked about, uh, to play the two

[00:11:16] roles.

[00:11:16] It was also track.

[00:11:17] Yes.

[00:11:18] Yeah.

[00:11:18] It makes sense.

[00:11:19] Uh, from there, Jonathan Bailey from Bridgerton plays Fierro, the prince that has a connection

[00:11:24] with both Galinda and Elphaba.

[00:11:25] Ethan Slater, who was the original SpongeBob in the SpongeBob musical on Broadway.

[00:11:29] Uh, he plays Bach, a munchkin in love with Galinda.

[00:11:32] Marissa Bode makes her film debut as Nessa, Elphaba's sister.

[00:11:36] Peter Dinklage is the voice of Dr. Dillamond, the history professor, uh, which also makes

[00:11:41] this a Transformers Rise of the Beasts reunion with Michelle Yeoh.

[00:11:45] Hell yes.

[00:11:47] Didn't see that word coming, did you, Mike?

[00:11:49] No, not at all.

[00:11:50] Two movies in which neither of them are on screen together at any point.

[00:11:53] Uh, SNL's Bowen Yang plays Fanny, uh, one of Galinda's friends.

[00:11:58] And that's also a Tiger's Apprentice reunion for Michelle Yeoh.

[00:12:02] Can't stop baby.

[00:12:03] Racking them up in this one.

[00:12:04] Bronwyn James from the British series Harlots plays Shen Shen, another one of Glinda's friends.

[00:12:09] Kiela Settle, who was the bearded lady in The Greatest Showman, plays Miss Cottle, the shiz headmistress.

[00:12:15] Uh, and then there are also a few cameos in the movie, especially during the one short day sequence.

[00:12:20] Uh, both Idina Menzel and Christian Chenoweth appear as Wiz-O-mania superstars, uh, and they interact with their on-screen counterparts, which is kind of fun.

[00:12:27] Uh, book writer Winnie Holtzman shouts, he can read the Grimmery!

[00:12:30] And composer Steven Schwartz is the guard who shouts, the wizard will see you now!

[00:12:35] Also, Alice Fern, who played Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked.

[00:12:38] She plays Glinda's mother, uh, and several other West End actors make cameos kind of throughout the film as well.

[00:12:43] Uh, the movie was written by original book writer Winnie Holtzman and Dana Fox, who is mostly known for rom-coms like What Happens in Vegas and How to Be Single.

[00:12:51] Uh, and it was directed by John Chu three years after his previous film, In the Heights.

[00:12:56] Uh, his next film will be Wicked Part 2, which is scheduled to release next year.

[00:13:00] And we will have to talk about that one too, of course, because Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh are still in it.

[00:13:06] Yeah, and they, I believe they filmed them back to back, right, or something, or?

[00:13:09] Yes, yeah, they filmed them together.

[00:13:11] I'm not sure, I'm not sure where the, uh, the plan was to split it into two movies, like if it happened in pre-production or if it was like while they were filming or whatever.

[00:13:19] But yeah, they, they did film both movies back to back.

[00:13:21] So yeah, part two is in the can.

[00:13:23] Like it's, I'm sure they're still editing it or whatever, but like they, they have a year until it comes out, but it's totally filmed.

[00:13:28] It's done. Nice.

[00:13:29] So Wicked opened in theaters on November 21st, 2024 and has been doing huge numbers.

[00:13:35] It's been a, one of this year's huge box office sensations.

[00:13:38] Uh, it opens number one this weekend with $112 million opening to number two was Ridley Scott's gladiator two, which rules by the way.

[00:13:47] Uh, I'm a huge, I am the gladiator two guy.

[00:13:50] Yeah, you're the one.

[00:13:51] Yeah, I am the one guy who's like, guys, this movie fucking rocks.

[00:13:54] I kind of prefer it to gladiator one.

[00:13:56] You absolutely mad man.

[00:13:58] Uh, it might be in my top 10 of the year.

[00:14:00] Uh, this year we will see what happens, but I, I really loved gladiator two opening to number four was a movie called Bonhoeffer pastor spy assassin, uh, which a historical drama that I've heard nothing about.

[00:14:12] The rest of the top 10 consists of a red one, uh, venom, the last dance, the best Christmas pageant ever heretic, the wild robots conclave and smile to what a weird group of movies.

[00:14:24] We really needed wicked and gladiator to come out.

[00:14:26] Yeah, I think it's the, uh, yeah, I think, I think it was like last week when red one came out and it was just like, man, our movies dead.

[00:14:33] Is this, is this it?

[00:14:34] Is this finally killed movies?

[00:14:35] Has this finally, uh, ended film as a medium for all time?

[00:14:38] Uh, the IMD plot synopsis for wicked reads Elphaba, a misunderstood young woman because of her green skin and Glinda, a popular girl become friends at shiz university in the land of Oz.

[00:14:50] After an encounter with the wonderful wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads, uh, which that's actually the whole movie.

[00:14:58] That's the whole movie.

[00:14:59] That's everything.

[00:15:00] That's that, that brings you to that's all two hours and 40 minutes of wicked distilled into two sentences.

[00:15:05] Uh, yeah.

[00:15:06] So my D, I mean, it sounds like you, uh, are set.

[00:15:09] You're familiar with wicked as a cultural phenomenon.

[00:15:11] Yeah.

[00:15:12] Cultural osmosis.

[00:15:12] Yeah.

[00:15:13] Yes.

[00:15:13] But you had never seen the show or were you familiar enough with some of the songs?

[00:15:17] Maybe.

[00:15:17] I don't think I would have never been able to tell you any of them before having seen the movie, but during the movie I was like, oh, I think I have heard this.

[00:15:25] I think I know what these are.

[00:15:26] Interesting.

[00:15:27] Cause I mean, you weren't a musical theater guy.

[00:15:29] Like you said, I mean, yeah, I, uh, I was the sound guy in my high school drama club.

[00:15:32] Uh, so I wasn't an actor or anything, but I was, you know, involved in theater and I was also running the sound during auditions, uh, for, for shows.

[00:15:42] And quickly found that, uh, Defying Gravity, especially in 2007, 2008, one of the most popular audition songs for like people trying out for the play.

[00:15:51] That makes sense.

[00:15:52] Yeah.

[00:15:52] You know, uh, so Defying Gravity, I heard a lot.

[00:15:54] I had heard popular, uh, this is like before I actually went to see the show.

[00:15:57] So I knew a few of the songs pretty well enough.

[00:15:59] I was aware that it was a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, you know, telling it from the side of the Wicked Witch of the West.

[00:16:06] Uh, and then I saw the show a few years ago and, uh, it's, it's really a tremendous production.

[00:16:09] I mean, it's really, really terrific.

[00:16:11] Like you get why it's had such staying power and it's, it's a really, really fun show to see live.

[00:16:16] That said, going into Wicked, you know, we had been following this movie fairly closely over the years because of its, uh, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh involvement.

[00:16:23] Being the first movie in which this has happened where, uh, two of our people are in the same movie.

[00:16:28] You know, I, I was rooting for it because I really loved In the Heights.

[00:16:33] I was a big In the Heights guy.

[00:16:34] Uh, you were not, you did not like that movie.

[00:16:37] Correct.

[00:16:37] Or did you think it was okay or you're just like, you're, you were kind of negative on it, right?

[00:16:41] Yeah.

[00:16:41] I mean, it was fine.

[00:16:42] Like, I don't know, whatever.

[00:16:43] I, and also even much to my shame and I can't even remember the movie.

[00:16:47] How, how is this possible?

[00:16:49] Steven Spielberg musical Eddie.

[00:16:51] Oh, West Side Story.

[00:16:51] West Side Story.

[00:16:52] Jesus.

[00:16:53] And I was like, that is not the name of the movie.

[00:16:55] What's happening?

[00:16:57] Um, I even watched like, I don't know, 30 or 45 minutes of that movie and was kind of like, ah, I don't know.

[00:17:02] And, and it just was one of those like days where I was like, I can't complete commit to watching something that I'm not enjoying.

[00:17:08] Um, and I think that's probably going to have to like, if I go back and watch it, I'll be like the movies.

[00:17:11] But for right now, my opinion is like, I don't know, I was kind of bored.

[00:17:14] Um, I mean, you should revisit West Side Story because that movie is incredible.

[00:17:18] Yeah.

[00:17:18] It's really good.

[00:17:18] Yeah.

[00:17:19] And, and, uh, I'm just pointing to those two as, um, recent movies, recent musicals that are kind of lauded as like the musicals may be back.

[00:17:28] Um, kind of thing.

[00:17:29] And, and I bounced off both of them.

[00:17:31] So, right.

[00:17:31] I was not particularly primed for wicked is what I'm getting at.

[00:17:34] Yes.

[00:17:34] That's, that's fair enough.

[00:17:35] Uh, yeah, no.

[00:17:37] So I, I was, you know, we were obviously following this pretty closely and I think the decision to split it into two movies, like raise a lot of eyebrows for me.

[00:17:44] Yeah.

[00:17:45] Uh, I mean, I only have two eyebrows to raise, but if I had more, I'd be raising them.

[00:17:48] I would.

[00:17:48] Because, uh, you know, to me that felt like a very like, you know, cynical cash grab almost like, okay, we're just going to do an act one now act two.

[00:17:55] Then the fact that this movie is two hours and 40 minutes and that's how long the entire show is.

[00:18:00] It was cause for concern for me.

[00:18:02] And so that, that was all stuff I had going into it, but I, I was looking forward to it because again, I liked John Chu.

[00:18:07] Uh, he's made a lot of movies that I really enjoyed.

[00:18:09] Uh, GI Joe retaliation, uh, is, is a John Chu joint, which of course has Ninja mountain, which is a great action set piece.

[00:18:15] And again, in the Heights, crazy rich Asians were both, uh, fans of, I think.

[00:18:18] Yeah.

[00:18:19] Uh, so I'm, I'm rooting for it.

[00:18:20] I want, I want stuff to be good, uh, especially like something that's like this play is so huge.

[00:18:24] And I, I saw, I knew people who were like, you know, they thought this didn't look that great.

[00:18:28] And they're like, this isn't going to make any money.

[00:18:29] And I was like, guys, you don't understand how big wicked is in like the, in the musical theater community.

[00:18:34] This is going to do gangbusters.

[00:18:36] This is going to be crazy.

[00:18:37] And so, yeah, I finally saw the movie and I'll be talking about my thoughts in a second, but Mike D as somebody who is less familiar with wicked and, uh, less familiar with the story aspects, less familiar with the soundtrack, all of it.

[00:18:48] What was your take on wicked?

[00:18:50] What are your overall thoughts in the movie?

