But it's Disney that brought it there. And they demanded cuts and changes to the story in doing so. Details on exactly what they'd ordered were a bit sketchy and contradictory, and I didn't want to know ahead of time in any case. I just sincerely hoped that they hadn't messed it up.
To a great extent, it turns out that Disney couldn't mess it up too much. They enlisted Rob Marshall, director of the film version of Chicago, to helm this movie. It put the film in good hands. Marshall made sure to surround himself with the very best. The production values of this movie are top notch, with fantastically moody sets (that existed in the real world, not on a hard drive), wonderful costumes (particularly a zoot suited Wolf), and very well-realized visual effects (strategically deployed).
The new orchestration of the music is superb. The small group of players one normally gets for a stage musical is skillfully expanded to a full orchestra, with smart nuances added to the songs to expand the soundscape and enhance the experience.
The cast, from top to bottom, is outstanding. Some have sung in film before. Meryl Streep is a menacing Witch, and quite possibly the only performer than could have followed in the footsteps of Broadway's original, Bernadette Peters. Anna Kendrick seems effortlessly natural as Cinderella, nailing both Cinderella's incredibly difficult songs and the character's humor without self-awareness. And as the Wolf, Johnny Depp combines his experience with Sondheim (from Sweeney Todd) and his experience pushing Disney out of their comfort zone (with Pirates of the Caribbean), making the most of his scant few minutes of screen time.
But it's not just the movie musical veterans who are perfectly cast. James Corden and Emily Blunt are great as the Baker and his Wife, sympathetic, funny, and moving by turns. Chris Pine is hilarious as Cinderella's Prince, giving a wonderfully dry comedic performance. Tracey Ullman breathes life into one of the slighter roles as written by Sondheim, as Jack's exasperated Mother. The film also takes the understandable step of casting actual children as Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (of beanstalk fame), even though on stage those roles are typically played by young adults. As hard as casting skilled children always is, even here the movie scores, getting deadpan humor and spunk from Lilla Crawford, and the right mix of stupidity and adventure from Daniel Huttlestone.
Basically, the only people involved in this film who didn't bring their best were the Disney executives who demanded changes in the script. Changes when adapting from one medium to another are to be expected, and are usually even necessary. The cuts made from what was Act 1 of the musical, for example, were all wisely made -- songs with an odd theatricality that wouldn't translate to film, verses that could be quickly covered with a line or two of dialogue. In short, alterations and omissions that only the purists would even notice, much less miss.
The cuts from Act 2 of the musical, however...
Well, I can't really say in earnest that they ruined the story. The story does still get darker than you'd generally expect a Disney film to get. Yet Act 2 of the musical -- what essentially amounts to the final third of the movie -- is still noticeably compromised. It's full of changes not made for artistic reasons, nor for transferring smoothly from one medium to another. These changes are clearly made to preserve the Disney brand (or, at least, to only let it be darkened so much).
I have to get a bit spoilery here, so skip this paragraph if you choose. Some of the deaths from the musical are removed entirely in the movie. The ones that remain are presented in oddly artistic ways that leave them awkwardly softened. The same goes for the musical's threads of infidelity and adultery; most of it is removed, the little that's left is defanged. Two songs from the musical are powerful statements about regret, "Witch's Lament" and "No More"; in the film, the context of one number is changed sufficiently to dull its impact, while the other song is cut entirely. And as an almost sadistic twist of the knife for fans who know which songs have been cut, the movie uses instrumental versions of their melodies as underscore!
In all, I understand why several critics -- some familiar with the original musical, but many presumably not -- have expressed some confusion over the last part of the movie. With so much of the original's darkness softened or excised, what remains comes off a bit capricious. The message it was all supposed to have conveyed has been muddled. But I would have to say that ultimately that message is still there. The musical's most powerful song, "No One Is Alone," is still included, and with enough of the events leading up to it that it still packs a tear-jerking wallop. It's probably for this reason that Sondheim ultimately gave the changes his own stamp of approval. (That, and the desire to finally see some form of his musical end up on screen after more than 25 years.)
Ultimately, I agree with a comment by a friend of mine, who like me has actually been involved in a stage production of Into the Woods. I wish this remarkable cast could have just been allowed to do the original musical, intact. I still think this one of the best movies of the year, but I feel like it could have been the best.
Still, countless other stories have been mangled much more mercilessly in ill-conceived adaptations into movies. Into the Woods fares markedly better, still rising to an A-.
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