Small, happy and going Into The Woods.

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Well, another day and another cinema trip so it may seem! Twice in one week!  I don't think this has ever happened before..  First up was the incredible and brilliant sob fest that was The Theory of Everything (check out my review here) and yesterday I popped to my local vue to see Disney's Into the Woods.

Now before I dive in, I literally mean 'popped in', I can't stress how near my cinema is when I say it is local.  Literally five minutes away.  I've never lived so close to one before and I feel like I'm really going to start going more.  I always say this because I love films and I don't think anything offers such escapism as going to the cinema (apart from books maybe but even then you can get disturbed!) but now given that I can get there quicker than it takes my kettle to boil I have no excuse!

So, the movie.  Well firstly, Disney distributing it was a massive misleader for the average cinema goer.  I knew going in what to expect but there were many, many little girls in princess dresses in there with us and I bet they (and their parents) were not expecting a 2 and a half hour long dark musical about how happily ever after doesn't always turn out the way you hoped!  The poor children.  

However, as an adult who knows that life isn't always rosy I could appreciate the movie for what it was: an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's dark musical following the interlocking stories of some of our favourite fairy tale characters including Cinderella, the Baker and his wife (a wonderful James Corden, the baker not the wife, obvs), Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk.  All familiar characters yes, but the stories?  Not so much..

The songs are great on the whole, if you're into that I'm singing what I'm saying type of thing, (think Rent) and all the cast all had fantastic voices.  I suppose it helps that the songs were precorded unlike the raw, live vocals used in the recent adaptation of Les Mis. It's also enchanting, funny and unpredictable, which is certainly a nice surprise when dealing with fairytales!  However, having said that, the second act did go on a bit longer than it needed to, I think 40 minutes easily could have been cut and it wouldn't have harmed the film at all.  I suppose that's the difference when you see a musical on stage, they never feel long!  To me anyway, although I guess maybe I've been lucky to only see ones I have enjoyed.

You can't deny the film is filled with stars, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, James Corden (the list goes on!) and while there were so many great people in this film that was part of its problem for me.  There were certain storylines I wanted more of like Johnny Depp as the Wolf who was barely used which was a shame (I believe most people would agree with me there!) Despite this, it was wonderful to see so much of Meryl (a goddess among us) and James Corden had a much larger part than I anticipated so that was a lovely surprise.

Overall, if you like musicals and fairytales and are looking for something dark and gothic and different I would definitely recommend seeing this.  If this type of movie is not your thing usually don't go expecting to be converted to all singing all dancing way of life.  This is not the musical to do that.  However, if you're fan of the genre already, go on!  Head Into the Woods, I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Hmm, I wonder what movie next...American Sniper perhaps?  Anyone seen that?  What have you seen at the cinema recently?  Anything to recommend?

Sophia x

2 comments disney, film, film review, into the woods, movies, Review

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