Into the Woods

Released in 2014 under the direction of Rob Marshall (“Chicago,” “Nine”) on a budget of $50 million with distribution through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; “Into the Woods” is the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 Tony-Winning Broadway musical of the same name. Production for the movie adaptation had been in development hell for fifteen years until director Rob Marshall, suggested by Sondheim himself, approached Disney in 2012 to adapt the musical for the big screen. With Sondheim and James Lapine, the writer for the original musical’s book, behind the project, Disney gave it the green-light, pulled together big name actors and actresses and gave it a Christmas Day release. But how does the transition from the stage to the screen fare?

Once Upon a Time, in a land surrounded by a thick forest, there lived a scullery maid named Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), who wished to go to the King’s Festival. There also lived a young lad named Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) forced to sell his cow to the market by his mother (Tracey Ullman). Also going through the woods is young Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), delivering bread to her sick grandmother until a wolf (Johnny Depp) sways her off the path. The main plot tying all the stories together tells of a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who wished for a child, only to be told by their witch neighbor (Meryl Streep) that she placed a curse of infertility on his household and took his baby sister, Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy), as payment for his father’s thievery from her garden. However, the Witch is willing to lift the curse if the baker can gather together four items to create a potion  in three days time; a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold. 
Of course, everyone gets what they want and they live happily ever after…right?

I should first say at the time of writing this review that I haven’t seen the musical. But from I have been reading up on, it sounds like I would love it. The movie adaptation, on the other hand left me with the feeling that something felt missing from the plot, further research put into perspective why. While much from the original Broadway show has been preserved by it’s James Lapine acting as screenwriter, quite a lot was also omitted from the translation to the big screen. Certain characters are either moved around or removed entirely, subplots with adult themes downplayed and two characters in particular walk off the movie without any answer to their fate.
But for all the things that bug me, there is enough here that kept me satisfied. Casting is fantastic, the music is catchy and the sets are appropriately fantastical. It genuinely makes me want to check out the original to see it in it's entirety rather than whittled down to appeal to the Disney demographic.

Final Rating: 3/5