Film Preview: Into the Woods (2014)

Poster

Poster #12

Additional posters can be found below.

Trailer Link

Release Date:

December 25, 2014

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A witch conspires to teach important lessons to various characters of popular children’s stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel.”

Poster: B- / C+ (10) / B / C+ (4) / C+

Review: (#1-#11) There’s a dark, connective aesthetic between all of the posters. The first is the primary while the others are character posters that Disney as a company is quite fond of employing. There isn’t much to say about these as the ten character posters are all, I believe, Brazilian, which is apropos of nothing.

(#12) The first full fledged poster (showing at right and not below) featuring most of the cast is thematically similar to the others, but overall isn’t that exciting. (#13-#16) The next four are identical to the prior double-character designs for one of the Asian marketplaces, but I’m not sure which one. (#17) This final design has some similar visual elements, but is hardly fresh, inventive or appealing.

Trailer: B- / B+

Review: (#1) As a big Stephen Sondheim fan and as someone who has been utterly disappointed by every big screen effort ever created from his work, the over-produced musical adaptation score in the trailer is bombastic and badgering. That the “I wish” phrases peppered throughout would typically fall into one of the songs from the show and none of which are sung make for an even more frustrating time. What’s worse is that Meryl Streep looks like she might be giving one of her worst performances to date. The film sure looks pretty, though.

(#2) This version does a better job portraying the film as a musical, though it still over-accentuates the fluffy, Disney-esque elements, which could be a turn off to fans of the source material, which ais all but rosy.

Oscar Prospects:

Rob Marshall has had both success and failure with the Academy. His musicals are a varied interest and if this one is more like Chicago, it could be a prime Oscar contender. However, if it’s more akin to his work on 9, it could be largely ignored. We’ll see how critics respond.