When The Internets Save You Money

As perhaps you know, Disney is adapting the Sondheim musical Into the Woods, which is already the best, into a movie with a terrific cast. Emily Blunt! Meryl Streep! Christine Baranski and Tracey Ullman!

But a recent “New Yorker” segment about the adaptation process has taken us from Grimm to grim. Disney is stripping the show of its sex and death, and the depth of the agony in response has been hilarious. In its wake, we are all Little Red Riding Hood, who, upon being cut out of the wolf’s stomach, sings, “I know things now, many valuable things, that I hadn’t known before …” Thank you for caring about this travesty, culture writers of the Internets. You are my people.

Possibly my favorite response came from the AV Club commenters themselves:

It reminded me that sometimes the web’s highest function is not to help us spend money but to help us save it. Here’s a movie I probably don’t need to spend $12 to see. Great! Especially since, as a parent-type person, I don’t get a lot of opportunities to see things in the theater — a night out is vastly more expensive when you factor in a third-party you have to pay by the hour — it’s important to maximize, to only see things I’m almost positive I’ll enjoy. (Like, recently, Hedwig.) Do you read reviews, or advance buzz like this, to help you spend your entertainment dollars in a targeted fashion? Or is part of what you’re paying for the surprise?

Unrelated, but, if you need cheering up: Texas lawmakers who weren’t paying attention accidentally approved a bill calling for slavery reparations.

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