Search - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [Collector's Edition] on DVD

Edward Sanders - Toby
Laura Michelle Kelly - Beggar Woman
Jayne Wisener - Johanna

Prior to me watching Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, I had heard things like this film was pure genius and the best musical ever made. It had been extremely over-hyped and it had nowhere to fall but down prior to me viewing the film. Although, I enjoyed the film and I love almost everything Tim Burton touches it did not blow me away. The thing I enjoyed about this movie the most was the Tim Burton style of the sets and costumes. I just love the way Burton is able to create a world in his movies that is so fantastical yet while you watch the movie it feels like it is a world that exists somewhere.
I do wish this movie dug a little deeper into the character development of the story. For example, I would have loved to see more of the internal struggles that were skimmed over for Helena Bonham Carter's character. Also, with this being a musical I would have liked to have had actor's with a little better singing talent. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are not terrible but let's face it there are definitely better singers. If this was not a musical and they were just actors in a standard movie, I would consider them perfect for their roles but since this is a musical I think there could have been a better casting to include those with a stronger singing talent.
Although I did not love this movie as much as others, I would still recommend this film as one to watch. Just as a warning, there is quite a bit of violence and gore. The gore is over-exaggerated enough to not make it to realistic but this is definitely no Sound of Music.

Caveat Emptor: If you are looking for a jazzy, upbeat musical, if you're looking for Gene Kelly to tap dance across the screen, if you're looking for lines of chorus girls in sparkly outfits or a plucky, cock-eyed optimist to belt out her troubles, look elsewhere.

Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a Gothic musical thriller set in 19th Century London, is a tale of revenge, murder, cannibalism, rape, corruption and madness. It's told through Stephen Sondheim's hyper-intelligent, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and Tim Burton's mad-cap and macabre aesthetic. Burton films Sweeney Todd in an over-the-top stylized manner, reminiscent of the German Expressionist horror movies; with mad angles. The London he creates is a bleak, Dickensian cityscape of skeletal buildings and depressing gray skies that rain dark drops of blood. The characters that inhabit such a city are dark and drab to match their surroundings, or brightly flamboyant in colors as lurid as their characters. If such a visual style sounds almost cartoonish, it is; and it works. For a story as dark and morbid as Sweeney Todd, an unworldly aesthetic is needed to keep the world from resembling our own too closely.

The story is simple and dark as a Grimm's fairy tale. Sweeney Todd was banished to prison by a corrupt judge who lusted after Todd’s wife. After twenty years, Todd returns to London to find that his wife is dead and the lecherous judge has adopted his daughter. Bent on revenge, Todd returns to his original home and profession, opening a barbershop in the home of his old neighbor, Mrs. Lovett. But the road to revenge is never straight and when more bodies begin to pile up than were expected, Mrs. Lovett comes up with an ingenious plan to dispose of them and improve her failing meat-pie business at the same time. This grisly tale is told through Sondheim's brilliant songs, sometimes haunting, sometimes hilarious, always memorable. Burton and his cast bring the songs to life remarkably well, particularly Johnny Depp. The slight harshness in Depp's voice conveys the utter despair of the character perfectly. Helena Bonham-Carter is the weakest vocally, but her characterization is superb and outweighs her musical shortcomings.

Sweeney Todd nearly defies classification. No other musical is as grim and macabre; no other musical has such gleefully black humor, and no other musical surpasses its "genre" to be such a haunting story of humanity in an inhumane world.