Thoughts on Sweeney Todd....
On Casting
---I've heard a ton of people being gossipy old biddies and saying that Burton cast Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett because they're involved and whatever. Burton was aware of the controversy that casting her would create - but he didn't even have the final say as far as the characters. Stephen Sondheim (the creator of the Broadway musical) was actively involved in the production - and he had the last word as to who would be cast. He signed off on Johnny Depp right away, (without even hearing him sing!) but for the part of Mrs. Lovett, there were a ton of people who wanted the part. Helena Bonham Carter auditioned just like everyone else - she sent in a recording of herself singing the songs to piano accompaniment - and Sondheim listened to them all (without knowing the names) before selecting one. Apparently, when he came to Carter's tape (which was last) he said right away "That is Mrs. Lovett." He said himself that there were some 'better' singers in the lineup, but that she was by far the best character for the piece, which is far more critical. Hitting every note perfectly is not the goal; creating the best character is.
---It's hilarious that 3 of the characters are like Harry Potter cast-offs XD XD But as we know, Burton loves the dramatic and theatrical - and you really can't get any more slimy than Wormtail Timothy Spall... In my opinion, he's overdoing it for Wormtail - but if you're going for Broadway theatrical.... eh. whatever.
---When Severus Snape Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin entered Todd's barber shop for the first time, his "Mister Todd..." was exactly the same as his "Mister Potter..." You all heard it, don't lie!
On the Music
---Personally, I love the fact that the actors sung all of their own music and that they didn't sing it virtuostically and perfectly. All of their singing voices were very close to their speaking voices, which made the expressed emotions feel more real and personal. People have criticized the actors for being too quiet, and not theatric enough, but I think that would have diminished the mood. In a film setting, they don't have to and shouldn't be singing to the back row, you know? It is a very internalized feel - the characters are speaking/singing to themselves, not to an audience. With the exception of Pirelli...
---In the stage musical, there is a cast song called "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" where the whole cast is singing and making commentary, but it was cut from the movie to maintain the internalized feeling. I think if everyone on the street suddenly turned around and started singing "Sing your razor wide Sweeney, Hold it to the skies!" (which oddly reminds me of "Cannibal, the Musical" -- "Hang the bastard, hang him high! Hoist his body to the sky!" XD XD XD) ...it would take everyone out of the moment, and they'd think "oh right, this is a musical."
---On Burton's request, Sondheim wrote a few new lyrics to the song "Poor Thing" -- originally during the flashback when Mrs. Lovett was talking about the lines were:
"There were these two, you see...
Wanted her like mad!
One of them a judge
one of them his beadle!
Everyday they'd nudge and they'd weadle!
Still she wouldn't budge from her needle!
Too bad!"
but Sondheim wrote new ones that went:
"There was this judge, you see....
Wanted her like mad
Every day he sent her a flower
But did she come down from her tower?
Sat up there and sulked by the hour
Poor fool!"
...because Burton wanted to have a shot where she's in a room surrounded by flowers and the judge is outside the window (wearing a red coat) with yet another. :) Cool.
---The harp is present in every song - it's like an ongoing motif, which I think is awesome (actually I don't think that it's in the barber-duel scene or the elixer song, but whatever). :3 But it's never distinctly "harp-y" which is brilliant... no cheesy glissandos or arpeggios in unnessesary places - those effects are placed only where they're most effective....it's just kind of an undercurrent of something that could be pretty but is still unnervingly sinister.
On the Movie
---The Mrs. Lovett in the stage version is often acted as a demonic, crazy woman who kind of takes over from Todd and is obsessed with her meat pies. I like she was portrayed in the movie: a figure who is in love with Todd, even though he doesn't respond or barely even register her attentions until she comes up with the idea of disposing of the corpses... for as Todd says: she is "eminently practical" x)
---Also, apparently in the stage musical, there is a self-flagellation scene that is even cut from the staged musical in most performances: where Turpin is singing a version of the "Johanna" aria... that would be really disturbing.
---There have been beople bitching and moaning about how the special effects are "bad." Given that this is based on a Broadway musical, I can understand the choices that were made. The opening scene of London seems very "fake" because the filmakers are setting the stage as a stage. No, they're not going for historical accuracy, because Sweeney Todd did not exist (though some guy claims that he was responsible for over 200 murders in London in the 1800s). The blood is gory and dramatic and very red (leastwise because it's arterial, straight from the lungs and full of oxygen. Of course it's red) and it's properly measured (in particular for the last scene - they made sure it was the right amount for someone to die by bleeding out). But more than that: if the blood - in the opening credit sequence anyway - were to flow like real blood, it wouldn't be nearly as sinister.
---The color pallete is very specific and effective: muted, almost monochromatic except for occasional moments of bright, vibrant red (any filmmaker's favorite symbolic color... in this case for vengeance and corruption) for the judge when he's courting Todd's wife in the flashback, the party scene, the judge's house and yes, the blood. (Johanna's hair might be a little brighter as well, since that is one of Todd's only memories of his wife - her yellow hair) And then the "Italian" barber, of course, haha.
---And the question that irked me at the end -- why didn't they just cut off the stupid fingers and toes before putting them in the meat grinder!?! The fingers and toes would have the least meat on them anyway, so it wasn't like there would be a whole lot that was sacrificed from leaving them out. Plus, wouldn't she flay the flesh from the bones anyway? Aside from the obvious grisly delight of having Tobey realize he's chewing on a toe (probably with toe fungus... eeewww) one might surmise that because Mrs. Lovett has become so successful, she grew over-confident and careless, tossing in the digits for filler, assuming that the grinder would take care of them.
My sources are from online interviews of the actors and Burton and Sondheim, as well as a book on the musical that I found at Frugal Muse and I am mostly reacting to online reviews of the movie. ....