Into the Woods: A Story About Stories
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2019
- It babby's first video essay.
Sorry about the low picture quality, I'm still learning, and I figured that with this one in particular, "done" is better than "perfect". 
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Me shouting “This moment’s IMPORTANT, it needs a SONG!” at the next wedding I attend.
Smigadoon summed up musicals well: when the characters are too emotional to talk, they sing. And when they are too emotional to sing, they dance.
i remember leaving the movie theatre like "The second part was very unneccessary"
and I also remember watching the musical like "that second act is amazing and so important"
it's all about how it's done
The first time I saw the play, I liked Act I far better than Act II. After repeated viewings, Act II gives gravity and meaning to an otherwise saccharine fairy tale. It shows that our selfish desires have consequences for others that we cannot foresee.
The Netflix adaptation of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" did a really good job adapting Lemony Snicket as a visible narrator on screen. A similar technique could have been used here while still keeping the surprise of the fourth wall break.
i thought this exactly while watching the movie version
i was about to comment the exact same thing!
they could've even had him blend into whatever scene he was in by wearing appropriate clothing (something similar to what the charas are wearing) which would help him blend into the movie better and then later the characters finally see him
The idea I had while watching the film was to preserve the Narrator as a voiceover up until the scene with the Giant. At that point, the camera pulls back to reveal him in the flesh for the first time, thus maintaining the shock of his sudden interaction with the other characters. This, however, wouldn't neatly address the dual casting with the Mysterious Man, so... (shrugs)
I like that, personally I was thinking we could see him emerge from behind trees and shit to talk directly to the camera, then turn and we would see the characters a little way away, close enough for the narrator to see them, but far enough for them to plausibly never notice him slinking around - until the scene where they *do* see him, in which he strides into frame right infront of them, still addressing the camera
@@cascharles3838 i feel like they could have done this and really amped up the humor - just like how the narrator on stage is in a suit and is other-worldly compared to the other characters, in the movie they could have panned to him in a modern recording booth. if you can't make an on-screen narrator reveal natural why not just go in on the absurdity
You could do something like revealing the wizard in into the woods where the narrator says his lines throughout the show but suddenly during the scene with the giant the cast can hear someone speaking in a bush or something and reveal him. Adapting the narrator as a character is rough though so honestly the better idea would be to cast the narrator as a voice only role, cut his death and have the actor play the mysterious man
Well since the baker is narrating, I would have them try to do that until jacks mother stops them and tries to reason the giant too before she is killed.
My idea has been that the narrator acts in an immortal way until the meeting with the giantess. What I mean is that he is in a suit and tie narrating the intertwining stories but he isn’t fully present. So taking the first song: he walks around to the different houses and people walk by him but they don’t actually notice him at all. And he doesn’t get mud or anything like that on him during that time. But then the giantess comes and everybody is in the woods, including the narrator. As the narrator says his lines, it pans back and forth to the other characters. That is, until the narrator begins to leave and he steps on a branch and the others hear it and confront him and he gets sacrificed. He steps in some mud or something, symbolizing that he is now part of their world and no longer outside of it. But while the narrator is the mysterious man, he has dirt and leaves on him to show that he is fully in the world to the point he is pretty much crazy.
I think it would allow the narrator to be present and help the audience understand that until the moment with the giantess, the narrator is not apart of the scenes he showcases because the breaking of the tree branch is the first time that he is seen by someone other than the viewers.
Does anyone else wonder how "Into the Woods" would have ended had the Narrator not died? What would his intended ending for the story have been? How would the Giant's Wife have been defeated? Would the deaths of Jack's Mother, Rapunzel and the Baker's Wife have been avoided? Would the Witch have remained part of the story until the very end? Would Cinderella and her prince have stayed together? It makes one wonder what could have been had the Narrator not been thrown to the Giant...
I wondered this as well
He was becoming a distraction at that point. He needed to go
How are we to know? How are we ever to know? As the story says, “Careful the wish you make: wishes are children. Careful the path they take: wishes come true, not free.” ;)
I think what's interesting about that too is that the cheating of the princes is already introduced before he dies so where was he planning to go?
If you really think about it, the narrator/father's role as essentially "the buck needs to stop with you if you love your children" is a great message for healing generational trauma. It's not easy to fix, though the symptoms are so easy to miss, gloss over, or outright excuse. Even the argument of "my parents did the same thing and look at me I'm fine" doesn't quite hold up in the face of this. You think you're fine, you think your actions and reactions and reasons for them are not only justifiable but normal. Well it's not. Children learn how to be not.only adults but people from their parents. And each child is its own individual person that exists separate from the parents. When you have children, suddenly, you not only have legal physical responsibility to make sure the child is physically healthy and educated, you now have to teach them to be emotionally healthy as well, but not necessarily have all the tools to know what that looks like. Suddenly you're not the Luke Skywalker of your story, you become the Yoda or obi wan. Or in a lot of cases, especially with the older generations, unintentionally becoming the palpatine or Darth Vader. Which is why the children that grow up and become aware of this go no contact. The buck stops here
I always like reading/listening to other people's analysis, because it goes over things I have otherwise missed, like the connection between parenthood and storytelling. It's like a guide for RPGs that lists all the secret dungeons, only highbrow.
