After 
Knowing why The Wizard was…WONDERFUL.

I had to know why The Witch was…WICKED. 

It’s just a precursor to the pre-CURSE that started it all!!!!! But I have a slight disagreement with the beginning of this film that I’ll get to later. 

On my way to this film I couldn’t help but hum the famous original song on The Wizard of Oz “We're off to see the wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!!!!” 
But I refused to sing aloud to prevent people’s eardrums from bleeding or exploding. 
This is a true classic experience that preludes the popular wizard story that was heralded with Dorothy and her three goofy friends almost 85 years ago!!!!!!
Wicked is where practical effects, special effects, and visual effects meet. What they created with this film was the stuff of dreams and imagination. A fellow like me is one who follows the feller who follows a dream. Jon M. Chu is that very someone who knows where the yellow brick road leads and graciously guides viewers to the destination with ease. The story was quite interesting and makes you wonder where the f🦁ck all the animals went from the first film. (Minor spoiler: They got eaten Lolol) 
Also why the Lion talks and wanted courage. 

But like all great stories it finds a way to uniquely turn the friends you love into enemies you despise but also enemies into heroes. I guess you could say Alphaba is the hero of the story by making her the misunderstood character turned evil that gets used a lot these days. You learn fast that the witch wasn’t always wicked and the wizard wasn’t always wonderful. The roles for both get moved around a lot like a bunch of shifting yellow bricks. In the last parts of The Wizard of Oz you see the great and powerful Wizard behind the mystical green curtain but you also see a man who overtime and experiences has changed into doing extraordinarily good or great things for what would later be Dorothy and her friends by making their wishes not tricked but real. I thought it was a wild choice in this prequel to show a different side to that man who wanted to be a be a true to form trickster and the pride that comes with power. A Wizard who pretends to do magic Is no Wizard at all but the reality of magic is to change one’s heart. *It takes a few years for him to figure that out*

I think both this film and Oz the great and powerful go hand in hand by not only introducing us to more unique plot elements crafting these characters but unveiling to us how people can change over time and decisions for good and for bad to become a grand master over true magic or a mislead friend doing harmonously wonderful things or dreadfully wicked things. The choice is always up to EACH of us to make…individually.
Idk what part 2 will be about because I felt all the characters ended up getting their arcs fulfilled by the climax but we will have to wait and see. 

Now getting down to the scarecrow in the room. The beginning showed us a bit of a flashback to how the witch died and everyone was celebrating and singing yada yada yada BUTTT the director didn’t even change the age of Glinda the good and made her the exact same in every way. Does he not know that Glinda was much older when her witch friend died by the hands of Dorothy?!?! It was a misconstrued way to start the film and left me rolling my eyes. You can’t just change something like that and think no one won’t notice. Idk it bugged me the entire film but besides that nitpick I really enjoyed the songs, the visual effects, stunts, cinematography, sound and editing and most of all the writing. Everything had character and flavor. 
Ariana Grande did a pretty good job but the supernova performance was by far Cynthia Erivo’s and cannot be matched. She was a raging bull of wondrous proportions and she was really engaging. The film is very long but you’ll hopefully get the tingly vibes when you hear the music which felt like lullabies to me. I almost fell asleep (in a good way!!) the defying gravity scene and song is absolutely incredible and totally rewatchable.
Each film is a totally different but pleasant experience on screen. You can either:

Take the walk with The Wizard of Oz 
Or take the run with Return to Oz 
Or take the leap with Oz the great and powerful 
Or take flight with Wicked!