Reviews & Ratings for
Into the Woods (2014)

The movie's lack of appeal isn't the worst thing about it - it's just so goddamned bizzare. While I do admire its inclusion of some of the darkest scenarios in the original fairy tales, and the overall production values, it incorporates elements of stage productions like that it was based on that do not make sense in filmed entertainment - the mixture of accents, for example. Oh, we're used to it in animation, but it feels out of place and without contrast in a live-action movie made like this. James Corden's singing does not help either.

They had the budget to add effects that would make Johnny Depp's wolf an actual wolfman, but he's just a cannibal with makeup that somehow ate two human beings whole, with a regular-sized human jaw. Something deviantART people would be able to make a decent theory out of.

Also, I'll be quite baffled if Meryl Streep gets nominated for an Oscar this time because most of the time in her character's presence her performance was pretty flipping hammy.

I have not seen the play. Of course, I haven't really seen much plays. But the play went beyond PG. If they made it truer to the play, then Touchstone would have been made useful for once.

Besides, they've already got a live-action Cinderella coming in a couple of months.

Whoops.

I have never seen the play so I can't judge how good an adaptation it is. My niece has done the play at her high school and said there were a couple of songs they skipped. I LOVE musicals, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the singing was good, but the acting especially Chris Pine as Prince Charming and Meryl Streep of course was exceptional. Johnny Depp's role as the wolf (not the cartoon style Zoot suit!) was not much more than a cameo. It's the kind of musical that really lends itself to film, as they could use special effects for the magic, the bean stalk and so on. Worth seeing on the big screen.