[Nicky91]

Youtube video

The new film version of Wicked is currently setting box offices alight across the globe, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande wowing audiences in the $145M-budget fantasy film.

While fans are delighted that director Jon M. Chu has stayed almost entirely faithful to the original 2003 stage musical, which retells L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz through the eyes of the Wicked Witch (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande), there has been one major transformation in the cinematic 2024 reboot.

The Munchkins, Land of Oz natives who hail from Munchkinland, were all smaller than the character of Dorothy in both L. Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the famous 1939 film adaptation of his work, starring Judy Garland in the lead role.

Fast forward to 2024 though, and Chu's Munchkins look very different to 1939 director Victor Fleming's interpretation of the Land of Oz workers, who live by the start of the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz.

This time around the actors playing the Munchkins are led by Ariana Grande's boyfriend Ethan Slater, who cuts a wholesome figure as curly-haired Boq.

During the film's worldwide promotional tour, the new film's director has explained why he took an entirely different approach to how the popular characters look in the latest incarnation of the film.

Chu said: 'We wanted [Boq] to come from a culture, and so we were trying to reinvent what a Munchkin is. In our eyes, Munchkin was not a size,' the 45-year-old filmmaker told GQ magazine.

He continued: 'We built the Munchkinland look around him, in a weird way—like this red-haired, fair-skinned type of character.'

nd the auburn locks of Boq and his fellow Oz natives haven't gone unnoticed by fans. One wrote on X this week: 'Anyone else intrigued on why nearly everyone in Munchkinland is a redhead…?'

Others noted just how different the setting where the Munchkins live is, writing: 'Still can’t believe the Wicked movie gentrified Munchkinland.'

In another interview, Chu said the new Munchkins are 'made up of many different types of people in Oz. They're a very agricultural culture. They are in charge of collecting the color from the tulip fields.'

The original 1939 film used people of short stature to fill the roles but while the movie has become a classic, deeply unsettling stories about the actors' behaviour on set have emerged in the decades since.

The tales are seemingly endless and lurid: holed up in a hotel with only each other for months on end, the Munchkins allegedly indulged in Bacchanalian orgies and heavy drinking bouts, swinging from rafters, gambling illegally, getting involved in prostitution and generally behaving so badly that police had to be stationed on every floor of their hotel.

A unearthed memoir by Judy Garland's former husband Sid Luft, who died in 2005, made shocking claims that the film's star, who was just 16 at the time, was also molested by some of the Munchkins while working on the legendary film's set.

'They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small,' wrote Luft in his autobiography, 'Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland,' which was published in 2017.

'They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress. The men were 40 or more years old.'

An assistant director was assigned to keep them in line and ensure that, if they ended up in jail, they were speedily bailed so they wouldn't miss their calls on set.

Still wearing their make-up, Munchkins would retire after a long day's work to the bars of Culver City, near Hollywood, and would get horribly drunk, Luft recalled.

'They were disorderly as hell, yelling and screaming. The next day, on the set, hung-over, they would make Judy's life miserable by putting their hands under her dress,' he penned.

Judy was just 4ft 11in and young-looking for her 16 years when she played the child Dorothy, he said.

'The Munchkins, of course, were close to her in size and couldn't resist teasing her, making her life a misery,' he wrote.

'The men were 40 or more years old, and there was Judy with boyfriends, and feeling sophisticated at 16.'

Luft's claims were not the first time though that mention has been made of inappropriate behavior by the Munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz.

There were rumours at the time of 'sex parties' being held in the famous Culver Hotel (subsequently owned by John Wayne) where the actors who played the Munchkins all lived during filming.

And there were also reports of wild evenings with rooms ransacked and drunken Munchkin actors causing chaos. One horrified observer described the group as 'an unholy assembly of pimps, hookers and gamblers.'

Garland herself later described some of the munchkin actors by saying: 'They were drunks. They got smashed every night.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...kins-woke.html

[Oliver_W]

Meh.

A trigger warning is better than censorship or otherwise making changes.

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Meh.

A trigger warning is better than censorship or otherwise making changes.

there is no need for a new version of this anyway


i doubt anyone can do it better than the legends that are Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth



also Cynthia Erivo instead of Idina okay, one fab broadway actress following in the footsteps of another broadway icon


but Ariana Grande????? i find that a weird choice, she isn't worthy of following into Kristin Chenoweth's footsteps, Kristin really is in a league of her own, while Ariana has been a funny actress in Victorious, Sam & Cat and more popstar material rather than musical star, but yeah nepotism much probably

would've more gone with Dove Cameron then, considering she already has experience from the Descendants films

[Livia]

[jones89]

Originally Posted by Livia

Pretty much sums it up

[Mystic Mock]

What's the trigger warning supposed to be?

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

What's the trigger warning supposed to be?

About how a woman with green skin was being made fun of.

