Into the Woods is a movie based on a Stephen Sondheim stage musical. I was excited when I heard it was going to be made into a movie, not only because I thought it would be fun to see on the screen, but also because of who was directing it. Rob Marshall made his return to movie musicals after directing the huge hit, Chicago and the lesser known, Nine. The reason I was so excited Marshall was returning is because Chicago was credited with “bringing movie musicals back” in 2002 by being both fun and serious while pleasing both fans and critics alike. Many people agreed with this thought as well, as it went on to win six Academy Awards including Best Picture in 2003.

So this is why I was so pleased to hear about Marshall directing Into the Woods. Once the cast was revealed to be full of stars such as Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Emily Blunt, and of course Meryl Streep, I was even more excited to see it.

I have to say, there’s not a single actor I think did not do a good job in their role. Meryl Streep was of course great as the Witch, but really saying Meryl Streep is great in a role has become equivalent to saying water is wet. More subtly, James Corden was fantastic as the troubled but earnest Baker and Lilla Crawford debatably stole the show with her performance as Little Red Ridinghood.

Unfortunately, the film just was not satisfying. I would even go so far as to say it was awkward in how it told the story. People that I’ve heard from that weren’t familiar with the musical have said they just didn’t really get the movie and it was not what they expected, and I can see why.

I think the movie failed when it tried to be too mainstream and made their target market families. Because it was a Disney movie, it tried to appeal to children and adults, when in fact the musical just doesn’t lend itself to that demographic. I did see multiple families with young children in the theater when I saw the movie, so they certainly accomplished their task in drawing those people in, but I was still surprised to see it because I knew the kind of material the stage musical contained. In reality the musical is very dark, including elements of death, adultery, infertility, and even pedophilia. Of course, when the decision came to make the movie more accessible to families, a lot of these parts were cut out of the final film, but because of this I think the movie suffered. A lot of the appeal of Into the Woods comes from the dark themes it applies to beloved fairy tales. The overarching theme of Into the Woods is about parent-child relationships with an ending song that more or less speaks directly to parents and the effect they have on children. All of this combined does not make for a fun fairy tale story that kids will enjoy.

I’m not sure if it was Rob Marshall or Disney or someone else, but in my opinion, they should have made a very dark film about fairy tale characters and kept all of the edgy and disturbing elements in and marketed it to teenagers and young adults. It would have been a great thing for Disney to do considering that a lot of young adults now grew up with the classic, happy Disney movies and a lot of those people would probably enjoy seeing those stories take on a darker and more mature twist. If it’s not obvious, I think the stage musical is much better than the movie and it really is a shame they could not achieve the same effect when translating to film.