[00:18:51] So, yeah, I, uh, going into wicked, I bottom of the barrel expectations.

[00:18:56] I had, you, you did not want to talk about this movie.

[00:18:58] Not at all.

[00:18:59] I did not want to, we have to, it's Jeff Goldblum and Michelle.

[00:19:02] Yeah.

[00:19:02] I know.

[00:19:03] I knew, I knew I was going to have to, and maybe that was playing into like, you know, when somebody tells you to do something and you're like, well, I was gonna, but now I don't want to, cause I have to, cause you told me to, um, kind of thing.

[00:19:42] Uh, and yeah, I don't know.

[00:19:49] I have to say wicked part one's pretty good.

[00:20:12] It just flies by.

[00:20:13] Um, there is, there is, there is lulls ups and downs.

[00:20:42] Uh, basically it's my takeaway.

[00:20:44] Okay.

[00:20:44] Okay.

[00:20:45] Nice.

[00:20:45] Uh, I am delighted how much you liked it.

[00:20:47] I, I, I also liked it.

[00:20:49] I will say, I will preface this by saying I did ultimately like the movie.

[00:20:53] I had a lot of issues.

[00:20:55] Fair.

[00:20:55] Yeah.

[00:20:55] I'm not saying it's perfect.

[00:20:57] Uh, no.

[00:20:57] Yeah.

[00:20:58] I mean, considering I thought I was going to like reject it, like, but like recoil.

[00:21:02] No, I, I had fun.

[00:21:03] So yeah, I did like the first like 10, 15 minutes I was in like full recoil mode.

[00:21:07] Um, like obviously it's wizard of Oz, it's goofy, it's silly, it's fantasy, uh, all that stuff.

[00:21:12] But just like, I had like an allergic reaction to like all the made up words and like the, just the shit, like the weird shit that was happening.

[00:21:18] And I'm, I'm hoping there's a thing that explains that, but I don't know, like in part two or whatever, but you know, I absolutely had that like opening number where it is just like town full of people singing to explain this.

[00:21:31] All I can think of is off book podcast where they're making up, you know, the improvised musical podcast and their episodes of game changer where they're doing that.

[00:21:39] And it's just like, Oh, this is terrible.

[00:21:41] Um, but it gets past that pretty quickly.

[00:21:43] I think.

[00:21:44] Yeah.

[00:21:44] I think it gets past that pretty quick.

[00:21:45] And I think, yeah, basically when once, um, Cindy Erivo sings the wizard and I, um, I was like, all right, I'm in like, this is good.

[00:21:53] Like this, she's very good.

[00:21:54] This is good.

[00:21:54] I do think the, uh, the splitting it into two movies, you know, I, I didn't, well, I don't want to keep harping on this.

[00:22:01] However, I do think that really hurts it for me.

[00:22:04] I think part of my issue is like, like I said, like, again, it's two hours and 40 minutes.

[00:22:08] That's the entire length of the musical.

[00:22:10] This is just act one.

[00:22:11] Uh, and so for my perspective, again, I saw Wicked a few years ago, felt like I was watching the musical on like half speed.

[00:22:17] Like I was like, makes sense.

[00:22:19] Yeah.

[00:22:20] Like I was watching it in like slow motion and they do like add a lot of dialogue scenes and they kind of, uh, there's no original songs in this movie.

[00:22:26] I don't think, I think it's all stuff from the play.

[00:22:28] That seems insane to me.

[00:22:30] I think all the music is stuff from the, from act one of the show.

[00:22:33] I believe I've read they're going to do at least one or two original songs in, in part two next year.

[00:22:37] Most of the stuff they add is usually like, you know, extra dialogue or in a lot of the songs, they're like kind of stopping the song to like have dialogue in the songs.

[00:22:44] Yeah.

[00:22:45] Yeah.

[00:22:45] Uh, and that was, felt like a momentum killer to me a little bit.

[00:22:48] Uh, so I think there's a lot of great stuff in the movie.

[00:22:51] Uh, and I think a lot of it centers on Cindy or even Ariana Grande who are both very good.

[00:22:55] I think the production design of this movie is, is really fantastic.

[00:22:58] Um, there's a lot of like really cool inventive set pieces and all that stuff, which is fun.

[00:23:03] Uh, and I think the last like 30 or 40 minutes are really great.

[00:23:06] Yeah.

[00:23:07] I think like once you get to the wizard of Oz, once you get to Jeff Goldblum entering the movie, it's, it's firing on all cylinders.

[00:23:13] And once you kind of like understand, like you get the reveal of like what's happening in Oz and how he's actually a fascist leader.

[00:23:20] Like that's all great.

[00:23:20] Love, love all that.

[00:23:21] Totally irrelevant to our current times.

[00:23:24] Yeah, exactly.

[00:23:25] Yeah.

[00:23:25] Now this is maybe the best possible time for Wicked to come out.

[00:23:29] So yeah, I think all that stuff is really, really effective and good.

[00:23:31] Uh, and I think part of my issue with the movie is just the pacing of it just feels like, man, like by the time it got to the song popular, which is one of the biggest songs from Wicked by the time it got to it, I was like kind of looking at the same time.

[00:23:43] Looking at my watch and being like, if I was watching the stage play, I would have heard Defying Gravity by now.

[00:23:47] Like fair.

[00:23:48] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:23:49] This would be the act one break, uh, you know?

[00:23:51] Uh, and so that's also the weird thing is that it's, um, you know, Defying Gravity is now turned into like the climactic ending of this movie, uh, where it is meant to be, you know, it's a, it's a showstopping number.

[00:24:01] It's a, it's, you know, like at this point, a legendary musical piece.

[00:24:05] It's the reason like Idina Menzel was cast as Elsa and frozen and all that stuff.

[00:24:09] You know, it's a, it's a, it's a huge number.

[00:24:10] It's big.

[00:24:11] And I think this movie does itself a little bit of a disservice by being like Defying Gravity is normally like a three or four minute song and it's a 14 minute song.

[00:24:19] Yeah.

[00:24:20] Because like after every verse they have to stop to do other stuff.

[00:24:23] They have to stop and do movie stuff.

[00:24:25] Yeah.

[00:24:25] They have to stop and do movie stuff.

[00:24:26] So it's a, it's a weird, like, I, I really feel like the, um, the splitting it into two movies was not the right creative choice.

[00:24:32] But again, there's so much good stuff in it.

[00:24:36] It just feels like it's, it's paced wrong for me, uh, which is, which is a little bit of a bummer, you know, but I, I did enjoy it.

[00:24:42] I, I, again, I liked the movie overall.

[00:24:44] It's pretty good.

[00:24:45] Yeah.

[00:24:45] Yeah.

[00:24:45] No, I did.

[00:24:46] Um, as somebody who was, like I said, totally unfamiliar with the actual like production and stuff, it did make it feel like to like an operetta or whatever, sort of like late Miz or whatever, where it's like almost sung all the way through because they sing three, four lines.

[00:25:00] Stop.

[00:25:01] Stop.

[00:25:01] Right.

[00:25:01] Sing three, four lines.

[00:25:03] Stop.

[00:25:03] Uh, and like almost sing a lot of the dialogue.

[00:25:05] It would, I mean, obviously that's the plays, but you know, that's musicals.

[00:25:09] Um, but, uh, if, it feels like there are less distinct, the musical numbers are less distinct than I would have expected, uh, between like, this is a scene where people are talking and now there's a musical number and here's a scene where people are talking and here's a musical, right?

[00:25:22] The musical numbers do feel sort of stretched out because they do, uh, kind of stop or in the, in the middle of stuff to, to do dialogue scenes.

[00:25:30] Yes.

[00:25:31] I mean, and it really feels like, you know, like, like what John Chu said, like, you know, basically they didn't want to cut anything from the musical.

[00:25:37] Uh, we can tell.

[00:25:39] Yeah, exactly.

[00:25:40] Uh, and so they didn't want to cut a single thing, uh, and instead of expanded it into two full movies.

[00:25:45] And, uh, to that, I say, man, you should probably cut some things sometimes.

[00:25:47] I don't know.

[00:25:48] It's okay.

[00:25:48] I'm a little kind of weekend.

[00:25:50] Um, yeah, I don't know.

[00:25:51] But again, I did enjoy the movie.

[00:25:52] I think it's pretty good.

[00:25:53] Uh, I think again, Cindy Erivo and Ariana Grande are both really terrific.

[00:25:57] Uh, in their two roles, perfectly cast.

[00:25:59] Like they do a great job with it.

[00:26:01] Uh, and I think the supporting cast around them is also very, very good production design.

[00:26:05] Next level.

[00:26:05] It's like my, it's my Mike winner for production design right now.

[00:26:08] Uh, because it's really, really like just really a fully realized world.

[00:26:12] I think the CGI is a little wonky at times, like a, in terms of like the visual effects.

[00:26:17] I mean, it looks fine.

[00:26:17] It looks good.

[00:26:18] But it was, it's one of those things where like when you're watching it on stage, you

[00:26:21] know, Dr. Dilliman is a guy in a suit and, uh, in this, and in, in, in this movie, he's

[00:26:26] like a CGI goat voiced by Peter Dinklage.

[00:26:28] A photorealistic CGI goat.

[00:26:30] Yes.

[00:26:31] Uh, and to that end, I was like, I kind of would have preferred a guy in a suit, honestly.

[00:26:35] Like, I think that like, yeah, I don't know.

[00:26:36] Kind of more in keeping with, with the aesthetic of the Wizard of Oz, uh, which, you know, obviously

[00:26:41] was made in 1939.

[00:26:42] CGI didn't exist at the time.

[00:26:44] Well, even in the, the opening of this movie, there's like, cause the movie begins at the

[00:26:49] end of Wizard of Oz, right.

[00:26:51] And then there's a flashback to tell you everything.

[00:26:53] The camera zooms over the yellow book road and you see Dorothy and Tin Man and a photorealistic

[00:26:58] lion.

[00:26:58] It was like, well, this sucks.

[00:26:59] What is that shit?

[00:27:01] What's this Lion King thing that I'm doing here?

[00:27:03] Yeah.

[00:27:03] Yeah.

[00:27:05] Uh, yeah.

[00:27:05] And I mean, honestly, like a lot of the issues I have with this movie are the same kind of

[00:27:08] issues I have with the Disney live action remakes, where when you're watching the little mermaid

[00:27:12] remake, that movie is like two and a half hours.

[00:27:15] The little mermaid originally is like 80 minutes.

[00:27:18] Uh, and so by the time you get to under the sea in the live action remake, you're like the

[00:27:23] original movie, you're wrapping up by now.

[00:27:24] Right.

