Peter O'Toole's character Anton Ego holds a brilliant speech at the end of Ratatoullie about the work of a critic. He claims a critic risks very little, even thrives on negative critism. However, he also says the time a critic truely risk something is in the discovery and defense of the new. People if my generation have always been "nostalgic", praising the shows, movies or video games they grew up with as the pinnacle of whatever category that particular piece falls into. I have oftenly heard from people of my age that things were better when we were kids, the shows were not the mindless junk it is today, video games weren't about killing mindlessly left and right, the music had more depth and meaning, and the TV-channels we once so adored has somehow taken a major turn for the worse. Perhaps this is because we were the first true generation of people that were true victims of commersialism, perhaps the ads' talk on TV about their toys and shows being far superior than all the other. Or maybe, just maybe, we are just simply getting older and our tastes have developed beyond that of our child selves. Regardless, people are fairly to denounce the new for the old, oftenly letting their nostalgia blind them and not seeing the new for what it really is. Although we might discover in a second look at whatever he adore so much might not the the perfect masterpiece we make it out to be, and perhaps the new is not quite so bad after all.
So what does all this have anything to do with anything?
Two weeks ago, three this friday, I had the chance to discover something new. I remember seeing a teaser poster back in 2008 for a new Disney movie in the works called Rapunzel. Supposedly, it was heavily inspired by the rococo painting The swing. This was during the time I was studying various art styles, including rococo, and I was intrigued. About a year later, the first trailer came out. Rapunzel was now called Tangled and seemed like Disney's attempt to out-Dreamworks Dreamworks. Needless to say, I honestly thought this movie was going to be terrible.
Months pass. Despite its heavy marketing, Tangled soon ventures into the subconcious part of my brain. It wasn't talked about so much that year, mainly because Toy story 3 and How to train your dragon was being praised as that year's finest animated movies. We all knew Toy story 3 was going to get the Oscar for Best animated film, the category had only three nominees, there was no doubt Toy story 3 was soing to win. All Tangled got was a nomination for its song I see the light. Once again, I didn't think too much of Tangled.
When I was selecting a few Dreamworks movies to watch, I picked Tangled as well, since it was pretty much marketed as one. Specifically, the "raising the eyebrow" the characters do on the posters, and trailers making the movie look like something inspired by Shrek rather than rococo. My hopes were still not too high for this movie, yet I had no idea what to truely expect of it. I've always prefered to dive into movies or video games knowing as little as possible about it. For example, if I knew what was going to happen beyond the first 10 minutes of Megamind, the twist wouldn't have had any impact on me, clever as it was. If I knew how Fight club or Psycho was going to end, I would just simply shrug when the twists actually took place in the movie. All I need to know about a movie or video game is if it's good or not, because I prefer to watch things that are good, or else I think I'm wasting my time. All I really knew about Tangled was that it was about Rapunzel, it was a comedy, and it was good.
This brings me back to my first paragraph. Pixar has made some of the finest animated movies of all time in the past ten years; Toy story 2 and 3, Up, Finding Nemo, etc. Meanwhile, Dreamworks had hits like Shrek, Shrek 2 and How to train your dragon. Disney gave us such masterpieces as Home on the range and Chicken little. Guess which company had more Academy award nominations? Despite its shortcommings, I always had faith in Disney. Sure, they own Pixar in a sense, so they get some of Pixar's success, but not much of the movies they made without the Pixar logo slapped on it has been too good. Then The princess and the frog came out, which in my opinion is a great movie, so it seemed that Disney had found their way back. The Disney that made Bambi, Snow white and the seven dwarfs, and Beauty and the beast which was the first animated picture to be nominated for Best picture, was once again ready to give us new classics for generations to come. At least so I thought until I saw the trailer for Tangled.
Let us talk about the flaws of this movie, the first being the way it was marketed, which I've already gone into a bit. I genuinely feel that this is the most mismarketed animated movie of the decade. Megamind was was marketed as a classic superhero flick with some Superman ripoff fighting some lame villain for an hour, which was not the case at all. Tangled's marketing was even worse, as was marketed as a Dreamworks picture, a comedy with slapstick and somewhat childish humor and not the typical fairytale musical Disney is famed for - and does very well in my opinion. In reality, Tangled is a fairytale musical, but with some Dreamworks and even Pixar elements in it. To be fair, I think Pixar helped Disney's animation studios with some parts as they are credited for contrubutions in the movie's credits, although the Pixar logo is nowhere to be seen. I wouldn't say the movie feels too Pixar or Dreamworks, but there are parts of them in there, such as the detailed and fast paced character animations from a Pixar movie or the "smugness" of certain characters, i.e. Flynn. This has never bothered me near as much as I thought it would once I saw the movie, it works suprisingly well. The only thing Disney stole from Dreamworks is the marketing. Let us compare for a moment.
