Wicked (part 1) (2024) directed by Jon M. Chu

A film adaptation of the first act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which was loosely based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, itself a reimagining of the Oz books and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. After being plagues with production issues, mostly due to the COVID pandemic the film was finally released to high acclaim with the public. It tells the back story of the Wicked Witch of the West who was melted by Dorothy in the original story when she threw water on her trying to save here friend the Scarecrow who was on fire. 

I was going to show some comparisons between the book and play and the play and film but that would be very spoilery. Instead suffice it to say the book goes into much more detail, has many more characters, is told from multiple points of view and is much more adult in nature. The film is based closely on the broadway musical and adds and subtracts things to make it more cinematic but doesn't stray all that much. The young which, Alphaba (played by Ariana Grande) is raised an talking animal named Dulcibear which helps support her outrage later in the film when she fights the mistreatment of the talking animals. Michelle Yeoh is in the movie as a sorceress teacher and she makes any role awesome. Everyone else is good as well and the settings and effects are very well done. The songs however were lacking and didn't have any sort of punch or bring anything that a shorter dialog wouldn't have done better in my opinion. 

The book was one of the first to rehabilitate the villain in a fantasy story by giving them a sympathetic back story. It was new at the time but since then has become a trope, one I hate. This movie doesn't take any chances or go nearly as far as the book did with its characters but it does work on many levels. If this is something you are excited to see, please do and I'm sure you will love it. There is a heartfelt centre in here.

Overall, it's fine. I do not regret seeing it but it won't stay with me very long as its still by the numbers, Even if the original book version invented some of the numbers to begin with by sticking with the watered down stage version as inspiration we lose the edge that made the idea so transformative. 

Encanto (2021) directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, co-directed by Charise Castro Smith

 

Encanto is the lightest film about transgenerational trauma you might ever see. It manages to be fun, musical (thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda) and still gets a pretty deep message across about how terrible events in the past can still affect the present, even effect those who were not alive at the time of the event. 

As expected from any Disney film recently, the animation is flawless, the skin tones and the colour palette is really complex and beautiful. They have a way of making the most complicated animated scenes look effortless and every frame brings you deeper into the film's world of magical realism. 

All the members of a family have been granted magical gifts after being chased from their homeland a generation or two ago but these powers seems to be fading. One family member, Mirabel, was not granted magic powers and it comes down to her to find out why things are changing and discover how to fix them. I won't spoil it, but the lives of her siblings are not was magical as one would be led to believe. 

I like how the time and place of the film is never defined and even the traumatic event is very broadly defined so it could be anywhere anytime. Well, anytime after photography was invented as they use a camera in the movie a couple times. 

A well done, well acted. and well sung film with a deeper side if you care to look into it.