The Open Book Podcast w Jay & Nia Floyd
Welcome to "The Open Book Podcast," where real talk meets real life. Join us, a dynamic couple with a knack for authentic and lively discussions, as we dive into the complexities of love, family, and personal growth. Each episode explores topics like marriage dynamics, financial management, health challenges, and cultural issues, all served up with a healthy dose of humor and heart. Whether you're navigating your own relationships or just love a good conversation, we're here to share, inspire, and keep it real. Tune in to join our community of listeners who are as thoughtful and curious as they are diverse.
The Open Book Podcast w Jay & Nia Floyd
Elephaba is Black? Our Wicked Review
Have you ever wondered why some of us love to jump into a movie halfway while others insist on catching every single detail from the start? This episode of the Open Book Podcast invites listeners into the contrasting ways we experience films, sparking a lively discussion with my wife about our unique movie-watching habits. We dive into our recent theater visit to see "Wicked," sharing the excitement of being captivated by its storytelling despite sitting in the second row, and reflecting on the audience's infectious reactions that amplified our experience.
Join us as we explore the fresh and thought-provoking twist "Wicked" brings to the classic "Wizard of Oz" tale. Ariana Grande's performance as Glinda is a showstopper, with her incredible vocal prowess shining through, earning her comparisons to musical legends. The film's themes of discrimination and identity are brought to the forefront, as we discuss the powerful symbolism of the Wicked Witch's green skin and the societal challenges she faces. These conversations highlight the film's deeper messages of empathy and understanding in a world often divided by prejudice.
Throughout the episode, we unravel the film's intricate character dynamics, focusing on the evolution of relationships and the exploration of privilege and beauty. Our discussion touches on the manipulation of the Wizard and Elphaba's transformation into the iconic Wicked Witch of the West. With insights into character arcs and the intricate narrative elements, this episode is an engaging blend of nostalgia and thoughtful commentary, perfect for any movie enthusiast eager to gain a new perspective on a beloved story.
All right, ladies and gentlemen what's good a young world, thank you Welcome, y'all Welcome.
Speaker 1:Welcome to another episode of drumroll please. The open book podcast.
Speaker 2:What the what Open? Open book podcast.
Speaker 1:Welcome. We'll be doing it. We'll be doing our thing. Yep, we'll be on here talking.
Speaker 2:We be doing our thing, yep.
Speaker 1:We be on here talking.
Speaker 2:We be chopping it.
Speaker 1:Then we be taking breaks too long. We be going away from podcasts.
Speaker 2:We be living life, y'all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you can't go away. People be like forgetting who you are. You right, we still got to do some podcast shows, but today we're coming again with another review we reviewing the things, man you know, let me just tell y'all, there are certain movies that my wife just loves and for some reason we don't tend to see those movies at the same time. No, and man, she, just she can't rest her soul, can't even like settle until I done seen these movies. Like gladiator, we went our whole marriage it's so long.
Speaker 2:I finally got him to watch it, like last week, week before last, yes. Yes, because we knew gladiator 2 was coming out and I'm like you have to watch the first one because it's so good. Like Gladiator was my all time favorite movie for a very, very long time. I even love the soundtrack, which is odd because there is no music, it's just a score. But I moved to Indiana Indiana, indianapolis more specifically and I would listen to that score like the whole five hours it took to drive from.
Speaker 1:You would drive listening to the score of the Gladiator. I did I loved.
Speaker 2:I just loved that movie. I loved Russell Crowe in that movie and I love the score. I did I would listen to that and I mean, after a while it was like what are you doing? It needs some music. This is like a five and a half hour drive, but yeah, so it was super exciting for you to watch it. And you're right, Honor and I went to go see this particular movie last week in theater and I was just so excited. I thought it was an excellent movie.
Speaker 2:And I've been talking about it all week and you know her soul would settle.
Speaker 1:I saw it.
Speaker 2:I was listening to the soundtrack and watching different TikToks and you know reviews on YouTube and, I'm happy to say, the hubs finally watched it, the husband didn't have to drag me kicking and screaming like some other movies. And I, I do not give anything away in the movies, not one thing I. He will ask me a ton of questions and I will just look blank faced, like I have no idea, cause I am not a spoiler.
Speaker 1:Let me just clarify something, though. Babe is not a spoiler. But she's like the opposite. It's like almost worse. It's like she'd look at you all weird, like wait till he see this part coming. I wonder what he's gonna think about no or like if something goes by like real fast and you think I missed it, you be like here's what happened, here's what you missed.
Speaker 2:No, I will just rewind it back and I'll only do it if it's a pivotal part. I'm just checking to see if he got that thing that's probably going to come up later, that he probably is going to be like oh, I didn't see that and I'm going to be like, gonna be like what? Because you were on your phone. So to avoid me saying that, I'll just say you know what?
Speaker 1:you gotta pay attention because something about to come up and I'll just let's cover everything, right, because this is open book, we got to give them the full context, right? Listen y'all? I'm a little bit older than my wife, right? Six years older than her. I grew up in an era in the vcr era, in the cable era. We watched a lot of movies and we did not always see the whole movie. There's a lot of times you just flip in and you just hit hbo and the movie's 15, 20 minutes in and you just absorb it, you fill in in your mind the things you miss and then the next time you catch it or you see it in the tv guys, you're like let me catch that 15 minutes real quick.
Speaker 1:So I'm not saying you supposed to watch that way, but I don't be opposed to missing little tiny things and I don't watch it that way if it's already on.
Speaker 2:I ain't watching it if I, if I haven't seen it before, I'm not watching it. I'm not gonna get half of the movie back in the day, when you was just scrolling through and the movie was already on well, I was never in the house, so it was rare for me to be scrolling through on the times where I I wasn't um stuck in the I wasn't in the house, so it was very rare for me to.
Speaker 1:The answer is I wasn't a nerd like you husband.
Speaker 2:No, I was not watching TV halfway and something pop up and it's like, ooh, this movie. Okay, I didn't see it from the beginning, so I'll catch it next time.
Speaker 1:We was TV nerds in my family. We watched a lot of TV.
Speaker 2:So this movie that we're speaking of, is. Wicked. Oh, we went and saw it.
Speaker 2:It was very, very, very good. I was. I loved it. I did not cry in a theater. I did get a little misty eyed during a certain part, but I did not cry in the theater. I was just kind of in awe, really, like the ending was just like oh, and like everybody clapped and it was like you know, I like the theater that I was at and like the moviegoers that day were very tame and they weren't like screaming at the end.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, excuse me, honor and I were in the second row. Yeah, unfortunately, honor and I were in the second row, so I had to recline the seat back as far as it would go, because my eyes were like, why are you doing this to me? So, yeah, it was a bit of a struggle. But, yeah, my theater was a bit quiet compared to most theaters. Honor and I we both dressed in pink and green. I had on the green pink, so we had like little matching jogging suits. So that was cute, um, but we didn't see anybody with like hats on or costumes or anything like that, um, so, yeah, it was, um, we, we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
Speaker 1:So um, let's get into it was excited to have you join all right, so it's a book, right it's a book and multiple plays.
Speaker 2:I have not seen the play and I also have not read the book, and I normally love to read the books before or even see the plays before I would get into you do the um the movie. But I did not have that option this time around. So, um, yeah, I've been picking up little.
Speaker 1:I think we could play catch up with it though yeah, I, I think so.
