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[StopMakingSense]

Shit sucked for the most part.

Jack was horribly miscast. He shouldn't be a kid whose voice hasn't changed yet.

Cutting Agony Reprise robbed the second act of some of its best humor. The whole point of the princes is that there are only two princes who combine to be the prince in every fairy tale.

Meryl Streep was miscast. She doesn't hold a candle to Bernadette Peters.

The movie needed Ever After to close out the first act.

Censoring the Rapunzel story ripped a lot of dramatic weight right out of the film.

I have similar issues but I generally really liked it. A lot of it has to do with just how fucking long the movie would have been if they moved everything over from the musical.

I thought the kid was fine, but yeah, hearing Giants in the Sky in that register was super weird.

I too missed the Agony reprise and the omission of the second act story of Rapunzel.

I thought Streep was fine, though.

I thought Emily Blunt was fucking fantastic.

The main thing I thought was missing from what they presented was "No More." I get a feeling this was partly cut because they didn't think Cordon had the emotional range for it. (in general I thought he was just okay at best). The scene ends up being so weird, since ehe just walks away, talks to dad for less than a minute and changes his mind, with no real emotional weight to it.

 

[Belfast]

Wow, thanks for the information on how the stage version works. I'm rather glad I saw the movie instead, since that all sounds horribly depressing.

It hits more emotional extremes than the movie. Some bits are more depressing, but there's a fair amount more humor in it, as well. Or, at least, the actors deliver some of their lines with more of a wink/nudge and there's a bit of fourth wall breaking, too.

There are two characters almost completely missing from the movie, too:

Spoiler

The Narrator, who is just a voice over in the film. He appears on stage in the live version, and has different degrees of interaction with the rest of the characters depending on the interpretation. In the original stage version, he's an older man whose actor doubles as the other missing character, the Mysterious Man. The MM pops up from time to time, speaking in largely nonsensical riddles, when it is eventually revealed to be the Baker's father (who had, of course, left home long ago). The father appears in the film, but only briefly, and a key song between the two of them ("No More") is left out of the movie aside from the melody, which plays in the background right before the Baker decides to come back to the group near the end of the movie.

Said song, once again, gives emotional weight to the Baker's struggle at the end and should not have been left out. It is primarily about the frustration he has with his absent father and his desire to simply give up, tired and worn out from everything that has befallen him on the journey.

In a more recent production, the Narrator has also been portrayed as a little boy (perhaps the Baker's child) who occasionally interacts with the characters in a "ghostly" way (hangs near them, planting an item, or handing things between two characters, etc.), but is never noticed by them until a crucial moment in the story which happens in all stage versions (that I won't spoil if you ever bother to see it).

As with most adaptations, the original is a bit better in most regards and I'd implore you to check it out if you get the chance. The original Broadway cast recording is on DVD and if you have any local community theaters putting on a performance, don't be afraid to give them your business, either. Avoid the Jr. version, though, which cuts out the second half entirely.

 

[Belfast]

Shit sucked for the most part.

Jack was horribly miscast. He shouldn't be a kid whose voice hasn't changed yet.

Cutting Agony Reprise robbed the second act of some of its best humor. The whole point of the princes is that there are only two princes who combine to be the prince in every fairy tale.

Meryl Streep was miscast. She doesn't hold a candle to Bernadette Peters.

The movie needed Ever After to close out the first act.

Censoring the Rapunzel story ripped a lot of dramatic weight right out of the film.

Ever After would've been great. Actually, cutting out a lot of the transition songs robbed the movie of its central musical theme. People say there's nothing hummable in the film? If there's at least one, its the main theme, and there wasn't enough repetition for people to realize it was a theme in the first place!

I liked the film, but the stage version still blows it out of the water. Oddly enough, most of my theater friends seemed to completely enjoy it, despite having been into musicals for far longer than I have been. Then again, I think they are just a bit more prone to geeking out than I am.