I absolutely love that analogy.
I really enjoyed this.
I just saw the film for the first time, last week, and I've NEVER seen a stage production, so I had NO idea how much I'd missed out on, until I watched your video.
"Insightful" is truly the first word that comes to mind.
@Kinravip Thank you so much!
You can find the Broadway production online somewhere - even if it's not on Netflix anymore, it will definitely be rentable via Prime. It is VERY worth your time.
For the time being, the whole thing is actually available right on RUclips as well!
You can buy the DVD of the original Broadway production and see why this is such an amazing play.
Derek Jacobi's Chorus role in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V is a perfect example of a narrator who is clearly outside of the story, telling the events to the audience, but never feeling out of place. That character could have absolutely been done in Into the woods, a story where the narrator is so much more integral to the plot and themes of the play.
The cut song has the single best line: "Where are we to go? Where are we ever to go?"
Don't watch the Disney film. Watch the taped version of the 1989 Broadway production with the amazing Bernadette Peters. You can't watch the Disney movie afterwards without getting upset with how they butchered this amazing play.
Thank you so much this helped me a lot with my theater final. I didn’t really understand the character of the Mysterious Man but you explained both him and his relationship with the story and other characters so well.
I’ve read that the “original protagonists” are supposed to be the parents from Thumbelina so another classic fairytale
Hi! There's a specific interview with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine where they talk about Into the Woods. There's a portion ( which can be found here -> ruclips.net/video/objFaBCj4T8/видео.html) where Lapine mentions that The Baker and his Wife are original characters.
Agree! You explained this so much better than I could. "No More" is the crux of the whole show. Leaving it out rendered the movie pointless. And don't get me started on the wretched casting. Many great actors -- none of whom were appropriate for the roles. I can't believe Sondheim was involved in the making of the film. Homw could he let them do that to his work? Thanks for your piece.
Seen the stage musical 9 times (including the original cast) . Saw the movie once.
The movie adaptation was fine, but the stage production is the definitive version in my opinion. But what really aggravates me is that jr versions of the musical is that they removed the second act.
this isn't just a video essay, this is an artist who did their fucking HOMEWORK OK
Great video!
Honestly I don’t think this movie should’ve been made at all. Into the woods is a story that is written for the theatre. Yes I think this adaptation could’ve been done better, but I feel that regardless of how well they’ve done it it will inevitably fall short in comparison to the stage version, because it’s just made for that medium
This was a really fascinating analysis - thank you!
How do you have so few subscribers?! Loved this video, great work!
Aren’t the baker and his wife characters from a fairy tale? I vaguely remember Shelley Duvall really getting down with radishes she made her husband steal from the witches garden in a Faerie Tale Theatre episode on PBS as a kid.
Thank you for putting words to the reason I so didn’t like the movie. It just felt so flat and you hit the nail on the head with this, I think.
~Trav
Great video! funny, to the point, and well made
so glad i found this video, subbed
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed! :)
3:56
I seriously thought this before this clip even played
CHIP ZIEN 4 LIFEEEEE
Fantastic video. I agree with every point made. No more is my favourite song from the entire score. I just don’t think it works or could fully work as a movie.
Some things don’t need to be done over
Hmm yes lore of into the woods
Very nice video essay
The baker is loosely based off thumbalina
Thank you. Exactly how I viewed it. What a waste of time to try to better Sondheim's work.
Sorry to be that person, but the Baker and his wife are from the Danish tale Thumbelina. It just really bugs me that you kept saying original character when they’re not. This is a really good video though and it’s one of my favorites above into the words.
Given that the solution to the Baker and his Wife wanting a child is *not* planting barleycorn and finding one already grown inside it when it sprouts, I do not believe there is any reason to insist they are those exact characters. The childless couple trying to conceive is a common archetype in folklore, but I call them "original characters" because they have no one-to-one basis in any particular story. They are allowed to be original characters in the context of this show because they are so archetypal.
Sondheim himself (the writer) calls the baker and his wife original characters made especially for the audience to have a central relatable figure to follow in all the madness
If they were the couple from Thumbelina then they would have a tiny baby…they do not
I’m gonna be honest. I prefer the movie over the musical but HEAR ME OUT!!! I wish it was a bit better.
For Rapunzel and her prince I would play it out like in the movie but it has to be more impactful to the witch and Cinderellas prince. Like both the prince and Rapunzel are both similar and I would add agony reprise but change Rapunzels prince lines to be about him being in sadness that his best friend snow white was in the glass coffin and him finding out his brother had an affair with sleeping beauty over his wife which hurt him a lot. Of course Rapunzel will be there to comfort him as I want Rapunzel prince to be loyal as he really loves Rapunzel. Even tells the witch that he would die with her then be alone forever.
The baker will sing No More and his father telling him to be a better person than him. If the Narrator is The Baker, then I would have that scene play out how it was in the play until Jacks mother stops them and pleaded with the giant before she dies. The bakers wife I wish would have her death better.
Those are my only thing I wish that the movie is better. Overall I like the movie.