Into the Woods is a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987 broadway musical of the same name. This turns what you would usually expect to see for tens if not a hundred plus dollars in the theatre into a stylized rendition that is much cheaper tot take your family and friends to see (and comes with less risk if you take young ones to see it and find them scared or bored half an hour in). Given that the Disney Theatrical Group have spent years adapting hit Disney films like The Lion King and Aladdin into stage productions, adapting a musical into film is a refreshing change of production. But with strong source material that has lasted in theatre almost three decades to work with and live up to, is this adaptation any good?
Like the original musical, Into the Woods is a production that sources characters and plot elements from four classic fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), ‘Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and the Beanstalk’ and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy). With these characters and those created exclusively for this work, the characters have their plots intertwined as they all seek to achieve their goals at the same time – all of which require them to enter the dark woods that separate them from where they have to go.
While all four fairy tales are touched upon, with some more prominent than others, the main story involves the newly introduced Baker and his Wife (Played by James Corden and Emily Blunt). After the actions of his father, the Baker discovers that the Witch next door (Played by Meryl Streep) has placed a curse on him so his “family tree will always be a barren one”. Given just the one chance to bear a child, the couple must obtain four artifacts that should become familiar to anyone who knows their fairy tales. From there, a Baker looking to start a family, a young naive girl headed to her grandmother’s house, a boy forced to sell his cow and a lady who desires to attend the royal ball all begin their journey into the woods.
Into the Woods shares some similarities to the Japanese media franchise DuRaRaRa!!, in that it has multiple storylines progressing simultaneously with characters from each becoming involved in a progressively growing major plot. The film does this quite well, often interrupting characters on their otherwise linear route towards a traditional ‘Happy Ending’. This means that even if you have read the original tales or subsequent recreations, you shouldn’t go in expecting to see these tales simply retold. In fact, Into the Woods tends to be much darker – reminiscent of the tones originally presented in Grimms’ Fairy Tales which three out of the four fairy tales have been sourced from. One issue however is that the film tended to favour source material from ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk’ and ‘Cinderella’ over the other two. Rapunzel in particular didn’t have a heavy role alongside the other characters, giving at least an original impression that a huge chunk of her storyline had been written out of the film adaptation. While I am not going to spoil any possible cliff-hangers and events, I will also say that the second act felt very rushed in comparison to the first.
As Into the Woods is more or less a musical, a strong storyline can be severely impeded by poor songwriting. To be completely honest… I have never actually seen Into the Woods in theatre, having unfortunately missed a 2014 presentation of it by the Musical Theatre students at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Therefore, all comparisons made in this review will be based on my listening to one of the original cast recordings of Into the Woods I purchased on iTunes. Ultimately there were a few songs that were either cut or amended into instrumental tracks, in addition to some slight modifications which have clearly been made to adapt the storyline for its two hour runtime. However that being said, Disney managed to stay fairly faithful to the source material, and clearly chose to stick with the dark and eerie feelings portrayed by the musical in lieu of weaving some Disney magic into the plot and sugar-coating things.
As with the original musical, Into the Woods kicks things off with the fourteen minute long piece “Prologue: Into the Woods”, which introduces each of the characters and starts them off on their respective journeys. It was a strongly performed song that successfully harmonized dialogue and song into one musical segment that had enough impact to leave me genuinely excited about what would happen next. The song also highlights that Disney were not too fussed about making the song entirely youth friendly, with words such as “raping” being carried over from the stage musical.
“Prologue: Into the Woods” is the only song in the entire film that runs anywhere close to 14 minutes in length, with most others being <4 minutes long. With different styles and tones of music presented, the value and enjoyment derived from each song will come down to each individual viewers personal preferences. However I can say that the quality is consistently high, with the cast members able to both represent their respective characters and perform the songs satisfactorily. Most of the songs were clearly pre-recorded by the cast before filming, and the way they are presented to the viewer makes this fact clear. However none of the songs sound particularly clinical or over-enhanced, so for the sake of clarity and appealing to as wide an audience as possible, this was not a bad direction to take.
While there is little that can beat a fantastically done stage performance that unveils the story live before your very eyes, tickets to them are not always the cheapest things to purchase. For example, a single seat to see The Lion King musical set me back $150.00 AUD – which although I considered good value post-show, might be a very costly night out if you have a large group of friends or family members. This would be in comparison to a cinema screening which would set you back <$20 per person and comes with the comfort of more flexible timing. Irrespective if you take this into consideration or not, Into the Woods from Walt Disney Pictures and director Rob Marshall is a solid alternative to the stage adaptation; featuring a strong cast, some fantastic songs and none of sugar-coating that could have converted this from a more sophisticated and darker film targeted towards adults into a “family friendly” flick.
