Into The Woods Upsetting Disney Purists- Page 2

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 6:43am

"The Fox and the Hound"...I LOVED the Fox and the Hound and it's great message.

Obviously she missed Bambi too...

It's kind of limiting to Disney to say they can only produce movies with happy endings..and ridiculous that a well known piece should have to change their ending to fit some mold.

Of course, there is an entire contingent of people that criticize the happy endings of Disney as being unrealistic and for setting kids up for inevitable disappointment. Nothing will make everyone happy.

[D2]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 8:12am

And the inevitable spin control on the burning issue of the day:
Do your research

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 8:33am

Actually she isn't lamenting Into the Woods, which she calls a brilliant stage musical. She plans to see the film version.

Her point, slight and a bit odd in its non-urgency, isn't that she thinks Into the Woods should have a happy ending on film. Her point is that she hopes Disney doesn't generally give up on making movies with happy endings. It is extremely unlikely that they would ever consider doing so or that anyone would think their mounting Into the Woods would make that a likely trend for the studio.

[AKarp2013]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 9:40am

"I hope the moviegoing public will be as miffed as she, and stay away in droves." Oh After Eight...

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 9:46am

"My family are into happy endings." I are too!

[D2]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 10:01am

Technically, she's correct with that sentence structure. She's British. They regard words like "family" as plural.

[followspot]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 11:05am

Perhaps her father (screenwriter Richard Curtis, of Love Actually fame) has kept her locked in a tower? As others have noted, however, this does address a real issue in regard to this being a Disney film. "Unhappy ending" buzz isn't good, not to mention inaccurate. Only a child (or a slow 19-year-old, or a bad publicist) would describe the ending of INTO THE WOODS as "unhappy." (Most) Adults understand the ending as mature and hopeful — a non-fantasized happy ending. It's a difficult show to describe — made even more difficult under the Disney banner.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 11:18am

Things didn't end all that happily for everyone in Love Actually (Emma Thompson and Laura Linney included), now did they?

And as far as other Richard Curtis endings go, Notting Hill is a piece of crap precisely because of its incredible happy ending. It also makes a mockery of its primary textual source, Roman Holiday, a truly great romantic comedy written by geniuses, a beloved classic which had the balls to not provide a stock happy ending.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 11:28am

The problem is not just with the ending.

It's rancid all the way through.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 11:35am

A condition you are very well acquainted with.

[followspot]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 11:47am

I'm actually a fan of your knowledgeable input, After Eight.

And then other times you do things like this.

You hate Sondheim. We know. You're entitled to your opinion. Haunting online threads about artists one hates seems to me a very unhappy ending indeed.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 12:04pm

Followspot,

I'm not "hauntng" anything. There are a million and one Sondheim threads posted here every day that I studiously avoid even opening. Too depressing for a happy-go-lucky person like myself. Or a reasonable one.

I opened this thread because the subject heading interested me. And I posted to voice support for Scarlett's comments--- much maligned and ridiculed here, naturally.

You can't even accept one voice that doesn't spout the accepted party line?

Then the problem lies with you.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 12:12pm

"Growing up, if a movie didn’t end in a kiss or a wedding, I wasn’t really interested."

With this philosophy I guess she approves of the movie "Eyes Wide Shut"?

[Consistency]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 12:32pm

The venom-spitting (but yes, also knowledgeable and occasionally informative) After Eight calling himself "happy-go-lucky" is almost certainly going to be one of the most hilarious things I read today.

Anyways, I can't really get worked up over the article cited in the OP - it's silly and probably doesn't deserve to be published in a newspaper, but it's also pretty innocuous.

For the record, like most people, I also like happy endings - but they have to fit the material. Some happy endings do feel forced and unnatural (and not in an ironic "calling attention to the artifice of drama" Brechtian sort of way.)

Go with whatever the material calls for. The bittersweet ending of "Into the Woods" fits perfectly with the themes that are established throughout the play, so I have no problem with it. Updated On: 8/1/14 at 12:32 PM

[Ranger Tom]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 12:48pm

Ms. Curtis is an immature teenager who still sees the world in absolutes like "real life has no happy endings." Sure it does, and so does Into The Woods. The new family formed by the Baker, Cinderella, Red, Jack, and the baby is ("are" for the British folk)a happy ending. "Wishes come true, not free."

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 1:32pm

SPOILER ALERTS

"Growing up, if a movie didn’t end in a kiss or a wedding, I wasn’t really interested."

Too bad. She's missed out on a hell of a lot of romance that many of us can't imagine growing up - or growing upper - without:

Romeo and Juliet, Casablanca, Now, Voyager, Spartacus, Chinatown, Dark Victory, The Heiress, Wuthering Heights, The Apartment, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Roman Holiday, Brief Encounter, The Way We Were, Funny Girl, Annie Hall, Lost in Translation, 500 Days of Summer, The Winslow Boy, Gone with the Wind, Queen Christina, Last Tango in Paris, Blue Valentine, Camille, Anna Karenina, Reds, Madame Bovary, A Star is Born, Love Story, Obsession, Don't Look Now, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, A Touch of Class, Brokeback Mountain, Falling in Love, Out of Africa, Camelot, The Children's Hour, Bonnie and Clyde, Death in Venice, Law of Desire, Talk to Her, An Unmarried Woman, Klute, Waterloo Bridge, Great Expectations, Jules and Jim, Since You Went Away, Sister Carrie, A Place in the Sun







Updated On: 8/1/14 at 01:32 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 1:37pm

""Growing up, if a movie didn’t end in a kiss or a wedding, I wasn’t really interested." "

Good for her.

[Alan Henry]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 1:37pm

Turns out, that's not really entirely her opinion and wasn't all written by her. I've been burned by Editors before. See here:

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/1/14 at 2:00pm

This whole thread was worth it just for this exchange alone:

After Eight: The problem is not just with the ending.

It's rancid all the way through.


tazber: A condition you are very well acquainted with.


I <3 U tazzy-taz.