Wicked

Somewhere between the 400 brand partnerships, the Limited Edition pink-and-green Stanley cups, and the church-group holiday matinees, something got lost in translation. Universal sold Wicked as the feel-good movie event of 2024. A splashy, joyful, family-safe musical spectacle perfect for Thanksgiving weekend. On a surface level, that is exactly what it is: two hours and forty minutes of lavish production design, powerhouse vocal performances, and enough glitter to fill a Macy's float.

What the marketing did not mention is that this particular story has functioned as a progressive anthem for two decades, that the cast is stacked with openly queer performers, that its director publicly compared his villain to a 2024 presidential candidate, and that casting a Black woman as a character who faces institutionalized discrimination for the color of her skin was, by the filmmakers' own description, a deliberate and meaningful interpretive choice. Wicked is not trying to trick you. The ideology is right there in the material, baked in for twenty years. But the packaging says something different.

In the magical Land of Oz, the news is spreading: the Wicked Witch of the West is dead. Before we join the celebration, the film pulls us back to Shiz University, where two young women from different worlds were thrown together as roommates and somehow became friends.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) arrives at Shiz as an outsider twice over: green-skinned by birth, the object of lifelong mockery and discrimination, fiercely brilliant in a world that is not looking for brilliance from someone who looks like her. Glinda (Ariana Grande) arrives as the opposite: pink, popular, socially omnipotent, and blissfully certain that the universe orbits around her.

At Shiz, Elphaba discovers that the Land of Oz is rotting from the inside. Dr. Dillamond, a sentient Goat professor and her mentor, reveals that the Animals of Oz are being systematically stripped of their civil rights and ability to speak. When Elphaba's gifts catch the attention of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), she is arranged to meet the great and wonderful Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). What she discovers about the Wizard's power is the film's primary ideological payload.

Two Central Performances Worth Acknowledging

Set aside the ideology for a moment. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are both extraordinary. Erivo brings genuine emotional weight to Elphaba, transforming what could be a one-note persecuted-outsider role into a fully realized person. 'Defying Gravity' at the end of Part One is one of the best musical sequences of the year. Grande is also a revelation: her Glinda is brilliant physical comedy that does not sacrifice emotional authenticity. These performances earn the film's runtime.

What Conservative Viewers Need to Know

The allegory is not subtle. Elphaba's green skin functions explicitly as a stand-in for racial otherness. Director Jon Chu confirmed in interviews that Erivo's casting was intended to amplify this. Dr. Dillamond's civil rights subplot is presented as a direct parallel to racial discrimination laws. The Wizard is presented as a charismatic leader who gaslights his community and suppresses a minority group: Chu publicly connected this to 2024 political figures.

The 'Defying Gravity' anthem has functioned as an LGBTQ+ liberation song for two decades. The film leans into this fully. Jonathan Bailey (openly gay) plays Fiyero. Ethan Slater (Ariana Grande's real-life partner) plays Boq. The queer subtext between Elphaba and Glinda, debated since the original musical opened in 2003, is not explicit in this film but the creative team has not discouraged the reading.

The traditional values present in the film deserve acknowledgment: the central female friendship is genuinely moving and presented as the story's emotional core without reducing either character to a trope. Moral courage, specifically Elphaba's refusal to compromise her values even under pressure, is treated as the film's highest virtue. These are real goods.

But the film's primary function, as its creators designed it, is progressive allegory. Viewers who want to enjoy the spectacle and performances while keeping clear eyes about the ideology can do so. Going in blind is the only mistake.

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Race Allegory / Race-Conscious Casting as Central Framing	4	Moderate	High	7.2
Defying Gravity as LGBTQ+ and Feminist Liberation Anthem	3	Moderate	High	5.4
Anti-Authority as Heroic Framework / Wizard as Authoritarian Villain	4	High	High	5.04
Minority Rights Allegory / Animal Civil Rights as Social Justice Subplot	3	High	High	3.78
Queer Identity Subtext / LGBTQ+ Coded Lead Characters	3	Moderate	Moderate	3
Director's Public Progressive Political Framing	2	Moderate	Low	1
Oz as Authoritarian Propaganda State Allegory	3	Moderate	Moderate	3
TOTAL WOKE				28.4

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Female Friendship as Narrative Core and Emotional Foundation	4	High	High	5.04
Authenticity and Refusing to Compromise Your Values	3	Moderate	High	5.4
Moral Courage Under Social Pressure	4	High	Moderate	2.8
Classic Outsider/Coming-of-Age Journey	3	High	Moderate	2.1
Loyalty Tested and Honored	2	High	Moderate	1.4
Joy, Spectacle, and Delight as Legitimate Ends	2	High	Low	0.7
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				17.4

Score Margin: -11 WOKE