Tangled (2010)
Okay, I'm just going to get this out of the way from the start.
I didn't like Tangled
*ducks objects likely to be thrown*
Hold on- not saying I hated it, trust me on that- but I didn't like it.
First a little background.
Background
In previous reviews I have mentioned a friend of mine who has on occasion recommended movies, which I have ended up really enjoying to the point I have told her not to recommend anymore.
Well just over a year ago, during a discussion on Disney movies, it came up that I had yet to see The Princess and The Frog, Tangled, or Enchanted. To which said friend delivered one of the biggest death glares I have seen in my life, followed by a statement I couldn't disagree with:
"You haven't seen them? Your the movie guy! I have no time and I've seen all three!"
Thinking quickly, I diffused the situation by saying that I'd get around to them, or, best case scenario, she could force me to watch them whenever we next hung out.
Fast forward eight months, and we were hanging out, driving while listening to a Disney CD and the song "Friends on the Other Side" from the aforementioned Princess and the Frog- the only song I knew from the movie (and liked enough on it's own merits to put on a CD) came on. While we sang I reminded her of the previous conversation.... and she proceeded to stop the car and deliver the same look, this time followed by the statement "You haven't watched them YET??"
Wanting to survive the trip, I reminded her I said I'd get around to it or we'd watch them together, but as that wasn't likely to save me for long, that night I decided to watch The Princess and the Frog.
The next day I texted her simply saying "seriously, you are not allowed to recommend movies anymore"
After that everything seemed alright, but the other movies still lingered on my watch list. To be honest I had tried to watch Tangled after Princess and The Frog but the opening song turned me off (more on that later). I mentioned this to my friend recently, and she recommended I try again and just skip the song.
Two days after that conversation I found myself home sick from work with a stomach bug and little to do but sit on the couch and try to rest.
And what was sitting on my sister's DVD shelf but a copy of Tangled, and here I was, with time to kill.
So I watched it. And it certainly made the time pass. Points for trying?
Alright, this is Disney's Tangled.
Plot
Once upon a time, a drop of sunlight fell to Earth and bloomed into a magical golden flower with the power to heal when a certain tune is sung. The flower is found by an old witch named Mother Gothel who uses the flower's magic to stay young for centuries while keeping it hidden from the rest of the world. However, years later the Queen of a nearby kingdom falls ill whilst pregnant, and her husband, seeking any means with which to heal her, seeks out the magic flower, eventually finding it after Gothel accidentally leaves it in the open The flower is made into medicine which heals the Queen, who later gives birth to a daughter, Rapunzel, whose hair has taken on the shade and mystical properties of the flower. Gothel kidnaps her in an effort to keep using the flowers magic, bringing the child to a hidden tower in the forest and raising her as her own, growing Rapunzel's hair to increase the magic's power. On her 18th birthday, the restless Rapunzel, voiced by singer Mandy Moore, asks to be allowed outside, but Gothel forbids it, warning her the outside world is fraught with peril and evil people. At the same time, a thief named Flynn Rider, voiced by Zachery Levi, betrays his accomplices the Stabbington brothers, steals the missing princess crown from the castle and, in an attempt to escape the guards and his former associates, ends up at Rapunzel's tower. She knocks him out, but realizes she can use his help. In return for the crown, which she has hidden from him, she wishes for him to bring her out of the tower and out into the world, so that she may see the lights that seem to float in the sky every year on her birthday- unaware they are lanterns released by her grieving parents. Flynn agrees, mostly to get the crown back, and the duo are off, all the while Gothel and the Stabbington brothers are hot on their trail, as well as the Captain of the Guards horse, Maximus.
Thoughts
First, what's good about this movie.
The animation is beautiful, and though compared to the later Frozen, it isn't as well polished, given many techniques used in both moves were literally invented while this movie was being made, you gotta give the animators credit. I've said in the past I'm not a big fan of computer animation, call me a purist, but I am a proponent of hand drawn animation, however like in Frozen, it works in this case. I attribute most of this to the fact that the movie has a very two-dimensional (i.e. hand drawn) style, as if it was an old hand drawn Disney movie that someone decided to turn CG. Either way, it works, and the movie looks great, especially the animation used for Rapunzel's parents. As internet reviewer Doug Walker, a.k.a The Nostalgia Critic, said in his Disney-cember review of this movie, there is so much emotion shown in the faces of those characters that the fact that they have no dialogue in the movie doesn't matter- everything you need to know is in their expressions- and that takes skill.
