3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Everyone knows Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical. A Tony winning Broadway show about a psycho barber who helps provide meat for the local butchers, its basic concept is well known, as are a handful of its surprisingly catchy songs. Except Disney didn't think that. The trailer they released for Tim Burtons adaptation of the story keeps the singing to a distinct minimum. Avoiding the horribly clichéd subtitles (in another trailer replaced by an annoying, deep trailer voice) that gives a summary of the plot solely because the characters do that through songs, the trailer is just a poor advert for the film. Playing up the Burton kookiness, but at the same time trying to come across as a fully dark drama, it makes the film look like a mess, incapable of maintaining tone and a rather closed scope. The reason it doesn't work is because it avoids one element that is such a key part of the film. At points we see Johnny Depp being extravagant, but its framed as an abstract sequence, unlike the rest of the film. And depressingly, their theory was proved correct. What people assumed was just Tim Burtons style ended up being the telling signs of a musical and once the truth became apparent, some punters were less than impressed. Here in the UK, people walked out of the film and complaints were made to the Trading Standards agency on the grounds of false advertising. Instead of getting a camply dark movie with Johnny Depp dancing around, they got a camply dark movie with Johnny Depp dancing around while singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5brXozjbno