my excitement skyrocketed today when Pro. Leeper started class with a clip from Into the Woods. I was introduced to this musical when I was little and have LOVED it ever since.
I'm starting to understand the point of this class when Leeper first explained that it was going to be about digging deeper into films and stories.
Some of us are blinded when it comes to fairytales with the happily ever afters and the always going in the right direction plot. But as we are slowly, and sometimes rudely awakened, we realize that fairytales are unrealistic.
Part of the reason fairytales seem so unrealistic is because there's almost always a happy ending and life doesn't constantly live in happy land. But the stories take us to a new world where we can escape the bad times or just the stress of college in general.
With "Into the Woods", a bunch of fairytales are mixed together and combined into one storyline. Cinderella and Rapunzel (sp?) fall in love with two guys who happened to be brothers while Red is being hit on my a dog....great story, who thinks of these things!
Then the Narrator comes into the picture to...well...narrate...anyway. He's probably one of my favorite characters and if you've never seen it, i feel sorry for you.
Meanwhile, the baker and his wife want a child and get involved with Rapunzel's hair while the two princes (Rapunzel's and Cinderella's) are bored with their wife's as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty come into the picture to make things a little more interesting. AND THIS IS ALL PUT TO MUSIC! love it :)
I won't say anymore about the plot, because that would give everything away and you wouldn't seek out the movie and watch it! Plus, i've probably confused you so much that you might actually want to see it to understand what the heck i'm talking about.
The point is (I promise i'm getting to it...lol), life doesn't always work out the way we plan or wish it to be. We all know how the fairytales turn out and were originally written, but "Into the Woods" gives us the chance to see what might've happened if they were all crammed together. It doesn't always work out in the best possible way...which is the point :)
...And they lived happily ever after
(Might I just say, I love when Pro. Leeper reads stories to us...I feel like i'm 3 again)
My favorite fairytale is Cinderella, and how she made her mother dance in hot iron shoes that were burning hot from being in the fire.
ReplyDeleteAnd the little mermaid. So brave how she Suffered without a voice, and it felt like glass was cutting into her feet every step. Only to not get with her love, but to save him, his beloved. And then she dies, and went with all the other women who sacrificed for their loves.
The pied piper is a good one too. :)