I have to confess that, even as a musical fan, I have not heard of Into The Woods. GASP! Does that make me a bad fan? Anyway, I came into the theatre with absolutely no expectation on how well the movie adaptation is. All I know is it has an ensemble of well-known actors and I expect each and everyone of them to be able to sing since it’s a damn musical.

I must say that I’m truly impressed.

Into The Woods consists of your favourite fairy tale stories – Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk – but not as what you know them to be. Their stories were inter-connected through the childless baker and his wife. They wished for a child and their call was answered by the witch, played by the flawless Meryl Streep, who requested for a cow as white as milk (Jack), a cape as red as blood (Red Riding Hood), hair as yellow as corn (Rapunzel) and a slipper as pure as gold (Cinderella). But the question is, like the fairy tales we grew up with, will there be a happy ending?

I love the movie. I do not know how the stage musical is like but this movie is so good. It was funny but it also has its heartwarming moments like the history of the relationship between the baker and his father.

The casting was stellar. As always, Meryl Streep is just fantastic as the witch – she was funny but at the same time, there’s so much heart to the character. You feel for her in the scenes between the witch and Rapunzel. I can see why she’s nominated for an Oscar for this role. I agree with Cam from Modern Family – Meryl Streep can act as Batman and still be believable. We know Anna Kendrick can sing so her being cast as Cinderella in this movie is just perfect. Chris Pine was funny, Johnny Depp was as eccentric as ever and his role as the wolf is actually pretty creepy. The child actors who took the role of Red Riding Hood and Jack were also flawless.

As mentioned, I did not watch the stage musical so I do not know how the movie adaptation does as compared to the stage version but through some quick Googling, I managed to find out that there were slight differences such as how it’s less sexually explicit in movie than on stage and there were some scenes on the stage version that were cut from the movie adaptation. I am not sure how the fans of the musical would feel but I don’t think they would mind since the changes in the movie were approved by Stephen Sondheim himself. To me, as long as the creator approved the changes, if I’m a fan, I would be happy.

But please do not bring your children to watch it. This is not for kids no matter if it’s released by Disney. They probably would not get 99% of what’s mentioned in the movie. There was a toddler in the theatre when I was watching the movie and it is annoying because he was restless after 30 minutes and I spent the rest of the movie having to deal with a toddler crying behind me. I love children but this is not Frozen. So parents, please research what movie you are watching before you decide to bring your kids.

With that said, I still enjoyed the movie so I give this a 5 out of 5.

The trailer…