Classes are now in session at Shiz University, and it’s time for a history lesson with Doctor Dillamond (Peter Dinklage) before watching the Wicked movie! A new video feature takes us inside the goat professor’s classroom, a featured location in the story. In addition, the Shiz website allows us to immersify ourselves even further. We get a 360 view with interactive features, including a quiz!
So what have we learned? Whether you know it, Doctor Dillamond’s classroom tells a lot about the story of Wicked beyond Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande).
The video tour of Dillamond’s classroom shows the accommodations in the Ozian university. The goat professor enters the classroom through a goat-sized door. The projector has controls so the machine can be operated by a hooved animal. The chalkboard flips over by the pull of a rope, allowing it to be handled by a human’s hands or an animal’s mouth. These features demonstrate the importance and value animals once had in Oz. Why else make such efforts for an animal to lead a class?
Speaking of class, in the video, we see a scene from the Wicked movie where Doctor Dillamond shows projection slides of some Ozian history. Each slide includes animals and humans living side by side, showing how animals were once upon a time more abundant in the land. Following this, Dillamond asks the class, “When and why did this change?” to which Elphaba responds and mentions The Great Drought.
Now the video doesn’t go into The Great Drought very much, but that’s where the interactive tour on the Shiz website comes in handy. It’s a great supplement to the video and anyone who’s curious to learn more about Oz before the Wicked movie is released. It’s also a lot quicker than reading the Wicked books by Gregory Maguire.
The most interesting and informational part of Doctor Dillamond’s classroom tour on the Shiz website is the chalkboard. It’s quite literally full of Ozian history. There’s a whole timeline of important events in the story of Oz, including mentions of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and the Emerald City of course. We also see names of key animal figures in Ozian history, like Lanclor the Lion, King Goat and a bear nurse to name a few. By providing these details, Universal is giving us a look at the expanded world of Oz and a glimpse at how the Wicked movie may differ from the Broadway musical.
The stage adaptation hardly mentions The Great Drought and doesn’t go into much detail of Oz’s history. We don’t know animals by name besides Doctor Dillamond. These tours of Dillamond’s classroom already tell us more about animals and Ozian history than the musical does.
We know Wicked is the story before Dorothy dropped in, the story of Elphaba and Glinda. By focusing the video and interactive tour of Doctor Dillamond’s classroom focusing on animals, Universal and Jon M. Chu is letting us know they’re an important part of the Wicked movie.
Watch the video tour of Doctor Dillamond’s classroom below.
What did you find most interesting about the Shiz University classroom? Share with us in the comments.
Wicked is in theaters Friday, Nov. 22 with select theaters offering special screenings beginning Wednesday, Nov. 20.