Speaker 2:There's been little snippets and tidbits that I've seen of you know the second part. So this is the wicked part one which is essentially the first half of the play, and the second part, which comes out next year, is the second part of the play.
Speaker 1:Gotcha so wicked what is wicked.
Speaker 2:It's a fan adaptation of the actual book or the movie the wizard of Oz.
Speaker 1:All right, or both. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The book that became the movie, that became a phenomenon, that became a phenomenon that brought us the Oz, or the Oz the Wiz. Judy Garland, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that whole thing, the Wiz, come on y'all.
Speaker 1:The Wiz, and then we had this come out in the 90s, yeah, so I remember when the book dropped I was working at this company and a lot of people was reading and I was like working this help desk job, so I had to go around to a lot of people's desks and I remember this book being the topic and I remember thinking like, when somebody told me what it was, they're like yo, they're gonna really explain how the wicked witch got to be wicked because it's deep, and I was like like that's a dope concept, because you know me, I'm always about the complex characters. I hate when it's just it's why me and tyler perry tend to have run-ins. I hate when it's just black and white. It's just one dimensional.
Speaker 2:This person's evil, no life is never like that it's never like that.
Speaker 1:So if somebody is the damn wicked witch of the West, something happened to her.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Something happened.
Speaker 1:How did?
Speaker 2:she get to be called that Like what's the backstory?
Speaker 1:So I loved it. I thought it was a freaking masterpiece visually. I thought it was a masterpiece in the storytelling and I don't think we need to go into a million spoilers no, we're not to do this just to do this review justice, I don't think we need to go too deep okay I mean because the only spoiler would be how did she get there? How did this happen? Right?
Speaker 2:okay, you, you think we need to do it. We got to do it. You know, let's just roll. All right, let's do it, see how it goes.
Speaker 1:This open book, man Ain't no rules. Well yeah.
Speaker 2:Ain't no rules, we got to be open book. Okay, let's just see how it goes. The movie kicks in Bam, first scene. Let's just say that it could possibly have spoilers and then that way, if you haven't seen the movie, then you won't feel some type of way that we are talking about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you ain't seen it and you don't want to spoil pause here. Come back after you've seen it. With that being said, movie starts. Ariana Grande plays Glinda.
Speaker 2:Glinda.
Speaker 1:Glinda, glinda. The G is silent.
Speaker 2:Well, at this point she's Glinda, Glinda, Glinda. The G is silent At this point she's Glinda.
Speaker 1:She is Glinda At the start of the movie.
Speaker 2:She's Glinda.
Speaker 1:She's riding in her flying bubble that we all know and love and she's talking to the good people of Oz about the fact that the Wicked Witch just died.
Speaker 2:You know, ding dong, the witch is dead. All of that good stuff right. Right.
Speaker 1:So that's where we start.
Speaker 2:That's where we start.
Speaker 1:And the twist comes in obviously Glenda's the good witch. We all know that we grown up with that. We know this. She's sparkling. She's bedazzled Right where she's leaving. They're like yo, didn't you know?
Speaker 2:her wait, wait, wait, hold up, hold up and when y'all? Friends, what's up with that? I mean, the girl was like I mean they burned the effigy of the witch.
Speaker 1:They did they like we really hate this woman. She been keeping us down all these years and now she's finally dead. Like you know how it is in the wizard of Oz, it's time to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, which I do believe all these years, and now she's finally dead. You know how it is in.
Speaker 2:The Wizard of Oz. It's time to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. I do believe it's the paying homage to the witch in the play the big witch at the very beginning that they burn I do believe they're paying homage to the witch in the play.
Speaker 1:Which came out in the 2000s.
Speaker 2:So the book was in the 90s and the play was in 2000s.
Speaker 1:the book was in the 90s and the play was in 2000s. So yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:So we gotta get into the story and it's, I thought, interesting is that you see her come in this big bubble right and um, flying bubble, the flying bubble so she's obviously magical right okay, sure you gotta press buttons and do all of these things to get the bubble to work.
Speaker 1:So the foot pedal. I thought that was dope.
Speaker 2:They got like a little foot and remember she had to pop the bubble each time she couldn't hear. She had to make sure the bubble was popped. I also thought it interesting. First off, I knew that Ariana Grande, so, um, I knew she was a phenomenal singer, but I had no idea that she could sing like that. Um, she, she was hitting some really, really high notes in this first scene and, honestly, I didn't know what she was saying the first time it was like what is she saying?
Speaker 2:because it was so high, yeah, that I couldn't. I thought it was beautiful, but I was just like, oh my gosh, I don't know what she's saying, but it sounds good. So that's dope, all right. Okay, good job on her.
Speaker 1:I am a distant fan of Ariana Grande. You know me being a fan of iCarly and Sam and Cat and Victorious and that whole line of shows. I mean her, her talent is off the charts, right. And then she was kind of adjacent to the hip-hop community with her day and mac miller and and big sean. So it's kind of like that's how I first got exposed to her was okay, this chick is blowing up. She was on these shows, she was. She's hilarious. I think she's kind of like to me, like these stars from like the 50s and 60s, like a judy garland or like you know what's her, what's her daughter's name, uh, which I can't remember right now. Um, she's like a throwback to these people who can act and are funny, they don't take themselves too serious and they can sing and they got all three adults right Liza Minnelli, liza.
Speaker 1:Minnelli, she's a throwback to that era. Barbra Streisand like that type of vibe, like she can hit Broadway, she can hit everywhere she can. Saturday Night Live she can do sitcoms, she can she's she got it all. She can do a stadium tour singing. So yeah, I've always been a um. I won't say I'm necessarily a fan of her songs, but her talent is just ridiculous, like.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen anything she ain't dope at. Yeah, I was. I was really surprised by that and I'm a fan of her music. I mean she does amazing. I remember her from Victorious, but she also did really good on Saturday Night Live. She was just recently on there and she was phenomenal, super hilarious. So I didn't really realize the extent of her um, her background with just everything that she does, so it was really dope to see her really be able to come in and just knock this part born to be galinda.
Speaker 1:Born, yeah, born to be linda. Yeah, because this needs some comedy, this needs that look and she wanted.
Speaker 2:Apparently this was like a role that she has lived for, so like dream come true for her.
Speaker 1:That's dope. So we still at the first scene. Glinda is explaining to them yeah, the witch was dead. You know, she looked kind of like kind of bittersweet about it. Yeah, just kind of confusing looking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her face was kind of like I mean. Mean, it just really kind of depends on what, your interpretation of what it is because some parts she looked like she was really sad, some parts she looked like she was upset and then some parts she just looked like okay, let's get this over with like she was just like okay, that's done.
Speaker 2:Check let's go let's keep it moving. So you know, um, she did a good job of putting on the smiley face and and doing what she does, but you could tell she definitely had some conflicted emotions, for sure and I thought that was good, you know, and so, like I said, at the end she hits the.
Speaker 1:You can see they're setting up. You know, this is the wizard of oz. Obviously right, like the whole world, the whole universe we're talking about is the Wizard of Oz cinematic universe right. So these people are scammers, right, so she's a witch, but she's rolling in this thing. Where she's got, like you said, she's got to hit buttons and press foot pedals and pop a bubble to hear it's not real.
Speaker 2:Right, it's manufactured.
Speaker 1:So she's showing that already. I love the fact that they show that in the first scene because it stays true to the Wizard of Oz, the Wiz, everything that we already know. You know you can't get this over on us. You've got to show us up front because we already know the Wiz is a scammer, we already know the Wizard is a scammer. So she is trying to float away and they ask her, like yo, but wasn't you?
