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This article reframes Wicked: Part One (2024) as a contested cultural artifact, one whose adaptations invite both celebration and scrutiny. While the film abandons overtly racialized sonic tropes in favour of a more mainstream cinematic soundscape, it simultaneously risks flattening cultural specificity in its pursuit of palatability. Likewise, its central friendship – often lauded as a model of reconciliation – emerges here as a sustained case study in privilege, microaggression and the invisible burdens of emotional labour. Anchored in critical and anti-racist pedagogy, the analysis moves beyond textual interpretation to propose concrete classroom interventions that push students to interrogate representational politics, decode the ideological work of musical choices, and confront the subtle mechanics of dominance embedded in ‘beloved’ narratives. By mobilizing popular media as a site of resistance and reflection, this work argues for an educational praxis that not only dissects what audiences consume but also transforms how they engage with power, identity and justice – on-screen and in the world.