[Crimson Dynamo]

This is all about covering their arses against a backlash and nothing about caring

[Nicky91]

i more am annoyed about nepotism being a factor with Ariana Grande's casting


which is a choice



when other more experienced actresses in this particular genre of musical film have also auditioned for the part


but yeah the Grande family and since Ariana acts all the time even off set, done deal the production crew must've thought, wouldn't surprise me if those parents gave extra cash for the production budget


i mean same reason her brother Frankie got on CBB whom otherwise has no actual celebrity status going for him

[Zizu]

I haven’t been following this thread or the Wicked movie but I would say that Ariana is easily the most naturally gifted female singer in the world currently with a 4-octave vocal range ( not even close ) plus she can act , has a fabulous sense of humour , is personable/ likeable and doesn’t take herself seriously as many others so obviously do

Her only possible flaw is she’s absolutely tiny but that didn’t hinder Kylie or Cheryl

What’s not to like ..


-

Its not like the old days when we had Maria Carey , Whitney , Celine Dion , Christina Aguilera and others around


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Abra]

Right wing snowflakes are always crying about something that has upset them every day. Life is one big trigger warning for them.

[Niamh.]

What's supposed to be woke about this anyway, surely can't be the witch being black cos she's green

[Ammi]

…isn’t it about the Munchkins…it’s like a spin off movie within itself…Munchkin-rage/the gentrification of Munchkinland….

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

…isn’t it about the Munchkins…it’s like a spin off movie within itself…Munchkin-rage/the gentrification of Munchkinland….

Oh right

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Oh right

…it’s just all part of the PR hype, I think…once there were trailers and billboards etc…now there are woke and outrage cries…

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

What's supposed to be woke about this anyway, surely can't be the witch being black cos she's green

The warning is that a women is singled out and insulted because of the colour of her skin (green) and that talking animals are badly treated. I ****ing kid you not. Watch the Youtube clip! And the most astonishing thing is that there's a woman there defending it.

Let's face it, our eyes were opened to this problem years ago when Kermit told us, it's not easy being green.

[Vanessa]

Why are some people taking it so seriously? It's. fantasy. You're not meant to take it literally.

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by Vanessa

Why are some people taking it so seriously? It's. fantasy. You're not meant to take it literally.

it already existed though?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_(musical)


there was absolutely no need for this, just a pathetic easy cashgrab



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...icked_(musical)

also won many awards back then



i ain't criticizing Cynthia Erivo simply because she also has achieved something before this in broadway, more notably pulling off a award winning performance in the musical version for The Color Purple (not an easy thing to do considering the Spielberg film was already a major success) or how she won an emmy for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha




while Grande is more known for her music, and her role in her teen years as Cat Valentine Dove Cameron would've been a better choice to follow into Chenoweth's footsteps as Galinda but for some reason her audition wasn't successful so they deffo didn't take this seriously at all

[Nicky91]

we in my nation also had our version of Wicked in theatre (from 2011 to 2013), same as Frozen for that matter

also very successful, our ''Elphaba'' is actress and singer Willemijn Verkaik, she met Idina too once (when all Elsa's came together on stage in broadway for Frozen)




our ''Galinda'' is Chantal Janzen (yes the eurovision 2021 co-host)

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

About how a woman with green skin was being made fun of.

And that warrants a trigger warning?

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Zizu

I haven’t been following this thread or the Wicked movie but I would say that Ariana is easily the most naturally gifted female singer in the world currently with a 4-octave vocal range ( not even close ) plus she can act , has a fabulous sense of humour , is personable/ likeable and doesn’t take herself seriously as many others so obviously do

Her only possible flaw is she’s absolutely tiny but that didn’t hinder Kylie or Cheryl

What’s not to like ..


-

Its not like the old days when we had Maria Carey , Whitney , Celine Dion , Christina Aguilera and others around


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

They could've always hired someone from one of the Evanescence styled bands.

The girls from those groups are insanely talented in the vocal department.

But tbf, I'm sure that Ariana Grande will deliver a strong vocal.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Ariana Grande and the other woman together in interviews are genuinely creepy, worrying sob

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Crimson Dynamo

Ariana Grande and the other woman together in interviews are genuinely creepy, worrying sob

I said in another thread, they are just WEIRD. They're waay too skinny, and also odd looking - I don't know what whatsherface was like before, but Arianna Grande didn't always look like that.

And they're like they're in a cult or something, giggling and crying and clutching at each other...

But whatever, I'm sure the film's fine.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I said in another thread, they are just WEIRD. They're waay too skinny, and also odd looking - I don't know what whatsherface was like before, but Arianna Grande didn't always look like that.

And they're like they're in a cult or something, giggling and crying and clutching at each other...

But whatever, I'm sure the film's fine.

It's really disturbing

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Crimson Dynamo

It's really disturbing

Meh, it's just Hollywood. It fks people up.