[00:27:25] Right.

[00:27:25] It's done.

[00:27:26] I got the full story.

[00:27:27] Uh, I think the production design is really great, but I think a lot of it is sort of

[00:27:32] lost in the just shiny CGI-ness of most of this movie.

[00:27:36] I think a lot of the stuff, you know, there are clearly some sets, but even I, my mom was

[00:27:41] like, when I came home, she was like, oh yeah, it wasn't like the sets look great.

[00:27:44] Tell me, like, tell me all about it.

[00:27:46] And I was like, oh, everything kind of just looks like CGI.

[00:27:47] I'm sure there are some stuff that was built, but otherwise they're probably in the volume.

[00:27:51] I don't know.

[00:27:52] I mean, there, there's a glossiness to it, but I think there is like, I think you can

[00:27:56] tell when there's like, when they're on a real set and when they're not for the most

[00:27:59] part, that whole sequence when the Fierro singing his song in the library, uh, like the turning

[00:28:05] like bookcases and stuff like that.

[00:28:07] The big circular bookcases that are walking through.

[00:28:09] Great.

[00:28:10] Love that.

[00:28:11] That's all cool.

[00:28:11] I think the stuff in Emerald City looks really great when they get there and like, they're

[00:28:14] in like the Wizard of Oz's whole palace and stuff like that.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:18] But then there's other sequences.

[00:28:19] Like, I mean, like in Defying Gravity, where it's just like,

[00:28:21] here's a CGI storm clouds in the background and it kind of just looks sort of blah.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:26] Yeah.

[00:28:26] I think I read something about, they, they planted like millions of tulips for the train

[00:28:30] stuff.

[00:28:31] Uh, and then filmed it in a way that just looks like it's a CGI thing.

[00:28:35] It's like, whatever.

[00:28:36] Anyway, I don't know.

[00:28:37] I think it's a weird mix.

[00:28:38] And like, there's the whole color grading thing.

[00:28:40] There are a lot of talk about that.

[00:28:42] Uh, there has been a lot of talk about that online and I don't think it's as bad as

[00:28:45] people have made it out to be.

[00:28:46] Um, but I do think it does seem a little desaturated.

[00:28:49] And when you're comparing it to the Wizard of Oz, uh, which, you know, is a movie that

[00:28:53] very famously uses very bright colors.

[00:28:56] Like it's a, yes.

[00:28:57] Yes.

[00:28:58] Like a very, a very famously color important movie, you know, and, and there have been

[00:29:02] several interpretations of Wizard of Oz over the years.

[00:29:04] There's been like, you know, stuff like Return to Oz and Oz the Great and Powerful and the

[00:29:09] Muppets Wizard of Oz and all that.

[00:29:10] Yeah.

[00:29:11] The three canonical Oz works.

[00:29:13] Those are the ones.

[00:29:13] Um, but like the, it all comes back to 1939, the Wizard of Oz, right?

[00:29:17] Like that's, you know, one of the seminal American films for this movie, obviously pays

[00:29:22] homage to that movie in many ways, but it's also kind of ripping on the musical occupies

[00:29:26] like a weird space.

[00:29:27] There's no like real, like Canon quote unquote Wizard of Oz.

[00:29:30] It's just like, here's a revisionist take on what's happening there.

[00:29:33] Uh, apparently the book is insane.

[00:29:35] I don't know if you've heard about this.

[00:29:37] Um, the novel wicked.

[00:29:38] Yeah.

[00:29:39] Yeah.

[00:29:39] The novel wicked is like mostly for adults.

[00:29:41] Uh, and there's like orgies and stuff like throughout the book.

[00:29:44] Like it's, it's a lot of that kind of stuff that tracks, uh, and they really sanitized

[00:29:48] it for the Broadway crowd.

[00:29:51] Ironic that it then lost to Avenue Q.

[00:29:53] Um, yes.

[00:29:55] About the puppets who fucked.

[00:29:57] I mean, yeah.

[00:29:57] All right.

[00:29:59] It's adaptation is weird.

[00:29:59] Wicked, Wicked, the movie.

[00:30:01] Yes.

[00:30:02] We did.

[00:30:02] Wicked, the movie.

[00:30:03] I mean, again, I did like it.

[00:30:05] I think it's pretty good, but you know, who's great in it is Jeff Goldblum.

[00:30:08] And Michelle Yeoh.

[00:30:09] Or I think Jeff Goldblum is great in this movie.

[00:30:12] I think Michelle Yeoh is pretty good with what she's given.

[00:30:14] I think she's better towards the end.

[00:30:16] I feel like she's pretty wasted in the, for in part one.

[00:30:18] I will see what happens, I guess, in part two, but.

[00:30:21] Right.

[00:30:21] Uh, but once like what I like about it, first of all, both of them are in the movie more

[00:30:26] than I expected.

[00:30:26] Yes.

[00:30:27] And on screen together.

[00:30:28] And on screen together.

[00:30:30] I w I was not expecting that.

[00:30:32] And, uh, I probably should have, cause I have seen the show.

[00:30:34] So I do know that the wizard of Metamorable.

[00:30:36] If anyone should have known it was you, Mike.

[00:30:38] I probably should have put that together, but it never really crossed my mind.

[00:30:42] Uh, so yeah, they are on screen together and they are sort of in cahoots with each other.

[00:30:46] Part parts of the movie are Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh scheming.

[00:30:48] Yeah.

[00:30:49] And, uh, that's very fun, uh, specifically for an audience of people who listen to this

[00:30:53] podcast.

[00:30:54] Yes.

[00:30:54] Specifically me and you.

[00:30:56] Yes.

[00:30:56] Uh, but what did you think of both Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh in this movie, Mike?

[00:31:01] I think, yeah, I think they're both pretty great.

[00:31:03] I think Goldblum more so he has the showier role necessarily.

[00:31:07] And he kind of just gets to be Goldblum.

[00:31:09] He's Goldblum-y baby.

[00:31:10] When, when you hear Jeff Goldblum has been cast as the wizard of Oz, like, I feel like

[00:31:14] you already know in your head what that's going to be like at the movie delivers.

[00:31:18] There's one moment where he, when he like first comes out from behind the curtain, right?

[00:31:22] And he goes to Elphaba and he's like, what's that?

[00:31:25] What's that behind your ear?

[00:31:26] And he does like the coin behind your ear trick.

[00:31:29] Uh, and then he does a little, a little tippy tap tap dance thing.

[00:31:32] He's like, you got to give the people what they want.

[00:31:33] And I was like, oh, that was Jeff Goldblum out of character.

[00:31:35] That was not, that was not the wizard of Oz.

[00:31:39] That was Jeff Goldblum telling me, Mike DiCrecio, I'm giving you what you want.

[00:31:43] Uh, and I was like, yes, more.

[00:31:46] Good.

[00:31:47] Yes.

[00:31:47] Um, and yeah, he's, he's a pretty perfectly cast, uh, in his public persona, uh, as it

[00:31:53] is today, uh, as the wizard of Oz, which is great.

[00:31:56] I think Michelle Yeoh is really good as that sort of mentor role that we've, uh, sort of

[00:32:01] we're tracking towards the end of her season, right?

[00:32:04] I think the majority of her roles are, I don't want to say flat or scenes in the beginning

[00:32:10] are certain, not flat.

[00:32:11] Like that's just like, she doesn't really have a ton going on, uh, her character.

[00:32:14] Yeah.

[00:32:14] I mean, her, her stuff with, uh, Cynthia Erivo, like she's kind of giving her like magic

[00:32:19] lessons throughout the.

[00:32:20] Like tutoring her.

[00:32:21] Yeah.

[00:32:21] Yeah.

[00:32:22] And I think a lot of that is like new stuff.

[00:32:24] Like that's stuff that's not really in the musical.

[00:32:27] Yeah.

[00:32:27] But then, yeah, once the sort of scheme is revealed in the final act and there, they

[00:32:31] get it to be, uh, kind of arch villains together.

[00:32:34] Goldblum and Yeoh, you're like, yes, baby, give me more.

[00:32:37] Yeah.

[00:32:38] Can't wait for part two now.

[00:32:39] Just to see like those two together.

[00:32:40] Yeah.

[00:32:41] Like being evil villains.

[00:32:42] Great.

[00:32:43] Giving evil speeches across the city.

[00:32:45] You're like, yes.

[00:32:46] Uh, yeah, no, I think Michelle Yeoh is like fine for the first like two hours of the movie

[00:32:51] where she is just kind of like the mentor figure to Elphaba.

[00:32:54] But like you said, I think she does feel a little bit wasted at first when, uh, you get

[00:32:57] to that last half hour, which again is like my favorite stretch of the movie.

[00:33:00] The truth begins to reveal itself where, uh, you know, they are the ones who are actually

[00:33:04] responsible for the animals being like taken out of Oz and like losing the ability

[00:33:07] to speak and, you know, kind of keeping Oz under this like fascist regime, you know?

[00:33:12] And she's like actually working for the wizard as like his second in command or something.

[00:33:16] Yeah.

[00:33:17] Uh, she like reveals more to her character and like, as soon as like the second Elphaba

[00:33:22] tries to make a break for it, she's like, all right, it's time to start the propaganda

[00:33:24] machine.

[00:33:24] And she gets on the radio and she starts like making announcements and like, you know,

[00:33:29] like creating this like new enemy, the wicked witch.

[00:33:32] Right.

[00:33:32] Yeah.

[00:33:33] Yeah.

[00:33:33] Yeah.

[00:33:33] And they both have a song.

[00:33:34] They have a song each, uh, maybe a few verses each, not necessarily an entire song.

[00:33:39] Uh, yes.

[00:33:39] Goldblum has, I think what you would say a song.

[00:33:41] I think Goldblum gets like an actual song.

[00:33:43] Yeah.

[00:33:43] Michelle Yeoh has like a couple of lines and then like a scene continues, I think.

[00:33:46] Right.

[00:33:46] Yeah.

[00:33:47] And then, and then I think that's what starts the wizard and I, right.

[00:33:50] I think it's, that might be, she like sort of starts, she sings a few lines or whatever

[00:33:54] to Cynthia Erivo who then goes into wizard and I, and, uh, she's pretty good and she's

[00:33:58] fine.

[00:33:59] I mean, you know, she, yeah, we, we know both of them can sing.

[00:34:01] Michelle Yeoh, of course, famously, uh, sang the song at the end of the stunt woman.

[00:34:05] I want to say, uh, or was that one easy money?

[00:34:08] There was like, there was like one movie from back in the day, uh, that she like did the

[00:34:12] end credits song for.

[00:34:13] She like sang it.

[00:34:14] The song sisters, maybe?

