The Wizard of Oz + Wicked Movies Ranked
Wicked: For Good releases in theaters this weekend that means it seems appropriate to rank the Wicked movies with The Wizard of Oz. Let’s get started!
NOTE: I know there’s more and other adaptations of The Wizard of Oz or stories set in Oz. 12 years we got Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful. For the sake of this and making the list more focused I’m only going to be ranking the two Wicked movies with the 1939 classic.
3. Wicked: For Good: This is one of the most frustrating films of the year and will be on my list for most disappointing movies of 2025. There’s so much about this movie that I really enjoyed and delivers a lot of what I loved about the first film. The performances from Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jonathan Bailey are fantastic. All of them are having to play more layered characters from what we saw in the original. In some cases they’re having to play multiple different versions of the same characters with different personalities and attitudes. Grande is arguably the front runner for best supporting actress, Amy Madigan for Weapons is my pick but I wouldn’t be made if she wins. Given the nature of the story with us exploring multiple different locations and the scope, scale, and size of the story being bigger it means the production design is grander in scale. There’s still moments in this movie that work, the emotional moments can hit just as hard as the first film. Unfortunately, this film has a lot more problems compared to the first film. For me, the film is kind of two different films. It’s a Wicked continuation and a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. When the movie is a Wicked continuation it’s really good when it’s a prequel it struggles. The ways that the film ties into The Wizard of Oz made the movie very clunky. They cut scenes that weren’t part of the Wicked story but rather The Wizard of Oz. The amount of time that’s passed in the story is very unclear but when it’s a Wicked sequel you think hours have passed but reality days have passed. The way that the film treats certain reveals is so bizarre to me. There’s stuff that they treated as big shocking reveals in the final moments of the film but they aren’t revealed to the audiences. Anybody with a brain (*wink, wink*) knew that information much earlier because in some instances the movie shows you. I didn’t find the songs to be as memorable or as good as the original. “As Long as Your Mine” and “No Good Deed” would be my favorites, but even those don’t reach the high points from part one. Overall, I didn’t hate the movie. It’s just a very mixed bag and is one of the biggest disappointments of 2025.
2. The Wizard of Oz (1939): This is probably an unpopular opinion to have The Wizard of Oz at #2. This is one of the most celebrated and praised movies of all time. Many people should argue that it should be #1 and they’re not wrong. We wouldn’t have Wicked without this movie or the source material. I watched it for the first time earlier this year after I’d already seen Wicked: Part 1. One of the things that shocked me about this film was that despite never seeing it before, I knew so many of the moments and the lines. I didn’t know the context of the scenes but I knew what the scenes were because this movie is so iconic and legendary. The individual moments have soaked their way into popular culture. Watching a movie like this from such a different point in time in terms of filmmaking and story telling was so fascinating to me. The story here is so simple. Dorothy gets sucked into Oz and goes on an adventure where she meets some friends and walks down the yellow brick road to meet The Wizard. That’s the plot of this movie and it’s so simple. The camera isn’t moving, it's just a lot of wide angle camera lenses that are in one location so it has a play-like quality to it. It’s episodic in nature where you have these segments of Dorothy in Kansas, Dorothy in Munchkin Land, Dorothy meets the Tin Man, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, and Dorothy meets The Crowdly Lion. Every segment is fun and has this whimsical and magical nature about it. I’m currently taking a film theory class where we’re discussing some of the themes and ideas being explored in movies. We did a section talking about the queer subtext in The Wizard of Oz and Wicked. Viewing this movie through that perspective adds some extra layers to the whole thing, you view certain characters and sequences differently. There’s videos on YouTube and it’s an interesting watch and new lense to watch this movie. My biggest issue with the film contradicts what I said earlier. Since I knew so many of the elements and basically knew the entire movie, some of the magic of the film was lost. That shock and awe of the movie wasn’t quite there. That’s not the movie’s fault, it’s my fault for taking 20 years to watch this movie. Overall, this is a great movie and is of course one of the most influential movies of all time.
1. Wicked: This was a movie that I wasn’t excited for really at all. I didn’t like the trailers and I didn’t get the hook for it. The idea of doing a prequel to The Wizard of Oz showing the conflict between The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda didn’t sound interesting to me. I watched the movie opening weekend and almost instantly I fell in love with this world and the characters. I haven’t felt this sucked into a world since Harry Potter and feel this sense of whimsical and magic. Since I don’t know Wicked’s story and all of the twists and turns I was able to have that sense of awe that I think people watching The Wizard of Oz had. That’s kind of why I rank this film above The Wizard of Oz, it was a more fresh viewing experience for me. The thing that surprised me the most was that it has a lot of social commentary and it’s exploring ideas so relevant to today. The film is of course fictional but at its core it’s about racism, prejudice, and learning to accept others for who they are. As I learn what The Wizard is up to and what his plan is, it’s scary how relevant that ties into modern politics. Of course the music here is fantastic, all of the songs are so memorable and catchy. As soon as the movie ended I wanted to go and listen to the soundtrack and there’s not many musicals that made me want to do that. “Defying Gravity” is of course fantastic and concludes this story nicely. It’s satisfying given that this is what the whole film was building towards. I think “Dancing Through Life” is really good and doesn’t get talked about as much as I think it should. A lot of what I said about Wicked: For Good in terms of the performances and the production design apply to this movie. The chemistry and dynamic between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande is fantastic. If they didn’t work then these films wouldn’t work. But they’re so good whether they’re best friends or at odds with one another. When you put the pieces together, this is one of my favorite movies of the decade and one of the most surprising movies that I’ve ever seen.
Comments