A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a shoe as pure as gold, and hair as fine as spun gold. What do these all have in common? These happen to be the main components that cause a spiral of mayhem and chaos into the fantastical world that is Into The Woods; a musical originating from Broadway that combines many fairy tales that you are familiar with, in a way that strips the characters of their fairy tale facade and pries into their deepest wishes, desires, fears and explores the meaning behind them. This movie intertwines the lives of Cinderella, Rapunzel, their princes, Red Riding Hood, Jack, and a baker and his wife but delves deeper and doesn’t simply end at “And they lived happily ever after.”

The tale begins with the baker and his wife wanting a child. They soon realize that they are unable to have one due to a witch placing a curse on the baker’s family. After much begging and pleading, the witch compromises with them but requires that in order to  have a child they need to obtain- you guessed it- a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a shoe as pure as gold, and hair as fine as spun gold. Of course, each item relates to a corresponding character; the cow from Jack, the cape from Red Riding Hood, the shoe from Cinderella and the lock of hair from Rapunzel. However, if it was a painless task to receive those items, then Into The Woods would not be the lively, comedic and entertaining masterpiece that it is.

Featuring familiar characters such as Meryl Streep as the witch, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Chris Pine as Rapunzel’s prince, and (a disappointingly brief, yet worthwhile) performance by Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf, this movie was bound to be a success from the start, not to mention, who can resist a musical? Into The Woods is a film that left me as it will leave children, elders, and every age in between entertained, guessing what will happen next, and wondering what exactly can be learned from going into the woods.