Speaker 2:friends with this witch, right yeah.
Speaker 1:And she says, yeah, back in school.
Speaker 2:Back in school and then we get a flashback. Story begins.
Speaker 1:Right, so the story begins with.
Speaker 2:Her dad, her mom and her dad, or her mom and the mayor of Munchkinville? Yes, and.
Speaker 1:Elphaba, which is the name of the Wicked Witch. She's played by Cynthia Erivo. Cynthia.
Speaker 2:Erivo.
Speaker 1:Great, great job.
Speaker 2:I mean, she's ridiculous, amazing. First of, all.
Speaker 1:She played Aretha Franklin and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Speaker 2:Amazing, and she was also Harriet Tubman. And she was Harriet Tubman and she wrote and produced this song that came from that movie and I mean she wrote and produced this song that came from that movie.
Speaker 1:And I mean, we don't live near New. York, we don't produce things, but we know she done toured Broadway down for some years now. Yeah, she was in the Color Purple.
Speaker 2:She's amazing, her voice is amazing. I mean I couldn't have pictured. Obviously I've never seen, like we said earlier, the play or anything, but I just can't imagine anybody else playing this role to the level that this role. She did an amazing job. She was phenomenal, phenomenal in this movie. Her voice is just, and I mean I don't even think she's actually said that this, like Defying Gravity, is not the hardest song that she ever sang, which is crazy, because that song you got so many highs and lows and dips and valleys for that song.
Speaker 1:It's really good. It in this really good. It is good, but it is hard it is not it's not elementary stuff this is not elementary melodies or lyrics or rhyme patterns. Is it's floating on? It's complex?
Speaker 2:and her and ariana grande. I mean their harmony is just beautiful. Sometimes it's like, is it just one voice? They blend so well and then one of them will kind of take the lower note. But I mean even that they just they did so well like they picked. Uh, john chu did such a great he did a good job.
Speaker 1:Step ups right step up. He did quite a few step up two, three, four, five, six. Step up to the game. Step up in space.
Speaker 2:Step up to the streets, and then he did In the Heights. He also did.
Speaker 1:Lin-Manuel Miranda. By the way, y'all In the Heights he did.
Speaker 2:In the Heights he also. He did something else. Why am I drawing a blank on the other thing that he did? But yeah, he's.
Speaker 1:Step up four Electric Boogaloo.
Speaker 2:He did a great job. Oh Asians, what was?
Speaker 1:that. Oh yeah, Crazy Rich Asians, which I haven't seen, but I got to see it. Everybody always says that's dope.
Speaker 2:They got a bunch of awards, but yeah, so yeah, we kind of get an intro to how she is brought into this world. You got her mama tipping out.
Speaker 1:Tell us what happened.
Speaker 2:Mama's like okay, okay, husband, go on and do your job, let me go and bring my little bo skin. And then they're drinking, like this green elixir or whatever. They're drinking a green they drink, they're tipping back they're tipping back and you can tell that they having some fun, right, and he drinks it, she drinks it, and then the next thing, they, they were twirling around all over the pianos yeah, yeah, they was getting it.
Speaker 1:And then the next scene they twirling around All over the pianos yeah, yeah, they romping they was getting it, and then the next scene is whoop. She's pregnant, popping out a baby right.
Speaker 2:And then we also see that the baby, which is clearly a black baby that they painted green, comes out green and she's a disgrace. You know neither of them hold her mother or father. She's delivered by a bear, talking bear with the nanny, and then raised by the bear. And then raised by the bear because she's practically disowned by her family.
Speaker 1:Now this caught me off guard the fact that now, outside of the Wizard of Oz and the Wiz, I didn't really do a lot of Wizard of Oz folklore. I wasn't reading do a lot of Wizard of Oz folklore. I wasn't reading all into the books, but I didn't realize that it was based on talking animals. Yeah me either People and talking animals living side by side. I didn't know that was a thing. I don't know if that's just something they sprung up later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I don't remember that being in the actual.
Speaker 1:But I mean, they did have a cowardly lion.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean it was there yeah that makes sense it does yeah everything.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know what it is? Because the crows can talk. Well, I'm thinking about the whiz, but either way, but the tin man I mean he was able to yeah, he was able to talk to and I thought so interesting that you know here it is.
Speaker 2:This girl is green and you find that weird, but you're hanging out with talking animals.
Speaker 1:What are we talking about? But that green is.
Speaker 2:That's the green oh, she's the odd one here, which is crazy, you know, because I couldn't help but feel like, you know, I mean as a black person, you know, having black, darker brown skin, varying shades of beautiful brown skin. You know, feeling like some kind of way about her being discriminated against because of her beautiful green skin.
Speaker 2:I thought she was beautiful green, I thought, thought I mean even that baby, like when the baby came out and you saw that curly hair and it was like look at that beautiful baby, right, green or otherwise, it's a beautiful baby and to see her, even her younger self was beautiful, beautiful. So the green I just thought was really nice. They said that it was like four hours every day for her to get that green painted on her and they did the freckles and everything. They really did a great job of making it look very realistic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean because you know I grew up watching the Incredible Hulk on TV and they messed up on that every week. You could always see the makeup smudging. They did a great job. It never came off. I think you make a really good point about the analogy to her greenness and our blackness. I thought you know even and I know a lot of us can relate to you know growing up around people who consider themselves animal lovers.
Speaker 1:Mm hmm, but don't got no tolerance for us. It's like you can go, save all of these species.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But having dark skin is too far for you, you know. So it's like I feel that analogy you're making. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean because not only is she, this different color, right, she's also hated immediately. And she's beautiful, she's intelligent, you know, but she's every turn she's treated like she's a monster horrible and the only part, only thing, only species that shows her any love are the animals.
Speaker 2:So it makes sense the direction that the movie goes in, because you know she's essentially her mom was essentially an animal, a bear that's, who raised her and took care of her, where her father and even her sister who was in a wheelchair, you know and the rest of these kids that she has to grow up around, treated her like she was, you know, an alien.
Speaker 1:So you know.
Speaker 2:It's important, though, that the moment she was born, she screamed yes and and levitated every object in the room every, which was the coolest thing because it shows you that her powers were always there, from birth. They were there, but again it came with a cry, right. So it's still not like, oh, she's smiling, she's happy, know, she's screaming, like you could feel that she's not wanted, you know, and that cry of Somebody grabbed me, like what, and you could see. So I mean, I thought that was just so good to see, like everybody's just like turning away from her, and then you see that power and the theme of that power throughout the movie is based on her anger. So, yeah, really interesting.
Speaker 1:And so you mentioned the sister. So she ends up with another sister, yep Younger.
Speaker 2:Has another sister. Mother dies giving birth to the sister.
Speaker 1:Tell us how that happened.
Speaker 2:So it's brought up in the movie where the father is distraught, clearly, and disowns Elphaba because she's green. But the mother gets pregnant again and the father doesn't want her to deliver another green baby, so he has her taking milk, milk flour, yeah um, and excuse me, this causes Nessa Rose, the little sister sister, to come early and the mother died Not fully developed. Clearly her. You know she's disabled and then the mother dies during birth, so you know.
Speaker 1:Milk flowers babe Milk flowers, Milk flowers, milk flowers. So we're going to make this baby white.
