10 Misleading Movie Trailers That Totally Fooled You
2. Sweeney Todd - Lets Just Not Tell People It's A Musical
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, but before you do... lets make a few things clear: the tale is told predominantly through song.
When Warner Bros. released the trailer for the Tim Burton gothic horror film, audiences were intentionally left out of this fact. The trailer features dramatic dialogue, gothic lighting and a sweeping score. But any evidence of the film's musical routes had been puzzlingly omitted from the trailer.
The only evidence that the film WAS in fact a musical came from Jonny Depp's 10 second "talk-singing" sequence, that was perhaps left in the trailer as a subtle way to reassure fans of the original Broadway show. It was a clever way for Burton and Warner Bros. to have their cake and eat it too, covering up the film's real genre while still letting theatre fans know they're going to get what they want.
And unfortunately for moviegoers, the bait and switch worked on them and people expecting a depressing gothic tale full of macabre imagery were promptly shocked by Jonny Depp belting out No Place Like London. Of course, all the normal Tim Burton clichés were still present, but the jarring addition of Sondheim musical numbers were completely unexpected; and for some fans, completely unwanted.