Am I in the minority for liking this film?
I'm a huge fan of the show and I'll always love the Bernadette Peters cast album, but I will say that I still very much impressed with this film. Sure, it does somewhat tone down some of the more "dark" elements of the movie (and even then, whether Rapunzel and her prince live "happily ever after" strikes me as ambiguous), but only marginally. The end result of this movie still felt very faithful in spirit to the musical and very little of it was lost. I do agree that the second act with the giant was a bit too fast-paced, but I still thought the movie did an excellent job of transferring the show to the screen. The decision to have the Baker be the narrator works in favor of the ending, and even though I loved the idea of the narrator being bumped off in the show, realistically, I think it would have been impossible to capture on film. As someone who is familiar with the songs of the show (and actually did sound effects for a stage production at MCC), I'd say they did a solid job transferring it. I loved the performances of the cast; they all took to the task of performing Sondheim's intentionally jerky score and pulled it off well. The kids were especially great.
Now I can understand why some people might feel misled since Disney's marketing did kinda trick them into see this show, but I don't think it deserves half the scathing audience notices it receives. Apparently the critics thought it turned out well for the most part (the New York Times critic, especially, and he's a tough one to please).
But I guess I'm in the minority for saying this.