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Connections, in both directions
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Directed by Victor Fleming
influenced Wicked: For Good (2025), Now You See Me 2 (2016)
Visuals Themes
As Elphaba casts a spell to save Fiyero, For Good pays homage to the color schemes of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, intercutting black-and-white shots of Fiyero’s torture in a cornfield.
Because the narrative of The Wizard of Oz is a part of Wicked’s overall story, those events have to be wedged in as part of Elphaba’s story…
More than anything, "Wicked For Good" carries the cinematic spirit of "The Wizard of Oz," proving more than 85 years later that the magic of Oz still works.
…with all the Wizard of Oz loose ends to square away…
…sludgy CGI that, for all its millions of dollars, looks far chintzier than the 1939 original’s painted backdrops…
Stephen Schwartz introduces two new songs, “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble”…
The Dark Knight (2008)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
influenced Wicked: For Good (2025), Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Visuals Themes Plot
…several scenes in which he directly echoes the “disappearing Batman act” on the rooftops and terraces of the Emerald City…
Which introduces an interesting theme that harks back to Batman movie The Dark Knight, concerning whether Oz needs a villainous symbol for the kingdom to unite against…
Fans of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities or Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight will anticipate Elphaba’s destiny.
The Dark Knight approached a similar topic in the pop culture sphere—not as a reflection of idealism, but as a necessary evil amidst the War on Terror…
Follow-ups like The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back and numerous others all build upon the characters and world-building established in their predecessors…
They eventually team up for a resolution that recalls The Dark Knight (2008)—or rather, since the 1995 book and 2003 Broadway musical came first, Wicked may have influenced Christopher Nolan. Just as Batman arranged things so Gotham would lionize Harvey Dent as a hero and demonize Batman himself as a murderous vigilante, Elphaba volunteers to become the villain, staging her death so Glinda can thrive as the Good Witch they believe Oz needs…
Like many of its genre mates, from Pretty Woman to Sex and the City to, yeah, even Fifty Shades, Crazy Rich Asians is lifestyle porn, and though it takes a few vague stabs at the nobility of self-enforced poverty, it’s really about Rachel proving herself worthy of joining this rarefied clique, where everyone is beautiful, bachelor parties in international waters are the norm, and glamorous shopping expeditions are but a private helicopter ride away.
On her first trip to Singapore (and Asia, for that matter), Rachel, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, gets treated worse than Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman.
Director Jon M. Chu deftly weaves the numerous story strands while still finding time to toss in the mandatory visits to the bachelor and bachelorette parties (a hedonistic blowout aboard a cargo ship for him and decadent island spa for her); a swank boutique for the elegant quest for “the dress” straight out of “Pretty Woman”; and to the palatial Young estate for the eventual showdown with the potential mother-in-law who thinks Maleficent an ideal role model.
Most of which comes from the comedic skills of supporting characters like Rachel’s college pal Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina, who has the standout force of a Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids) and one of Nick’s snarky cousins Oliver (Nico Santos, who can spear with just a line or withering glance) who help Rachel navigate this new, high flying world by giving her a makeover (a squeal-worthy moment of fashion akin to Pretty Woman) and boosting her self worth.
Chu and his screenwriters Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim clearly are sharp observers of what made movies like Pretty Woman work so well onscreen.
Recalling the likes of Pretty Woman, Coming to America and, forgive me for saying this, Fifty Shades of Grey , it’s not like anything that happens will be startling to a single viewer sitting in the audience.
(The precedents include 1993’s The Joy Luck Club, 2004’s Memoirs of a Geisha, 2006’s Letters from Iwo Jima, and my favorite in this list, Justin Lin’s sizzling 2002 teen-rebel movie, Better Luck Tomorrow.)
The Joy Luck Club is the most full-throated chorus about the heft of immigrant parent expectations, the theme that's become a maybe too stubbornly inescapable throughline in Asian American output, from Justin Lin's not-your-model-minority 2002 debut Better Luck Tomorrow to Master of None to the most recent Pixar short .
While that sentiment holds largely true, it’s not wholly accurate; those behind the labeling likely forgot about “Better Luck Tomorrow,” the 2002 curio from director Justin Lin (of the “Fast and Furious” and “Star Trek” franchises) about overachieving high schoolers.
2013’s Now You See Me was a surprise hit, a charming mix of Ocean’s Eleven and The Prestige involving a series of rob-the-rich heists performed by a group of do-gooder illusionists called the Four Horsemen ( Jesse Eisenberg , Woody Harrelson , Dave Franco , and Isla Fisher, who’s been replaced with Lizzy Caplan ).