[00:34:15] I don't remember, but I think it's, it's one of those movies.

[00:34:18] Yes.

[00:34:18] Like it's something along those lines.

[00:34:19] Right.

[00:34:20] Yeah.

[00:34:20] And then of course, uh, you know, there's no Mildred Schnitzer orchestra in the movie,

[00:34:24] but we know, uh, we know Goldblum can sing.

[00:34:27] Yeah.

[00:34:27] We know Goldblum's got his jazz background and, uh, I think has fun playing the wizard

[00:34:31] as sort of a jazzy musician.

[00:34:33] He's got like a Rasmatanz kind of vibe going on.

[00:34:37] He's, he's, he's rocking on that saxophone scheme.

[00:34:38] That's right, baby.

[00:34:40] Um, so that was pretty fun.

[00:34:42] Yes.

[00:34:42] Yeah.

[00:34:42] I think they are both, uh, very fun presences to have in the movie and they do kind of both

[00:34:46] feel like the elder statesman actors, uh, in this thing, you know, in a weird way.

[00:34:50] Right.

[00:34:50] The rest of the cast is all like very young people for the most part, or at least like,

[00:34:55] you know, very new to movies.

[00:34:56] A lot of them are stage people who are kind of just making the transition into film, like,

[00:34:59] like Ethan Slater, who was SpongeBob.

[00:35:02] Uh, so yeah, I think having those two as like your venerable, like film actors who are kind

[00:35:06] of overseeing everything, like they're a good presence to have for this.

[00:35:09] Yeah.

[00:35:09] I need Jeff Goldblum and Ariana Grande to be like besties.

[00:35:13] I don't, I know, I don't want to know.

[00:35:16] Anything else, uh, that happened in the real world.

[00:35:18] I just need to think that and feel better about life, you know?

[00:35:22] Yeah.

[00:35:22] You think she'll, uh, be on the next, uh, Mildred Sesto Orchestra album?

[00:35:25] She'll do a guest spot.

[00:35:26] I hope so.

[00:35:27] Yeah.

[00:35:27] That'd be awesome.

[00:35:28] The way, uh, like Martin Short and Steve Martin have like taken Selena Gomez under their

[00:35:33] wing in the like, um, yeah.

[00:35:35] Only murderers in the building and stuff.

[00:35:37] I need that to happen with Ariana Grande and Jeff Goldblum.

[00:35:39] I think that should happen.

[00:35:40] I think you're correct.

[00:35:42] I think they can fix the world.

[00:35:43] Yes.

[00:35:44] How do you think this fits into the Jeff Goldblum or Michelle Yeoh roles?

[00:35:48] Uh, that we've seen so far, Mike.

[00:35:49] I mean, you mentioned the mentorship kind of thing.

[00:35:51] Yeah.

[00:35:51] Well, I do want to, I did want to shout out cause I almost like bust out laughing in the

[00:35:54] theater.

[00:35:55] Uh, I think I, I think I was about to bring up the same thing.

[00:35:58] When for the second movie in Michelle Yeoh's career, she is, her character is introduced

[00:36:03] and the entire, the entire cast gives her a standing ovation.

[00:36:07] Yeah.

[00:36:08] Stands up and applauds as she enters the movie.

[00:36:11] Yes.

[00:36:11] Uh, I don't think, I think this is like the third or fourth time.

[00:36:14] Does it happen in Haunting in Venice?

[00:36:15] I specifically was Morgan is the one I remember, right?

[00:36:18] Where there's like, Morgan is the one where they like all stand up and welcome Michelle

[00:36:21] Yeoh.

[00:36:22] Yeah.

[00:36:22] I don't know if it happens in Haunting in Venice, but I feel like there's several

[00:36:24] movies where like she makes a grand entrance.

[00:36:27] Oh, well, yeah, of course.

[00:36:28] But literally stands up in a flood.

[00:36:30] Yes.

[00:36:31] Um, I almost died laughing when that happened in the movie.

[00:36:34] I, I also did as well.

[00:36:36] Uh, and the children surrounding me were very confused as to why I was like that.

[00:36:40] Yeah.

[00:36:41] So there's that, the other fake magic school movie on Netflix that we talked about last

[00:36:45] time.

[00:36:46] Uh, the school for good and evil.

[00:36:47] School for good and evil.

[00:36:48] Of course, as a magic teacher in that.

[00:36:50] Gumpad and milkshake.

[00:36:51] I don't know.

[00:36:51] That's just another thing that randomly popped in my head.

[00:36:53] Mentor, old hat, uh, kind of thing.

[00:36:56] Uh, another, uh, one of the very few villain roles.

[00:36:59] So shout out to Shaolin Popey to messy temple.

[00:37:03] The messiest temple there ever was.

[00:37:05] The messiest temple there ever was.

[00:37:06] Yeah, of course.

[00:37:06] So that's the Yeoh stuff.

[00:37:07] Uh, let's see.

[00:37:08] Goldbloom.

[00:37:09] I don't, I can't think.

[00:37:10] I mean, he, he, we've sort of talked about this a little bit towards the end of his

[00:37:13] season, but like really post grandmaster.

[00:37:16] That's kind of his, he's playing that every time a little bit and that that's very

[00:37:20] wizard of Oz.

[00:37:21] Sure.

[00:37:22] Yeah.

[00:37:22] Grandmaster.

[00:37:22] And here he is playing wizard of Oz now.

[00:37:24] Goldbloom, the, the, the silly Razzmatazz guy.

[00:37:26] Yes.

[00:37:27] I mean, I think it's interesting to kind of look at both of their careers and kind of

[00:37:30] where they're both at now, both being in wicked where Michelle Yeoh, I mean, obviously

[00:37:34] just had a very big year a couple of years ago with everything everywhere all at once

[00:37:38] where she won the Oscar, the movie won the Oscar and everything.

[00:37:40] And she's been popping up in stuff since then.

[00:37:43] You know, she was in a haunting in Venice, which rules.

[00:37:45] Yeah.

[00:37:45] Uh, you know, she was a voice in transformers.

[00:37:47] She was, she had the tiger's apprentice.

[00:37:48] She's a, she's got her star Trek movie coming out in January.

[00:37:52] Oh, wow.

[00:37:53] Um, star Trek section 31 comes out.

[00:37:55] So we'll have to talk about that.

[00:37:56] Uh, having not watched most of star Trek discovery, uh, having watched specifically

[00:38:00] two episodes of star Trek discovery, but we'll have to talk about that.

[00:38:04] And she's also, uh, you know, she's the main cast member of this new, like blade runner

[00:38:08] TV show.

[00:38:09] Um, blade runner 2099 with Hunter Schaefer.

[00:38:12] Uh, so that's wild.

[00:38:13] That's crazy.

[00:38:14] So like post Oscar, she's doing a lot of stuff.

[00:38:16] Well, uh, she's popping up here and there a lot.

[00:38:19] Uh, and Jeff Goldblum's like at a point in his career where he's like, he's not doing

[00:38:22] as much.

[00:38:23] Yeah.

[00:38:23] I'm just, he pops in here and there every once in a while.

[00:38:25] Like sometimes he'll have something that's like, Oh, this sounds like the kind of thing

[00:38:29] Jeff Goldblum would be doing.

[00:38:30] Like they shot the piano player or he'll like, you know, be a brief part in a Wes Anderson

[00:38:34] movie.

[00:38:34] He's been doing the Jurassic movies, uh, there a little bit, but it's like, it's either

[00:38:39] like the big blockbuster stuff or like his favorite filmmakers.

[00:38:42] And otherwise he's kind of just like, I'm going to play jazz.

[00:38:45] I'm going to do some jazz stuff.

[00:38:46] Yeah.

[00:38:47] Other than, um, chaos.

[00:38:48] Right.

[00:38:49] Uh, I guess.

[00:38:50] Right.

[00:38:50] It's a big role in that.

[00:38:51] Yeah.

[00:38:51] I mean, we talked about that a lot in those couple episodes, uh, at the end of the Yo

[00:38:56] season after everything everywhere all at once, where it's like all of a sudden this

[00:39:00] sort of like bottleneck of like those weird post COVID COVID.

[00:39:05] Delayed.

[00:39:05] You recorded this voice lines at home kind of thing.

[00:39:08] Like all of a sudden they were like, Oh shit, get this stuff out.

[00:39:10] Uh, like the legend of Fury, the legend of Hank.

[00:39:13] Exactly.

[00:39:13] Like that kind of movie transformers.

[00:39:15] Like you mentioned where it was like, huh, she kind of, I mean, good for her.

[00:39:18] She's in a ton of stuff at the end, but they are after the Oscar, but it was kind of

[00:39:22] like all random, quick, low runtime, low screen time kinds of stuff.

[00:39:26] I guess other than maybe the brother's son, which I didn't watch a lot of episodes.

[00:39:31] So I don't know how much more she's in of that.

[00:39:33] Well, I mean, she's in the full season, which both brother's son and chaos both came out

[00:39:38] this year.

[00:39:38] Uh, Netflix series, uh, Michelle, you know, Jeff Goldblum, both of them have been canceled.

[00:39:42] They're both gone.

[00:39:43] Obviously they're Netflix shows.

[00:39:44] Yeah.

[00:39:46] So there's that.

[00:39:48] And then, yeah, I think yo is like a higher than she's ever been before in the highest

[00:39:51] demand than she's ever been because now she's got this Oscar.

[00:39:53] Right.

[00:39:53] Um, right.

[00:39:54] And Goldblum's maybe not, I want to say waning.

[00:39:57] Um, I think, I think it's his sort of decision to be like, you know, I'm kind of just going

[00:40:03] to do the stuff that's interesting to me.

[00:40:04] Right.

[00:40:05] You know, and sometimes that'll be a big thing.

[00:40:06] Uh, you know, like getting him back for the Jurassic world movies was obviously like,

[00:40:10] you know, the studio wanted him back, but I think, you know, wicked.

[00:40:13] Like being cast as the wizard of Oz in wicked is probably interesting to him.

[00:40:16] Yeah.

[00:40:16] And that's, you know, and he's kind of just doing stuff that's fun for him.

[00:40:19] They both have earned the places they're in.

[00:40:21] Exactly.

[00:40:22] Yes.

[00:40:23] What scenes in wicked would you like to bring up?

[00:40:24] Like anything that you would like to talk about?

[00:40:26] Yeah.

[00:40:26] I think, uh, just referencing before popular was one of the songs that like when that song

[00:40:31] started, I was like, Oh wait, I think I know this song.

[00:40:35] Um, but really it was really only that in defying gravity where the only two that I was

[00:40:39] like, Oh, wait a second.

