I finally done did it. I went to see Wicked.

I enjoyed it. The actresses did an amazing job both acting and singing. I’m not as sold on their dancing, but the rest of the choreography was so spectacular I may pay to see it again the theaters just to watch the background dancers.

But it wasn’t Oz.

The music is solid, but that’s no surprise to me. I’ve listened to the Broadway soundtrack for years. I’ve sung along. (Well, I’ve tried to. My voice ain’t the best, so my family tells me.) The new orchestrations work incredibly well. One of my few complaints about the movie was how certain songs were broken up for dramatic and cinematic purposes that ruined the flow of the songs. That said, I understand cinema is not theatre, and the director wisely chose to make a movie, not a Broadway show.

But it wasn’t Oz.

The directing kept my attention. Despite the movie being more than two and a half hours long, I never felt the film dragged. Not only was the set design a pure delight, but the pacing made me hunger for more. This is a world I felt like I could walk in and explore.

But it wasn’t Oz.

And the story? Well, the tale of an outcast fighting to accept herself and find acceptance from others is an old one with reason. It touches the hearts of so many, and this film does, too. I cheered for Elphaba from the beginning, and that’s in no small part thanks to the actress’s stunning ability.

But it wasn’t Oz.

Now, maybe you’re sensing a theme here. It’s a theme I suspect you won’t find in many reviews of the movie. Honestly, I’m attempting to put the feeling into words.

As an Oz fan, it already rankles that so many people identify the classic MGM movie as Oz and maybe, maybe the Return to Oz film Disney put out. Both are honestly works of art and deserve recognition. Wicked does, too. I’ve already sung Wicked’s praise.

The Oz books are whimsical, filled with fantasy that delights, terrible puns, and characters that are so sweet they edge into saccharine depending which book you’re reading. It’s bright and fun without skimping on some truly scary situations. The MGM movie got the tone of the entire thing pretty spot-on, even if the plot didn’t stick perfectly well to the first book.

And Wicked, despite its amazing music, fantastic acting, and truly wonderous set design, is not Oz. It makes some blushes toward it with silly background things, like a library that rotates as people look for books or flowers that glow based on music. It obviously sticks to the overall lore of “wicked witch and Glinda the good,” though totally subverting the original book. (Incidentally, the witch is barely a major character in the original book!) While Elphaba surely displays plenty of wit, it’s hardly the wordplay that L. Frank Baum preferred, nor Ruth Plumly Thompson after him.

I’ve been trying to figure out a “fix.” I told my family that I would have probably enjoyed it more if it was a fantasy that didn’t pretend to be connected to Oz, but I don’t think that’s true. It wouldn’t work without the Oz connections. It would fall apart if the audience didn’t know that Elphaba would become the Wicked Witch. Wicked is a derivative product.

I don’t mean that in some negative way, by the way. Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently one of my favorite shows, and it’s definitely derivative of every Star Trek series that came before! But if you only had Lower Decks and nothing else, the show wouldn’t stand up on its own.

And Wicked can’t stand up on its own. The music might still be awesome, and the acting phenomenal, but the story wouldn’t work. It’s stuck with Oz.

Even though it’s not Oz.

So I’m left with this complicated reaction, desperately wanting to see Part Two, feeling disloyal to my books of such a different tone.

Years ago, I worked in a comic shop. Ultimate Spider-Man was one of our bestselling titles. It started the character of Spider-Man over today, while most of the Spider-Man comics continued the original saga that had started in the 1960’s. One of our customers couldn’t handle it. “How do these stories fit together?!” he demanded.

I tried to explain, “Just consider it an alternate universe.”

Eventually he got it and did enjoy them.

Maybe right now I’m just like that geeky customer that was trying to fit it all together, even though it’s not really meant to fit together.

Except it is. After all, Wicked doesn’t work without Oz, while Ultimate Spider-Man, at least at the beginning, could be taken totally by itself.

Or maybe I’m just looking for reasons to be dissatisfied.