Well, Im back from Into the Woods. Before I get to the spoilery bits, let me start by saying that they did, indeed, go the more PG route for the movie than the more PG-13ish route of the Broadway musical, despite saying that they were going to stick to the Broadway Musical rather than make a movie of the High School Musical version... But let me be clear: I LOVED This Movie! This musical is one I hold even closer to my heart than Rent, so I am Fiercely protective of the source material in my opinions... And I am telling you right now that it is Fantastic and You Need To See It if you enjoy musicals. I 150% endorse this film! Now, onto the spoilery bits... ... Seriously, Spoilers. Unless you know the story and want to know the differences, Dont Read Ahead! Im going into detail here! ... The Good: Completely unsurprisingly, Meryl was Brilliant. The metamorphosis from Ugly Powerful Hag to Beautiful (Mostly) Powerless Woman made me gasp out loud. The whole movie was cast perfectly. I cant stress that enough: This Movie Had The Perfect Cast! The songs they cut out were mostly filler, so unless you really loved Ever After, I Guess This Is Goodbye Old Pal, or Agony (the Reprise) they arent missed. They even left in Milky White dying and the Witch resurrecting her, which I kinda thought theyd cut for pacing. I was glad to see they left that bit in. And they even left in the bit where Cinderellas Stepmother cut off her Daughters (Florinda and Lucinda) heel and big toe, though this was done just off-camera and they didnt pour blood out of the Golden Slipper before the Prince slipped it onto Cinderellas foot... ... Now the Bad: The Wolf was definitely a pervy bastard, as he was in the play, and there was definitely nearly-uncontrolled lust in his eyes as he sang Hello, Little Girl while stalking Red Riding Hood... But he wore a suit. A full suit instead of just boots and a coat... This is more of an In-Between than a Good or a Bad, because obviously they werent going to show floppy, furry, wolf-peen like in the play, but this part is where Im talking about what they did to make the movie more of a PG experience, so it fits in more with the Bad than the Good. Anyway, moving on! The Bakers Wife died, of course, but not because the Giantess stomped her. She fell off a cliff. Off-Camera. You see her running from the Giantess and then she slips and you see her hand reach for a vine and miss and go off-camera and thats it. The way the Baker finds out his wife died was because The Witch drags Jack through the woods and hes wearing the scarf the Wife had been wearing and the Baker takes it from him... It was still moving and when James Cordens Baker mourns his wife by bawling into the scarf hed given her I cried along with him... They made her death much less gruesome but they kept every ounce of raw emotion attached to it intact. Rapunzel did Not die. The Giantess was robbed of that Boom-Squish as well. Instead of torturing her through the whole movie and then punishing the Witch by having the Giantess kill her stolen daughter with the sole of her shoe, they had Rapunzel tell the Witch she never wanted to see her again and then ride off into the mist with her Prince on horseback never to be seen again in the movie. And, this definitely explains why the reprise of Agony was cut. So, no mention of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, or the one Princes irrational fear of Dwarves (Dwarfs?)... So... Boo. Cinderellas Prince did seduce the Bakers Wife, but -again, because they went High School Musical instead of Broadway Musical- the camera panned out as they kissed against a tree and cut away to the Baker and Cinderella... When they came back to the Prince and the Wife, they were still just kissing, and there was no refastening of pants or straightening of dresses... Just kisses. They PGed the shit out of the Prince and the Bakers Wifes affair and definitely made the Wife more of a breathless victim of the Princes charms rather than his charms *and* her own desire to do something foolish. I mean, he didnt kiss-rape her or anything. She clearly was caught up in the moment and wanted it, mostly, but it was still just some light necking against a tree. Jacks Mother died, but the Steward didnt kill her by conking her on the head with his scepter, but rather she died because he pushed her out of the way and she hit her head on a fallen log off-camera. The Mysterious Old Man in the Woods (who was the Bakers Father in disguise) was cut... When the Baker abandons his baby with Cinderella after his Wife dies, he is visited by his fathers ghost... In his head... Minor cut and the change was fine because it was still emotional and led to him realizing he was being an ass and repeating his fathers same mistake and made him turn back to help murder the Giantess... ... And there you have it. Wonderful film. I Highly recommend it. Ive waited for this movie since I was a little boy and it did Not disappoint. Yes, Im miffed at Rapunzel escaping her true fate, but meh... In my opinion, shed been tortured and punished enough so I guess she deserved an ending that was at least left up to your own determining (if not out-right Happy) and not one where she ended up Shoe-Gum. Go see it! Go! Go Now!
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 22:09:37 +0000
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