Likewise, the story is pretty good too, and, the more I've read about the original tale of Rapunzel, there is quite a bit that is true to the source- in the original story, a couple expecting a child cross an enchantress when the wife's craving for a certain plant, called a rapunzel, leads her husband to steal some of it from the enchantress's land. In return for letting him live she of course asks for the child, who she names after the plant. The girl grows to be beautiful and with long golden hair, until one day a prince hears her sing and well you know the rest. So the fact that the element that sets this film in motion is a plant coveted by a witch, and the original story is set in motion by a woman craving a plant held by a witch, well, it's not often a Disney adaptation is that on the nose. Besides that, the way the film runs with it works as well- in the story the hair is just long, ok, fine, but in the movie, it's long because if it's cut it loses the magical properties the flower gave it. The witch takes and keeps Rapunzel not for the Hell of it, but because she wants to retain her youth. Rapunzel doesn't want to leave because of the atypical falling in love with passing prince, she wants to because she wants to know what the lights in the sky are and why they only show on her birthday. Hell, fact that the eventual love interest isn't a Prince isn't something you see often in Disney either, nor is the fact that the relationship with him and Rapunzel isn't what brings them together at first- that happens later.
Another great element- the supporting characters, especially the animal sidekicks. The tough guys at the tavern are all funny and though only appear three times in the movie, are great to see and their dreams- and the song they sing about them- are all different and unexpected. But the sidekicks, Maximus the Horse and Pascal the Chameleon, steal show. Pascal doesn't get much to do physically, but his expression more them make up for it. He has a very sarcastic look at times, especially after Rapunzel fails at asking Gothel to let her out for her birthday. Plus, he's probably one of the only sidekicks to have a hand in the villain's death. But for my money, Maximus is the star of the movie, again, to take from Doug Walker's review, he is the Javert (villain from Les Miserables for the uninitiated) of horses- he will not be stopped, overshadowing all others in his quest to capture Flynn. Again, it's all about his expressions, from the rage when he sees Flynn's wanted poster after loosing him in the forest, or later, when they are on better terms, forcing Flynn to go dance with Rapunzel after giving him a "you are doing this whether you like it or not" look. Honestly, up until his appearance I was not sold on the movie at all but the moment Maximus was on the screen I was entertained. Give this horse his own movie.
Now the stuff I didn't care for.
The leads. Look, no offense to the characters themselves, but I just did not find them that compelling- I never found Rapunzel that interesting, Flynn has his moments but took until the second half of the film to actually become a real character and not just the stereotypical rouge with a heart. Gothel will not go down as one of the best or even second best Disney villains as she was never that intimidating and her song, which I can't even consider a villain song, sounded like a slightly disturbing PSA- though the melody was similar to Master of The House, one of my favorite songs from Les Miserables so thumbs up for that at least.
Likewise, the songs. As I said earlier, the opening song, "When Will My Life Begin?" is not a Disney song. It is a Top 40 pop song masquerading as a Disney song. You know how some Disney movies will have a pop cover of the big song of the movie? This sounds like that, except unfortunately, it's the original song. The moment I heard it I was taken completely out of the movie, because it doesn't sound like it belongs.
Let me put it like this- opening songs in musicals should lead you in to the movie, not push you out. Circle of Life, Frozen Heart, Arabian Nights, Belle, The Bells of Notre Dame- they all set the tone and really give you a feel for the movie. Yes some of the movies these songs are in have songs I'm not fans of, but they are usually later in the film and by then you are already invested. Another example in the movie RENT- the opening song had me hooked, and while there is a song later in the movie that everyone I know who watches the movie skips, again, by the time it shows up you are already in the zone.
So what about the other songs then? Well, when you get right down to it, there are only four songs in the movie- the aforementioned opener, Gothel's songs "Mother Knows Best", "I've Got a Dream"- sang by the tough guys in the bar, and "I See The Light", which Rapunzel sings when she at last reaches her goal and sees the lanterns.. As stated, the first two didn't do it for me, however, the last two are decent- I've Got a Dream, as stated, is fun and the secondary characters make it work, and I See The Light is a serviceable ballad. But two okay songs out of four isn't much, and given they are the ones that come later, it's a tale of too little too late.
Which actually describes the movie as a whole in my view- to be honest it was only in the last twenty to thirty minutes of the film that I actually started to really enjoy it, that the character and events started to actually interest me, and by then it was too late. After seventy minutes of occasional chuckles due to secondary characters and two okay songs, even thirty good minutes wasn't enough.
What's worse is I wanted to like this movie, really I did- not only as my friend had a really good track record up to now, nor the fact that everyone I spoke to seemed to give this movie thumbs up, but because after watching and loving Frozen, which this movie certainly was a precursor to, I wanted this to be as good as that film, or at least come close.
Conclusion
Tangled is not a bad movie, flawed yes, lacking in a number of places, but not bad. It has great animation, entertaining secondary characters and a good story that pays tribute to it's source material more then usual in Disney films. Unfortunately, this is held down by poor pacing, uninteresting leads and (mostly) forgettable songs. Was it worth watching, yes, and I'm sure people who want to see it will still see it no matter what I say. However, it's not something I would watch again nor will it be added to my DVD shelf. There are much better Disney movies out there- like The Princess and The Frog and Frozen.
2.5 Magical Golden Braids out of 5
Until next time, I'm The Drew and I Be Awesome.
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