While it's not unheard of for a film to earn a round of applause, it is unusual when an enthusiastic audience breaks out the hand-clapping during the action.

Yet so swept up by the moment were Sondheim's fan boys and girls that Into The Woods resounded to widespread applause midway through the film. And with good reason. Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) adds his signature to the musical blend of well known fairy tales has been a Broadway hit for nearly thirty years. A baker and his wife enlist the help of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Jack of the beanstalk to help break a witch's curse. Put James Corden (One Chance), Emily Blunt (Edge Of Tomorrow), Anna Kendrick (Rocket Science), Chris Pine (Star Trek Into Darkness), Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger) and Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) in front of the camera, and what could go wrong?

Well nothing really. Into The Woods is a hugely enjoyable romp that relates what happened after happily ever after. And it's not what you'd think, an idea which kick-started a line of story-telling that led all the way to the emotional dysfunction of Maleficent earlier this year. In Marshall's hands, this has all the laughs, tears and wonder that you'd want. Add the attractive camera work of Australia's Andrew Lesnie (The Hobbit) plus some powerhouse performances (Blunt has the time of her life, Streep is a force of nature), and you've got this season's family hit.

But there's the dilemma. This isn't – never was – a kids' story. Yet Disney have shone a soft light on its dark underbelly and purists won't be happy. Many of the adult themes have been replotted, decisions that forced one of the show's best songs onto the cutting room floor. It made for another happy ever after (of sorts), but this was a story whose psycho-sexual tour of the fairy tale made it a modern classic. Creepy, but a classic. For it was a different kind of appetite that made the wolf so bad; not so much anymore. So did they take the bite out of Broadway's toothiest musical? Yes and no, but if mid-film applause is any kind of measure, this audience didn't care in the slightest.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 27 November 2014