Onti the Wiids

Yeah, I went to see a Disney musical. A movie that's based on a stage play. Go new IP! I mean that... go and get some new IP!

There is a young maiden who is working for her stepmother and stepsisters... there's a young lad with his mother and a cow that won't give milk so must be sold... there's a baker and his wife who are childless that deal with a witch... and everything has a happy ending, because it's a fairy tale? Or is it? Events have consequences and a happy ending is only a moment...

So yeah, there's more to this than just the fairy tales we know. Although there is that too. But I've probably given too much away, except to say I'd do a whole story crossing stories over, not just interacting.

But... this movie felt too long. A lot of the singing was just singing the lines, not actual songs, and that didn't work too well for me, it felt like they were trying too hard to make it musical. The songs didn't really feel like they fit into the narrative too readily either. (And this is me basically accusing Stephen Sondheim, who did the music for a lot of I'm Breathless!)

On the acting side, some good performances, but I kept seeing James Corden as the chap who couldn't handle the Cybermen. And I couldn't remember Meryl Streep's name, so that bugged me every time she was on screen. Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen have a great duet together (I wish (sic) more of the tune were like that). And I didn't know Tracey Ullman was still acting. And there's the cameo of Johnny Depp...

It could have been tighter and darker, but it was decent enough.

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