Friday 11 February 2011

Tangled

I am a Disney girl at heart and I am neither afraid nor ashamed to push my way to the front of the queue when a new movie comes out. It was a case of The Nerdy Trio vs. a thousand screaming kids for opening weekend of Tangled.

PLOT: Rapunzel is born after a magical flower has been used to medicate her sick mother (we are spared the traumatic and visual child birth scenes). This magical flower through complicated science has assimilated through Rapunzel causing her hair to have magical healing powers up until it is cut.
Mother Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel, passes her off as her own daughter and locks her in a high tower to keep her “safe” from the men folk.
Flynn, a charming thief, climbs the tower, gets kidnapped by Rapunzel and is forced to take her to see the Festival of Lights which is held every year by her real mother and father to celebrate the anniversary of her birth/kidnapping. Mother Gothel isn’t pleased. There are at least two catchy songs, a cool horse, a love scene, a death scene, a reincarnation scene and they all live happily ever after except for Mother Gothel who is thrown head first out of her own tower. END PLOT

Everyone knows the short story of Rapunzel and kudos must go to Disney who managed to stretch it out into a 100min movie.

The characters are fun. Rapunzel is ditzy and likeable and doesn’t shame the Disney Princess family unlike that awful overacting Snow White. Mandy Moore is fine as Rapunzel but also as bland and vanilla as they come.

Flynn almost managed to knock the Beast off the ultimate Disney Prince pedestal but upon the horrifying revelation that his true name was Eugene the Beast can rest easy. Flynn is voiced by Zachary Levi a name I know through a quick trip to IMDB.

The best character Disney has produced in a long time is Mother Gothel. Gothel relies not on magic and witchcraft to get what she wants but on pure manipulation which was so affective there were a few times when I found myself thinking that she wasn’t all bad - she is definitely one of the better Disney villains.

Alan Menkin is in charge of the songs and as this is the dude behind Beauty and the Beast hopes were high. The songs and score are fine, very Disney, but are not on my I-pod and don’t come anywhere near previous offerings.

The humour is there mostly in the form of an inventive use of a frying pan and Flynn’s inability to outsmart a horse. As a reasonably functioning adult who is trapped in a losing battle with a cat I could sympathise with his plight.

There were some nice little moments the most memorable of which was the Kings single man-tear before the Festival of Lights. This was a heart felt moment and made the Royal Family seem like a pillar of good and decency but that is only until you look a little deeper into the running of their Kingdom.

Their laws are harsh and a little draconian to say the least. The penalty for theft is hanging without trial as poor Flynn almost found out. I would not be forgiving of my potential in-laws if the only reason I didn’t hang was because I had the comedic foresight to bribe a horse with some apples prior to getting my ass arrested. The King and Queen brazened this out and an awkward apology was not forthcoming.

Overall Tangled is a strong Disney movie and it gets an 8/10. I will catch it again when the kids get it on dvd.

On the Disney scale of Kidnapped Princesses Rapunzel ranks higher than Snow White (but then again so do I) and Jasmine but she isn’t anywhere near Megara or Belle.

3 comments:

  1. Nice to see I'm not the only adult watching and reviewing animation! I love Tangled and saw it twice on the big screen.
    It is certainly one of the better Disney films in some time. Good review and I agree, Gothel is a very good villan. I think Rapunzel was a really neat character but most of all I loved Maximus the horse.

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  2. I am not adverse to a good kids movie although I draw the line at cheap movies like Yogi Bear!

    Maximus was fun. Thanks for reading! K

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  3. Yogi Bear WAS garbage!!!!!!ButI honestly dispute that animation is solely for children.D o so one all the reviews I've done on animation.

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