02.06
The production history of Tangled, Disney’s 50th animated classic based on the classic fairy tale Rapunzel, is as tangled as the title itself. This time i want to get straight to the review, so I’ll just say that if you’re interested in discovering how the making of this movie went down, look it up. you’re sure to find some interesting info if you take a look around. The basic gist of it is that Tangled was Glen Keane’s(animator of Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, and other classic Disney favorites and son of Family Circus creator Bill Keane) baby, and the movie has been in production for at least 8 years getting the kinks fixed on it.
After John Lasseter’s recent winning streak as the head of Walt Disney Feature Animation but the disappointed box-office results of The Princess and the Frog, a lot seems to be hanging on the success of this movie. A lot of that seems to come from the lack of support from the male demographic, so Disney changed the title from Rapunzel to Tangled, and gave it’s male lead equal attention in advertising. Disney seems stressed enough to the point that they hid the fact that this is a musical in the traditional Disney sense in their advertising.
For instance, here’s the US trailer.
And to contrast, let’s compare it to the trailer for another country. Let’s say… Japan.
Yeah, pretty big difference there.
Despite that, word has been good on it since day one, and Tangled has already broken records in theaters, so all should be good. How is the movie itself, though? It’s kind of a step down from Disney’s recent return to hand-drawn animation, but there’s more than enough good for Tangled to hold it’s own as a future classic.
The movie begins with an opening narration straight out of American Beauty when Flynn Rider(who I’ll delve more into later) talks of how he died, taking us back to eighteen years beforehand. In a forest, an old hag takes an enchanted flower and uses it to hide the effects of age from her body. At the same time, the queen of the land(where, as usual for Disney, is undetermined, but since the original author of the story came from Germany, that’s probably they are) is sick while in labor, and needs the magic of the flower to survive. Guards search and find the flower where the hag, now transformed into a younger-looking woman, hid it. The help turn the flower into a type of drink and have the queen drink it, and she gives birth to a daughter peacefully.
The woman comes to the castle and finds the child, whose already long, blonde hair(guess that’s not going to stay on her…) seems to be glowing. The woman cuts off a lock of the princess’s and discovers that when you do that, her hair turns to brown. The woman kidnaps the princess and takes her away to a giant tower to raise the girl as her own.
The king and queen are so distraught by the kidnapping of their child that they have their kingdom light up a bunch of candles and throw them up into the sky every year on their daughter’s birthday.
We jump forward up to just a few days before the narration begins, at the tower. The girl with the enchanted hair, named Rapunzel, starts her day off by cleaning the house, practicing her arts, and playing with her pet chameleon Pascal, when her mother, Gothel returns to the tower. Rapunzel’s hair is as long as anything, because Gothel refuses to risk the potential of losing her hair’s power. Gothel still uses Rapunzel’s hair as a deaging device, as whenever Rapunzel sings, her hair glows and magically heals Gothel’s signs of age.
As Rapunzel’s 18th birthday approaches, she tells Mother Gothel that she wants to escape the tower to see the light show that happens every year on her birthday. Gothel, disgusted at the idea, tells her that there is no way that this will happen, which depresses Rapunzel greatly.
This is when Flynn Rider comes in. The not-so-charismatic young thief and his two accomplices steals a crown, presumably the lost princess’s, from the castle. Rider and his followers already have a huge bounty on their persons, and are on the run from the royal guards. Rider gets to escape with the crown in tow, but leaves his men behind. Still on the lam, Flynn escapes all but an angry horse, known as Maximus, who continues to chase Flynn until he makes it to this strange tower.
