Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film) = Finished (Patreon)

The typical musical movie is an odd beast, come to think of it. If the stage is a step removed from film, than musicals are yet another, giant step away from that, requiring yet more specialized skills to transfer their strengths to another medium. The choreography needed, the mechanics of singing and acting at once within an environment where the actors used may be unaccustomed to the idea...If it works at all, the achievement is titanic.

Sometimes, however, the translation process does result in strange, dissonant elements. The bumps between what the project needs to be, and what it used to be.

All of that said, Sweeney Todd is one of the best examples of adaptation I've ever seen.

The pacing is absolutely breathless. Dialogue is written and performed with a rhythmic quality in itself, making the weaving of plot and song seamless. Songs and plotlines are truncated, yet reprises--those essential, satisfying callbacks so often removed from other musical movies--are retained. In this way, the movie almost functions as an translation as opposed to an abridging. A retaining of intent, poured into a new mold.

So yeah--now I've got a whole other horde of inappropriately macabre songs stuck in my head that I'll be singing beneath my breath for the next seven thousand years, with uber stylish imagery to accompany it.

Lovely.