Around the Web DVD Reviews: Sweeney Todd

Looking for the best info on this week's new DVDs? Here's what reviews around the Web are saying about the Sweeney Todd Special Edition set.

One of the most popular reviewers around, Glenn Erickson (aka "DVD Savant"), considers Tim Burton's cinematized version of Stephen Sondheim's complex and sophisticated stage musical a "highly entertaining success in its own right, although Burton and adaptor John Logan's more realistic characters can't help but diminish the Grand Guignol glee of the original." He observes that the "volume of blood in Sweeney Todd is a surprise. Things must have changed at the MPAA, as Burton's Sleepy Hollow had to arrange to chop off five or six heads with barely a drop of hemoglobin spilled."

He adds that Sondheim himself "has given his blessing to Burton's Sweeney Todd." Sondheim is, in fact, a big presence on the DVD's extras, and the great composer/lyricist endorses "the idea that his play has been re-interpreted, as opposed to merely restaged or 'opened up.'" As for Burton and his signature style of movie-making, Sweeney Todd "is the most elaborate expression to date of the director's familiar personal world, a visual match for Corpse Bride or Sleepy Hollow. Burton's eccentric, bleak romanticism has become overly familiar through the years, to the point that Burton almost fits the old definition of an 'auteur' -- he seems to be making the same movie over and over again. Did the box office failures of the oddball exceptions Ed Wood and Mars Attacks! direct Burton back to his main groove?"

About the DVD itself, Erickson reports that the bonus material on Dreamworks' Two-Disc Special Edition of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street "are so numerous that one really needs to pick and choose which to see. Some interviews and taped panel discussions are repetitive in content, while the edited featurettes rehash large sections of the film, multiplying the razor scenes until we've seen the same slashings four or five times. But good content is to be found."

Meanwhile DVD Talk writer Daniel Hirshleifer, in an enthusiastic review, provides useful thumbnail information on the DVD extras. For example, he describes the featurette titled A Bloody Business as a "great little feature on the film's prosthetics for each of Sweeney's victims. This is almost entirely comprised of behind the scenes footage from the effects workshop, including portions where Burton throws out ideas and Depp watches on in the background, in full Sweeney costume. A lot of gory fun."

About the image and the sound, DbTechno says that the "widescreen transfer looks near-perfect. The colors and the entire artistic style of the film make this a reference-quality DVD to say the very least," and "the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track will have your home theater blazing with all of the tunes and excitement the audio mix entails."

Home Theater Forum is more dramatic in its appraisal of the DVD's audio, saying that it "is thrilling, an almost wall-to-wall musical assault on the senses that's at times quite overpowering. Different instrumentation in the orchestrations is clearly heard in separate channels making for a feeling of total immersion in sound. The subwoofer gets as much of a workout in this film is in any big budget action thriller, and while all available channels are constantly in use for the music and some thunderous sound effects, the surrounds never overpower the singers whose lyrics are always easily discernible." Home Theater Forum's reviewer also provides a brief description of each extra, saying that Disc One's featurette, Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd, is "perhaps the best bonus in the set."

As Cinematical's "New DVD Pick of the Week," Sweeney Todd is "classic Burton material, and Depp and Bonham Carter know the score." As for the DVD, "you could get the barebones version, but why bother when there is the 2-disc extravaganza? The first disc shares the film along with a behind-the-scenes look at the cinematic combination of Burton, Depp, and Bonham Carter -- featuring rehearsal footage and recording sessions. The second disc has a whole lot more -- the history of the demon barber, the music of Sondheim's creation, Sweeney's London, the making of the film, 'Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition,' designs, 'a bloody business,' and even the Moviefone Unscripted discussion between Burton and Depp."

Fangoria, a web 'zine for horror fans, gives the movie and the DVD both a "four and a half skulls" rating. The writer agrees that if you opt for the single-disc DVD edition, rather than the Special Edition, you "will still get one of the best supplements, the half-hour Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd. Focusing on how the titular trio collaborated to bring Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett to onscreen life, it starts by revealing their longtime interest in the characters: The director first gave Depp a SWEENEY CD six years before the film finally went ahead, and Carter was obsessed with Lovett from a young age. There's a touch of 'be careful what you wish for' as we're treated to footage of the actress recording 'By the Sea' ... and Carter noting the challenges of timing her complex onscreen actions to her prerecorded song performances. The supporting players get some attention as well, with Burton recalling Cohen's hilarious audition with tunes from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF; he says he wishes it had been videotaped, and he's not alone."

"Tim Burton's movies seem to insist on spectacular DVD presentations," say Robert Keser and Ed Gonzalez at Slant, "and DreamWorks Home Entertainment lavishes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with the red-carpet treatment." They note that after the Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd piece, Disc Two holds numerous featurettes that "focus on the startling detail of the film's grimy London, impeccable costumes, Oscar-winning production design, and makeup."

Kenneth J. Souza at DVD File says that the film boasts "one of the best casts Burton's assembled since the underappreciated Mars Attacks!," and that "Sweeney Todd is easily one of the director's best-realized and most satisfying projects to date." He sums up his thorough look at the disc by noting that "with a solid video transfer, an exemplary audio presentation, and a generous offering of bonus material, this DVD is highly recommended."

And that sums it up pretty well, I think.

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