Sweeney Todd has long been one of my favorite musicals. So when I heard that Tim Burton was doing the movie, I couldn’t have been happier. Then came the bombshell: He was casting it with non-singers. Sweeney Todd is one of the most challenging vocal scores out there and no one had ever heard Johnny Depp sing a note. I was wary, to say the least. The trailer didn’t help, either. It had only one line of singing, and it was mostly speak-singing. Scary stuff. I officially started hating on the flick and have been for many moons. But then… then… the clips. The clips, by God, the clips! They started popping up everywhere and they proved, without a doubt, that Johnny can sing. Homeboy sounds great. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks… Sweeney Todd is going to be brilliant. I am going to get to see Johnny Depp sing a Sondheim duet with Alan Rickman in a Tim Burton movie. What else can you say? Actually, I can say more. Besides rediscovering my love for Sondheim, all of this hoopla has led me to rediscover my love for Burton as well. Sure, he’s done some mediocre stuff lately, but he’s a visionary. Batman, Beetlejuice, and Sleepy Hollow are all classics in my book. Burton has a way of capturing an audience’s imagination like no other director out there. Next up for Tim, Alice and Wonderland in 3D. Consider me down the rabbit hole.