I’ll end the synopsis here, as this seems like a good cut-off point. If you’re a fan of Disney animation, or at least have seen enough of their fairy tale movies to tell them apart, you can probably guess enough of what will happen at this point so that you won’t need me to tell the whole story. A lot of the basics of a classic (warm slapstick humor, a couple of cute romantic moments including a kiss fake-out, a complicated misunderstanding, a run-in with the villain before the final confrontation, and so on) are present, and the characters are a little derivative. Mother Gothel is a combination of Lady Tremaine from Cinderella and Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a little of Madame Medusa from the original Rescuers added in, Flynn combines Aladdin’s street-rat tricks with Prince Naveen from Princess and the Frog‘s arrogance, and one of my friends who saw the movie with me said that Maximus reminded him of Prince Philip’s horse from Sleeping Beauty. but that is, to an extent, the Disney charm: familiarity with enough heart and love to make it all forgivable. By the end, you should be entertained enough to forgive at least half of the tropes you can instantly recognize.
Now to the meat of the picture- the entertainment value. The American trailers promise a lot of humor, and the movie delivers. Although Tangled isn’t really built like a Dreamworks movie like the trailers would make you suspect, there’s plenty of laughs in it, and I’d even argue that this movie is funnier than any of the animated features from Katzenberg’s new house are. A lot of the movie’s humor comes from it’s animal sidekicks, Pascal and Maximus, who are the studio’s funniest comic relief characters in years. Their biggest appeal is that since both of the characters are silent, they don’t have to speak to get their point or a laugh across, so you don’t have to deal with something as useless like Pumbaa’s gas jokes or Louis’s buffoonery. Pascal reacts through his character animation, which is very responsive and smooth, while Maximus and Flynn have a strong chemistry between each other. Neither character are happy to have each other tag along, and their arguing is reminiscent of older buddy comedies then anything.
There’s also a group of vikings that look like they come straight out of How to Train Your Dragon. They are all unnamed but contribute to the story by helping Rapunzel and Flynn out during a few times in the movie. Each have a couple of decent lines and a cute, if not especially well-written song, except for a smaller, older fellow who is reminiscent of Dopey. Granted, they’re not particuarly hilarious, but they add more to the story than Maximus does(Pascal’s greatest accomplishment throughout the film is being Rapunzel’s shining ray of hope during her time in the tower, something that isn’t addressed, but easy to assume).
The actual characters aren’t meant to be as funny(although Flynn has some great lines), but that’s not their purpose anyway. Rapunzel is a great character. She’s an assertive female in the modern sense without being too pushy or the least bit self-righteous, but is also still very contained. She’s been trapped in a tower that is very hard to access for the entirety of her life, and never got to experience the joys of life that most of us are able to. When she exits the tower and walks on the ground for the first time and breaks into one of the reprisals for “When Will My Life Begin”, her solo number, it’s one of the most strikingly beautiful moments of the film. The attention to detail of the land Rapunzel gets to walk on for the first time, on top of the emotion of the scene and in Mandy Moore’s voice(yes, THAT Mandy Moore, but trust me, she does a good job), is very powerful and expressed perfectly.
Another thing that makes Rapunzel stand out is her interest in art and music. From her first performance of “When Will My Life Begin”, we already know that she can sing beautifully thanks to Moore’s performance, play guitar, and paint very well. She asks for painting supplies as a back-up wish for her birthday, paints the kingdom’s crest when she arrives, and seems to have an artistic knack during the rest of the movie. Rapunzel is a smart girl with a lot going for her.
Flynn Rider is a solid love interest for Rapunzel. He’s a charming, funny fellow, like Disney men before him, and Zachary Levi of Chuck fame gives a very good performance of the guy, but the character isn’t perfect. Personally, I believe that Flynn doesn’t have enough character development for him to stand his own, and his change from common thug to Rapunzel’s lover is a little short notice. The only bit into his character that we delve into is when he tells Rapunzel why he came up with the pseudonym of Flynn Rider(earlier, he reveals to her that his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert). As an orphan, the young Eugene used to idolize a storybook hero with a similar name, and retooled said character’s name into something he can use to hide his true identity. Other then that, Flynn’s life is basically a mystery, and his motives are fairly vague.