Speaker 2:We're going to make this. So Elphaba thinks that this is her fault because obviously the dad is this way because she's green. But that ain't that. That's the daddy's fault, I'm sorry, or it's the milk flowers fault. Who we blaming?
Speaker 1:it on, it shouldn't be blamed on her or it's just the parents fault for being who they was right and not let her. Let her understand her real truth right on.
Speaker 2:I mean the mother. We can take it back to the mama tipping out what was or what was daddy doing. Like you know what I'm saying, it that you're right, it starts with the parents. It shouldn't have been placed.
Speaker 1:The heavy weight shouldn't have been placed on her but it was, and it kind of reminded me of the way she internalized that she walked around like not only am I messed up, I'm, I'm so messed up, I'm defensive. Everybody, I, everybody I meet. I got to explain my existence.
Speaker 2:Yes, she has a disclaimer.
Speaker 1:I got to do this to everybody because it's my fault that they are uncomfortable. But not only that. You owning it Like it's me. I'm the reason my father did what he did gave my mother the milk, flowers and now my mother's dead. So all of this is me and it reminded me of like you ever heard, like when people like racist people or when people talk about racism in the past they'll be like oh man, they did this down south because of the color of their skin.
Speaker 1:They discriminated against this person because of the cup. It's not because of the color of their skin. No it's because of the messed up brain they have. It's got nothing to do with the color of their skin. But it's like that's the way that it's always explained. Even when we call in that hate, we'd be like, oh well he, he hated him because of the color of their skin that's not the reason.
Speaker 2:Nope, that's you. That's the uncomfortability with you. It ain't got nothing to do with the other person.
Speaker 1:I hate when it's like the fault is always going on the person for having the wrong color skin. Even when I got abused by a racist, well, it's because you have the wrong color skin.
Speaker 2:What? No, what is that? That's the logic.
Speaker 1:oh okay, no yeah yeah, so I thought that was. I thought it was really deep and painful and accurate how she internalized that on herself, because that is how we are, you know, like even like this is another one you ever meet people, non-black people, and racism come up and people would be like, man, well, I'm far from a racist okay I don't care if you black, white, green, red, purple, brown I don't see color uh, first of all, I hate.
Speaker 1:Why would you? And that's what I think is one of the most interesting things about this story- and that line I do believe was in this movie I don't see color. I think somebody said that why would you equate me being black to somebody being green and purple? It's like why do you? You gotta be so open-minded that you even accept aliens and non-existent beings to like me right that's what it takes right.
Speaker 1:You can't just be like I'm not a racist. You gotta be like man. I don't care if you purple, white, black, it's like what. All I got to do with it, I ain't purple Right and honestly, we're all.
Speaker 2:we have racisms in our. Everybody does. Whatever color you are, whatever race you are, whatever culture you are, you have some type of thoughts to your own. So, and which could or could not be viewed as racist. So it just is what it is. Sometimes, I think that when it comes to portraying it to be skin color, that's when it becomes okay. This is more than that Because obviously, culturally, you know, we all have our thing.
Speaker 2:But, then when you get into other things that have been classified as a specific you know color then that's something else 100, so they end up going where they go to school they go to university she is university, and actually so we and this is when gullanda comes into the picture, right um, we get to see her. She's different from everybody. She's her pink is evident, she's clearly rich and she's clearly loved by everybody she's a star.
Speaker 2:She walks on the clouds on the campus and everybody's fawning over her everybody except for a few people she can do no wrong she can do no wrong. I mean, she's raised that way. That's just who she is. She's popular, she's the it girl. And then you get Elphaba and Nessa Rose, who you know is there. Elphaba is not enrolled, she's only there with her sister.
Speaker 1:I thought that was interesting. You see her first.
Speaker 2:She comes in first by herself. She does see her first. She comes in first by herself. She does come in first by herself. Yeah, which, yeah again, is very, but that's probably because the dad was helping. You know the dad was she was on her own and as soon as she steps foot up, it's immediate she's green and she gives her disclaimer that we see multiple times she says let me answer your questions up front.
Speaker 1:No, I haven't eaten grass. No, yes, I was born this way. Right, she got a whole speech that she always keeps giving through the movie.
Speaker 2:Right, I didn't eat grass.
Speaker 1:I'm not seasick, and I was born this way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is whack and then you again can see she's. You could tell that she wanted to stay, but she's not enrolled and her father makes her stay to make sure that Nessa Rose is okay. And Nessa Rose is like, why are you still here? This is my fresh start in my new beginning. I don't want you here. And then there's this scene where they introduced all of the faculty and you get to see the sorcerer. I can't remember what her name is in the movie, but, um, that's when, um, what's her name? Michelle woo comes into the the picture and um, then that or yo, michelle, yo, and she's madame morrible, yeah, morrible. So so she is the only one that's not entranced with Glinda and there's a scene where she's saying that she's not teaching her class, but Nessa is being like taken off by the headmistress and it's very big for both Elphaba and Nessarose, for Nessarose to feel like she can do everything on her own.
Speaker 2:And when she takes her away, she kind of like the headmistress, just kind of like pushes her off, like no, no, no, I can take it from here. And then her power comes out. And then that's when everything is like oh, she's even scarier now she levitates everything. She levitates everything. She levitates everything and she even knocks off a piece of um the brick to show.
Speaker 2:I think it had the facade that's got like a painting on it yeah, it had the wizard of oz yeah it had him on it, and then it falls off, and then you could see that there was, in fact, a time where there were the animals that were faculty, who were teaching everyone and talking, yeah, and they only had one animal left, which was the goat.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, which was the goat. So, yeah, so this is how she gets accepted into the school. The sorcerer sees her, she says she wants to teach her, and Galinda just happens to be around and volunteers her room unknowingly, and then that's kind of how her father lets her attend the school.
Speaker 1:And she has to run with Galinda. Galinda wants to be a sorceress slash witch.
Speaker 2:And she's hoping that this lady is going to teach her and the lady's not. She got no powers.
Speaker 1:Galinda is exactly like the wizard she's just a regular person. She wants to get with this lady, miss Maribel is that her name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, miss morrible miss morrible.
Speaker 1:So she wants to be chosen, as she's always chosen.
Speaker 2:She thinks this is gonna be the same situation, because she even has the line oh my gosh, I didn't get my way. I feel faint. I just thought that was the funniest thing. So ariana grande in this movie is hilarious she has so many funny lines in this movie um she's also white privilege she's oh very very she's the embodiment of white privilege.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Her friends won't even let her feet touch the ground she's carried no, because even in that the scene where they get to the room and she has to share her room and she gives her a corner that's literally just a cot by a window while she takes up the rest of the room.
Speaker 1:It's integration, right, racial integration. We give you separate, but equal quarters right, we give you that little corner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it progresses to a musical number, which was great, and then you kind of can see again them just having different personalities her being galinda, being the popular one and then, of course, elphaba not being popular at all not only not popular, she, you know.
Speaker 1:I saw that. They said um, what's the director's name? John chu. He said one of his trademarks is visual storytelling with colors. He absolutely did that in here, right? So the school's uh uniform is blue. Everybody's wearing blue except for elphaba and glinda. So glinda is wearing her she's wearing black.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, glinda's wearing pink.
Speaker 1:She never stops wearing pink. Does she want to do what she want to do? She's she's white privilege. I do what she want to do. She's white privilege. I do what I want to do. I don't conform to anything. And on the opposite end, Elphaba is wearing black.
Speaker 2:But she does wear the blue shirt.
