{"id":19355,"date":"2014-12-31T12:44:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T20:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=19355"},"modified":"2014-12-31T12:46:52","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T20:46:52","slug":"into-the-woods-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=19355","title":{"rendered":"Let’s discuss the Into The Woods movie!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"into-the-woods-cast\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Spoilers ahead!<\/em><\/strong> Also, the above image collage was swiped from ArtInsights Magazine<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I saw Into The Woods<\/em> on Christmas, as part of my annual “Chinese food & a movie” Christmas tradition. Some thoughts:<\/p>\n

\"into-the-woods-wolf-red\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1) Johnny Depp played the Wolf as well as anyone who can’t sing could play the Wolf. Which, put another way, means that there were a thousand actors who could have played the Wolf much better. But, fortunately, it’s a small part. And I’m sure that having Depp’s name on the project helped get the movie financed, and there aren’t a thousand actors we could say that for.<\/p>\n

\"into-the-woods-movie-screenshot-meryl-streep-witch-11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2) Let’s face it, Meryl Streep can’t sing as well as Bernadette Peters (who originated the part on Broadway) did. But “doesn’t sing as well as Bernadette Peters” is hardly an insult! Streep doesn’t have that kind of powerhouse voice, but she sings well. What she brought was a acting performance that was nuanced and made the Witch into a fascinatingly eccentric character who could also be heartbreaking. This was a movie performance, full of tiny tics and quick expressions that only a camera could catch, and I thought it was enjoyable as hell. (I loved the moment when the Witch punished Rapunzel cruelly and unjustly – we could see on Streep’s face that it was breaking the Witch’s heart to do it, but also that she wouldn’t relent.)<\/p>\n

3) Say, was it just me, or did the Witch’s exit seem less like she got her powers back and teleported away from this mess (which is what happens to her in the stage show), and more like she died by being sucked into a tar pit?<\/p>\n

4) There is no reason in the world, other than Hollywood’s endless racism and lack of imagination, for this movie (or the original play, alas) to have an all-white cast. Why do movies feel like they’d rather die than show us a diverse cast? (And please don’t say “they cast the best people for the roles.” I thought the whole cast was good, but Streep was the only one who turned in a performance so unique that you couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the role.) <\/p>\n

5) I really can’t see why they wrote Rapunzel’s PTSD and death out. It didn’t seem to gain them anything, and it made what the Witch did to Rapunzel less harmful, as well as lowering the Witch’s emotional stakes in the last act. As it is, I honestly can’t remember what happened to Rapunzel and her Prince. Did they even appear in the second act of the movie? Did they just escape the giant and run off?<\/p>\n

6) The child (well, early teen) actors who played Red Riding Hood and Jack both sang very well, but having them look that young meant that the sexual awakening elements of both their adventures had to be deemphasized in the staging (especially with Disney as producer). Oh, well.<\/p>\n

7) Really loved the decision to have the costumes be from centuries apart – ranging from the Renaissance-era Rapunzel all the way to the Wolf’s zoot suit. Not locking the costumes down to any one period is a really cool approach for a fairy tale movie, since fairy tales take place in all periods.<\/p>\n

8) The only person from the original Broadway cast I missed was Joanna Gleason<\/a>. Emily Blunt did a fine job as the Baker’s Wife, but I don’t think anyone will ever match Gleason’s performance.<\/p>\n

9) I thought Anna Kendrick (Cinderella) and James Corden (the Baker) were, alongside Streep, the stand-out cast members.<\/p>\n

10) I was kind of surprised at how little I missed the Mysterious Man and “No More.” I did miss the reprise of “Agony,” but as funny as it is, it doesn’t add all that much to the story, so I can see why they cut it.<\/p>\n

11) I’m planning to see this again, probably next week.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts?<\/p>\n

\"into-the-woods-red\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Spoilers ahead! Also, the above image collage was swiped from ArtInsights Magazine.) I saw Into The Woods on Christmas, as part of my annual “Chinese food & a movie” Christmas tradition. Some thoughts: 1) Johnny Depp played the Wolf as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-popular-and-unpopular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19361,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355\/revisions\/19361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}