[00:40:40] I think I do know these.

[00:40:41] I mean, those are the, those are the two really big ones.

[00:40:43] Yeah.

[00:40:43] I kind of figured.

[00:40:44] Yeah.

[00:40:44] Um, which, which is also partially why I think splitting into two movies is a silly idea because

[00:40:49] you're, you're blowing your two big songs in the first movie.

[00:40:51] What's going to happen?

[00:40:52] I did see.

[00:40:53] Uh, yeah, I did see a lot of people saying that, uh, act two sort of that is bad, but

[00:40:59] is definitely lesser than act one, uh, of the play.

[00:41:02] So I did see a lot of people talking about like, well, what now what, what are you going

[00:41:06] to do for a whole other movie?

[00:41:08] If the material is not that great or not as good as the material for the first one?

[00:41:11] Um, which I would not be in, you know, cause I never seen it, but I would not be surprised

[00:41:15] if act two part two ends with like, instead of ending on like the song that it ends on,

[00:41:19] uh, I would not be surprised if it like ends with like a reprise of defying gravity.

[00:41:23] Like if they just do it again.

[00:41:25] Yeah.

[00:41:25] I wouldn't be surprised or that'll be the original song.

[00:41:28] Yeah.

[00:41:28] I mean, maybe it's, it'll skew closer to the contents of the novel or something.

[00:41:33] Uh, even though not like not necessarily the orgies, but, uh, I don't know.

[00:41:37] I wonder, I did wonder how much of the like underground resistance meetings of the animals

[00:41:42] and all that shit was like in the stage play.

[00:41:44] Cause that definitely feels novelistic, you know?

[00:41:46] Yeah.

[00:41:46] I mean, I don't necessarily remember the underground resistance meeting.

[00:41:49] Uh, in the stage play, but that subplot of like the animals, like, uh, being cast out

[00:41:54] of Oz or losing their voices, like that's there in the play.

[00:41:56] Interesting.

[00:41:57] Uh, and so I, I found that to be, uh, like pretty well translated onto film.

[00:42:01] It's something that could come off as like very silly.

[00:42:03] I think a lot of the stuff in this movie could come off as very silly.

[00:42:06] Oh yeah.

[00:42:06] It's obviously it's Wizard of Oz.

[00:42:07] So it is a little bit silly, you know, it is, it is pretty silly, but I think for something

[00:42:11] like that to like translate from stage to film and still be treated with like the gravity

[00:42:16] that it like gets in the stage play, not the defying gravity, just the gravity, different

[00:42:20] gravity, like the weight that it gets in the play.

[00:42:22] There is a, something to be said about like when you're watching a stage performance, like

[00:42:26] you're watching a person in a costume as an animal, but you're like getting that it's,

[00:42:30] it's still a human.

[00:42:31] And so you're getting like, you know, human emotions and reactions.

[00:42:34] Like I said, like with Dr.

[00:42:36] Dillamond, it's a fully photorealistic CGI goat, but I think maybe it's because of Peter

[00:42:41] Dinklage's performance or whatever it is.

[00:42:42] Like it's still translates.

[00:42:43] The emotion still gets there.

[00:42:44] Yeah.

[00:42:45] It's a major part of Elphaba's arc in this movie.

[00:42:48] And you know, kind of the arc of like fascism and in Oz and all that stuff.

[00:42:53] And so I think it plays very well.

[00:42:54] But yeah, act two of the show Wicked is mostly the Wizard of Oz.

[00:42:59] Like, I mean, it, it kind of like leads into it sort of.

[00:43:02] Makes sense.

[00:43:02] Yeah.

[00:43:02] So it kind of starts to transition into that.

[00:43:05] And so with the witch's sister, it's crushed by a house.

[00:43:07] Uh, damn spoilers for Wizard of Oz.

[00:43:14] Yeah.

[00:43:15] Incredible.

[00:43:16] Uh, and you do see, uh, you get a very young cowardly lion in this movie too.

[00:43:20] Um, oh my God.

[00:43:22] Did you not realize that?

[00:43:23] No.

[00:43:24] Why would I think that?

[00:43:25] The scared lion cub, uh, was in fact the cowardly lion.

[00:43:28] No.

[00:43:29] Interesting.

[00:43:29] The lion was scared.

[00:43:30] He was cowardly.

[00:43:31] He's a cub.

[00:43:31] Of course he's scared.

[00:43:32] Um, well yeah, but his life in the cage, uh, you know, made him that way.

[00:43:37] He's stupid.

[00:43:39] Why'd they make that a photorealistic lion cub?

[00:43:41] Yeah.

[00:43:41] But so, so there's stuff like that.

[00:43:43] Uh, but yeah, so it, it's a weird, like Wizard of Oz is happening, but you're kind of like,

[00:43:48] it's, you're off to the side while like stuff's going on and like, you'll just be hearing

[00:43:52] like, oh, this crazy girl crushed my sister with a house.

[00:43:55] Oh no.

[00:43:56] Yeah.

[00:43:57] Right.

[00:43:57] Um, I can't, I feel bad for whoever they cast as, uh, Dorothy.

[00:44:01] I just, that's if Dorothy appears in the movie or in the play.

[00:44:04] Here's the, I mean, she might appear in the movie.

[00:44:06] I, I don't think she ever actually appears in the play.

[00:44:08] She's like always just off, off stage.

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:10] Along with the tin man and the scarecrow and the, all that stuff.

[00:44:13] Right.

[00:44:14] Uh, that'll be interesting to see in act in part two.

[00:44:16] Um, I do love that.

[00:44:17] It's like a tiny, like, you know, the, the title card is like wicked and then like ding

[00:44:21] tiny little like part one.

[00:44:24] Yes.

[00:44:24] Uh, which is pretty funny.

[00:44:26] Yeah.

[00:44:27] I w I was curious how, uh, people were going to react when they found out that it was

[00:44:31] part one.

[00:44:31] Like it wasn't the whole thing.

[00:44:32] It's a weird thing where like they, they've kept that out of the marketing and stuff.

[00:44:35] Like it's just wicked.

[00:44:37] And it's not like it's the first movie that's done that that's happened a lot actually over

[00:44:39] the last like few years.

[00:44:41] Um, uh, you know, Dune did the same thing across the spider verse did the same thing.

[00:44:45] Although that was originally advertised as like part one and then fast X very famously,

[00:44:49] uh, did the same thing.

[00:44:51] Uh, and it's a weird thing where like I'm usually okay with it.

[00:44:53] Like I, I feel like as long as I've been given like a full meal with this part one,

[00:44:57] that I'm pretty satisfied with it.

[00:44:58] Just like being half the thing and then waiting for a year or whatever to get to part two.

[00:45:03] And then, you know, sometimes you're not satisfied, like with fast X where you're just

[00:45:06] like, come on, give me, give me part two.

[00:45:08] Like, why are you ending it?

[00:45:09] Like, like, come on.

[00:45:10] Um, it's a weird like balance that kind of has to be struck.

[00:45:13] Uh, but it seems like people are mostly pretty like receptive to like, this feels like one

[00:45:18] complete story that will then lead into the next one sort of.

[00:45:20] Yeah.

[00:45:21] Yeah.

[00:45:21] And I think that's probably the adaptation from the stage play, right?

[00:45:25] Most musicals are structured in that way.

[00:45:28] Right.

[00:45:29] Kind of thing.

[00:45:29] So we're a little primed for that, or at least the story was already structured that way.

[00:45:33] I don't know.

[00:45:33] It's, and then the, the, you have the inverse of that happening, like with, uh, with the

[00:45:37] part one stuff, like mission impossible dead reckoning part one is now the final reckoning.

[00:45:43] And I guess that is retroactively just being titled dead reckoning.

[00:45:45] It's not part one anymore.

[00:45:47] I think if you buy the blu-ray, it just says mission impossible dead reckoning.

[00:45:49] Yeah.

[00:45:49] Which is fascinating.

[00:45:50] I don't know.

[00:45:51] I'm excited to watch my, my annual mission impossible rewatch, uh, is what I'm getting

[00:45:55] at.

[00:45:55] I was going to say, I saw the, uh, mission impossible final reckoning trailer before

[00:45:58] wicked and who boy.

[00:45:59] Oh baby.

[00:46:01] Can't wait.

[00:46:01] Can't wait for that shit.

[00:46:02] I was actually, uh, back to wicked.

[00:46:04] Um, I was, uh, pretty surprised, I guess it may, is the song loathing.

[00:46:08] I don't know if that's the name of the song.

[00:46:10] Yes.

[00:46:10] I think that's the song.

[00:46:11] Yeah.

[00:46:11] Uh, like with all the split screens and stuff, I was like, Oh, interesting.

[00:46:15] Like, you know, here we have a stage musical and a, in a moment where we're like deploying

[00:46:19] film techniques, right.

[00:46:20] With all the split screens and stuff.

[00:46:21] So that was sure.

[00:46:22] Uh, stood out to me at least, uh, cause the rest of the movie has nothing like that.

[00:46:27] I mean, it's doing movie stuff is doing film things, but there's nothing as overt and

[00:46:31] artificial in the way, like a split, like a literal split screen.

[00:46:35] So yeah, I liked the way loathing was staged.

[00:46:37] I liked that.

[00:46:37] I mean, I, I think, uh, you know, I've seen a lot of criticism about John Chu as a filmmaker

[00:46:41] on Twitter and stuff in the last couple, a couple of weeks.

[00:46:44] I like John Chu in general and I really loved in the Heights.

[00:46:47] Uh, so, you know, I, I was prepared for it.

[00:46:49] Uh, I do think, uh, you know, he's using some film techniques here, but I think there's

[00:46:53] a lot of like cutting kind of editing choices that make you, that kind of take away from

[00:46:58] the choreography in some way where, uh, you know, there's certain numbers where you're

[00:47:01] just like, I just want to see these people dance.

[00:47:03] I want to see the movements.

[00:47:05] Uh, and the camera is moving at such a speed and like cutting between so many different

[00:47:09] things, uh, that I'm not really getting a full sense of it, uh, like I would on stage.

[00:47:14] Uh, and so it's a weird balance that kind of needs to be struck with, uh, with filmmaking

[00:47:17] with, with adapting a musical onto film.

[00:47:20] But I think Spielberg's West End Story, uh, which you tapped out of, uh, at after 30 minutes,

[00:47:24] uh, I think that movie does a really, really incredible job where there's so many like

[00:47:28] just like long one takes, uh, where you're just kind of watching them do the dance and

[00:47:31] like, but the camera is still always dynamic and moving and like kind of doing stuff that

[00:47:35] like you couldn't do on stage.

