@RW3 They'll try to snatch it from them, that's for sure. They just bought the Indiana Jones franchise, and they recently got their hands on Star Wars. I tell ya', Disney wants to own everything...
After seeing a clip from Frozen, I decided that Wicked would be perfect as a Disney animation -- or even a non-Disney animation. Stage fantasies may work better when they're animated for a movie because the theater leaves a lot to the imagination. Once the story moves to live action film, people expect either out-of-this-world special effects or exact translation from the stage, set and all -- perhaps both at the same time. Another advantage of an animated film would be the potential availability of Menzel and Chenoweth, who have gotten too old for the live action roles. I think an animated Wicked could be great.
An animated version of WICKED would be a great idea and they can retain Idina and Kristin to do the voice overs and singing for their animated counterparts. It's a win-win.
What's the appeal of getting Idina and Kristin back, fifteen years later? Their moment has passed and I doubt that some of them would even WANT to return to Wicked after so long. It's not as though the first to play a role has to own the role forever, and with a show that has run so long and launched so many careers, the witches themselves are much more iconic than any performer, even the original Broadway cast, associated with them.
darquegk - - - I was only referring to Idina and Kristin providing the talking/singing voices for Elphaba and Glinda if WICKED were made into an animated feature film. The appeal for me, anyway)is that they originated the roles and since the film would be animated the 15 year gap isn't really an issue.
I watched this a while back, and it actually looks like this storyboard video is based on the same character designs. I personally don't love Wicked, but I think it really would do quite well as an animated feature. http://youtu.be/XKSlQinKTD8
The thing I think a lot of people do forget about when talking about how this should be animated is how much more would probably be cut if they went with that medium. Very few animated films run much longer than 90 minutes, so that's a pretty big chunk of material to leave out to get it there, or an pretty big extra expense to leave it all in.
Gregory Maguire himself states he knows of no plans for this.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
This is a fabulous idea. Those drawings look great, also the 2nd set.
It's about time people/creatives/theatre-filmmakers widen their horizons. This has never been done before (turning a stage show into an animated film), and Wicked would be the right show to do it with. I also think that with animated films, creatives just held on to traditions for the last 20 years. To me, the idea of a painterly 2d film, with a mature look/story, not too cartoonish, that lasts 2 hours, can turn out to be a piece of art and a triumph of fantasy and beauty.