En el bosque

Upto half way it's great. The storyline is well packed and music is top notch... then it suddenly reaches a point of viewer asking why on earth hasn't it ended there.

Stephen Sondheim's 1987 musical which intermingled various fairy tales of the Bothers Grimm seem rather common in a post Shrek world.

Although the Broadway musical has a first act with a traditional fairy tale conventions the second act is more subversive which is toned down in this movie.

The biggest problem of course are the musical numbers, Sondheim I am afraid to say in his later years has never been as catchy as Rodgers and Hammerstein, although the latter was his early mentor.

The film starts of brightly, director Rob Marshall has certainly Disney-fied the story. There is a satisfying happy ever after ending with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack, the wicked witch and the baker and his wife. Wait there is still an hour to go.

The second half looks at the characters in disillusionment of a world that is not all technicolour but dark as a studio set masquerading as the gloomy forest. Somewhere along the line the films gets lost a little as the second giant arrives, people die and the survivors grieve.

Johnny Depp has a sinister and mischievous cameo as the perverted wolf. Chris Pine is rather able as the good but dim Prince Charming, James Corden is whimsical and the heart of the film as the Baker and Meryl Streep dominates visually as the witch.

Half the hate reviews I'm seeing on this website are all saying "The trailers didn't announce that it was a musical". 1. The music in the trailer is the character's singing voices! Please pick up on that! 2. Yes, it is a musical. I really don't see how a movie can get so much hate just because they didn't know it was a musical! At least try to appreciate the music in it instead of just hating it because you don't like actual singing. 3. THIS WAS ORIGINALLY BASED ON A STAGE PLAY BACK IN THE 80'S, OF COURSE IT IS GOING TO BE FREAKING LONG! Honestly the people act as if they've never sat through a 2 hour movie before! Schindler's List was over 3 hours and that is a freaking masterpiece, but god forbid a musical being just over two hours. 4. If you came in to just see Johnny Depp: Stop being so stupid and be warned he's only in the movie for 5 minutes. 5. IT'S PG-13! It warns you that some scenes will frighten young children. However if you think that the movie version is disturbing then don't take your kids to the stage play!

In my opinion. I loved this version just as much as the stage play. I have high hopes for Lilla Crawford and that she gets more roles in other movies. Her voice was phenomenal and Stephen Sondheim's musicals are a bit of a challenge to play in. So my respects to her. Anna Kendrick's voice was amazing, and she played a brilliant Cinderella. Meryl Streep is brilliant as always. Emily Blunt had a hidden talent I wasn't aware of. The two men (forgot the names sorry) who played the two prince's had great voices too! I could go through the cast and break down on their talent, but I think I'd go over the 1, 000 word count.

But please be warned, this is a musical. I believe it is a great musical and I really want others to give it a chance. It sucks that that the rating is 6.6 and I'm afraid it will get lower :(

10/10

This is a good movie and the entire cast does a very good job but it is not what I thought it was going to be. After seeing the commercials, sneak peeks and behind the scenes shorts I was expecting a movie more in line with the typical Disney fare; a scene providing some information and maybe a story point or two then a song (i.e. Toy Story, High School Musical, etc.). "Into the woods" is more in line with a traditional Opera where every line is done in song. The actress playing Red Riding Hood does a terrific job with her part of the song "Into the woods," you can hear a part of it in the commercials. There is only about 10 minutes of spoken dialogue in the entire movie.

Bottom line is if you do not like the opera production format wait for this movie to come to Netflix (or however you rent movies) so you don't feel so bad about spending so much money if you can't sit through the entire movie.

A wonderful cast indeed, and a number of popular fairy tales entwined, but I couldn't help feeling that I was watching a stage play instead of a movie. At times it felt the film was moving in circles, with a sense of deja vu more often than not. I also found the singing just a tad too much, and too drawn out at times. All in all it was a good production, I suppose, but this is an acquired taste, and it just did not tickle my palate. It became too repetitive and boring.