8/10

The woods is a place in fairytales where all things are possible, and that magic is reminded to the viewers every step of the way in Walt Disney’s latest Christmas day release. “Into the Woods” is a modern twist on a few of the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters wishes. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy) all tied together by a fresh original story involving a baker and his wife (James Corden &  Emily Blunt) and their wish to begin a family while working with a witch’s (Meryl Streep) demands to break a curse to bear child. Not being a fan of musicals, i can say that “Into The Woods” touched even the darkest spots of my heart for the genre. There is plenty in this film by Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) to appreciate for even the biggest of haters. For starters, the set pieces and wardrobe were wonderfully lifted from the pages of bedtime stories we were told as children. The woods serves as a character on it’s own in this film, and it’s in that character that we learn of the temptations and terrors of an outside the village world. The Woods is easily comparable to our own real world where we all eventually take our biggest steps. The film has a couple of stage children in it (Crawford, Huttlestone) who may not be considered the main stars of the film, but between their impressive vocal talents, and the message of the film centering around staying a child as long as you can, more than gives them enough front and center attention. Streep is her usual film stealing self. The witch is haunted by a spell of her own, and this makes her relatable in the way she responds to other characters. Streep shows that whether it’s the silver screen or the stage, there will always be a place in this world for her. Kendrick was also pleasantly surprising as Cinderella. When i first heard she was cast as the girl with the silver slipper, i had my doubts. However, Kendrick thrives on a sweet innocence opposite of a Prince Charming (Chris Pine) who is entirely her opposite. That brings me to one of my favorite things about the film. It takes those tales we know about and gives them their own twists and turns. Charming for instance, is written as more three dimensional than the “Perfect guy” that the animated features cast him as. Pine says a quote that is quite definining for his character. He says “I was taught to be charming, not noble”. That line tells us more about his character than any other previous Cinderella story had for this blank character. Pine plays this cockiness marvelously too. Once i knew what Marshall was going for with this prince adaptation, i had no problems with the goofiness and albeit overacting that Pine inserted. I wouldn’t be giving an accurate review without mentioning some of the musical numbers that kept my toes tapping. The music serves as the narration for story and characters that are always changing. Despite the film having a lot of characters and musical numbers, i never felt that either were too crowded. Some of my favorite numbers were “Agony” by Chris Pine, “Your Fault” by Corden, Kendrick, Crawford, and Huttlestone, and my personal favorite “Children Will Listen” by Corden. From start to finish, it is a must own soundtrack that never feels corny or repetitive by Disney standards. I only had a couple of critiques about the film, and they are mostly on the technical side of the production. The first is the sound mixing/editing. There were many scenes where characters voices were heard with no mouths moving. When it happened once, i ignored it, but this becomes more and more repetitive during the second act. Another problem came with the casting of Johnny Depp as The Big Bad Wolf. I don’t so much mind the performance he gave, mostly because he is only in the movie for five minutes. My problem came with the overall design of the wolf. I get that a human being is playing an animal character, but could Disney at least make Depp look remotely like an animal and not a high school drama department who glued some fur to it’s villain character? Depp looks ridiculous, and his dialogue comes off as a little too creepy for this tone of film. My other two problems happened in a third act that was less pleasing as it’s previous near perfect first two acts. There is a death for one of the main characters, and instead of showing it, we get nothing. The only reason we know about this death is because another character says they saw them laying at the bottom of a cliff. The problem with this explanation is we never got a death scene, or a scene where this character ran into this cast member. We learn of this death out of nowhere, and it’s quite a shock considering how much camera time and storyline was dedicated to this person. The third act goes on for far too long. The last 40 minutes of the film takes place after a spot that would be perfect to end the film on, but instead we are treated to the battle of Jack Vs The Giant. I’m fine with including this in the story, as it would be stupid to have a movie with Jack and no giant. My problem is in the fact that there is too much build to a showdown that barely lasts ten minutes. Some of the third act could’ve easily been trimmed to make this 1 hour 55 minute film closer to the 100 minute mark, and it wouldn’t have hurt this film in the least. As it stands, those are the only reason this film got as low as it did. “Into The Woods” is a treat that the whole family will enjoy. I recommend it for even the non musical fans as long as they give it a fair shot and don’t try to play the macho card. I loved it, and the soundtrack is currently playing in The Film Freak’s house.