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Posted: 4/16/15 at 11:38pm
The song "She'll Be Back" was cut for good reason. In it the Witch is "waiting right here" for Rapunzel to return, then a little later she decides to leave the world where Rapunzel still lives? By the way, the Witch never commited suicide, she asks to be punished like she was before and taken away from the place where the other characters are.
Boy does this film not make sense with Rapunzel not dying. It's like it's not the true Into the Woods without that key moment. If it had kept that and the prince and Baker's Wife having sex (not shown but implied) and a little more from the stage show, it would have been the true Into the Woods and maybe been more acclaimed and awarded.
Updated On: 4/16/15 at 11:38 PM
Posted: 4/28/15 at 3:02am
I've only ever seen one stage production of Into the Woods - a taped version starring Bernadette Peters as the Witch - and had not remembered much about the story until I decided to listen to the soundtrack for the 2002 Broadway revival of the show, and have to say that I think the film did an excellent job of adapting the story, although I did miss a few of the cut songs. The filmmakers also knocked it out of the park as far as casting is concerned, with my favorite performances being turned in by Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, JI've only ever seen one stage production of Into the Woods - a taped version starring Bernadette Peters as the Witch - and had not remembered much about the story until I decided to listen to the soundtrack for the 2002 Broadway revival of the show, and have to say that I think the film did an excellent job of adapting the story, although I did miss a few of the cut songs. The filmmakers also knocked it out of the park as far as casting is concerned, with my favorite performances being turned in by Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, James Corden, and Daniel Huttlestone (although the rest of the cast is stellar too).
Posted: 6/13/15 at 7:10pm
You knew it was coming...
Posted: 6/13/15 at 8:22pm
But the film is perfect! Everyone said so!
Posted: 9/12/15 at 9:02am
Just finally got around to watching it. I had been procrastinating because I grew up watching the OBC recording, and have seen it probably 50 times. That being said, I still wanted to share my thoughts.
1. The first act blew me away. They did a better job than I could have ever imagined. In my opinion this is one of the hardest musicals to adapt for film due to a variety of reasons (stark 1st/2nd acts; long, storytelling songs; gratuitous narration, etc).
That being said, all the choices made strengthened the film (i.e. removing the narrator. Something I was original very upset about when hearing, after seeing what they did I realized how much better off the movie was for removing him).
2. The acting and singing were (almost) all amazing. I was especially surprised with how much I enjoyed Kendrick, and her singing was amazing. Streep didn't quite do it for me. Her singing, while not nearly as bad as I expected, wasn't quite there.
• Little Red Riding Hoods Original Into the Woods segments were especially great, and she did a great job.
• Kendrick's singing was amazing. Her acting was good.
• The Baker's wife, the princes, and jack's mother were all on point.
3. The second act fell completely flat for me.
• The way they handled Children Will Listen being my biggest grievance. Probably my favorite, and the most emotionally impactful, song of the show. It is, in my opinion, the song the whole show is building up to, but unfortunately they tacked it onto the end and instead of being emotionally impacted, people were half ignoring it as they put on their coats. The other problem being:
• The stakes were almost all removed or lessened. The whole impact of the second act come from the high stakes, infidelity, death, loss, which is literally the whole point. They removed almost all of this, so when the witch kills herself, and they sing Children Will Listen, it has almost no impact at all. The only song that suffered less was No One Is Alone.
The saddest part, is that I went into it with an open mind, as someone who loves the source. It was actually the expectations created from Act 1 of the movie that messed it up. He did such an amazing job, and made great decisions with Act 1, that when Act 2 completely fell through it just made me sad. It shows how great this movie could have been, when instead (maybe because of Disney) we have to settle for good.
Updated On: 9/12/15 at 09:02 AM
Posted: 9/12/15 at 9:21am
Yes the 2nd half of the film is very rushed and flat. I was very disappointed leaving the theater, as I enjoyed the first half so much. That actually seems to be the wide consensus with this film, we all love the first half and then that 2nd half.....oof.
Updated On: 9/12/15 at 09:21 AM
Posted: 9/12/15 at 9:56am
I superprocrastinated to say the least. Just caught the film on TV this past week. Never saw the live musical, so had nothing to compare it too.
The first half of the movie was fine. The second was absolutely overwrought and confusing. As a movie experience, overall just not enjoyable. It doesn't matter that Meryl sang well or was beautiful enough. Ultimately, the film was disappointing as a film experience. I will not watch it again, no need. Glad I didn't pay to see it in the movie theater.
I read through some of the first posts on this massive thread from the time right after the film came out. It's very interesting to see the groundswell of praise for this film. Especially from some who nitpick and find minutiae to criticize about Broadway shows. But I reckon love is blind, so please keep that in mind when criticizing other people for their love of (imperfect) shows.
Posted: 9/12/15 at 10:02am
Hamilton22 said: "Yes the 2nd half of the film is very rushed and flat. I was very disappointed leaving the theater, as I enjoyed the first half so much. That actually seems to be the wide consensus with this film, we all love the first half and then that 2nd half.....oof.
"
That makes me feel better. I had only read the posts right after release and was like wtf? Did we all see the same movie?
Posted: 9/12/15 at 10:05am
Yeah you certainly aren't alone in your thoughts about the 2nd half. It really could have been a great movie. Oh well.
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