Wicked

image for Wicked

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 8 (themes, violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Wicked
  • a review of Wicked completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 November 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 6–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Wicked
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes
Length: 160 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) was born green, something no one could possibly account for. When her mother dies giving birth to her little sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), her father never again bothers to hide his disgust with her. Despite her kind heart, Elphaba is blamed for every fault and for everything that ever goes wrong, yet despite this she continues to shower her sister with the love and kindness their father always withholds from her. When Nessarose is accepted to the illustrious Shiz University, Elphaba accompanies her to the orientation and is soon ostracised by the entire student body after she stands up for herself and dares to question the popular and perfect Galinda/Glinda (Ariana Grande), who is desperate to learn magic and whom everybody loves and adores. Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), a sought-after sorcery instructor, has vowed not to teach any of the new students, however, she quickly changes her tune when she catches sight of what Elphaba can do. Immediately making arrangements for Elphaba to join the university, Madame Morrible offers to instruct her privately, much to Galinda’s dismay. Galinda and Elphaba girls are put together as roommates, but they struggle with their differences and soon come to loathe one another. When Galinda plays a mean trick on Elphaba, it backfires by the kindness Elphaba demonstrates in return. Deeply ashamed of her behaviour, Galinda tries to make amends and the two soon form a fast friendship. While Galinda begins to fall in love with Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) the newest student at the university, Elphaba is determined to help the animals, including a favourite professor, all of whom are being persecuted, captured or driven away. When Elphaba is summoned by the ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ (Jeff Goldblum), she sees it as her chance to help the animals and all those who are suffering. She invites Galinda (now known as Glinda) to join her and the pair enjoy the Emerald City, until they learn the truth about the Wizard and what he hopes to do.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Good versus Evil; Parental favouritism; Injustice; Betrayal; Animal cruelty; Racism and prejudice.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A puddle that was once the Wicked Witch of the West is shown and a character asks: “Exactly how dead is she?”
  • Flying ape-soldiers crash through windows and take to the skies.
  • Characters chant: “Kill the witch!”
  • Hundreds of items fly towards the ceiling and stay there when Elphaba is born and her father asks a nanny to take her away.
  • Kids are cruel to Elphaba and, in a rage, she causes small rocks to fly in the direction of the kids.
  • Nessarose is sent into the air and benches and items fly into the sky, crash into walls and land haphazardly, narrowly missing students.
  • Elphaba causes things to break, or crash around her as she struggles to control her powers.
  • All of the students at Shiz University initially treat Elphaba as a pariah.
  • Animals are treated as inferior citizens. They begin to disappear and a professor is roughly taken from his classroom by aggressive police figures.
  • There are images of animals being captured and forcibly restrained.
  • Apes chase and try to capture Elphaba.
  • Guards try to stop Elphaba and Glinda from escaping in a hot air balloon. Elphaba and Glinda push guards over the side and try to kick them away.
  • A hot air balloon becomes trapped against a ceiling. It catches fire, crashes down to the floor and nearly crushes the guards below.
  • Guards smash through a door and grab Glinda. They threaten her with swords before Elphaba reminds them that they are after her instead. She races through a window and plummets down towards the ground below while her life flashes before her eyes. She pulls out of a free fall at the last possible second. The apes that are chasing her crash to the ground.
  • There is an explosion of lights and the Emerald City is plunged into darkness.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Elphaba and Glinda are clearly frightened by the Wizard of Oz, whose giant, mechanical face looms behind a curtain, its glowing eyes and booming voice striking fear into all who hear or see them. Fire blasts out of wall panels to punctuate the end of the wizard’s statements.
  • The wizard’s ape guards are transformed by a spell. They yelp, writhing in pain and rage, as wings begin to protrude from their backs. One ape falls to the ground in agony as more transform all around him.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A baby lion cub is brought in to a classroom in a cage. The creature is trembling and clearly scared. A professor talks about how animals should all be kept in cages and how if they are repressed enough they will never learn to speak. Elphaba is horrified and casts a spell, putting everyone to sleep and enabling her and Prince Fiyero to help the lion cub escape.
  • There is a jump-scare as a transformed ape grabs through a window, attempting to grab Glinda and Elphaba.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Elphaba’s mother has an affair with another man. She is in his arms as soon as her husband leaves the house. They kiss passionately and move around the room, embracing each other against furniture and sitting on piano keys. Elphaba is born as a result of this encounter.
  • Galinda and Prince Fiyero kiss on numerous occasions and she confesses to Elphaba that she is going to marry him.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Characters drink unidentified substances, which are presumably alcohol.
  • Elphaba confesses that her sister’s disability is her fault. Because she was born green, when her mother became pregnant with her sister, her father insisted that his wife eat large amounts of milk flowers every day to ensure the baby would be born a normal colour. The flowers made her mother deliver early and as a result, Nessarose was never able to walk and her mother died in childbirth.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Galinda calls Elphaba an artichoke.
  • Get stuffed.

In a nutshell

Wicked is a musical, fantasy adventure. This prequel to the Wizard of Oz is the big screen adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway musical and features a star-studded cast, vibrant musical numbers, a fast-paced plot and a cliff-hanger ending that will be continued in Wicked: Part 2. The film is best suited to audiences over the age of 8.

The main messages from this movie are to be true to yourself; to not be blinded by outward appearances or swayed by popular opinion; and that no one should ever be persecuted, bullied or forced to change simply because they are different.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Compassion
  • Friendship
  • Forgiveness
  • Courage
  • Integrity.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Caging creatures or treating others in ways designed to diminish their potential.
  • Judging someone by the colour of their skin or by a disability.
  • Making fun of others or treating them unkindly because they are different from you.
  • Being cruel or wicked, and the origins of what might drive someone to behave in such a way and the lengths to which this can be taken.