Into the Woods - Not as bad as I expected

As a long time fan of the stage show I was very cautious about watching the movie version. In fact, to a degree, I was pleasantly surprised. Compared with the movie versions of Les Miserables, Phantom and other stage musicals, it wasn't all that bad.

An understandable disappointment was the omission of the narrator (and all the fun associated with this)- but the virtual non appearance of the Baker's father must have been very confusing for anyone not familiar with the show.

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Into the Woods

Casting, with the exception of Anna Kendrick was good. Miss Kendrick is not a bad actress, but she is an awful singer, whereas the lovely Emily Blunt as the Baker's wife was a delight, both to the eyes and the ears.

The inclusion of Johnny Depp, dressed in a very unwolflike outfit was fortunately short and his delivery focused more on the salacious side of the character and missed entirely the humour of the original.

The Wolf has always been a rather contentious character, made more obvious by the fact that Red Riding Hood was played by a young person, whereas, in the stage versions I've seen an adult was cast in the role. 

Daniel Huttlestone was great as Jack - he sings and performs to perfection - the rest of the cast were adequate into which category surprisingly James Corden unfortunately falls.

Meryl Streep (an actress I usually do not like) was excellent - maybe not as amusing and camp as Bernadette Peter's witch was - but she looked and sounded really good and was (to me) one of the surprises of the movie.

Why I rated it overall fairly low is due to the fact that although the film adheres to most of the original, it somehow missed out on the humour in the stage show. Essentially a dark story, the original was lifted by the frequent laughs. Most of the lines that brought these laughs were either missing, or poorly delivered.

And why was it overall so dark? Here I refer to the lack of colour in the scenery and clothing...dark story yes,but it has an uplifting message, so why not a bit of brightness here and there. It would have added dramatically to the overall effect.