This is a decent movie version of a decent musical. This is in no way an amazing movie for the whole family or for a general audience.

The pacing was that of a musical. Lots of exposition that felt a little too drawn out for a average audience. Vocalization of plot elements that were obvious from the scenery. A narrator. But it’s a musical so what can you do. I won’t go into my likes and dislikes about the story.

Now I had never heard or seen the musical before and I left the theater with a positive impression. Frankly, I’m just relieved I liked a modern musical besides Wicked and the Book of Mormon. Americana killed musicals for me a little so it was nice to see that I could leave the safety of the classics. But I digress.

The two princes really stole the show for me. The “Agony” number was practically worth sitting through the rest of the movie for. Both princes were delightful and the one who wasn’t Chris Pine just made my list of favorite new faces to gaze upon in lust. These two could dramatically sing about their first world problems all the time. I’d watch it.

The Witch was phenomenal. Her singing was above expected. Her acting was spot on. If I had to chose a role I envied it was hers.

Both Cinderella and Rapunzel were perfectly cast and played. The Baker was charming and dynamic. His wife was a tedious character but the actress did her best with the role.

Jack has obviously been trained to sing because his lip movements during the songs were those of someone who hasn’t figured out how to annunciate while singing without over formation of the mouth positions. He was perfectly adequate though.

Red Riding Hood was a disappointment. Someone needs to teach her how to emote. Most of her acting was flat and she seemed to lose all control of her facial muscles when singing.

And I’m just gonna pretend that the Wolf didn’t even exist for all of our sakes.

Verdict: Not really worth your time. If you loved the musical then just go see it again or listen to the soundtrack. If you want to see the movie because of the actors then just watch the main numbers on YouTube. It was too faithful to the stage production for its own good.

WARNING: May be unsuitable for children. They use all the source material for the fairy tales including some rather grim (tehehe) details that were a little graphic.