The perfect movie to see with the family on Christmas day, if the all-star cast of Into the Woods doesn’t charm you, Stephen Sondheim’s extraordinary music will. Even the most committed musical phobe will find something to enjoy in this spectacular musical fantasy.

Filmmakers spared no expense when it came to casting this dark, fairy tale mashup, with Meryl Streep playing the Witch, Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf, Emily Blunt as the Baker’s wife, James Corden (soon to become a late night talk show host replacing Craig Ferguson) as the Baker, Chris Pine as Cinderella’s prince, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Christine Baranski as Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, Tracy Ullman as Beanstalk Jack’s mother and Daniel Huttlestone, who was so brilliant as Gavroche in Les Miserables, as Jack. Lilla Crawford is so mesmerizing as Little Red Riding Hood you’ll find yourself frantically thumbing your mobile phone after the movie to find out where you’ve seen her before, and you’ll see that she’s spent most of her time on Broadway in the same roll.

The costumes and makeup are beyond imaginative, and if the plot line is a bit fragmented with a couple of additional endings thrown in, it can be forgiven in the name of good clean fun. One of Rob Marshall’s strengths as a big screen musical director is the ability to elicit stellar performances from big name actors who don’t usually sing, as he did in his award winning rendition of Chicago. Sure, everyone is pitch corrected, even the young musical stars and the bigger names with musical experience, like Meryl Streep (Mama Mia) and Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect). But Marshall has given actors like Chris Pine and Johnny Depp, a couple of guys who will (hopefully) never release an album, bits with such character and bravado, and Sondheim’s music is so exceptionally fine, that audiences have such a great time watching them they don’t care particularly care or notice whether the actors are virtuosos or not. This is the “don’t miss” family film of the season.

Rated PG

2 Hours 5 Minutes