[00:47:36] And I, and so I think loathing like, and kind of using the split screens and all that

[00:47:40] kind of stuff looks really good.

[00:47:41] Yeah.

[00:47:42] I think that one's really good.

[00:47:43] I think the wizard and I looks good.

[00:47:44] Like I think the, uh, the dancing through life sequence, the, uh, the library one, the Fierro

[00:47:48] Sings, uh, is really, is really, really terrific.

[00:47:50] And like does a good job of like showing you this stage, like the production design and all

[00:47:54] that kind of stuff.

[00:47:55] Yeah.

[00:47:55] I mean, it's like the, the same problem we had to talk about with a lot of like action

[00:47:59] movies and stuff, right?

[00:48:00] Where it's like, which this movie is kind of just a superhero movie.

[00:48:03] Oh, well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:48:04] True.

[00:48:05] Yeah.

[00:48:05] Um, where it's like they're, they're using the editing to create the illusion of like

[00:48:10] energy and movement and stuff.

[00:48:12] Right.

[00:48:12] Right.

[00:48:13] Like, you know, in fight scenes is to make it look more brutal or whatever.

[00:48:15] And in this it's to make it seem like people are dancing, but you can't like necessarily

[00:48:20] see what, not all the time, but like in the moments where that stands out, you're like,

[00:48:25] Oh, well, like why'd you bother choreographing all this shit?

[00:48:27] If we're just going to be like cutting between everything and we don't actually get to see

[00:48:30] a lot of the dance numbers, uh, in those moments.

[00:48:33] Right.

[00:48:34] I think, I think nothing particularly egregious stood out to me, uh, like a dumb Luddite,

[00:48:40] uh, as far as it comes to our troglodyte or whatever.

[00:48:42] Uh, no, what's the one you like to say?

[00:48:44] Philistine, uh, dumb Philistine.

[00:48:45] Uh, with musicals, uh, right.

[00:48:47] And musical numbers and stuff like that.

[00:48:49] So nothing particularly egregious stood out to me, but I have seen a lot of people talking

[00:48:52] about that as well.

[00:48:53] Uh, I also wanted to shout out the, uh, the one short day sequence, which is the, where

[00:48:56] they, where they get to Emerald city.

[00:48:58] Yeah.

[00:48:58] Uh, and, uh, there's a huge kind of like big reception in their honor as they're like

[00:49:02] kind of walking through the city and like people are going nuts for them.

[00:49:05] They're excited to see them and they're kind of telling them the history of Emerald city.

[00:49:08] Uh, this is when you get cameos from Idina Menzel and Christian Chenoweth.

[00:49:11] Uh, did you realize that's who that was when, uh, they came in?

[00:49:14] Yes.

[00:49:14] Yeah.

[00:49:14] Okay.

[00:49:15] I thought, I mean, just cause like I know three people on Broadway.

[00:49:19] Right.

[00:49:19] And I was like, is this, wasn't Sutton Foster the person in, in, and then I was like, no,

[00:49:22] wait, no, that's not Sutton Foster.

[00:49:23] That's, that's the one that John Travolta couldn't say their name.

[00:49:26] Um, uh, they wickedly talented Adele Dazeem.

[00:49:29] Yes, exactly.

[00:49:32] I've never forgotten.

[00:49:33] Never.

[00:49:34] Um, but yeah, no, I was like, oh yeah, I I'm assuming these are the original Broadway people.

[00:49:40] I did recognize.

[00:49:41] And you, and you are correct.

[00:49:41] And they do like, it's a pretty extended cameo.

[00:49:44] Like I, when they first showed up, yeah.

[00:49:46] Yeah.

[00:49:46] When they first showed up, it was like, oh, it's fun.

[00:49:47] They got them in there.

[00:49:48] And then they have like a whole bit in the number where they're kind of shoving each

[00:49:51] other and they end up interacting with their own counterparts.

[00:49:54] Like, uh, Christian Chenoweth is like singing at Glinda and, um, I did a Manziel singing

[00:49:59] at Elphaba, uh, which is, it's pretty fun.

[00:50:02] It's like very upbeat, has a lot of energy to it.

[00:50:04] And then they finally make their way into the wizard's palace.

[00:50:07] Uh, and they meet Jeff Goldblum, uh, and he is showing them like, oh, you know, I'm

[00:50:12] making this road.

[00:50:13] What color do you think Han Solo?

[00:50:17] Um, I was laughing to myself about that.

[00:50:20] Um, yes.

[00:50:20] Uh, I mean that, that is like part of wicked on stage is like, there's a

[00:50:24] lot of like wizard of Oz prequely stuff there.

[00:50:26] It's kind of like introduces there.

[00:50:28] Um, this, this one I don't think was in there.

[00:50:30] I think this is just like, I threw that in this movie for some reason, but, uh, yeah,

[00:50:34] I'm not sure I needed to know why the yellow brick road was yellow.

[00:50:37] Uh, and it's, it's not even like there's a, there's not really a compelling reason why

[00:50:41] it's yellow.

[00:50:42] I think just like Elphaba thought it looked nice.

[00:50:44] Like that was not even Elphaba.

[00:50:45] It's Glinda, right?

[00:50:46] She skips past yellow and she's like, wait, go back.

[00:50:49] Um, yeah.

[00:50:49] And he's like, hmm, a yellow brick road.

[00:50:52] You say like they really.

[00:50:54] They lean into it.

[00:50:55] Uh, which is pretty funny.

[00:50:57] Um, well, how, why, why are the monkeys like the wicked witch by the end?

[00:51:01] Huh?

[00:51:01] I don't know.

[00:51:02] We got to find out about that in act two.

[00:51:04] Right.

[00:51:05] Uh, yeah, I will say, uh, what I, uh, one thing I really appreciate about the movie is

[00:51:09] when Elphaba reads from the grimmery and, uh, she gives the monkeys wings.

[00:51:14] She like turns the monk, like the monkey army into flying monkeys.

[00:51:17] Yeah.

[00:51:17] The sequence where like the lead monkey like gets his wings is horrifying.

[00:51:23] Absolutely horrific.

[00:51:23] Yeah.

[00:51:24] Uh, and I was watching this and be like, this is going to traumatize some kids.

[00:51:27] Well, I mean, that's great as they should.

[00:51:29] The flying monkeys from wizard bods have been traumatizing kids for 90 years.

[00:51:34] So why not the flying monkeys from wicked?

[00:51:36] Um, yes.

[00:51:36] And yeah, I did like, I was thinking about it.

[00:51:39] It's pretty funny.

[00:51:40] Like a lot of it is the animals.

[00:51:41] Like what you're saying is the photorealistic goats, photorealistic lions, blue monkeys,

[00:51:48] but photorealistic blue monkeys.

[00:51:50] They look like real chimpanzees, but are blue.

[00:51:52] Yeah.

[00:51:52] But that whole sequence was, was really terrific.

[00:51:54] And I love at the, like, as soon as the, as it's done, like you're watching this monkey

[00:51:57] writhe in pain and for like three minutes.

[00:51:59] And then as soon as it's done, Michelle Yeo is like, ah, yes, these will make the perfect

[00:52:03] spies for our army.

[00:52:05] Yeah.

[00:52:06] It's awesome.

[00:52:08] Uh, and just the immediate like switch that gets flipped there is, is really, really fun.

[00:52:12] So yeah, had a great time with that.

[00:52:13] And that of course leads into their whole like escape, like, uh, Elphaba's like disheartened

[00:52:18] and disillusioned by what, like she's been tricked.

[00:52:19] She didn't want to do this.

[00:52:20] She like, didn't want to hurt this, this animal.

[00:52:23] She's now on the run from the wizard and his armies.

[00:52:25] Uh, and she's taking Glenda with her and that leads into defying gravity, uh, which,

[00:52:30] you know, banger number.

[00:52:32] I mean, it's no matter how, no matter how you stage it, which I think, which I think

[00:52:36] this could have been staged better.

[00:52:37] Like it still has power to it because it's defying gravity and it fucking rocks.

[00:52:41] And she, and Cynthia Erivo does a great job with it.

[00:52:43] Yeah.

[00:52:43] I think, uh, I think, yeah, she's really amazing.

[00:52:45] I've never really seen her in a ton.

[00:52:47] She's actually really great in the outsider.

[00:52:50] Is that that it's a, the HBO Stephen King show with TV show.

[00:52:55] Oh yeah.

[00:52:56] Yeah.

[00:52:56] She was in that.

[00:52:56] Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman.

[00:52:58] She fucking rules in that.

[00:52:59] She's so good.

[00:53:00] Even if that show ends up not being that great.

[00:53:02] Yeah.

[00:53:02] I haven't really seen a ton of stuff with her in it off the top of my head.

[00:53:05] She hasn't made a ton of movies.

[00:53:07] I mean, she, she kind of had like a breakout 2018.

[00:53:09] Uh, she had widows and bad times of the old Royale.

[00:53:11] Like that's right here.

[00:53:12] Uh, and widows was like widows was her first film.

[00:53:15] Uh, and that was one that like I saw that movie and thought she was amazing in it.

[00:53:18] Like she was great.

[00:53:19] Uh, and then her like film career has since has been very like, she did get nominated for

[00:53:23] an Oscar for Harriot's.

[00:53:24] Then it was like, oh, she was in chaos walking the, uh, Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley sci-fi movie.

[00:53:29] Right.

[00:53:30] From a couple of years ago that got buried like after COVID.

[00:53:32] She was in Robert Zebeckis's Pinocchio, uh, live action remake as the blue, as the blue

[00:53:37] fairy, uh, which that movie is a train wreck.

[00:53:40] Like one of the worst I've seen in a long time.

[00:53:43] Her most recent movie before wicked was the Netflix movie continuing the show Luther with

[00:53:49] Idris Elba.

[00:53:49] Oh yeah.

[00:53:50] Luther, the fallen son.

[00:53:52] Uh, which I know you were a Luther guy, right?

[00:53:53] I did watch a couple of seasons of Luther.

[00:53:56] Yeah.

[00:53:56] Okay.

[00:53:57] I did not know there was a Netflix movie last year that continued the story.

[00:54:01] I think I remember seeing that, but I was like, oh, well I haven't caught up.

[00:54:04] Like I, I didn't finish this TV show, so I never watched the movie.

[00:54:08] Um, not that I think you probably, you probably don't have to, but that's also where I know

[00:54:12] became a big Michael Smiley fan.

[00:54:14] Oh yes.

[00:54:15] Yeah.

[00:54:15] Michael Smiley.

[00:54:15] Of course.

[00:54:16] So yeah, she's great.

[00:54:22] Like physical comedy, like stuff to do like, uh, and she's, she's really good at it.

