Review of Tangled (2010) by Amy G — 18 Sep 2013

"This is the story of how I died. No, it's actually a good story, and it's not even about me. It's actually about a girl.".

Walt Disney had a dream, and that dream was to make stellar animated films with strong messages, wonderful colors, memorable characters, and catchy songs to go along with the story. After his death, the studio didn't really focus on fulfilling Walt's vision, but were still entertaining features nonetheless. The 1990's was Disney's Second Golden Age, releasing one colossal hit after another, returning back to Walt's roots. 2000 rolled around, and Disney almost completely lost it. They abandoned their songs, created films filled with complete wasted characters, and made terrible stories (Chicken Little... cough cough). Disney brought their game back with 2009's 2D animated film The Princess and the Frog, which I thought was an excellent film, but others were disturbed by scenes of voodoo and the film didn't do as strong as Disney had hoped. When releasing Tangled a year later, Disney had a lot of things to consider. The film is their 50th animation release, they had to change the title to impress the younger male crowd, and promoted action scenes to appeal to the said crowd. Well, Disney's marketing paid off, and Tangled became the most successful animated Disney film since, I don't know, Tarzan maybe, and the film truly brings Disney back to fulfilling the original dream Walt made,,, well, sort of.

Based on the fairy tale of Rapunzel, the film is about Rapunzel, a teenage girl who's been hidden away in a tower by the villainous Mother Gothel, who abducted the princess as a baby cause her hair features magical qualities that allows healing and cause her to look younger. Because of this, she tells Rapunzel that the world is bad and she can never leave the tower. But Rapunzel, knowing that certain floating lanterns mean something to her, still intends to leave the tower, and when a wanted thief named Flynn Rider shows up, Rapunzel makes a deal with him to take her to see the lanterns. Together, the two go off on a whirlwind adventure and Rapunzel starts to feel more like herself.

When I say that the film sort of fulfills Walt's dream, I mean that Disney did some things that Walt probably wouldn't have done when he was around. The biggest difference being that the film is CG animated, not hand-drawn, which is something I feel that Walt wouldn't like. (He would likely love Princess and the Frog instead). But the film actually features elements that Walt would clearly approve of. A heartwarming story/message, memorable characters, musical numbers in between, a happy ending (come on, it's Disney), etc. When I first heard of Tangled's existence, I had stayed away from Disney quite a bit. I wasn't impressed with their recent films, I avoided Princess and the Frog (I had some weird prejudice against Disney princesses back then; don't now), and thought Tangled was going to do the same. I actually rented this film to see if it was really worth the acclaim, and sure enough, it did (though I finally got to see Princess and the Frog and I feel it's much, much better).

Disney never truly impressed when it comes to CG animation outside of Pixar. Chicken Little was horrifically bad, Meet the Robinsons was just OK, and Bolt didn't thrill me that much. With Tangled, Disney finally made a CG film that's worth mentioning. The detail in the water, the grass, the birds, and Rapunzel's hair is just jaw-dropping, especially in Blu-Ray. It's very impressive. You'd think that Pixar made this film (though John Lasseter produced this).

Another thing that made Tangled truly worthwhile is that the characters are memorable. Feminists have complained over the years how Disney princesses, mostly Cinderella and Snow White, just sat their and waited for their prince to randomly show up and rescue them. While their have been some women in Disney films that have done more work (Ariel, Belle, Mulan), there's still some complaints. With Tandled, I feel like feminists will finally find a Disney princess to root for. While she's not as tough as Mulan, she can defend herself, particularly in a sequence involving a frying pan. As for the male lead, Flynn Rider is a memorable and funny character, and Zachary Levi nails the role. The villain, Mother Gothel, is a pretty crazy villain, probably one of the darker villains to come out of Disney in a while. No big spoilers, but the villainy from Donna Murphy is brilliant. Other memorable characters include a chameleon named Pascal, a group of Viking thugs, led by Brad Garrett, and a super hilarious horse named Maximus.

Earlier, I said that Disney pushed hard to appeal to the male crowd who weren't interested in past Disney greats as Beauty and the Beast or Princess and the Frog. With Tangled, I think the average man while enjoy this film as much as I did. Tangled has some action sequences that are truly a masterpiece, and let's just say that they're incredible. The best sequence action wise is a sequence involving the destruction of a dam during an escape moment. I didn't see it in 3D (I get better 3D watching it in 2D), but even in 2D, I felt I was watching it in 3D due to the intense and jaw-dropping debris coming out at you when watching this scene.

Disney even brought Alan Menken, the man who excelled in creating songs and phenomenal scores for Disney from the 90's, such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, and while it doesn't outdo Menken's greatest works, I was still wowed by Menken's approach to Broadway-styled music. The songs are excellent material as well. Rapunzel has an epic opening number called "When Will My Life Begin", sung by her speaking role, Mandy Moore, and actually has an excellent singing voice. But you don't care for the actress, you feel the cartoon character singing it, and I was wowed completely. The villain has her own song, titled "Mother Knows Best", and it's so brilliant that you'd think the song was sung by Barbara Streisand (Why hasn't she done a Disney movie yet?). The Viking thugs have a catchy tune of their own, called "I Have a Dream", which is very entertaining. Throughout the film, Rapunzel sings a short song called "Flower Gleam and Glow", which is the magical flower tune, and while the song can be annoying after hearing it for the fifth time, Moore's voice makes up for it. But the best tune, saved up for last, is the excellent ballad, "I See the Light", performed by Rapunzel and Flynn. Their voices connect excellently and the animation is jaw-dropping here, in a sequence involving floating lanterns. I'm stunned, and have always gotten goosebumps when hearing this song. Menken has returned with excellent material. I wasn't disappointed.

While I was more wowed by neighbor fairy tale The Princess and the Frog, Tangled is a worthy title as well, featuring excellent animation, memorable characters, jaw-dropping action sequences, and phenomenal Alan Menken music. Tangled is, I believe, the Disney film that clearly defines this generation of filmgoers, just like what Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid did to those who grew up with it in the 90's, and what kids in 1937 felt when Snow White and the Seven Dwarves first came out. While Walt may not like the CG animation, I think he would finally admit that Disney had finally done something right in our world today.