Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd

So despite the massive amounts of unrealistically red blood (an artistic choice, I'm sure) and the horrible close ups of slit throats, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was amazing for many reasons. Number one, it was directed by Tim Burton, god amongst men. Number two, Johnny Depp - singing, granted not a classical trained singer, but impressive to say the very, very least that he kept up with Sondheim, not an easy feat. Number three, the costume designer was 2 time Oscar winner, Colleen Atwood, whose works include Tim Burton's Big Fish, Sleepy Hallow, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, and Edward Scissorhands, as well as non Burton, but costuming masterpieces as Memoirs of a Geisha, Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events, Chicago, Beloved, Little Women, and many many more. Number four, the set design reminded me so much of Harry Potter that when I looked up who the Scenic Artist was, I was not surprised to find that it was Nicky Kaill, whose fantastic works include the last three HP movies, I was glad to see that Nicky is also working on the next HP installment. Number five, and staying on the HP kick, three of the supporting characters were from the last HP film; Helena Bonham Carter played Mrs. Lovett (Bellatrix Lestrange in HP) as crazed as she plays Bellatrix, Alan Rickman played Judge Turpin (Severus Snape in HP) just like he plays Snape, and Timothey Spall played the fantastically nasty Beadle Bamford (Peter Pettigrew in HP); I was also super impressed with the young, but strong voices of Ed Sanders (Toby), who is nominated for a Best Young Actor Oscar, and Jamie Campbell Bower (Anthony), this was a first major film for both young actors - best of luck in their upcoming careers! Number six, but probably most important to a Broadway fanatic like myself, music and lyrics by Steven Sondheim were not changed much from the OBC, except of course leaving out a few ensemble , and not having a company to sing said pieces, I especially missed The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (I will post lyrics in their own post). The whole production was fantastic, but I could have done with out the extreme gore, I guess that's why I prefer Broadway (stage productions) to film much of the time, there are things that have to be expressed metaphorically rather than literally, and blood is defiantly one thing that is better left to metaphoric expression in my opinion. Don't take your kids to see it, and avoid it if you are faint of heart/weak of stomach, but if you are an avid horror film viewer (I am obviously not), you will be able to see past the blood and appreciate everything else about the film.