Into the Woods

This film was interesting.
There are a ton of characters and they interconnect in odd ways. The Baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) must gather together an odd sort of ingredients to appease the Witch (Meryl Streep) so they can have a baby. They get the milky white cow from Jack (Daniel Huddlestone), the blood-red cape from Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), the golden locks from Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy) and, after some persuading the golden glass slipper from Cinderella (Anna Kendrick). The other characters have their own battles: Cinderella must break away from her nasty stepmother and evil stepsisters (Christine Baranski, Lucy Punch and Tammy Blanchard), and decide to settle down with her prince (Chris Pine), instead of running away as she has done for all three nights of the ball, Little Red must face down her demon of the Wolf (Johnny Depp) and deliver bread to Grandma, the Princes must find either Cinderella or Rapunzel and the Witch just wants her youth back. Jack wants his cow back and his mother (Tracey Ullmann) wants money.
Just when I thought things worked out way too easily, things take a devastating turn for the worst, the Giant is back and she wants blood as Jack chopped down the first giant beanstalk, killing her husband. The Bakers are able to gather all the supplies they need so the Witch is able to drink the potion to turn her young again. She immediately becomes pregnant, nine months pregnant no less, giving birth in time for Cinderella's wedding which causes the weirdest look ever to briefly cross her face because earlier Baker's wife declared that she needed the slipper so she could have a baby.
The odd assortment of people must band together to defeat the giant, but lives are lost along the way: Jack's mother is the first to go. Then, the Baker and his wife separate so they can find Jack quicker but the wife stumbles upon Cinderella's Prince so is not as charming as he appears: the two have a hot make-out session before she falls off a cliff to her death and Cinderella (who can talk to birds) hears of Prince's straying from her. He only liked the chase. Once he caught her, he was bored. Who knows what happens to him.
In the end, the Baker, Cinderella, Little Red and Jack form a sort of family unit to defeat the Giant and then, with lingering advice from his wife, the Baker starts telling the story to his infant son, inheriting the orphaned Jack and Little Red as his other children with Cinderella to be either his wife or housekeeper. Though the two do not hook up, it would make sense that they end up together but who knows what will happen.
I have several issues with the film. First of all, Johnny Depp's song as the wolf when he wants to eat Little Red for dinner is just disgusting and then Rapunzel and her Prince (Billy Magnussen) don't get enough screen time and they are probably the only ones with the actual happy ending. Also, the Baker cutting the eaten Little Red and her grandmother out of the Wolf is just odd. And the whole Cinderella's Prince cheating on her with the Baker's wife was upsetting. And the Witch's sudden odd death was interesting also.
However, most of the acting was top-notch and the songs were mostly good and all the actors could sing which is wonderful. The sets were great and costumes and make-up were all good and it is interesting to see how the fairy tales interconnect and how a band of misfits can defeat the Giant and yes, the Baker can overcome his own troubled past. His father abandoned him and he almost abandoned his own son before changing his mind, but nothing can be taken away from this film but at least the journey was fascinating. Grade: B+