Disney's adaptation of Into The Woods. Now for some time I was excited that this was being made, and even more excited by the cast. Then I think after seeing and hating Les Miserables and all it's awful, dry non-singing and non musical actors I decided that I had given up on Hollywood musicals. I was a fool to not see Into The Woods at the cinema. I watched last night on Netflix and loved every minute of it, and at just over two hours that is saying something. The film looks perfectly classic enchanted forest as it should do. The cast was all great and the singing was pitch perfect. I found it funny and very entertaining. I loved Tracey Ullman in it, and Meryl Streep was amazing too. A big shock was Chris Pine who is actually a pretty amazing singer. Yea... I pretty much loved everything about this film and will be buying it for myself to watch again.
I think it works so well because they clearly went in an opposite direction to the people who did Les Mis. They didn't go for semi-realism, something I just do not think works for musicals. They went for high gloss and polish and total fantasy. The vocals were all pretty top notch. Meryl Streep was just awesome.
Even the over exposed James Corden didn't ruin it for me.