 

[Blizzard]

I just saw the movie again. Both times I was fine through almost the entire movie, no tears or anything, psh what is emotion.

Then both times I got hit right in the feels by "Sometimes people leave you...halfway through the wood." ;_;

 

[FafaFooey]

Holy shit, this was probably the worst 10 bucks I've ever spent on a movie. Okay, to be fair, "2012" was the worst but this is a close second.

It just went on and on and on and on and on and on and on with one tedious song after the other. I don't mind musical movies but you gotta have at least 2 "Let It Go" moments to cope with the awful "melody talking". The premise in the first 15 minutes was actually decent but it quickly went off the deep end. There's only so much brown-grey-greenish a human eye can take. It was just the same scenery for the entire movie.

 

[AlexMogil]

The main thing I thought was missing from what they presented was "No More." I get a feeling this was partly cut because they didn't think Cordon had the emotional range for it. (in general I thought he was just okay at best). The scene ends up being so weird, since ehe just walks away, talks to dad for less than a minute and changes his mind, with no real emotional weight to it.

They never said his father died in the film so it could have worked. Why didn't they sing "No More?!" It's the Baker's turning point and one of my favorite songs. The words 'Like father like son' are so sad.

Honestly the whole second act of the film is a mess.

No time passes between the first 'Ever After' and 'Once Upon A Time, Later' so the characters could get tired of their fates.

The witch transforms back to her youth at the light of the blue moon, Rapunzel gets married, and the first time Rapunzel sees her 'mother' is when she runs off with her prince husband? Everything with Rapunzel was a trash fire. All the humor was removed in the attempt to make her so sympathetic and when they could have killed her, they didn't!

They got rid of the reprise of Agony which is another highlight.

Jack was sometimes indecipherable. And his songs are so lyrically fast sometimes you struggle to understand anything he's singing.

Red's singing voice is so digitally manipulated it sounds like a buzzsaw. She's supposed to be annoying and irritating but not like that.

But man, Last Midnight. I was waiting for Meryl Streep to eclipse Bernadette Peters and she did it in this song. She really pulled it off in this number, I think. The musical goes so fast you have to listen and watch it a few times to realize the witch is also cursed by her parents but the film drives it home.

The film wasn't a waste of time but right after watching it my wife asked if she could atch the PBS/Broadway version. I was lucky enough to see this live in the the late 80's when Bernadette Peters played the witch, too.

 

[zeemumu]

They never said his father died in the film so it could have worked. Why didn't they sing "No More?!" It's the Baker's turning point and one of my favorite songs. The words 'Like father like son' are so sad.

Honestly the whole second act of the film is a mess.

No time passes between the first 'Ever After' and 'Once Upon A Time, Later' so the characters could get tired of their fates.

The witch transforms back to her youth at the light of the blue moon, Rapunzel gets married, and the first time Rapunzel sees her 'mother' is when she runs off with her prince husband? Everything with Rapunzel was a trash fire. All the humor was removed in the attempt to make her so sympathetic and when they could have killed her, they didn't!

They got rid of the reprise of Agony which is another highlight.

Jack was sometimes indecipherable. And his songs are so lyrically fast sometimes you struggle to understand anything he's singing.

Red's singing voice is so digitally manipulated it sounds like a buzzsaw. She's supposed to be annoying and irritating but not like that.

But man, Last Midnight. I was waiting for Meryl Streep to eclipse Bernadette Peters and she did it in this song. She really pulled it off in this number, I think. The musical goes so fast you have to listen and watch it a few times to realize the witch is also cursed by her parents but the film drives it home.

The film wasn't a waste of time but right after watching it my wife asked if she could atch the PBS/Broadway version. I was lucky enough to see this live in the the late 80's when Bernadette Peters played the witch, too.

Imperfect adaptations don't matter in the woods.

 

[AlexMogil]

Imperfect adaptations don't matter in the woods.

May I kiss you?

 

[Lumination]

Will there be a director's cut or some alternate edition that fixes the second half? I thoroughly enjoyed the first half.