Speaker 1:But she starts to phase in. I thought that was really interesting. She starts to conform. She initially didn't. She initially was standout stark and then you start to see her put some blue under her black and then she even once they got to be friends, she even allowed her to make her stylish from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her outfits were like oh okay, I see you, alpha, because it was still black, but it was like you know, a dress here, or you know, maybe she has um knee high boots, or you know, just so. Yes, you could definitely see that her style changed quite a bit, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the middle of the movie was really not, unlike a whole bunch of other movies.
Speaker 2:Well, no we got the second act where they they have the oz dust dance. Am I saying that? Um, where they all, they all. Jonathan Bailey comes into the movie, right, because then they have this thing where you got the animals, the goat. He has this thing written up in the classroom where you know animals are to be seen, not heard. And then she kind of goes and she kind of talks to him about them, about you know them being taken away, kind of talks to him about them, about to you know them being taken away. And then that's when Jonathan Bailey comes in, because she meets him like on the way home and she's totally not impressed by him at all because, remember, she gives him the disclaimer. He's like, okay, I'm okay. Why are you telling me these things?
Speaker 2:right and she's. She told him to go get stuffed, which is hilarious, um, and then the next day, that's when galinda is like reported that he's coming, and then galinda sees him, and then they have this big thing where they like immediately hook up and then that goes into the library scene where he has his big number, which was amazing in the library with the twirling so this guy is a prince from another part of the land?
Speaker 1:right, ah, so he came from us, yeah, and he comes in and he is like uh, they tell the story really quickly and clearly that he's a bad boy. He's getting thrown out of every school because he doesn't conform he doesn't conform right and he's like by all no different from galinda, he's just really the male version of her.
Speaker 2:I mean men and women love him.
Speaker 1:He felt to me like he was the embodiment of both of them yeah, okay, I can see that at the same time like because they are mirror images. One of them combined is that is him, is him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, but is it, though? I mean, yeah, that's what he wants everybody to believe.
Speaker 1:So yes, I can see that. Yeah, I think what he wants, I can see him playing that part, yes, but there's also more to him than he is showing people. I think he wanted people to believe he was the male version of Glinda Mm-hmm. But Elphaba can see through that. Yeah, absolutely, and she sees the part of him that's exactly like her.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the part of him that's exactly like her, yeah, and I think he. I mean this story is not about love, it's not a love story per se, like in the typical movies like this, but I thought it was love in that. That was real for him and it changed him the moment he saw that he, she saw that in him. I think it changed him for the rest of the movie and I think there was a you know, I hate to use that word love because it kind of makes your mind go somewhere else with the story.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because it wasn't all about oh my God, they're going to kiss and all of that?
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't that. It was just more of a realization.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he kind of had his blinders taken off right, yes, kind of had to had his blinders taken off right, or our blinders, because that was a thing like you know they have. They have this dance, which is a huge part in the movie. They have this dance where, um, well, from the library scene, you have um brock asking the sister. Anessa rose to the dance because glinda said he should, and then but the way that she did it right.
Speaker 1:This is glinda, right? So glinda shows her usual style, right? So we get to see the glinda that ends up becoming the good witch, right, where she's gonna give charity to somebody based on what she wants, right? What she really wants is to clear the waters yeah right for her right. So she's like I'm gonna do something good for y'all, which is what we end up seeing of glenda right at the end. Right, this is how glenda is a good right.
Speaker 2:Everything has to be self-serving to her in some type of way and this was to get him out of her way.
Speaker 2:Um, and then she invites, so she finds this hat her grandmother knitted her, or made her, a black hat that they were like. Her friends were like, oh, this hat is horrible. And she's like, oh, I know, I would never give this to anybody, not even my worst enemy. And then, of course, elphaba walks into the room and they think it's funny, like a nice little joke, for her to gift her this hat, which Elphaba is like, wow, you know, and invites her to this big party that they're having. And so then Elphaba goes to the sorcerer to say, hey, I really think that you should, now that she's invited me and my sister to this party, I think you should allow her to come to the class that you know us be in this private class Learning how to be a sorceress the thing that Glenda wants more than anything right elphaba got it for her right.
Speaker 2:So they go to the dance, and nice dance. You could clearly see that again, bach is not really into this chick, but only starts to show her attention once he sees glinda. And um, fiero prince, fiero kiss. And then that's when we see the sorcerer come and tell her uh, galinda, like hey, I'm giving you this training wand so that you can join my class elphaba insisted and she said she would leave if you didn't allow her to come.
Speaker 2:And you need to make sure you thank her because here she comes. And so here elphaba comes in this beautiful black dress, with this witch hat that she's given Calm down, they clowning her Still clowning.
Speaker 2:They just create this big circle around. They like spread the waters right. She's standing in the middle, everybody's laughing at her and she starts dancing. She starts doing her, she puts her, takes her hat off first and starts doing this dance that everybody's just laughing at her, clowning her, and she ends up putting the hat back on. But you can see she's like super emotional, she's crying, she's just kind of like man. And then Galinda realizes like I feel terrible. Here it is.
Speaker 2:I've been dogging this girl and she did the thing that I most wanted and I have really fostered this environment of all of these people making her feel, yeah, she has a turning point and she dances with her. And I love this scene because obviously you could sell, you could tell that there's real emotion there. And she was directed to not know the dance so she literally had to follow her. Whatever the movements were that she, the elphaba, was doing, she had to follow them and that opened the door for them to form this friendship. It was a beautiful scene.
Speaker 1:This was the scene that I got misty, misty-eyed in at the theater. It was beautiful they have to be mirror images of each other visually, which, again, great visual storytelling, letting the audience know exactly who these people are showing the progression of glinda. Letting you know, so that you're again tyler perry, if you're listening again letting us know this person is not all evil. This is a complex character it is very and we're going to show you exactly how complex we're going to give you the whole story.
Speaker 2:Right, and then we go right into the popular scene, which is them having the dance and her trying to figure out how to dress Elphaba up and make her different, when she really just settles on.
Speaker 1:This is her version of love. This is her version of love. You are now my friend.
Speaker 2:I'm going love. This is her version of love. You are now my friend I'm gonna make you popular.
Speaker 1:We can tell each other. You only know how to do it.
Speaker 2:One way, and I'm gonna make you dazzle. Of course I'm gonna make you popular. You're never gonna be as popular as me and I'm gonna drive but I'm gonna I'm in control steer you and I love that. It just really wound up being you're perfect and beautiful as you are. I'm gonna give you this flower, show you that pink and green goes together well, and tell you that you're beautiful, which she probably has never heard in her life.
Speaker 1:Big scene. She said Huge scene.
Speaker 2:She ran off. Of course she was emotional. Again she ran off and then you could see her finishing. The scene was like yeah, I'm going to make you popular, boo, but you ain't going to be as popular as me. But you know what I thought was really interesting, which was just such a that's a great scene.
Speaker 1:After it all ended with, I'm just going to give you a flower, because you already got the beauty. She still imitated Glinda. After she left, she started flipping her hair.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:She was. What did he call her? The prince came and he said you've been Glindified.
Speaker 2:You've been Glindified. And then he told her you don't need to do that, you don't need to do that.
Speaker 1:You don't. No, I again that spoke really much, really big to black aesthetic the black aesthetic of beauty versus the white normalized aesthetic of beauty, and how there is a lot of pressure. Even when you do come to that realization that I am beautiful the way I am, there's still that lingering pressure when they ain't looking to flip that hair yep and think about that image of whiteness. I thought that was excellent. Those are the little, small things you can do to really make a story perfect.
