Ah, the first Disney movie of the year, and who doesn't love Disney? *Cue everyone to leave a comment badmouthing Disney!* Well me personally, I LOVE Disney. Pixar have recently taken over in my animated affections but Disney movies still hold a place in my heart. The last 'pure' (see below # for definition) Disney film I saw at the cinema was The Princess and The Frog which really surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did as I'd been watching and loving Disney Pixar for so long.
Unfortunately this meant that I put quite a lot of expectation onto poor Tangled and I'm sorry to say that it did suffer a little under the strain.
Tangled is a re-jigging of the familiar fairy tale 'Rapunzel' and indeed features Rapunzel (and her abundant flowing locks) in the lead role. Rapunzel is a princess who was kidnapped as a baby and locked away in a tower. Her kidnapper, an old hag who has discovered that Rapunzel's hair contains magical powers that can make her young again, locks her in a tower and tells her frightful stories so that she will never leave. The hag, Mother Gothel, tells Rapunzel that she is her mother and is keeping her in the tower for her own good. Rapunzel grows up never knowing of her real heritage, and although she loves her (fake) mother, and would never defy her wishes, she longs for the outside world. In particular she longs to see the lights which appear in the sky every year on her birthday. Unbeknownst to Rapunzel, the lights are lanterns released by Rapunzel's parents, the king and queen, and of the inhabitants of the kingdom. They release the lanterns every year on Rapunzel's birthday hoping that one day, they will bring about Rapunzel's safe return.
Through a series of events which I won't go into, Rapunzel meets handsome thief and general scallywag Flynn Rider, who agrees to lead Rapunzel to the castle so that she can watch the lanterns on her 18th birthday. Of course, this being Disney she meets a whole host of unlikely friends and dastardly foes along the way to her destination.
I said earlier that Tangled suffered under the strain of my expectations of it. And it did. Please don't take this to mean that I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it. As I did, and I would. I just wouldn't necessarily rush out and buy it. For me Tangled felt like it lacked something? I have a feeling this was the lack of a real villain. Don't get me wrong, mother Gothel is far from a kindly old lady, she kidnaps baby Rapunzel and locks her in a tower for Pete's sake, but she isn't really evil? She takes care of Rapunzel for all of those years, doesn't overly seem to mistreat her and Rapunzel loves her as her own mother for most of the movie? This leads me to think she can't have been that bad? It's only when facing the loss of her secret youth that she strikes out. To me, this just ain't old school Disney. The villains used to be truly evil and strike fear into the hearts of small children. And I don't think Tangled's Gothel would scare a mouse, let alone the hardened youth of today.
As usual I digress. Tangled is as well made as you would expect from Disney's standards, the 3D is excellent, especially in the beautiful lantern scene. The characters have all been brilliantly brought into the 21st century (Gothel aside as she should have been scarier), the songs are good and not too annoying or too frequent for non musical fans and it's a movie that all ages can, and probably will, enjoy. 7 out of 10.
#'pure' Disney meaning the old style animation - although I appreciate Tangled is CG - and not in conjunction with Pixar
Viewing Date - 6th February 2011
UK Release Date - 28th January 2011
Cast Overview:
(If you don't like knowing who the voices are DONT SCROLL DOWN! ;0)
Rapunzel ~ Mandy Moore
Flynn Rider ~ Zachary Levi
Mother Gothel ~ Donna Murphy
Stabbington Brother ~ Ron Perlman
Director(s) ~ Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Writer(s) ~ Dan Fogelman (Screenplay)
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Fairy Tale)
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