Into the Woods
Walt Disney fairytale, fantasy musical – from the director of Chicago – starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine. Follows the tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel, all tied together by a baker and his wife and their wish to begin a family. Into the Woods is based on the stage musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd), which premiered on Broadway in 1987.
- Director:
- Rob Marshall ('Memoirs of a Geisha', 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides', 'Nine', 'Chicago')
- Writer:
- James Lapine
- Cast:
- Meryl StreepAnna KendrickEmily BluntChris PineLucy PunchChristine BaranskiTracey UllmanJames Corden
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Leonie Hayden
flicksStephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s delightfully grisly 1987 musical Into The Woods is the latest to get a big screen adaptation. Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow) and James Corden (One Chance; Begin Again) star as ye olde baker and wife, sent on a journey to retrieve items from the woods by the village Witch (Meryl Streep in almost-boringly fantastic form). There, their story collides with Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and Cinderella in a tangled web of fantasy and reality.
Musical Story What?
I was suckered into watching this, not realising it was in fact a musical. Like 'The Little Shop of Horrors' with the story line and setting of 'Snow White and the Huntsman' 'Jack the Giant Slayer' and obvious others. Once I managed to succumb to the songs and forget the short-comings of a musical nature, I actually enjoyed it. To me it seemed thrown...
Couldn't wait for it to end..
This should not have been as bad as it was given the cast. It just couldn't make the leap from stage to silver screen. Meryl and Anna Kendrick were stand outs but Johnny Depp was truly awful and Chris Pine was seriously channelling William Shatner when 'singing'. It couldn't decide if it wanted to be a parody or a musical so missed both.
Variety
pressMarshall hasn’t made one of the great movie musicals here, but he hasn’t bungled it either — far from it.
The New York Times
pressSplendid Disney screen adaptation... infuses new vitality into the tired marketing concept of entertainment for "children of all ages."
The Guardian
pressA layer of theatregoing good taste covers this entertaining if stately movie musical.
The Dissolve
pressTrapped between the stage and the screen, at odds with both its source material and its adopted medium.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressYet amid the cleverness and the wickedly subversive tilt they take, there's an affectionate regard for all of their characters.
Hollywood Reporter
pressThis twisty fairy-tale mash-up shows an appreciation for the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling, along with a welcome dash of subversive wit.
Empire Magazine
pressThere are brilliant, bewitching moments allied to hilarious and touching ones. Just not enough of them in what veers, at length, between the clever, the terrifying and the bit tiring.
Flicks, Leonie Hayden
flicksStephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s delightfully grisly 1987 musical Into The Woods is the latest to get a big screen adaptation. Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow) and James Corden (One Chance; Begin Again) star as ye olde baker and wife, sent on a journey to retrieve items from the woods by the village Witch (Meryl Streep in almost-boringly fantastic form). There, their story collides with Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and Cinderella in a tangled web of fantasy and reality.
Variety
pressMarshall hasn’t made one of the great movie musicals here, but he hasn’t bungled it either — far from it.
The New York Times
pressSplendid Disney screen adaptation... infuses new vitality into the tired marketing concept of entertainment for "children of all ages."
The Guardian
pressA layer of theatregoing good taste covers this entertaining if stately movie musical.
The Dissolve
pressTrapped between the stage and the screen, at odds with both its source material and its adopted medium.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressYet amid the cleverness and the wickedly subversive tilt they take, there's an affectionate regard for all of their characters.
Hollywood Reporter
pressThis twisty fairy-tale mash-up shows an appreciation for the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling, along with a welcome dash of subversive wit.
Empire Magazine
pressThere are brilliant, bewitching moments allied to hilarious and touching ones. Just not enough of them in what veers, at length, between the clever, the terrifying and the bit tiring.
Musical Story What?
I was suckered into watching this, not realising it was in fact a musical. Like 'The Little Shop of Horrors' with the story line and setting of 'Snow White and the Huntsman' 'Jack the Giant Slayer' and obvious others. Once I managed to succumb to the songs and forget the short-comings of a musical nature, I actually enjoyed it. To me it seemed thrown...
Couldn't wait for it to end..
This should not have been as bad as it was given the cast. It just couldn't make the leap from stage to silver screen. Meryl and Anna Kendrick were stand outs but Johnny Depp was truly awful and Chris Pine was seriously channelling William Shatner when 'singing'. It couldn't decide if it wanted to be a parody or a musical so missed both.
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