is, , the story of how a corrupt and capitalist society refused to heed the warnings of a whistleblower when she tried to reveal the utter emptiness at its core. So why not sell a bunch of meaningless crap to commemorate her journey in corrupt and capitalist society! It’s not like Elphaba continually judges for her inclination towards excess and Galinda in turn spends the musical learning what’s really important or anything like that. would be absurd.
Anyway, no good deed goes unpunished and now we’re going to have to deal with a truly staggering amount of merch on shelves and unskippable YouTube ads for the rest of the year. “[O]ur global merchandise program across retail and theme parks reflects the film’s empowering themes and bold iconography,” said Universal Products & Experiences president Vince Klaseus in a statement today (via ), neatly summing up all the ways he misinterpreted those very themes. If not-so-magically turning your house green and pink sounds inspiring to you, here’s an exhaustive list of all the brands that can help you do it: .
..oh my.
It’s clear that Universal is trying to make this into the next , at least from a branding perspective. (You’d be forgiven for not noticing it in the mess above, but Mattel is listed as a partner so there are probably actual Barbies coming down the pike.) But despite the obvious merch tie-in opportunities for that film, part of the fun of the whole phenomenon was how —it was the two-blockbuster weekend.