Wicked (2024)

No one is more annoyed than me that Wicked is a good movie. This retelling, reimagining and retconning of the Wizard of Oz story is a prequel involving the two would-be witches at the center of it. Elphaba is a bastard child with a penchant for magic who is ostracized her whole life for being green. She meets Galinda, a spoiled prissy brat, while at university, and immediately form a rivalry and unlikely alliance. The songs are well integrated, but I found myself underwhelmed by a lot of it, even as I was enthralled by the set design and moments of raw emotion and quiet reflection. Unfortunately, it turns out that this is only Part I and it's all set-up for what I assume will be a much better film releasing in another year. It's just hard to get excited about half a story.

3½ Grimmeries out of 5

FROZEN [2013]

Disney loosely adapts Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen for it's 53rd animated film, Frozen.
It goes without saying that it's visually astounding, the voice acting is energetically entertaining and several of the songs are very likeable.
However it lacks in a well-fleshed out story, that makes it very apparent that Disney tried to bury many of the darker undertones and conflicts of the characters underneath a heavy helping of animated glee.  The lack of a memorable villain hurts the impact of the tale as well and in that makes for a boring finale that leaves much to be desired when all is said and done.
Criticism aside, it's a perfectly fine film for the kids and I would gladly watch it again in the company of my niece and nephew.

3 trading posts...and saunas out of 5