Speaker 2:And then from there it goes into the scene of the goat being captured, the teacher being captured and then Elphaba unknowingly casting a poppy spell.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, this so overall and we didn't touch on it real big because it's a lot and we don't want to take three hours. But the overall arch of that is that in the past the teachers are teaching them that their animal teachers are teaching them that in the past that animals could talk, a lot of animals could talk and they would teach and they live perfectly fine with humans. And then humans started dominating them and trying to take away their ability to talk and the more that they took it away, the less they could actually talk. They actually would become timid to where they lost their ability to talk, because it was.
Speaker 1:They would be so mistreated yeah, if they did talk and they put them in cages also if you, if you're keeping track at home, explains the cowardly lion, but we get there on another episode. But which?
Speaker 2:is also a little lion cub that is brought into the classroom and taken away.
Speaker 1:They invent cages, they invent animal cages, and so the one of the common themes is that humanity is taking over animals. They are making them hide in in back dark rooms to talk, and they are caging them when they see them, and eventually there's not going to be any animals living free. They're all going to be in cages, and you know kind of like how we are right now, where ain't no animals talking or teaching nobody, nothing. That's where they're headed, and this is what Elphaba makes the realization of. And to your point, bae, which I thought was really dope, elphaba was raised by an animal yeah, this is going.
Speaker 2:This is huge for her. She's the only one in the class is like upset. Everybody else is like why are we talking about this?
Speaker 1:and that's another point which I gotta make super quick. Ozians, the people who live in eyes, these ain't normal humans. I thought they did a really good job of conveying that, right. Like any. All of us who've seen the wizard of oz especially all of us who've seen the wiz know that ozians are just sheep people. They follow whatever a, an aggressive, assertive person tells them. They just fall in line like that. That's who they are, that's in their dna. So you see that over and over in this movie, like, except for the people who are not exactly from there, right so you see, like you said, alpha, but it's like this is messed up.
Speaker 1:This dude is a great teacher. He was teaching us. I was raised by an animal. This is not right. Everybody else you could kind of see on their face that was like it's kind of messed up.
Speaker 2:But oh well this is where we're headed. Now let's go and then, even when she cast her, like unknowingly, cast that spell. Fiyero is the only other person that's not affected by it and I think it's because he's not from there.
Speaker 1:Remember, at the beginning, when he popped up, he said I'm from what?
Speaker 2:is it Wicking?
Speaker 1:Wickers.
Speaker 2:He's from Oz.
Speaker 1:No, it was another land he said he was from and it had a weird name because he said it a couple of times.
Speaker 2:He did, but then he said Oz it was somewhere.
Speaker 1:It was somewhere. Yeah, find that it was, because I think he said what was something like that. But so, yeah, she, she spreads poppies, which is great, not back to the wizard of oz and the whiz. I'm gonna keep putting the whiz in there because y'all know, but she spreads poppy winky country.
Speaker 1:So she accidentally makes poppies fly all over the class. Everybody goes to sleep. Her and the prince run off into the woods with the lion cub. They pull him out of the little cage they was building so that they can really free him and they start to real. And that's when he realizes I am like you. Yeah, I am not a conformist. Yeah, I am him out. Yeah, she told him, I am not like Glenda.
Speaker 2:I love that scene. When she told him Mike, you're pretending.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't be so miserable if this was how you really were.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, and it was facts, and I think it did. It hit him all the way to the core. Yes, it did, and he immediately changed Totally changed.
Speaker 2:After that yeah. After that, yeah, cause she sang that song I'm not that girl which was another great song. Um, that doesn't really get talked about a lot, but it was a really good song.
Speaker 1:And you can see him.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, Remember, because she got that happened. And then the, the um sorcerer sent a letter off to the Wiz, and you know, it came back to where it was time for you to go visit and on the way to the train coming, he comes back to. Like you know she was looking for him. Like where is I mean? You know, I know he ain't here to see me, but where is he been acting different? He been acting different.
Speaker 1:She was like he been thinking his stuff she didn't open up his mind outside of their walls, and so yeah, overall, the. The sorcerer lets the wiz the wizard no, I'm gonna always say the wiz, y'all, y'all know what it is. The sorceress lets the wizard know we got the one yeah, we got the real one.
Speaker 2:You know, you've been looking, we got the one so he, she sends away, he comes back, they send a train for but wait, I thought that this was a nice thing to bring up very quickly how, when they get the telegram, it starts to rain and remember she covers her up oh yeah and she was like I control the weather and send the rain away, but remember she's supposed to melt if she gets wet.
Speaker 2:So that was nice little, little winky wink right at the very beginning to say, oh, we can't let you get wet boo. So yeah, she comes and gets, the train comes to get her and um but that also shows you that that lady knew oh yeah, of course she knew yeah, because you the way she said it to her, was like oh no, we can't have you getting wet, because this is when they still want to use her right right, yeah, so she gets on the train. She's leaving. Uh, fiero gives her a poppy.
Speaker 1:Um, they throw this big send off for her, and that's when galinda gives her the thing saying I wish all of your hope, all of your dreams come true, your heart's desires yes, and she was like you need to come with me, but before that happens, you know, her and fiero are talking about the animals and all they made this big protest.
Speaker 2:right, because they took the cub. And so Glinda's like I'm going to stand on it too, because he could never say my name. Right, I'm going to change my name to Glinda to show solidarity for the animals, so now she's Glinda instead of Glinda, and they go off and again you get to see glinda as the good witch, right like this is how it happens.
Speaker 1:Yes, because everybody thought it was the greatest.
Speaker 2:Thing ever right and she was like I mean, people love you. This is not really a big deal for those like it's not a big deal story they.
Speaker 1:You get to see how these people get the positions they got right. Like you know, I don't get political with it, but everybody always get all upset when certain people get elected. I'm like, but look at how, yeah, and understand the how you get. We see, we've, we've seen in other movies how the wizard got where he was at. He flew in on a balloon and they thought he was magic and he kept that joint going. Yep, man, I am magic, you right, yeah, and I ain't gonna let y'all see the real how I'm doing it, right, but I'm gonna perform enough tricks yeah that y'all all gonna think I'm magic and we, as we just talked about ozzy and believe anything.
Speaker 1:So they will follow a leader and he is the leader. So I thought it was dope. You get to see Glenda be like a little wizard.
Speaker 2:She's just like him. Yep, she running the show essentially Because she ain't got no powers. No, she does not.
Speaker 1:Her popularity is her power. Her powers are popular. She know how to manipulate folks, man, she get what she want. And you'll see her do this hair flip thing from oh my gosh, which is hilarious and everybody's like, oh she has the. It's almost like the wizard with the giant face yeah, or emerald city. It's what she has behind.
Speaker 2:She gotta keep doing yeah, which is why it does not work for elphaba, because that's not her thing. She has her magic, she has her smarts, she has her skin. That's her thing yeah so we go to the oz and, beautiful right, everybody's dancing, they're green, they're having a good time go and hey, shout out to the black dancers that rolled through man they came in, they stood out.