Mother Gothel makes for an engaging villain, even if she isn’t quite up there with Maleficent, Cruella De Ville, Scar, or Dr. Facilier as one of Disney’s best. Her motives are mostly blank, typical for a Disney movie. Gothel keeps Rapunzel as she needs her hair’s magic healing powers to keep her young and beautiful. If she is away from the hair for a while, Gothel’s face grows increasingly wrinkled, her hair becomes white, and her body drastically weakens. The chances of her surviving to the point in time the movie takes place without the powers of Rapunzel’s hair or the flower are next-to-none.
Mother Gothel and Rapunzel have a bit of a complicated relationship with each. Gothel mostly sees Rapunzel as a reason to stay alive, but tries to treat the girl with as much care as she can. There is definite warmth between the two characters, but Gothel often runs that by saying some incredibly hurtful things to Rapunzel, even sometimes acting like she doesn’t mean them. As the movie progresses and Rapunzel becomes increasingly free however, Gothel’s true colors begin to become apparent, and she becomes less caring right to her face. It’s that touch of snarkiness and bitterness that makes Mother Gothel as engaging of an antagonist as she is.
The animation is another high point. This is the first computer-animated Disney fairy tale, and while it’s not quite as visually impressive as Princess and the Frog‘s return to hand-drawn animation was, the movie is still very good looking. Rapunzel’s hair especially is very responsive and sharp, which is amazing considering how much of it there is. You can almost see every follicle of hair on her head. The land looks very good, and reflects the original hand-drawn layouts very well. I went to see this movie in 3D, not knowing if my local theater had a regular showing or not, but I don’t regret the $10 purchase. While the visual effect wasn’t used especially well, the movie looked stunning in the glasses.
The music, however, I’m a little conflicted on. The score itself is outstanding. I swear that it’s Alan Menken’s most inspired since Hunchback of Notre Dame almost 15 years ago, but the songs themselves aren’t as impressive. I think the lyrics are to blame, as they’re often a little clunky. Rapunzel’s “When Will My Life Begin”, Mother Gothel’s “Mother Knows Best”, and the vikings’ “I’ve Got a Dream” especially suffer from this. The first adds too many activities into it’s first performance which spoils the recipe and makes it become needlessly wordy, while the other two aren’t as clever or funny as they think they are.
I think the soundtrack’s highlight is “I See the Light”, Rapunzel and Flynn’s duet during the light show. While some viewers have compared it to the “Kiss the Girl” sequence from The Little Mermaid, I think this is a much sweeter scene and stronger song than that was, and this is probably going to be the strongest contender for Best Song at the Academy Awards this year.
Another problem I have is the lack of an overlapping theme in the movie. I can’t seem to find one, at least not one as effective as the power of money and it’s effects in The Princess and the Frog, discovering where you belong in life and your destiny in The Lion King, or freedom and accepting who you are in Aladdin. You don’t necessarily need a moral or theme to make a great movie, even a Disney movie, but I’m kind of disappointed in the lack of a common theme between the main characters. I can see a little bit of a repeat of Aladdin‘s lessen in Tangled, but that’s mostly since Flynn is derivative of Aladdin.
That said, even with it’s biggest flaws, there is more than enough in Tangled for me to recommend to just about everyone. Fans of Disney will more then likely be satisfied(especially before the movie starts, as we get a little easter egg celebrating this particular milestone), and people who aren’t as big on Disney should find enough to connect with to not regret their ticket purchase. Disappointments aside, I can’t wait to see the movie again and see how it clicks for me in repeat viewings.
Before I end this review, there is one thing I want to point out. The movie is rated PG, so some parents may be wary of taking their younger kids to see this movie. I personally say that if you children are old enough to see Beauty and the Beast or Sleeping Beauty, they should be more than able to handle this movie. The only time I think it was worthy of it’s rating is a particular scene at the climax of the film involving the stabbing of a particular, but again referring to Beauty and the Beast, if your children can handle it when Gaston stabs the Beast at the end, this should be fine for them.
Originally posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010.