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It's Out on DVD and Abbi is just giddy. I had a hard time with this movie. Pretty intense-- for me; but not for Abbi. I had to cover my eyes, she didn't. I'd started to reach over to cover her eyes, while we were watching it in the theater and she swatted my hand away. OK, I only did it once. She reassured me that she was fine.

Neither one of us (Abbi nor I) had heard the music from this musical or seen it before seeing the movie. We kind of knew the story line, we had both read about it, so we knew there would be graphic scenes. But what we didn't know was that there would be beautiful music within it and also wit. Yes, humor behind some less than wonderful happenings... OK, dark humor.

So we got the DVD on Tuesday. Kyra wanted to watch it now too... I asked her if she was sure? She reassures me, that yes indeed she wants to and that Abbi will warn her of the bloody scenes. (the pause button is great :) She knows what happens in it, but still wants to watch it because her sister has loved it so much and Kyra and Abbi both love the music (we have the soundtrack).

They watched it together with me hanging out and it went fine. Kyra hasn't had any nightmares, she hasn't wished that she hadn't seen it. In fact this morning she was on the laptop with headphones on singing "The Worst Pies in Longdon". She'll sit and listen and sing with the lyrics up in front of her.

If you can watch the DVD, make sure you don't miss the extras. There's a part on the DVD where they talk about the making of it and it's wonderful. Helena Bonham Carter talks about how her 11 year old self dreamed of being Mrs. Lovett, her parents loved the musical and they had the album. Also Johnny Depp got the part even though Tim Burton and Richard Zanuck hadn't heard him sing. They just trusted him. Knowing that everything Johnny does or accepts to do, he'll do it well. Johnny said he'd never sang before and his recount of how he and a friend of his went about learning the music is great. Neither he, nor the musician friend could read music, yet they figured out a way to do it. ---- Watch the extras :)

Anyway. So Abbi loves it, all of it. I think Kyra likes the music best, and I do also. The scenes and trauma of the movie are a bit much for sensitive types (me and Alec in our household, in fact Alec dislikes Tim Burton stuff and refuses to watch it) but for others-- Tim Burton lovers, horror movie buffs, Johnny Depp lusters.. it's a dream :)

Here's a note from Tim Burton, from the inside of the CD from the soundtrack:

Of all musicals, Sweeney Todd is my favorite. The opportunity to create a film that is a combination of horror movie and musical was very exciting. It provided me with the chance to tap into the Hammer horror films as well as the old Universal films with the actors like Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney.

I believe Sweeney Todd is in the same league as characters presented in those films.

We tried to capture the essence and spirit of the Stephen Sondheim musical while at the same time creating something different for the film version. What makes these recordings so unique is that they are performed by actors who for the most part had no formal musical training. I believe this gives the songs a different dimension than any previous version.

My sincere thanks to the amazing cast and crew for helping bring this story to life.

Posted by kelli at 7:04 AM suchlovelyfreckles.com said...

I love love love Johnny Depp. That's all there is to it. :)
 
We're watching it tonight. My daughter and I have been waiting for it to come out on DVD so we can ff through the bloody parts-we have issues.
 
I'm with Alec on Tim Burton, although I love horror movies. The only Tim Burton movie I liked was "Ed Wood;" I've absolutely hated everything else he's done. Plus I pretty much hate all musicals made after 1950, and most of 'em made before then, too, so I'll be passing on ST. But I'm glad y'all enjoyed it.
 
freckles--Yes, we love Johnny too (notice I'm so close to him that I just use his first name ;)

Mrs G-- I hope it's not too much for you, it's a bit stressful trying to guess when to look away. But the music was worth it and I do like Tim Burton.

Frank-- I wonder if you might like this one though, since he made it in honor of old horror movies and he hates musicals *g* But I understand if you don't want to too :)
 
We just watched this, Saylor's been wanting to see it for a long while. I liked it, but I love musicals. I thought the "gory" scenes were funny, actually, just because they were so over the top. I mean, would blood *really* splurt like that? :)
 
Yeah, I was just talking to Alec about this. Tim Burton actually talks about this too, how they added more blood to make it less scary :) Like the old horror flicks.
 What's this Unschooling I'm talkin' about? and read this book! GA, United States
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