Speaker 2:so much I was was twerking and everything we also get to see the original cast from the play, which was really nice. They had a scene that they did, so we were able to get to kind of just have them be in. And there were quite a few people who kind of popped up from the play, the various plays that there were. There were a few people that played the Wicked Witch, or they played Glinda, or they had some type of role in the previous play. So that was nice that he he had them pop up around the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they get to the doors. We meet the monkeys who do not have wings. They're the guard, they're just there. They take her to the. They take them both to the doors. We meet the monkeys who do not have wings. They're the guard, they're just there, they take her to the. They take them both to the back. And in this you can see, as they're walking through the, the town, you can see their bond, galinda and alpha, but getting stronger and stronger, they get to the door. They say they're best friends, they go in, they meet the big wizard of o and he does his whole production.
Speaker 1:Jeff Goldblum, y'all.
Speaker 2:Jeff, we get Jeff Goldblum Come on.
Speaker 1:How can we not have Jeff?
Speaker 2:Goldblum Amazing, amazing actor. So good to see him just really be himself in this movie. And when she has to come forward First off the very. I thought this was so funny when he like get all boomy and she was like, oh no baby. Elphaba was running. I thought that was so funny.
Speaker 1:It was just like the Cowardly Lion did.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was like uh-uh, I'm leaving, and Glitch was like no, no, no, you got to stay. But oh, I just thought that was so funny because I'm with you, Elphaba.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh no, you coming booming and booming behind the big metal face, like he always is, and as soon as he heard her name, they say the name he comes back out. We'll talk a little bit about that at the end, because I know you got some points to make on that one yeah he.
Speaker 2:He says, she says her name, he comes out, he's like oh wow, you're here, let me show you my plans.
Speaker 1:And so yeah he got plans to make her the first lady. Basically, he's gonna run this place with me yeah, she's with me.
Speaker 2:He has a little action figure, he has this whole sandbox where he has what the future town is gonna look like and she's there with him the most part about it.
Speaker 1:The sandbox that he had was Oz that we see in the Wizard of Oz. It actually did come to fruition it did yes, and he asked him to even choose the color of the brick road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which was really cool and then the sorcerer comes, and then it's like we got. What was the name of the book, do you remember?
Speaker 1:no, but there's a magical book of spells. It's shaped funny. You know how you got to do it in the movies, um, and they like we need you to go up and try this book.
Speaker 2:Right and you know the sorcerer is telling her. Like you know, don't be worried, if you know you don't get it. It took me two years just to say two words and she gets it immediately.
Speaker 1:She gets it immediately.
Speaker 2:What they do is they say well what, how can you prove? She's like well, how can I prove myself? Because the sorcerer told her she needed to prove herself. And they, they go to the monkey and he's like oh well, he loves birds and he loves birds.
Speaker 2:He's always looking at the birds and you know, and you could see the emotions on the monkey, like, yeah, I do like birds, they're really cool, right, of course he's not talking, but you could see it in his face how the you know very just the expression is like yeah so she's like great, I'm gonna give you wings she spits a spell out of this book that makes wings violently grow out of the monkey's shoulder blades, and turns out they grow out of all of the monkey's shoulder blades and they in pain, and elphaba is obviously like.
Speaker 1:This ain't what I was. This ain't it. I was looking to do some goodness right.
Speaker 2:I wasn't trying to do that right, because of course she loves the animal, she's not trying to hurt him. And so she asked the sorcerer, like the Grimory, how do we reverse this?
Speaker 1:and she tells her you can't reverse anything from the Grimory, shout out to Elphaba, because she she wasn't like Dorothy man, she figured it out instantly.
Speaker 2:She did. She figured it out instantly, once she realized okay, what y'all asking me to do, I can't do.
Speaker 1:I mean, this was her dream, right, and she didn't play that whack stuff that they usually do, where they look at somebody else first. She went straight to the wizard.
Speaker 2:She made him the Gregory, remember?
Speaker 1:She was like here you do it you do it like you can't do it, bro, you fake. She figured, she figured the wiz out faster than anybody ever yeah, because they like.
Speaker 2:No, we need you to do. That's why we got you here. We need to do this with us. And as soon as she left, they recruit glinda to go get her. And then the sorcerer goes to the monkeys and tell them she did this to you.
Speaker 1:She the one that gave you wings now is where the movie gets his name she's the evil one see, we have go get her all apb. They have an announcement system, as you remember, from the, from the whiz. They have an announcement system, as you remember, from the Wiz. They got an announcement system that everybody in the town can hear and she says we got to get her. Her green skin is what they say is a reflection of the evil within.
Speaker 2:She is a wicked witch.
Speaker 1:And there you have it. And there you have it. So she off and running, they chasing her, they trying to get her, they trying to get out.
Speaker 2:They trying to get out, they try to get gold through the balloon Right. They got the wizard there. They sent.
Speaker 1:Glenda to get her.
Speaker 2:But Glenda is conflicted because Glenda is still her friend, she's still her friend. And they like we gonna ride out together.
Speaker 1:But Glenda's also a scammer.
Speaker 2:She Like what is she really going to be able to do?
Speaker 1:She is way out of her depth and she knows the only way that I could even stay here.
Speaker 2:Is to do what they say To do what they say. Because my only power is my popularity and these people are going to be able to give me essentially what I want. I can't ride off with you, because now we fugitives, right, what am I going to be able to do? But, to her credit, she caught her and she ain't try to make her, she ain't try to grab her, like what are you doing like?
Speaker 1:this is your dream. You're being ridiculous. She tried to use her power of persuasion.
Speaker 2:It didn't work but and then, once she realized that this is and even Elphaba was like you know what this is exactly what I want, but I can't this is not, I can't want this anymore.
Speaker 1:This is bigger than us, right yeah so so we get to the connection of realizations. Now we're we get to the climax of it all.
Speaker 2:Now we're at the climax.
Speaker 1:She knows that I got to write. I got to cast a spell on myself so I can get out of here. They try to use my man the wizard's balloon, but it got destroyed. He kept it in and it was destroyed and burnt up. I got to fly out of here. Somehow I'm going to cast a spell on me.
Speaker 2:I'm going to think these wings is going to work for me. It worked on the monkeys, right, but it didn't. That's not what she got. She got her broom.
Speaker 1:She got the broom.
Speaker 2:And I thought in this moment when the wings didn't come and Glinda's like, oh, maybe you're not as powerful as you thought I was like when that broom started moving. I was like what you got to say to that girl, linda right?
Speaker 1:So she got the broom. Time to fly off, so she, she got the broom. She wearing black, she wearing a hat. What's she missing?
Speaker 2:She missing her cloak, which Glenda gives her right.
Speaker 1:She tells her come on. She told her to come with her.
Speaker 2:She said come with me, hop on this bone with me she says you're, you're freezing, you're shaking, and she goes to get her cloak and you know again which is one of her just a black shroud hanging at the top of the wizard's palace that she creates on where he flew his balloon out of.
Speaker 1:So she grabs it and rips it down and ties it around Elphaba's neck and now she has everything that we've ever seen. And you gotta you know John Chu was good at this, but you know we're gonna get the Avengers spin around 360 shut beautiful and it was killer.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful. I was dope and I thought you made a good point earlier when you said that all of these items that she has the hat, the cloak, these are things that has been given to her right by glinda, by glinda right yeah, the first one not really being an honest gift, but the other is, you know, to help her along on her journey so the final scene is a tearjerker oh, it's beautiful, she jumps, she jumps to escape.
Speaker 1:She can't fly.