[00:54:26] Um, yeah, she, she brings a really good, like feeder kid energy to the role.

[00:54:30] Absolutely.

[00:54:30] Yeah.

[00:54:30] Which, uh, which I think you need in like the casting of Glinda, like that, that feels

[00:54:35] like correct.

[00:54:36] That feels right.

[00:54:36] Yeah.

[00:54:37] And I think they're dynamic.

[00:54:38] Like the two of them together are very, very good together.

[00:54:40] Yeah.

[00:54:41] Um, and so yeah, when you get to find gravity and it is like, like you do feel like, and

[00:54:46] maybe it's because of the extra time you spent with them.

[00:54:48] Uh, but when they, when they.

[00:54:50] Oh, he's coming around to it.

[00:54:51] I know I knew we'd get them when they finally like split up at the end of the movie.

[00:54:55] Like that feels powerful.

[00:54:56] That feels like that's such a big decision for them to kind of like go their separate

[00:55:00] ways.

[00:55:00] And Elphaba is like too committed to, you know, really helping people.

[00:55:04] And Glinda is like committed to like helping people, but not at the cost of her own comfort.

[00:55:08] Uh, basically.

[00:55:09] Right.

[00:55:09] The whole, I think the whole thesis of popular, right?

[00:55:12] Right.

[00:55:14] Uh, I'll help you because it makes me look better.

[00:55:17] Yes, exactly.

[00:55:18] Uh, and so, and at the end, she's kind of given that choice to like,

[00:55:21] go, go with Elphaba or stay in Oz.

[00:55:24] Uh, and I think she's going, she's staying in Oz and like trying to be like, well, if

[00:55:28] I'm working there, I can fix it from the inside.

[00:55:30] I can change it from the inside.

[00:55:31] Yeah.

[00:55:31] Uh, cause that always works out.

[00:55:33] Whoops.

[00:55:35] Uh, yeah.

[00:55:36] So there's a lot of that, uh, in the movie.

[00:55:38] Any, any other scenes in the, in wicked that you want to give a shout out to Mike?

[00:55:41] Anything that, uh, especially stands out to you?

[00:55:43] Not that I could think of, uh, just other than it's, it's better than I thought it was

[00:55:47] going to end up being.

[00:55:48] I had, I enjoyed it more, which is to say that I thought I was going to actively dislike

[00:55:52] it.

[00:55:53] Uh, and I was pretty charmed.

[00:55:55] I mean, that, that is a glowing review from Mike D cause like truly like last week when

[00:56:00] we met for the podcast, I was like, you know, wicked comes out this weekend and you're like,

[00:56:03] ah, God damn it.

[00:56:05] Yeah.

[00:56:06] Yeah.

[00:56:06] I know.

[00:56:06] I, I, again, I thought it was pretty good.

[00:56:08] I wish I liked it more.

[00:56:09] I really think it should have been one movie instead of two, but I'll be seated for part

[00:56:13] two.

[00:56:13] I mean, a, I have to be because of the podcast, but B I would be going anyway.

[00:56:17] Like I, I, I am genuinely like, like I've seen the show.

[00:56:20] It's not like I need to know what happens, but I am invested in like seeing how they

[00:56:23] finish it.

[00:56:23] You know, gotta see how, how they get to wizard of Oz, you know?

[00:56:27] Yes, exactly.

[00:56:28] Uh, gotta see how they get to Oz, the great and powerful.

[00:56:30] The same Ramey film in 2013.

[00:56:33] I like to think, uh, when they keep talking about Oz coming down on a hot air balloon

[00:56:37] or the wizard coming down on a hot air balloon and all that stuff, I was like, did Sam Ramey

[00:56:41] invent that?

[00:56:41] Is that like now can't, like, I assume that's in the original novel.

[00:56:44] Uh, I mean, in the original, they leave in a hot air balloon.

[00:56:47] Well, no, no.

[00:56:48] Uh, yeah.

[00:56:49] Well, yeah, true.

[00:56:49] So I think, so I think that's part of it.

[00:56:51] Like he, like in the, in the wizard of Oz, he talks about getting there.

[00:56:53] There in a hot air balloon.

[00:56:54] I'm sure.

[00:56:54] Yeah.

[00:56:55] Uh, although also in the wizard of Oz, it's all a dream.

[00:56:57] Uh, so really if we want to get really into it, this entire movie isn't happening.

[00:57:03] Uh, it's all, it's all, I don't know if you know this Mike, but movies are fake and they're

[00:57:07] never happening.

[00:57:07] Um, yeah, that was a, there was a clip of, uh, James Gunn talking about the DC, the DC universe

[00:57:15] recently that went around and like some, some, like, you know, there's like a whole cult

[00:57:19] of people who are anti James Gunn because they're Snyder fans or whatever.

[00:57:21] Right.

[00:57:21] And somebody like shared it with me like, man, this is so embarrassing for DC.

[00:57:24] And it's just James Gunn being like, well, the thing you have to remember is that these

[00:57:27] movies aren't real.

[00:57:29] So the, so the canon can kind of be whatever we want it to be.

[00:57:32] Yeah.

[00:57:33] The hierarchy of power can change whenever we want.

[00:57:36] Yeah.

[00:57:36] And everyone, like people responding to her like, yeah, that makes sense.

[00:57:39] That's good.

[00:57:39] That's a, it's a healthy attitude to have.

[00:57:44] That's incredible.

[00:57:45] Uh, but technically this is all happening within Dorothy's mind.

[00:57:49] This is a real sane elsewhere situation that we got going on with Wicked.

[00:57:52] Dorothy's having crazy dreams.

[00:57:54] Any other thoughts about Wicked Mike before we start wrapping this up?

[00:57:56] No.

[00:57:56] I think we, do we do letterboxd reviews?

[00:57:58] Are we going to do it for this movie?

[00:57:59] I got some letterboxd reviews.

[00:58:00] I got a couple.

[00:58:01] Uh, not as many as I usually get.

[00:58:03] Uh, because if you go to the popular reviews of letterboxd, you have to scroll through pages

[00:58:07] and pages of like Ariana Grande stands before you get to any actual like review of the movie.

[00:58:11] That tracks.

[00:58:13] Uh, so yes, we'll get into letterboxd reviews.

[00:58:15] Also, I wanted to mention one other thing that I thought was very funny, uh, that I saw going

[00:58:18] around online recently, uh, which is like, oh, in celebration of Wicked, uh, let's go

[00:58:22] back to the time where I think it was, was it last year when Queen Elizabeth died?

[00:58:26] Uh, Queen Elizabeth died last year and, uh, Wicked was going on in the,

[00:58:30] uh, the London's West End.

[00:58:32] And right before the show, they like made the announcement.

[00:58:34] They were like, oh, by the, like, you know, something like an actor came out and said,

[00:58:37] like, this just happened.

[00:58:39] You know, we have to tell you about this.

[00:58:40] Uh, you know, Queen Elizabeth has passed away.

[00:58:43] You know, they, they had like a small, like kind of moment of silence, whatever.

[00:58:46] Uh, and then they left and the show starts.

[00:58:49] And the first thing that happens in the show is people chanting good news.

[00:58:55] She's dead.

[00:59:00] Incredible.

[00:59:01] 10 out of 10, which is just one of those things.

[00:59:04] That's like, that's, that's so unbelievable.

[00:59:05] That's so great.

[00:59:06] Uh, wow.

[00:59:08] Um, but yeah, Wicked.

[00:59:09] It's all right.

[00:59:10] It's pretty good.

[00:59:11] I enjoyed it.

[00:59:12] Yeah.

[00:59:12] Uh, it sounds like my D really, really dug it.

[00:59:14] So that's, that's great.

[00:59:15] Uh, here are some letterbox reviews, uh, from Wicked.

[00:59:18] The first of which is a four and a half star review from David Chen of, uh, the film cast.

[00:59:22] Sadly, I don't think U S audiences will be able to relate to the story of an unskilled con man

[00:59:27] who tricks everyone to making him their leader by directing people's anger towards an unprotected

[00:59:31] class all while relying on the work of minorities to prop up his empire.

[00:59:35] Other than that though, this movie is fantastic.

[00:59:38] Yeah.

[00:59:38] It doesn't seem relevant.

[00:59:39] I don't know.

[00:59:41] Uh, here's a four star review from Alex Coleman.

[00:59:44] Big fan of theater kid, infinity war.

[00:59:49] Big fan of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

[00:59:51] Big fan of the musical numbers.

[00:59:53] Big fan of this universe.

[00:59:54] Not a big fan of that lighting and most certainly not pleased with the CGI gloss over the practical

[00:59:59] sets.

[00:59:59] Had a lovely time though.

[01:00:00] The theater experience is unmatched, which by the way, Mike, how was your theater experience?

[01:00:04] Because I know you're worried about that with, uh, people singing along and all that kind

[01:00:07] of stuff.

[01:00:07] Did you, you didn't really talk about how your theater was?

[01:00:10] No.

[01:00:10] Um, I think, I think, uh, ultimately it's fine.

[01:00:13] It was okay.

[01:00:14] I did have to scroll Instagram over a few people's shoulders, uh, throughout the movie.

[01:00:19] Like what the fuck are we even doing here?

[01:00:21] Um, but otherwise, um, it was okay.

[01:00:24] Nobody, I think, I think at one point I saw somebody's flash go off.

[01:00:28] So I assume they were taking a picture.

[01:00:29] Um, and I hope that person got hurt on the way out, but otherwise it was fine.

[01:00:32] You know, nobody was singing.

[01:00:34] There wasn't a lot of talking.

[01:00:35] There was some cell phone disruption shit, which I think happens in every movie I've been

[01:00:39] to recently.

[01:00:40] Anyway, uh, death of the American empire is on upon us.

[01:00:44] Basically is what I'm saying.

[01:00:45] Well, that's what Wicket's about.

[01:00:46] That's also what Gladiator 2 is about.

[01:00:47] Uh, yeah, no, I, my theater experience is actually pretty good.

[01:00:50] I mean, it was a packed theater sold out.

[01:00:52] Yeah.

[01:00:52] Mine was packed too.

[01:00:53] Yeah.

[01:00:53] Yeah.

[01:00:54] It was totally sold out.

[01:00:55] A lot of kids.

[01:00:55] Uh, but the kids were all like pretty into it.

[01:00:58] Like they weren't like kind of running around being crazy or anything.

[01:01:00] Uh, and I didn't really see any phones or anything.

[01:01:02] It was a pretty like good, you know, chill experience, which was nice.

