Idina Menzel is singing the National Anthem on my tv right now. Yay!
Mom and I just got back from our trip to Williston to see Sweeney Todd (because it's pretty much the only place that movie's playing in the state of Vermont) with Emily.
And I liked it. Did anyone really think I wasn't going to like it? I mean, I wasn't like blown away by anything, mostly because I knew everything that was going to happen, but I enjoyed watching the subtle changes from the stage show. They didn't change anything in the plot, and that is how it should be.
Now, as for the music, I will be the first person to tell you that the movie's singing was inferior to the Broadway singing, but who didn't expect that? Also, the little kid who played Toby was FANTASTIC. Seriously, he was so cute and his singing was so good. And the songs/verses of songs that they cut didn't bother me too much, except that they cut all the group singing in God That's Good, which is the majority of the song. But that was the only cut that really irritated me.
Other thoughts:
- Maybe someday Timothy Spall will get to play a character who is 1. clean and 2. not evil. (Though he plays dirty and nasty SO WELL.)
- Emily's reaction to the ending was exactly what I'd hoped for, and it was so worth driving up there to see it with her.
- Alan Rickman still has an awesome voice.
- I like Helena Bonham Carter, and I like her acting, but she doesn't have a career as a singer. And she's no Angela Lansbury. It's not that HBC was a bad Mrs. Lovett, but she wasn't as... lovable as Angela Lansbury. (Yes, I just called Mrs. Lovett lovable. Deal with it.)
- I LOVED the By The Sea sequence. I wish it was longer. They were even wearing the navy and striped bathing suits.
- When Sweeney was singing to his razors, it looked like he was going to start making out with one of them.
- I also liked the fake fake fake Tim Burton blood. And how Johnny Depp was COVERED in it.
- Anthony was weird. His eyes kind of scared me, and I was like, "Anthony, you're supposed to be the non-creepy person in this movie. STOP IT."
- Johanna seemed too young to me. But eh. It worked ok.
- The way Lucy stayed standing up when he slit her throat and how she dripped blood rather than spurting it was AWESOME.
- Stabbing the judge in the throat with the razor instead of slitting it was SUPER AWESOME.
- Toby at the very end was CRAZY AWESOME.
- How Sweeney died but didn't fall over... how he was like crouched over Lucy? Also awesome.
- It was so satisfying to hear that THUNK when the Beadle's head hit the stone after he went down the tunnel. So satisfying.
- On a related note, I liked how Sweeney built the chair himself, and how his victims went down head first. That was just a little bit more violent and gruesome than usual, and I cringed every time it happened, but it was still cool.
And Finally: I went to this movie expecting to see blood. Lots of blood. And I did. But the worst part was Mrs. Lovett's meat pies in the very beginning, with the bugs. That was the the only part I almost couldn't watch. Blood, murder cannibalism, all good. Bugs in the pies? Ugh.