Speaker 2:At first, she loses the broom and she's falling to her death and she sees herself her younger self right this unlimited song she's singing, she sees her younger self and they reach out to each other and the connection that they have is the broom brings the broom back right before she hits the ground, flies up and she tell them like y'all want me, I'm the one y'all want. And guess what?
Speaker 1:y'all ain't get me, wicked witch is born and she said what you could find me in the west yep, oh my gosh, her singing was the wicked witch of the west is born, and the flying monkeys that they sicked on her are now following her she turned them around to use to her advantage, although you notice, when she did get them to attack, they did not attack Glinda.
Speaker 2:They did.
Speaker 1:No, glinda was still standing there. Remember, all of them was there, and they was even standing next to Glinda.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're talking about that scene On the original scene. They did when they was trying to get both of them. You're right.
Speaker 1:When Elphaba flew them in, they only attacked the wizard and the guards. Yeah, you're right, they did not attack, or I mean the sorceress and the guards. Because the wizard was down in his office.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like he always is hiding.
Speaker 2:Yep, and then he came out.
Speaker 1:Then you could also see where galinda and the sorcerer is now their friend yes because you know her token is not necessarily friends, but she's there, they got yeah, marriage of convenience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's somebody there that she can have do their will so we got.
Speaker 1:One last thing, though you got to give us a theory which is who's alphaba's father?
Speaker 2:oh, I think it's that, I think it's the wizard of oz, absolutely well, because at the very beginning. Well, there's father. Oh, I think it's the Wizard of Oz, absolutely. What makes you think that? Well, because at the very beginning. Well, there's a couple reasons why I think that the very first reason was at the very beginning.
Speaker 1:They have the green bottle right and obviously there's some elixir when her mom is stepping with the dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he drinking, she drinking, they drinking, you got this green baby. That's magic, magic, of course, right. And then also it was a, it was a part where, and I don't know too, it seems like you said the sorcerer was waiting for her, they were waiting for her. So I, you know, I can't say that you know, obviously because she was with the munchkin guy, you know the mayor. She wasn't enrolled in the school, but her being at the school brought attention to herself and her writing her to say I think she's the one.
Speaker 2:But then she gets there and in the sandbox when they're talking about you know he already got this figurine of her with green skin, which you know she was hoping to de-green herself.
Speaker 2:But she's got this green skin and it's a scene where he says I always wanted to be a father. And in that it is, I always wanted to be a father and in that it is, I always wanted to be a father, I wanted to have a son or daughter and he just got. He just got so like oozy when he said that like a daughter, and I'm like, and he looked at her and even like, when they first got there, he did the magic trick only with her, with the coin behind her ear, remember, because he was like you brought an unexpected person, like they weren't expecting Glenda to be there, they didn't want her there until obviously they needed her. But I just it was too much emotion that he was like putting in and his attention was really now you could look at it like, well, he needs her because she has powers, but it was just too much focus on her.
Speaker 1:I think it was more than that. I think that she is his kid. I agree with that. I think it says a couple of things too, though. Um, one thing I love is that it means, if that's true and I I agree with that, I think it is true but that means the wizard actually did have some magic yes he did figure it out. He couldn't figure it out in himself, but he got it. He was able to pass it on or maybe the sorcerer.
Speaker 2:He always knew her and she was remember because she said that she tried to do the grimory, the reading and the grimory, and she couldn't do it, so maybe she had something to do with it yeah maybe she made an elixir for him and they supposed they chose this woman specifically because she's the mayor's husband wife of the munchkin land all right, it could be.
Speaker 1:I think it's. It's so much. Y'all tell us what y'all think right. Overall, I think this is a really a story about a lot of things, but conformity about. Uh, when you are the outsider to what's normalized, it can. There's an analogy. It's an analogy for racism. It's an analogy for a lot of the isms. When you are looked at as the outside and you know that you have innate abilities and gifts that were put in you but you can't see them through the lens of how normal society is telling you to look, they feel like you are ugly and you are not valuable. So I thought all of that was in there. I love the fact that these are all complex characters, even Glinda. I know we talked about this. I feel like I don't feel like Glinda was an evil character although I know that's the no.
Speaker 1:It's easy for us to go there to say, oh, one of them was seen as good one of them seen as evil and they flipped it.
Speaker 1:I don't think they quite flipped it. I think they exposed it to show us the real, which is what the wizard of oz story is all about exposing the real, complex reality. Is the wizard even evil? Right like yes, that's something that he's exposed. He's not even a wizard, he's a man who was a uh, a failed magician circus guy who flew a balloon. So I think, overall, I think they were true to the essence of wizard of oz story exposure and getting to the depth behind. I think, um, I like the prince. He was a really good side of the story I really like. I thought Ariana Grande did her thing. Even though the whole point is to not like her, I thought she really did her thing to be funny in it, man.
Speaker 2:She was wonderful man. She was so dope, she was wonderful.
Speaker 1:And Cynthia Erivo. Oh, my goodness, man, man, because you got to bring beauty to this character that we have only seen as this ugly witch with the bump on the nose and cackling with rotten teeth, like that's what every single person has ever seen of this character flying through the air, but with the moon behind her. It's like you've never seen any beauty in this, and in one turn she had to make you see true beauty. I thought she did a great job.
Speaker 2:She did. Her ending, I mean the climax of her coming into who she is, and her power, was just absolutely beautiful. The second time around is when I cry, because I mean it was just beautiful for her to say, for her to be falling, trying to figure out who she is, and to come to herself, child and all, to come to herself to say it's me, you want, I'm the one right and there's nothing you can do. If nothing you can do, that's going to bring me down right, and to see her power grow when she hit that note at the end. Oh just, this movie was phenomenal, it's gonna have all the awards.
Speaker 2:I'm giving it a eight and a half I. I give it an eight and a half nine I was gonna say I give it an 8.9.
Speaker 1:I think it's up.
Speaker 2:I think it's up there, man, it's very high, it's up there, it's an excellent movie the only reason why I don't give it a perfect 10 is because there were some spots in it that was a little too fast and made it a little blurry. Um, I noticed that in the theater and I thought it was just because I was sitting up close. But some of this in the big, like some of the fast parts, and for me it was mostly in the beginning, but it was kind of blurry where things kind of just seemed a little unclear. But then once that kind of stopped, it panned out very well.
Speaker 2:But there were some spots that were a little sketchy, but other than that thought it was an excellent movie. I highly recommend you go see it, there's so many small stories within the story and, um, people are gonna be talking this, talking about this, for years. There's a part two coming next year and then we'll recap then.
Speaker 1:So hit us up on our Facebook page, on our Instagram, on our TikTok. Let us know what y'all think. Did y'all watch it? Did you like?
Speaker 2:it. What were your thoughts?
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you think it was janky? Did you not agree with any of the stuff? Did you agree with any of the stuff? Did we bring up anything that you didn't think of? Let us know. We're going to keep covering some more things and we're going to keep rocking. I'm glad y'all rocking with us, man. Oh, by the way, my grade was an 8.9. I would give it a 9, but Bowen Yang was in it.
Speaker 2:Oh he did okay.
Speaker 1:Did you see his?
Speaker 2:outfit. It was both. Yeah, what it was. It was phenomenal, absolutely.
Speaker 1:No, Boing, Yang I usually don't like him, but he was good.
Speaker 2:He was good, everybody did a great job. Very good movie.
Speaker 1:That's what's up. Yo, thanks for rocking with us. Y'all Check back in with us. We're going to do some more stuff. Like we talked about at the beginning, we're going to try to have more content, consistently. We.
