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Written by: Tim Riley

Published: 03 January 2015

INTO THE WOODS (Rated PG)

Having spent some of my formative years living in New York City, where I had the opportunity with my family to enjoy many splendid Broadway shows, I have an indelible aversion to retooling grand musicals into Hollywood movies.

The results are never, in my mind, as good as the original stage productions.

Case in point, for me at least, is that “Chicago,” now billed as the longest-running American musical on Broadway, was turned into a successful movie, winning the Oscar for best picture and five other categories, including best supporting actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones. Still, far and away, the stage version is superior in so many ways.

Now roughly 27 years after its Broadway debut, the Stephen Sondheim musical “Into the Woods” has been trimmed down in scope and ambition for a movie version in which Meryl Streep is a standout as the Witch, while British actors James Corden and Emily Blunt steal the show as the Baker and his wife.

I saw the Broadway musical during its original run on Broadway, fondly remembering the many great songs and expert staging, which are practically staples in Sondheim’s vast repertoire, and though the finite details are hazy now so many years later, I still prefer the stage version.

This is not to say that “Into the Woods” is somehow shabby or deficient in a significant way in its transition to the big screen.

Sondheim fanatics may have a different take, but for me the movie version does relative justice to its progenitor.

Oddly enough, though, too much singing on the big screen doesn’t work quite as well as on the stage.

More dialogue and fewer or shorter songs would make “Into the Woods” more palatable.

But then, our two main characters, the Baker and his wife, don’t seem to have much to say to each other, as they struggle through keeping their bakery in business and being terrorized by the Witch, who harbors a grudge against the Baker’s father for having stolen magic beans from her garden.

The Witch has cursed the Baker and his wife, making it impossible for them to conceive a child unless they go on a three-day scavenger hunt to come up with a cape red as blood, a cow white as milk, a slipper pure as gold and hair yellow as corn. So this is how four fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm are woven into one musical story.

While the Baker and his wife must venture into the mythical woods to complete their shopping list, fairy tale stories are realized in parallel times.

First of all, Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), a precocious child with a penchant for pinching the Baker’s best pastries, wears the desired red cape.

Johnny Depp has a brief appearance as the Big Bad Wolf, and his leering, lecherous encounter with Little Red Riding Hood in the treacherous woods is somewhat unsettling for family-friendly entertainment, though one is easily convinced that younger kids won’t pick up on the Wolf’s sexually predatory nature.

Meanwhile, young Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) has been sent by his suffering mother (Tracey Ullman) to sell their cow, Milky White, in the local village.

Instead, he trades his bovine friend to the Baker for magic beans. And voilà, Jack becomes the legend of Jack and the Beanstalk. Well, you know the rest of this story.

Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) is introduced in the most familiar manner, laboring as an overworked servant for her evil stepmother (Christine Baranski) and wretched stepsisters (Tammy Blanchard and Lucy Punch).

But this time, Cinderella gets to flee Prince Charming’s castle not once, but three times, causing the Prince (Chris Pine) great frustration as he dashes through the forest, even breaking out in song at one point.

Locked away in a tower in the forest is Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy), the golden-haired beauty who has been isolated from the world by the evil Witch, who had kidnapped her at an early age as revenge for the transgressions of the Baker’s father. Yes, Rapunzel is the Baker’s long-lost sibling.

And yet, Rapunzel barely figures into the story, aside from occasional visits from a lovesick Prince (Billy Magnusson) and the fact that precious strands of her golden hair are required by the Baker to complete the scavenger hunt package.

“Into the Woods” is seemingly an odd choice for a Disney picture, because the Sondheim musical undermines the traditional notions of fairy tale stories, leading to a far darker emotional response for an audience when pondering the bleaker material on offer.

Another strange thing to happen is that the story reaches a satisfactory resolution, after the Baker and his wife complete their mission, and the viewer thinks the credits are about to roll.

But no, the story carries on for a purpose that seems not completely necessary.

Aside from the borderline pedophile behavior of Johnny Depp’s Big Bad Wolf towards Little Red Riding Hood, the PG-rated “Into the Woods” is suitable family entertainment, though I would hazard a guess that children are unlikely to have much interest in a film with dark tones and an excess of musical numbers. The same might even be said for a fair number of adults.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.