The Reel Review
Meryl sings! Anna sings! Emily sings! And they are all REALLY, REALLY good! The musical itself, however – an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim fairy tale melding classic – is just okay. The meticulous weaving of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood is actually quite brilliant – it’s just that Disney’s execution suffers from the common Broadway play-to-movie curse of feeling cheesy and super corny. It also doesn’t help that the lighthearted fun of the first two-thirds of the film is squelched by a sudden dark turn near the end. That said, the film is oddly entertaining and worth seeing for the star performances.