“Now You See Me 2” picks up a year after the first film with magic’s version of the “Ocean’s Eleven” team, known as the Horsemen, in hiding.
If the 2013 original was a magic/illusionist take on The Usual Suspects , the sequel is a free-wheeling Ocean’s Eleven homage.
They're perfect for fans of "Ocean's Eleven" that are looking for weaker filmmaking, a little less star power and a whole lot more playing cards.
Now You See Me 2 plays like the second instalment of a potentially endless series – a more fantastical, child-friendly variant on the Ocean's Eleven films.
Even more upsettingly, Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie" blares as Singaporean-Chinese men slowly descend upon international waters in helicopters for a bachelor party, a tasteless nod to the American imperialism of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, itself a display of Coppola's megalomania and wealth.
It has worn out its welcome as a smart-alecky way to reference Apocalypse Now, and here it blares out while choppers fly the groomsmen to a bachelor party staged on a cargo ship.
Though the high-water mark in conspicuous consumerism has to be the bachelor party, whose budget must have rivalled that ofApocalypse Now.
‘Wicked’ era clasicismo en estado puro aunque su mecanismo interior nos llevaba a ‘Cabaret’, de Bob Fosse. Fosse, nombre capital en el musical como coreógrafo, bailarín y actor, rompió con las reglas del género en ‘Cabaret': la coreografía se lograba con el montaje en la moviola de las imágenes.
No es Cabaret, cuidado, pero como si lo fuese. Si se mira desde un poco de distancia, la película de Bob Fosse llegó a la cartelera el mismo año que fueron detenidos unos sujetos por entrar sin permiso en el complejo Watergate del Partido Demócrata y que sería el desencadenante del escándalo que acabaría con el mentiroso Richard Nixon.
…and “Cabaret’s” Joel Grey (who coincidentally played the Wizard role on Broadway)…
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Directed by Mike Newell
influenced Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Themes
By 1994, in Four Weddings and a Funeral Hugh Grant could only invoke the lyrics of the Partridge Family with: “I think I love you.”
You could think of its as something akin to “Sex and the City” by way of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” with a fuller body, greater nuance and a twist of zest.
This is the longwinded way of saying, in spite of its familiar, sometimes even ingratiating mien, “Crazy Rich Asians” is, mostly, quite delightful, funny and sweet—everything you really want from a romantic comedy, and a kind of classic, “Four Weddings And A Funeral“-esque tenor.
In fact, this is a movie carved directly from the Richard Curtis school, and it’s a film that could easily join the rotation of “Love Actually” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” as another romantic minor classic.
A studious loner, Elphaba couldn’t be less like her popular classmate Galinda, whose cheery exterior and princessy pink outfits can’t help but recall another blonde, Elle Woods, as portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde.
Meanwhile, it's Grande who steals the show with a sparkling performance that seems modeled on two great Reese Witherspoon roles: the despicable Tracy Flick from "Election" and the endearing Elle Woods from "Legally Blonde."
The Wiz (1978)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
influenced Wicked: For Good (2025)
Visuals Music Plot Characters
Sidney Lumet's "The Wiz" makes considerable use of costumes and production design that turns Frank L. Baum's world into a fantastical reinterpretation of New York City.
“There’s No Place Like Home,” for Erivo, which just makes you wish you were listening to “Home” from “The Wiz” instead.
If you like this, try: “Wicked” and “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Wiz,” and the books by L. Frank Baum, and join the Oz Club!
Erivo’s new number “No Place Like Home,” meanwhile, gains its power from how much it functions as a somber counterbalance to “Home” from The Wiz…
That’s as fantastical of a demand as Sidney Lumet’s 1978 “The Wiz” insisting that the great diva Diana Ross’ Dorothy was a nervous nelly who’d never been south of Harlem’s 125th Street.
(The precedents include 1993’s The Joy Luck Club, 2004’s Memoirs of a Geisha, 2006’s Letters from Iwo Jima, and my favorite in this list, Justin Lin’s sizzling 2002 teen-rebel movie, Better Luck Tomorrow.)
There were “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005) but they were period movies.
An international line-up which includes Gemma Chan, Ken Jeong and Michelle Yeoh will entice audiences, and the scarcity of studio films with an all-Asian cast (2001’s Memoirs Of A Geisha, 1993’s The Joy Luck Club) should help raise visibility.