[01:01:06] I will say there was actually towards the, all throughout Defying Gravity towards the end,

[01:01:12] there was clearly, I assume a young kid who was just bored and their chair, they were

[01:01:18] just, I just hear like, as they were just sitting up and down.

[01:01:24] Uh, and I was really waiting for a parent to stop them and they never did.

[01:01:29] So we live in a society.

[01:01:31] Fair enough.

[01:01:32] You're going to become the Wicked Witch of the West.

[01:01:34] Correct.

[01:01:35] Forget becoming Joker.

[01:01:36] I'm becoming Wicked Witch.

[01:01:38] Uh, here's another review with a no rating from Olivia Craighead.

[01:01:42] Do I wish the outdoor scenes didn't look like they were shot at Disneyland?

[01:01:46] Of course.

[01:01:47] But on the other hand, I have been wishing for this movie to exist for more than half of

[01:01:50] my life.

[01:01:51] So it looking a little ugly sometimes isn't going to stop me from weeping during the

[01:01:54] Wizard and I and grinning like an idiot during Dancing Through Life.

[01:01:57] I guess this is what comic book fans felt like for all of the 2010s.

[01:02:01] Whoa.

[01:02:01] Yeah.

[01:02:02] Which, uh, you know, we, we've been kind of like, uh, you know, obviously the, uh,

[01:02:05] the comic book boom has, has really depleted.

[01:02:08] There's still movies that do well, but not nearly as much as there used to be.

[01:02:11] And since, you know, like last couple of years, like people have been kind of

[01:02:13] being like, all right, well, what's the next big thing?

[01:02:15] What's like the next thing that's going to be like a popular blockbuster

[01:02:20] entertainment?

[01:02:21] Uh, I think video game movies, uh, have kind of seen a resurgence in the last

[01:02:25] couple of years.

[01:02:25] I think, you know, based on how Wicked does musicals, maybe, maybe it's the

[01:02:30] return of the movie musical.

[01:02:31] Time is a flat circle.

[01:02:32] Anything's possible.

[01:02:33] Could be a thing.

[01:02:34] Sooner to be Westerns again.

[01:02:35] I was going to say it's Westerns next baby.

[01:02:38] Uh, all right.

[01:02:39] I got one more of you here, Mike.

[01:02:40] It is a four and a half star review from the poetic critic.

[01:02:43] Hey, yes, of course.

[01:02:45] The poetic critic, uh, who wrote a poem for every single Jeff Goldblum movie.

[01:02:49] And we read all of them, uh, on the podcast, or at least once we discovered the

[01:02:53] poet critic was doing that, we started, we started, uh, reading them off.

[01:02:56] Uh, yeah, the poetic critic saw Wicked and here's what they said.

[01:02:59] While the battle between good and digital color correction and lens flares

[01:03:02] plods on, I'm otherwise impressed prodigially while other tentpoles play a

[01:03:07] con of earnestness.

[01:03:08] That's masking endless snark.

[01:03:10] This leans into the melodrama fast and furious.

[01:03:12] All the performers spark and what a finale can the pleasure last to be continued.

[01:03:18] Nice.

[01:03:19] Damn.

[01:03:20] You know, sometimes we get little couplets.

[01:03:22] That was a pretty extended, uh, little poem there.

[01:03:24] That's pretty nice.

[01:03:25] Yeah.

[01:03:25] That was a solid one.

[01:03:26] That might've been like a sonnet.

[01:03:27] Yeah.

[01:03:27] Shout out to the poetic critic who did reach out to us on blue sky.

[01:03:30] They have joined blue sky.

[01:03:31] They followed us.

[01:03:32] They were like, yeah, I found you guys again.

[01:03:34] And yeah.

[01:03:34] So shout out to the, the poetic critic.

[01:03:36] That is fantastic.

[01:03:37] Uh, yes.

[01:03:38] And we'll be reading photo critics review for Wicked part two, uh, next year.

[01:03:42] And if, uh, if there's more Jeff Goldblum stuff in that, in that span of time, we'll

[01:03:45] see if the poetic critic has something to say about it.

[01:03:47] Yes.

[01:03:47] Uh, but, uh, yeah.

[01:03:49] And I will say that to be continued title card, like does like, I don't know, like it's

[01:03:52] just going from defying gravity right into to be continued.

[01:03:55] Like it's a solid, like, yeah.

[01:03:57] All right.

[01:03:57] I'll, I'll be there for X two.

[01:03:59] Like I'll be, I'll be, I'll be there for the next one.

[01:04:01] Yeah.

[01:04:01] Yeah.

[01:04:01] That's going to wrap things up for Wicked Mike.

[01:04:03] I think, I think we handled this well.

[01:04:05] I think this was a good, you know, there was a lot of talk about like, you know, do we do

[01:04:08] two episodes, one for Michelle, you know, but, uh, yeah, no, we just did the one.

[01:04:14] I think we got everything we wanted to say about it.

[01:04:16] And I also want to give a shout out before we tell you, um, where we find you online this

[01:04:19] week and stuff, uh, to Kyle Cullen, who is the one who does our theme songs.

[01:04:23] Yes.

[01:04:23] Uh, and you already heard it about an hour ago.

[01:04:25] I'll play it again at the end of this podcast too, uh, just to get as much as we can out

[01:04:29] of it.

[01:04:29] Yeah.

[01:04:30] Uh, but Kyle did create a mashup of the Jeff Goldblum theme and the Michelle Yeo theme

[01:04:35] complete with new quotes from each of them.

[01:04:38] And, uh, gotta say it rules.

[01:04:40] It's really terrific.

[01:04:41] Pretty solid.

[01:04:42] Yeah.

[01:04:42] Uh, like I, I kind of was joking about it a little bit where I was like, oh, can you try

[01:04:46] to combine these somehow?

[01:04:47] And, uh, he did it.

[01:04:48] And, uh, I think that works better than we could have ever possibly dreamed.

[01:04:52] Uh, some, you got peanut butter in my chocolate.

[01:04:55] Um, somehow together, these two things together are better than we could have hoped.

[01:04:58] Yeah.

[01:04:59] It's awesome.

[01:04:59] Shame.

[01:05:00] We can only use it this one episode.

[01:05:02] Well, that's not true, Mike, because we will be using it again for wicked part two

[01:05:05] when it comes out in 2025.

[01:05:07] I vote.

[01:05:08] We just, uh, use it for the shiter episodes and just never explain it.

[01:05:12] Just never talk about it.

[01:05:14] Uh, yeah, I might play it for, uh, since when we do our top 10 episode of the year,

[01:05:18] right.

[01:05:18] Um, since I can't really use like copyrighted music anymore because one of our episodes

[01:05:22] was taken down, um, our, our like 2022 top 10 was taken down because I was using music.

[01:05:27] Uh, I think maybe I'll just use Kyle's theme songs as like bumpers in between.

[01:05:31] Hell yeah.

[01:05:31] I could bring it back then.

[01:05:32] I could bring it back.

[01:05:33] Yeah.

[01:05:33] Uh, yeah, but there we go.

[01:05:35] All right.

[01:05:35] Mike D where can we find you online this week?

[01:05:37] You can find me at MD film blog on blue sky and letterbox.

[01:05:41] Um, you can find the show on our Kofi page or no, if you want to donate, you can find us

[01:05:47] on our Kofi page, Kofi.com slash Mike and Mike pods, where you can donate $50 and pick

[01:05:52] an episode of our bonus show.

[01:05:55] Mike and Mike go to the movies, pick a, pick a topic.

[01:05:57] We'll talk about whatever you want on our Kofi page.

[01:05:59] And if you want merch, we have merch available on our red bubble, which is Mike and Mike pods

[01:06:03] dot red bubble.com.

[01:06:05] That's right.

[01:06:06] You can find me online at Ms.

[01:06:07] Smith film blog on Twitter and blue sky, uh, Mike Smith film on letterbox and radio Mike

[01:06:11] sandwich Instagram.

[01:06:12] Uh, thank you so much for listening to complete works on Mike Smith's Mike's crease show.

[01:06:15] Don't forget to rate and review the show on Apple podcasts or any other podcast app.

[01:06:18] And if you want to contact us, you can tweet at us at complete works pod.

[01:06:21] That's W R K S no O in the word works.

[01:06:23] You can find the rest of our podcast on rapture press alongside many other comic books

[01:06:27] or alongside many other podcasts, the comic books and movie news and all that good

[01:06:31] stuff.

[01:06:31] Uh, so I was using the, uh, the Jeff Goldblum.

[01:06:35] The, the, the wheels are falling off Mike.

[01:06:37] Well, I'm using the Jeff Goldblum template here that I had created, uh, which means it

[01:06:41] says you can follow the rest of our podcast and rapture press alongside the totally original

[01:06:44] geek news podcast.

[01:06:45] Hey, remember that show?

[01:06:46] Yeah.

[01:06:47] Which, uh, doesn't exist anymore.

[01:06:48] Uh, our theme song for this episode was created by Kyle Cullen.

[01:06:52] You can reach for your own podcast themes at Kyle's podcast themes, gmail.com.

[01:06:55] And our logo for the Jeff Goldblum season was, uh, designed by Jacob Honeycutt or at

[01:06:59] Jacob Honey on Twitter.

[01:07:00] Uh, and our logo for the Michelle Yeo season, uh, was created by Mac V or at fearless

[01:07:05] guard on Twitter.

[01:07:05] I think for this episode, I'm just going to do like a split screen of the two logos and

[01:07:09] make that happen.

[01:07:11] Uh, join us on the next complete works because we are back to Roy Scheider talking about

[01:07:16] Cohen and Tate's, which, uh, rules.

[01:07:19] I'm a huge Conan take guy spoilers for the episode, right?

[01:07:23] I can't contain my excitement.

[01:07:25] It's, it's almost as good as gladiator two.

[01:07:28] Wow.

[01:07:29] Can't wait.

[01:07:30] And continue to check out Mike and my go to the movies.

[01:07:32] Uh, and that, that, that's going to be it.

[01:07:34] Uh, that is, get the fuck out of here.

[01:07:38] Uh, thanks so much for listening guys.

[01:07:40] And remember to both go for the Goldblum and thanks for taking it.

[01:07:44] Yo.

[01:07:46] Barbecue jumbo shrimp.

[01:07:47] You motherfucking.

[01:07:49] Back in the fucking car.

[01:07:50] Damn it.

[01:07:51] Let's go rescue you.

[01:07:52] So you are cool.

[01:07:54] Uh, now eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur door, right?

[01:08:00] Igress, had me through to me so I have something wonderful to show him.

[01:08:05] I, I forgot my mantra.

[01:08:08] Listening.

[01:08:10] We are here.

[01:08:12] Listening.