Ashton Jarris

Into the Woods (Stage Version) is a story about the childhood fairy tales every generation knows and grows up with. It teaches children that "happily ever after" doesn’t always happen. It shines a light on the selfish nature of humans and how much it takes for people to own up to their mistakes. Through humor and beautiful character development, it offers a glimpse of the real world. The musical is filled with intertwined life lessons that I, along with so many others, learned from. Into the Woods (Movie Version), on the other hand, is a money-hungry remake that missed every important and meaningful message the musical was about. The cast was horrendous, and the autotuned songs stripped away all the magic. The unreasonable omission of important characters like the Narrator and the Mysterious Man further added to the extreme failure of the creative team’s choices. Like many other musical movie adaptations, this film was made purely for profit. It’s obvious that nobody in the leadership team of this project cared about the magical story of the original. They seemed completely oblivious to its meaning. I wouldn’t be surprised if none of them had even watched the original, let alone researched it. This is the worst musical movie I’ve ever watched. James Corden was the funniest cast member—not because he was good, but because he was so incredibly bad at both acting and portraying the Baker that it made me laugh hysterically. And the decision to make Jack’s mother abusive and nasty? That was absolutely baffling! I could go on for hours about all the ways they failed, but I’m sure everyone who has seen the original and then watched this horrid movie adaptation would 100% agree on how badly they messed it up. This movie convinced me to pursue a career in the movie industry because it was so unbelievably bad that I want to make a difference. Please, if you haven’t already, watch the original stage version on YouTube or see it live. This movie failed to capture any of the magic that makes the original so special.