With the second chapter of the Wicked cinematic franchise currently in theaters, it seems like a good time to look back at what led to those films. This guides us to a 2024 documentary titled Wicked: The Real Story.

Story covers author L. Frank Baum’s life and novels as well as various adaptations of those. We eventually get into the Wicked book and its push to the musical stage.

Across Story, we get the usual interview clips. We hear from Professor of American Literature to 1900 Xine Yao, OzCon International’s Colin Ayres, Reading University Director of Children’s Literature Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, writer/broadcaster Lemn Sissay, Wicked author Gregory Maguire, Chair of the Critics’ Circle Rich Cline, Judy Garland impersonator Debbie Wileman, Victoria and Albert Museum Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Theater Simon Sladen, and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz.

If you enter Real Story with the hope it’ll offer a deep look at Wicked, keep moving. The documentary instead attempts to cast a much broader net.

This means we spend most of the program’s time on different incarnations of Oz that eventually led to Wicked. Real Story doesn’t finally dig into Wicked until about 51 minutes into its 90-minute running time.

While some of the Oz background feels necessary, the show comes with far more than it needs. Those opening 51 minutes feel padded, as though the documentary’s creators dawdle on their way down the Yellow Brick Road.

I suspect some – and maybe most – of this stems from the fact we only hear from two participants in Wicked. Granted, Maguire and Schwartz offer immensely important members of the Wicked team, so they ensure some good insights.

However, it feels like a missed opportunity that we don’t find any castmembers or other folks involved with the stage production. I don’t know if the program’s creators approached other Wicked alumni and didn’t get a nibble or if they intentionally omitted these additional voices, but their absence remains a deficit.

Though not as big a problem as the manner in which Real Story procrastinates on its path to Wicked. A little of the “pre-amble” would go a long way, and the manner in which the documentary covers too much territory for 51 minutes doesn’t help.

Even with the limited perspectives on Wicked we get, Real Story does become considerably more compelling when it finally hits the 1990s and details actually about Wicked itself. It helps that Maguire provides a delightful subject.

The author ensures we get a strong look at his creation and then Schwartz helps us understand how the novel led to the stage production, though don’t expect anything beyond that realm. While I must believe Real Story exists to capitalize on the 2024 and 2025 movies, it ignores them.

All of this leads to a sporadically compelling look at Wicked but not one with consistency. We get about half an hour of solid content and roughly an hour of padding.

Wicked: The Real Story appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though nothing special, the image seemed fine.

The documentary mixed “talking head” interviews with still images and some archival footage. The former seemed a bit soft but remained adequate, while the latter two domains depended on the source but also came across with reasonable accuracy.

No jaggies materialized but some of the stills demonstrated a little shimmering. No issues with edge haloes or source defects occurred.

Colors tended to remain low-key in the interview shots, though the archival elements sometimes went with brighter tones. These appeared reproduced as intended.

Blacks appeared fairly deep and low-light shots satisfied. This turned into a watchable but unmemorable presentation.

Less impressive, the show’s Dolby 2.0 soundtrack seemed wholly ordinary. The mix lost some points due to the absence of a lossless track, as no 2025 Blu-ray should only provide lossy audio.

Don’t expect much from the soundscape, as only the gentle score spread lightly to the side channels. Effects didn’t become a factor and dialogue remained centered – well, until a weird but brief heavy shift to the front left speaker at 33:20.

Speech seemed acceptable, though the comments could seem somewhat sibilant at times. Music became a background feature but the score sounded reasonably rich.

As noted, effects played virtually no role in the proceedings. The audio seemed meh at best.

We get trailers for Wicked: The Real Story as well as Scarlet Winter, Nosferatu: The Real Story, The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession, Bam! and Cara.

Too much of Wicked: The Real Story devotes running time to efforts that led to Wicked. Once it gets to that project, though, it becomes considerably more engaging. The Blu-ray offers generally positive picture as well as uninspiring audio and no supplements beyond some previews. This becomes an erratic documentary but it gets better as it goes.