Priests ‘roasted on spit and eaten’, date rape drugs & sex acts with TIGER – the twisted non-PG tale behind hit Wicked
With its all-star ensemble and gripping story, this year’s most anticipated film, Wicked, has captivated audiences worldwide.
However, the dark and unsettling novel that lies behind the hugely famous film musical will shock millions of people since it contains racism, rape, bestiality, cannibalism, orgies, and even child murder.
Gregory Maguire originally released Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz in 1995, but it wasn’t until eight years later that it underwent a significant transformation to become the popular musical that debuted on Broadway.
The Sun can, however, expose all the startling turns and turns that have been virtually omitted from the immaculate theater and movie adaptations after reading the book.
It has been rated PG, citing only moderate threat and discrimination, and stars British actress Cynthia Erivo and pop phenomenon Ariana Grande.
After both films were released in the US on Friday, it is already proving to be a huge hit, earning nearly twice as much at the US box office as Gladiator II.
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Originally intended to be a prequel to the beloved family movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), the book is quite different.
Eryn Kieffer, a TikToker who recently finished reading the book, commented: “Trigger warning for everything.” It’s in here if you can think of it.
It’s not for children, which is my biggest concern. It’s definitely not for kids. Kids can enjoy the musical just fine. This book, in my opinion, isn’t.
It revolves around Cynthia’s character Elphaba, whose very introduction to the book is rife with scandal. Elphaba is called after the initials of L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Although the film implies that her mother’s green alcohol consumption prior to intercourse is the cause of her green skin, the truth is much more sinister.
Rather, a stranger sexually assaults Melena, Elphaba’s mother, after giving her a green date rape drug.
Wicked fans furious after Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s Mattel doll promos leak crucial movie plot
Her mother despises her so much when she is born that she considers killing her multiple times before mistreating and ignoring her for years.
She asks the infant once: Should we take a stroll along the lake’s edge today? You might drown.
We might take a boat out and capsize.
Even the midwives who give birth to the baby are repulsed by her and talk of killing her before the infant bites off one of their fingers. They also debate whether or not she is a hermaphrodite.
Cannibalism and sex clubs
In an odd turn of events, her mother has another affair with a man who finally becomes her husband, a priest.
However, there are numerous rude and frightening situations even outside of the core plot.
A religious minister is skewered, grilled on a spit roast, and consumed in the opening few pages.
A mother and daughter are then represented as having simultaneous intercourse with a man in a strange puppet play in descriptions that are too graphic to go into detail.
Later, in a disgusting racial comment, another character is described as having skin the color of s***.
Similar to the musical and movie, a significant portion of the plot takes place after Elphaba has grown up and is attending Shiz University, where she meets Galinda, who in the film is played by Ariana and whose name eventually changes to Glinda.
However, the novel depicts students visiting a shady BDSM sex club, whereas the blockbuster shows them traveling to a benign dance.
In one instance, people sit around and watch a tiger perform a sex act on a naked woman while a dwarf is strapped to the animal.
Child marriage
Elphaba herself participates in risqué sequences in the original novel, even though there are no references to sex in the movie.
She claims to have been closer to Fiyero than ever before when they give each other sultry oil massages at one point.
This is in spite of the fact that Jonathan Bailey’s character, Fiyero, was a child groom who was married off at the age of seven.
People are now beginning to read the book again and are amazed by what they’ve read.
When Sara Ribeiro, a content developer, opened up the book this year, she said she couldn’t believe what she was reading, even though she had spent years listening to the soundtrack and enjoyed the theater production.
It turned out to be far darker than I had anticipated, she explained. My jaw hit the floor several times over the first ten to twenty percent, I would guess. It wasn’t as graphic as I had anticipated.
Wicked review: With magical casting this Wizard of Oz-based tale proves there is no place like the cinema
Written by Grant Rollings
(PG) 4/5 stars, 160 minutes
This Wizard of Oz origin story demonstrates that nothing compares to a movie theater.
Purchase a ticket for this musical if you wish to be transported to a different realm where animals converse, colorfully dressed people dance in the streets, and student magicians sing like angels.
Based on the popular stage production, Wicked is just too big to be seen on a small screen.
The final scene drags you in all directions like a whirlwind, while Emerald City towers majestically and a Hogwarts-style institution enchants at every turn.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande appear to have been destined for the parts of Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland, respectively.
Their acting, musical, and theater credentials make them easy selections, but what will really captivate you is their affection for the characters.
The movie narrates how Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the young Good Witch of the North, came to be.
Although the affluent and pink-obsessed Glinda is reminiscent of Mean Girls, Ariana manages to make her lovable even when she may be obnoxious.
Cynthia is enraged by the injustice that the downtrodden animals and Elphaba, who is rejected because she is green, endure on a regular basis.
Glinda’s blissful ignorance stands in stark contrast to the anger.
Don’t worry if any of that sounds a little serious; it isn’t.
Everything is handled with a skillful humorous touch by director Jon M. Chu, whose works include Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights.
As the playboy royal Fiyero Tigelaar, Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey shines in the many knowing winks from the actors.
Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Elphaba’s magic instructor, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz both contribute to the hilarity.
Unfortunately, Wicked will be released in two parts in an attempt to satisfy the studio bosses’ deepest wish to profit as much as possible from this.
At two hours and forty minutes, the first one is roughly as lengthy as the whole stage production.
I’m sure the movie could have packed all of the important scenes within that period if the theatrical version could.
Wicked comes to a satisfactory conclusion, but it won’t make you want to watch part two when it comes out in November.
However, spectators are unlikely to be disinterested in returning for more.
One reader on review website thestorygraph.com said: I have sympathy for the writers of the musical, who had to take this source material and turn it into a musical with a happy ending.
Despite the vast changes, which were made to turn it into a hit stage show that has now been running for more than two decades, author Gregory Maguire said he was happy with the results.
American composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz pitched him the idea of transforming the book into a musical on a walk a few years after it was published.
Gregory recalled: I told myself, “I don’t care about the money, I’m going to let this happen,” after returning home. This is far more in line with why I wrote the book than the movie scripts I’ve read so far about Wicked.’
Referring to Stephen and the scriptwriter, he continued: I’m very happy with the way Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz chose to tell the story.
It made efficient, economic, and narrative sense for them to make the story choices that they chose to do, and I applaud it completely. The play is a little less subtle than the novel in some ways.
However, things could have been very different for the movie adaptation.
He revealedDemi Moorefirst showed an interest in bringing it to the big screen without songs, although plans fell through.
Speaking in 2020, he said: When the book was published it almost immediately got optioned by Demi Moore and a production company she ran, which had a relationship with Universal, and there was a chance for it to be a big-budget film almost right away, but the film never quite crystallised.
Now with the release of the movie, Wicked has become a phenomenon.
There are more than 60 brand collaborations across the world with Lego, Starbucks, Crocs, Gap, Samsung and many more – all erasing the story s dodgy origins.
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Next November, Wicked: Part 2 will be released to tie-in the two-parter, following the cliffhanger at the end of Part 1.
But don t expect to see any of the sex, drugs and chaos of the book in that film, either.
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