If Netflix had adapted Into the Woods — Page 2

haterobics said: "Loopin’theloop said: "a gap is not important. What’s important to the story is that we feel there has been a passage of time, which is totally doable without an intermission."

Which also kills the notion of Netflix solving this problem, since they seemingly give you all of four seconds before automatically playing the next episode."

you don’t need a pause in time, for real to feel there has been a passage of time in a story. The issue with the movie is that the baker’s wife grows pregnant at speed, due to the breaking of the curse and the passage of time is foregone in favour of the story continuing straight on. There are plenty of movies that convey a passage of time in mere moments. You don’t a gap to do this

i don’t need to sit for twenty minutes between watching the Star Wars movies to know they don’t follow on directly.



its the passage of time within the universe of the movie that’s important, not the world of the audience

Updated On: 11/7/18 at 07:38 PM

Okay people, I'm gonna try to clarify my point here one more time:

Into the Woods as a musical is two separate one acts with two separate arcs ala they each have a 3 act structure to their act.

The common criticism I read about this film from people who watched it was "I thought it was gonna end but it just kept going."

And it's true. It's a jarring and annoying thing for a film audience member to be given the expectation of a movie wrapping up, only to learn that we still have about 45 minutes to go of essentially a NEW plot point.

While they probably thought that seemed "clever", a theatre audience already knows there is a second act to Into the Woods when they walk in. So after Act One they are left to wonder "Ooh where does this go now since I know that there is still another act of this show!"

The story gets subverted successfully BECAUSE of the intermission. Because we see the second act as a time jumped dark mirror to the first. Especially when the second act begins exactly the same way the first act did to make a point. You lose that subversion by merging the acts, skipping the time jump and removing the mirroring. It just feels like "We decided to make this fairy tale movie you are watching suddenly longer and dragged out and sad."

And yes if we lived in 1964 then MAYBE this movie would get an intermission but that's not the film world we live in.

Into the Woods is not a commercial draw, Sondheim is not a commercial draw, and the only reason we got a mainstream film of Into the Woods at all is because Rob Marshall had cred with Disney and they gave him the green light for anything, and it relatively fit alongside Disney's own subversive fairy tale reboots. So "Let's give Into the Woods an intermission" would most definitely never happen cause it's already such a risk in getting greenlit at all.

The movie we got was the best possible film we could get from this situation. A situation where Disney, the only likely mainstream movie company to have current interest in a film of Into the Woods could call a few shots like keeping Rapunzel alive and diluting Jack's mother's death.

This is where my Netflix point comes in. Netflix is in a burst of just creating content of the most diverse nature as possible. It would make sense to me that they would express interest in adapting musicals alongside their other constant "throwing everything but the kitchen sink" programming.

If they had adapted Into the Woods and made each act a separate episode, then each act/episode could still retain their 3 act structure and the mirroring of the 2 acts of the stage show could stay intact. Even if there was a 6 second gap before the next episode started as "intermission". The point is Netflix is able to show separation in their programming and storytelling that a Disney film would not.

Not to mention Netflix would encourage the darkness and bite of the original stage show and wouldn't be as concerned about reaching solely a family demographic.

My point here ultimately is the advantage of streaming services and the binge watching model, makes musicals that are 2 different one acts easier to adapt. As well as the pressures to adapt the MOST commercially appealing musical adaptations isn't the M.O. for Netflix or Amazon at this point.



So there you go, that is the point I was ultimately making. Is streaming services have created potential innovation for how we can ingest filmed adaptations of musicals.

My real problem with the Into The Woods movie is that it lost the "Jewishness" of the whole thing. It's that sense of humor in the portrayal of The Baker & The Baker's Wife that makes the stage show so fun, and that was lost when it was made very British in the movie. The best comparison I can make is The Princess Bride, which while a fairy tale in a very British setting kept that borscht belt style of humor alive and created a brilliant juxtaposition.



Was it Sondheim or Joanna Gleeson who once commented on how the Baker & Baker's Wife were basically a couple from Brooklyn trapped in a fairy tale land?

uncageg said: "Maybe they should have gone old school and had an actual intermission for the film."

more popcorn!!

seriously though I HATED the movie for this -- that they didn't 'finish' the first act and then 'start' the second. FAIRY TALE -- CONSEQUENCES. That was (to me) the whole genius of the idea. Story told -- happy ever after. Then the Narrator came out and said -- 'Upon a Time, Later' And it's time for us to reckon with everything we didn't reckon with when we were "Ever After"ing at the end of Act One.

By not making a clear line between the acts (and the concepts, they just ruined the whole thing (for me). And all they needed to do was to do a 15 second blackout. So very sad.

And, oh yeah, they also cut what I thought was the most important song -- which is sung by the father in act 2. I must say, I've lived a full life, but it's still tempting -- Running Away, let's do it. But as he sings, it doesn't work. It doesn't solve anything. It just makes things worse. I was a young man when I saw this the first time -- not so much now. I cannot tell you how many times, in a bad place, I've thought about that song and then soldiered on.

I don't mind change, and I don't mind re-envisioning -- I'm off to see Company next week -- but the basic setting needs to stay the same -- i.e. what the story is ABOUT, and taking away those two things -- the fairy tale act one and the consequences act two AND then the father's 11th hour song-- after that, it was just pretty pictures and (mostly) nice voices.