The Hollywood version of the Broadway cult musical “Wicked” appears to be a holiday box office smash. I suppose I’m going to have to see it, though “Wizard of Oz” worship alienated me long ago and how they can justify making a two hour, 45 minute film of just Act I of a three hour musical mystifies me. However, there is something to be learned from the nanny state’s British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) felt that it had to put out these ridiculous trigger warnings for what is essentially a family movie:
Yes, it’s come to this….the nation that stood up to Hitler and survived the Blitz now warns its citizen about the dangers of observing bigotry against green-skinned witches, the violence of two guards being “struck,” and the titillation of seeing “people flirt with each other.”
I’m trying to imagine what today’s BBFC would have cautioned audiences about in the original “Wizard of Oz” movie.
Ethics Alarms 
Where have you gone Monty Pythons? Our sad little island nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
And didn’t they cast a black woman as the green wicked witch of the East? How did anyone let that happen? A black person being cast as an evil person? Black people are inherently wonderful, right? Did someone not get the memo?
Personally, I’ve always hated “The Wizard of Oz.” It just creeped the heck out of me when I saw it as a kid. Why was it billed as a children’s movie? I’m not sure which I found creepier, “Oz” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Although, I have come to love the “Just ignore the man behind the curtain” scene. So useful to reduce so many situations to their root. For example, the Biden Administration or the Harris campaign.
And the cool kids used to make fun of the Catholic Church’s rating movies? Lefties want us to be more like the U.K?
Ahh, but remember that, at least in the book version, the Witch of the East is a good guy. It refers to her sad death as “The Murder”, and portrays Dorothy as the villain.
So the black woman is really the hero of the movie — or so I would assume.
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One has to wonder what this British board makes of the Marvel universe movies or, say, Halloween and all its sequels. The mind boggles.
I did see it. I think Grande did fantastic. She did an excellent job of reflecting Chenoweth original work. Erivo mostly did a good job. There were times when you could tell she struggled a bit. They would have benefited from someone with a better range, but that’s just my opinion. Her acting was on point.
I wanted to ask you about the marketing. This was billed as Wicked. Nothing about this (at least as far as I could tell) even suggested this was a part 1. Neither I nor my wife, nor a number of people in the sold out theatre even realized it was a part 1 until the title screen came on. Is it unethical to mislead the audience in this way?
Personally I appreciate potentially objective content summaries. I check the “parent’s guide” section on virtually every show that catches my interest, since I don’t trust mere ratings systems and I have my own viewing standards I try to stick to.