The very existence of this cast really can't be downplayed — you have to go back to 1993's The Joy Luck Club and 2001's Memoirs of a Geisha to find other Hollywood films starring so many actors of Asian descent.
It’s been more than a decade since “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” the last major studio pictures to feature all-Asian ensembles, and a full quarter-century since “The Joy Luck Club,” the last such production to grapple with the puzzle of contemporary Asian American identity.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced Wicked: For Good (2025)
Themes Plot
In 1989, Back to the Future Part II ended with a cliffhanger and the words “to be continued…” on the screen. I vividly recall the audience at my theater loudly groaning in frustration.
So, in a very Back to the Future Part II way, it’s incredibly rewarding to discover how both Glinda and especially Elphaba impact that story, even when it doesn’t all quite fit together.
Like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II, the new movie develops and complicates the story's lore and characters.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced Wicked: For Good (2025)
Themes
The Lord of the Rings trilogy felt like the perfect length, while The Hobbit movies felt stretched out and mostly unnecessary, and that’s what we have here with Wicked: For Good.
And if we really want to take it back in time, perhaps to a film more “Wicked”-adjacent, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” clocked in well past three hours, and that is to say nothing of the popularity of its extended versions.
Like Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Wicked” should be considered as one sweeping, five-hour canvas.
Even Walter Murch's "Return to Oz," one of the greatest examples of '80s kindertrauma, is able to make sharp contrasts between Oz as both a place of wonder and a ravaged nightmare landscape.
Look, they already tried to do “grimdark Wizard of Oz” with the childhood trauma-inducing Return to Oz…
Those flying monkeys are almost as terrifying as the Wheelers of the 1985 Return to Oz that haunted many a child’s nightmares.
…embracing the edge of its revisionist ancestor (Return to Oz)…
Michelle Yeoh’s work is deserving of the ensuing Oscar buzz in the same way that Meryl Streep deserved her nod for “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Rom-com and culture-clash plot conventions are universal, so why not a PG-rated “Sex and the City” meets “The Devil Wears Prada,” but stocked with solid Asian and Asian-American actors.
It’s like serving up “The Empire Strikes Back” after “Star Wars,” but with a chorus line instead of carbonite.
Like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II, the new movie develops and complicates the story's lore and characters.
Follow-ups like The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back and numerous others all build upon the characters and world-building established in their predecessors…
Still, in saying all of that, there’s plenty of Nancy Meyers-esque wish fulfillment to enjoy here, from beautiful costumes and awe-inspiring properties to all the scrumptious Asian food Sasha cooks (similar to Crazy Rich Asians, which simply must be watched with a big plate of dumplings).
With a predominantly Asian cast, the comparisons to of Always Be My Maybe to the critically acclaimed Warner Bros film Crazy Rich Asians inevitably to be expected.
The success of Crazy Rich Asians opened the door (ok maybe a window) for movies like this one, which I hope will continue.
“Always be My Maybe” floats along, quite low to the ground, poking fun at San Fran’s all-encompassing LGBTQIA gender blurring, lame Spanx jokes, ridiculing “that racist lady” cook, Paula Deen and laughably pretentious cuisine, all set against the same sheen of gauche affluence of say, a “Crazy Rich Asians” or most of Tyler Perry’s non-Madea comedies.
It’s the second recent Western rom-com to do so, following 2018’s much-celebrated Crazy Rich Asians.
That mention of fans of Wicked is where the other issues lie. As with Dune, another film of complex adaptation, there are those who follow the book, the picture, and those who take a less consistent path.
Sure, it did work for Dune, but didn’t do much for The Hunger Games,Twilight or others, which offered up limp, overstretched fan-only finales that simply don’t work in any sense as stand-alone movies.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Hobbit, Dune… all of these things could have, with more judicious editing, made for a perfectly enjoyable single film.
But the film is an emotional black hole, its insufferably smug tricksters augmented by Mr. Harrelson — wearing too many teeth and a wig reminiscent of “Don’t Look Now”-era Donald Sutherland — as his character’s identical twin.
(The precedents include 1993’s The Joy Luck Club, 2004’s Memoirs of a Geisha, 2006’s Letters from Iwo Jima, and my favorite in this list, Justin Lin’s sizzling 2002 teen-rebel movie, Better Luck Tomorrow.)
It’s been more than a decade since “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” the last major studio pictures to feature all-Asian ensembles, and a full quarter-century since “The Joy Luck Club,” the last such production to grapple with the puzzle of contemporary Asian American identity.