Into the Woods

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Ben » March 29th, 2015, 6:49 pm

I think Todd's changes (pretty minimal) are better than Woods' second act changes, which basically truncates it down to half. In fact, I found Woods didn't know if it felt it should have stopped at the end of Act One or if it should do the whole of Act Two. Instead, it does half of Act Two and makes changes accordingly to make that work. The first half of the film is a doozy, but the second "half" (actually more like a last third) isn't as faithful. It still works for the medium and the time it's been made (as in when most people think it ends happy ever after, which actually negates the point of the whole thing), but Todd is the more "straight" translation to the screen overall, no question.

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Randall » March 29th, 2015, 10:56 pm

Ben wrote:And the BD is OOP already? Darn it...


Update: phew...not OOP after all. Amazon's getting more in. Then again, I may go DVD on this. The TV showing, which I still have off-air on VHS (!), was never that great due to using the old smeary tube cameras and it certainly wasn't shot on film or HD video, so I can't imagine the BD being any better than an upscaled DVD. According to reviews, the BD has interlacing artefacts resulting from this whereas the DVD just presents a solid version of the SD broadcast.
Amazon says they're getting more in... until maybe they don't. Amazon Marketplace and eBay sellers are asking $45 for it, so I wouldn't be too sure that more copies are necessarily on the way. I've been burned by that "Temporarily Out Of Stock" notice before.

Of course, as you say, the DVD may actually be the better option. The PBS version was only taped, from what I've read, so making a BD seems to just be marketing. The original DVD from years ago apparently has better sound, too, being in Stereo rather than Mono (not sure about the new DVD version). Buying the BD on eBay was an impulse decision, admittedly, but I can always re-sell (maybe even for a profit) later if I'm not impressed.

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Ben » March 30th, 2015, 6:01 am

I'm not worried either way. I still have my VHS and didn't really feel the need to replace it, though I kind of got excited when the BD was announced. Then I saw some reviews (think this was back in Nov/Dec last year) and reconsidered it, thinking I would pick it up sometime, but the comments about the artefacts (results of upscaling 576i to 1080p) put me off.

Yes, this was just taped at SD, and on the old tube cameras to boot, so lots of light trails and smeary blacks (it's a dark show, literally). I'll be very interested to hear what you think of the BD, but can't think how they thought they could really do this and put it out legitimately.

On the sound...looks like you impulsed too fast. :(

The Nov/Dec BD disc used a phased mono track to offer a fake stereo sound...but a little search shows that there was a Stereo Remaster version released in Feb this year...and its readily available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Into-the-Woods-Bl ... B00RUT3BVO

So the original Blu is OOP because they did a replacement. Picture is said to be the same but since we don't know what audio source is used for the DVD, this might be the one to get, as the DVD was released with the original BD.

Gad...this is still going to wait until I find out more... ;)

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by James » March 30th, 2015, 2:22 pm

Saw this recently right before it left theatres. I'm a big musical theatre guy and Into the Woods came out right as I was getting into it back in the 80s. It's one of my favorites so I was afraid Hollywood was going to ruin it. I was very pleasantly surprised!

I had hardly any complaints with the conversion (which is unusal for me!) other than the "happily ever after" didn't last long enough. Maybe a bit gimmicky, but here's how I would have done it:

Do the "Ever After" song that was cut from the musical during the wedding parade from the film. As soon as it ends, go to black with the "Into the Woods" title card. Then start the credits... not long though, maybe just the director credit... then have the sound of the castle crashing under the black screen and cut back to the movie. That would have given it the feel you got from the musical with the intermission.

Really surprising to me is how much my kids like it. I've had the soundtrack for decades and they've never listened to a note and now they want it on all the time in the car!

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Randall » March 30th, 2015, 8:46 pm

I like your idea. A lot, actually.

My son was freaked out by what the stepsisters had done to their feet, but otherwise he gave it an "8/10." My daughter thought it was okay.

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by EricJ » March 30th, 2015, 9:47 pm

James wrote:Do the "Ever After" song that was cut from the musical during the wedding parade from the film.
Ever After does show up in the scene as the incidental music, but it wouldn't have hurt to have them sing it, just to be interrupted (and prevented from doing the cut end-of-Act I Woods reprise) by the "earthquake".

I can see the changes of losing the father plot, but it's not as drastic as Ben makes it out to be--From all the handwringing, I was expecting something on the level of Kenneth Branagh's "Sleuth" where the entire Act 3 was bewilderingly cut out along with the basic point, but here, Marshall's got a good intuitive grasp of a movie musical.
Anyone who could bring off "It's Your Fault" on screen and make it look natural knows what he's doing. (Even if he was just going through the Chicago motions when the Weinsteins made him direct "Nine".)

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Ben » March 31st, 2015, 6:11 am

Well, I still love Nine, so...

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Randall » April 3rd, 2015, 9:32 am

Another way to buy the PBS version on DVD, for Sondheim lovers:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00S0DW34U/

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Ben » April 3rd, 2015, 10:42 am

Ooh...!

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by EricJ » April 3rd, 2015, 11:17 am

Yeah, but it's got Sweeney Todd in Concert, though, not the original Angela Lansbury staging which has still been available on DVD since the Burton movie came out.
(And the PBS Concert version always reminds of the Forbidden Broadway jokes about why Sweeney Todd is constantly revived by small theater companies that can't afford scenery.) ;)
Last edited by EricJ on April 3rd, 2015, 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Into the Woods

Post by Ben » April 3rd, 2015, 1:07 pm

Yeah, I saw that afterwards, and it's a bit of a bummer that probably cancels out a sale, even though I'd like Woods and Follies, mostly. I never saw the birthday concert either. But it would have been golden if it had been the Lansbury Todd in there (and perfect with Six By Sondheim to complete the package). It'll go on the wish list pile for a future date...

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