“Wicked” moves from the Broadway stage to the cinema, an epic that transitions from “musical” to “intellectual property” in a bloated, lumbering, gear-grinding crash.

Whatever Disney or most any other producing studio might have done to this beloved prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” Universal smothers the life out of it, slowing it down for a tedius exercise in theme-park attraction-scale “world building.”

Casting Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the leads can seem inspired, here and there, with kids’ TV sitcom alum (“Victorious”) turned pop pixie Grande dazzling in ways only the original stage show’s Galinda could rival.

But bringing in Kristen Chenoweth (the original Galinda) and Idina Menzel (Broadway’s Elphaba) for cute-but-pointless cameos late in “Part 1” of what will turn out to be a five hour+ magnum opus musical just underscores the bloat, the Seussian excess of production design, costumes and the joyless art deco kitsch of it all.

Whatever the charms of the stage version, they’re budgeted right out of this “product.” The songs, separated by excessive filler between the musical highlights, are robbed of much of their wit and pathos. The characters are underscored with some cute cinematic touches and undermined by dead weight scenes and dull, overdressed supporting characters.

The story is about the unloved life that Elphaba (Erivo), the Wicked Witch of the West, endured before meeting and befriending her rival Galinda (Grande) at Shiz University, which can only be seen as a derivative Ozian Hogwarts.

Elphaba has a ready response to ridicule for her green skin that includes “No, I did not eat grass as a child.” Galinda’s life of fashionable, effortless and shallow beauty has made her spoiled.

“Something is very wrong! I didn’t get my way!”

Studying under Madame Morrible (Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh), competing for the amusingly vain and handsome Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), these two will supposedly learn the depths and limits of each other’s compassion. They’ll matchmake Elphaba’s paraplegic sister Nessarode (Marissa Bode) to tall-for-a-Munchkin Boq (Ethan Slater), and understand the cruelty of caging animals, denying even some of their professors (Peter Dinklage voices a PhD goat) the power of speech.

Belittled and discriminated against for being green and thus “different,” Elphaba has grown up bitter, with her magical powers unleashed in fits of fury. Galinda’s friendship might soften that, and befriending the outcast Elphaba might make the dizzy blonde drop the “Ga” from “Galinda” as she learns emphathy and earns her own powers.

The Wizard of Oz? He’s a remote, feared and admired God, in a “Thank Oz,” “Oz help us,” Oz bless you” sense. The two star pupils will have to study hard to “find your way to the Wizard of Oz.”

I saw a great touring production of the stage show some years back, and the stand-out numbers from it — Galinda’s goofy recitation of the benefits of being “Popular” and the show-stopper “Defying Gravity” — have the jarring effect of “Oh yeah, THIS is what they were adaptating” when they turn up here.

The effect of all the excess director Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “In the Hieghts”) let himself get talked into is that most of the stage-proven jokes don’t land — all that silly Ozian word-mangling wordplay Galinda (mostly) trots out — “Scandalocious,” “Hideouseus,” etc.

There’s a staggering amount of dead space between songs. Late in this film, which is a grossly-inflated version of the first act of the play, we go so long without a ditty, a song of longing, lament, regret or hope that one can easily forget this is a musical, for Oz’s sake.

Such missteps aren’t the fault of the cast, with Grande bubbling over in many of Galinda’s giddiest moments, literally hanging from the chandelier in her takeover of “Popular.” Erivo tries to register heartbreak and disappointment beneath the green makeup, Bailey sparkles in the handsome oaf with a heart role.

Yeoh brings gravitas and the odd bit of playfulness to the picture, and Jeff Goldblum, playing the Wizard, is both a funny fraud and a sinister force — “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.”

There’s your political allegory, folks, for those who miss it. “Dividing” people is a way to rule them.

But the messaging is murky and the impact of most every performance is dulled by the leaden pace of it all.

Chu and Crew played it too safe with this adaptation, amortizing costs by splitting it into two movies, using the stage play script as a starting point for something grandiose, but overwhelming a film that was never ever going to supplant or replace “The Wizard of Oz.” Something faster, funnier, stripped down and daring was in order.

This picture should have passed by in a sprint, not slogged along like an overlong, overbudgeted Macy’s Parade with Music that would test the patience of anyone, including that toughest PG audience of all — kids.

“To Be Continued,” popping on the screen two and a half disheartening hours in, is as deflating a closing credit as the movies have produced in years.

Rating: PG, fantasy violence, flying monkeys

Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode and Jeff Goldblum.

Credits: Directed by Jon M. Chu, scripted by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, based on the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman which was based on the novel by Gregory Maguire who was inspired by the 1939 film of Frank L. Baum’s novel “The Wizard of Oz.” A Universal release.

Running time: 2:40