No one should mourn this Wicked.

When Universal Pictures released its film version of the Broadway play of “Cats,” its creepy humanoid cats and bad CGI scared a number of people away, including myself (which is why you won’t find my review of that film on this site).

When Cynthia Erivo played the Blue Fairy in Robert Zemeckis’ live action remake of the Disney animated classic “Pinocchio,” I was wondering why she had to be covered in CGI effects just to appear magical. I met her at a screening of “Harriet,” and she had blue hair and was a lot more glittery in person. And that’s real glitter, not CGI.

But when word got out that there would be a film version of the 2003 Broadway musical “Wicked,” there was a lot of ambition. The play that boosted the acting careers of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, the play inspired by the book inspired by “The Wizard of Oz,” and the play with the memorable songs by Stephen Schwartz. Now, it’s a theatrical movie directed by Jon M. Chu in his first feature since he adapted “In the Heights” into a feature.

Now, usually I would go to the movies by myself, but now and then, it’s nice to have some company. “Wicked” didn’t scare away my mom the way “Cats” did, so I managed to book her a ticket to a special Monday night showing, courtesy of my Amazon Prime membership. And we both enjoyed it.

For one thing, Erivo now takes over Menzel’s role as the future Wicked Witch of the West, known as Elphaba Thorpp. But I don’t see any CGI effects covering her. I see green make-up that sets off society discriminating against her. And so far, at Shiz University, the headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) sees some potential in her. At least for now.

Another thing is Ariana Grande, who takes over Chenoweth’s role of Glinda the Good Witch, but at this moment, she was known as Galinda Upland. That’s “Ga-linda.” It’s something not even she can teach her goat teacher Doctor Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), but eventually she changes her name to Glinda. Her character is the kind of spoiled, popular type, who would faint when she doesn’t get her way. I bet she would love to meet Whitley Gilbert from “A Different World.”

The movie will be presented in two parts with the first part out this weekend and the second part set to come out next November. There won’t be an intermission to keep both parts, so we’ll keep the first half, which runs for 2 hours and 40 minutes. We’ll talk about intermissions when you see my review of “The Brutalist” next month.

There’s a lot going on in the story, regarding Elphaba and Glinda traveling to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), a would be love triangle between them and the Winkie prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey), the green girl’s hateful father (Andy Nyman) and disapproving paraplegic younger sister (Marissa Bode), and what sets off the balance between good and evil. Yes, it’s a lot to digest.

But this movie goes very fast with all these beautifully choreographed songs, cameos by familiar faces, and Erivo and Grande delivering the goods with different tones and characterizations. It’s the kind of musical to film adaptation where you’re tapping your feet and even enjoying listening to the positive comments from the person sitting next to you. Not that I’m recommending you should talk during the movie, which you shouldn’t. It was just a lot of fun.

Chu started off making mediocre films like some “Step Up” sequels, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and I even disapproved of “Now You See Me 2.” But lately with “Crazy Rich Asians,” “In The Heights,” and now, “Wicked,” I really admire how he improves his filmmaking skills. Granted, he doesn’t make the flying monkeys less scary for children, but he does know a good musical when he sees one.