Above we see a promotional image and an actual screenshot from the movie. Ignoring the changes done to the character designs, it's clear how this movie was marketed. In the promotional image, as well as that atrocious teaser trailer, Rapunzel comes off as cruel. If you haven't seen the movie and saw that image, you'd almost assume Rapunzel was the villain, since she chackles some guy to a chair and looks so smug and proud about it. Who is he and what has he done to you? In the teaser trailer, which I will not show nor recommend as it doesn't give the movie justice at all, we see the same guy climbing the tower, where Rapunzel seemingly live and stealing some of the stuff he finds. He is the beaten up by an offscreen Rapunzel using only her hair, as if she can movie it with her mind or is some Milla Rage knockoff. She does use her hair in the movie, mainly for grapling, but never to this extent. She comes off as cruel in the teaser trailer, someone who would beat you up with her hair only for looking at her tower. Fortunately, this is not how her character is portrayed in the movie. She does not move her hair with her mind, although she has suprisingly good control over it, and she does not beat Flynn up in the movie, That scene happens only in the trailer, and I am thankful it's not in the final product. Flynn is also not someone who steals left and right, although he is carrying something much more valuable than most of the stuff found in Rapunzel's tower. Admittingly, Rapunzel still binds Flynn to a chair using her hair (I swear that wasn't supposed to rhyme), and even blackmails him in the movie. The difference is that she first knocks him out of fear, since he is the first person other than her caretaker to enter the tower. Sure, the blackmailing is still a little odd, but it leads to a few good dramatic as well as funny moments in the movie, I know that some of you might say that I'm being too harsh on this one particular image and the teaser trailer, after all, it is but a TEASER. You are right, although that doesn't change the fact that this movie was horribly mismarketed, as this is not some Dreamworks knockoff or some lame excuse to make more "hip" animated movies. This is the same stuff Disney has done for years; song-loaded movie with lots of action, humor and love, and that's far from a bad thing.
Honestly, this poster of Tangled couldn't be more inaccurate. Though it is a good example of how Disney stole Dreamworks' marketing. Notice the positioning of the eyebrows. I've already talked a little about this, and this is not an issue with Tangled that truely bothers me, but it did bother me before I saw the full movie. Supposedly, having a character raise their eyebrow like in both the Tangled and Megamind poster exampled shows that the characters are daring and adventurous. I know that a lot of girls liked the character Aladdin from Disney's movie of the same name because he was smug, adventurous and funny. I have a vague memory of him doing the same eyebrow thing in the movie, and perhaps it worked. Dreamworks must have taken a liking to Aladdin, as the same fourth wall breaking style and pop culture references that of the Genie would dominate most of Dreamworks' animated movies. Perhaps this is where this eyebrow thing started. They wanted to show the viewers that the characters are funny and smug and that you will be in for quite an adventure with these characters in this particular movie. Personally, I don't care much for posters, and I think you should show more than two characters trying to look charming or smug, I think it doesn't say that much about the movie. It must work to some degree, though, evident by both Megamind's and Tangled's box office.
Why I brought this up to begin with is just to show once again how wrongfully Tangled was marketed. While some might concider Flynn a Dreamworks character, I am personally not bothered too much about it in the end. I thought I would, but I wasn't. It's not like Dreamworks have ever made something similar to Disney or vice versia before. In this case, Tangled is sometimes like a Dreamworks movie, but it has enough of that Disney charm and style that not many should be bothered about it.
Anyone noticed how the promotional image said Rapunzel and not Tangled? This might be the biggest problem I have with this movie: its title. It was changed from Rapunzel to Tangled because The princess and the frog was a dissapointment i the box office, and they wanted to have a title that men wouldn't think was too girly. Or something like that. I supposed that Tangled is fairly gender neutral, but I would have prefered if this movie was called Rapunzel. Tangled sounds more like a bad live-action romantic comedy, not particularily Disney-esc. I would have most likely have seen this movie earlier if it wasn't for the misleading title. Tangled doesn't even have THAT much to do with the movie, other than it kind of relates to hair. They might as well could have called The princess and the frog Swamp, it's about as relevant.
Most princesses pretty much sit around and wait for themselves to be rescued, even Shrek has made fun of that on several occations. Rapunzel is not one of them. Sure, she has never left her tower despite being fully able to. Her caretaker, mother Gothel, has strictly forbidden her from leaving since she was a baby. Rapunzel hasn't escaped because Gothel has told her so many times how dangerous it is outside and how cruel the world is. Gothel even tells Rapunzel never to ask to leave the tower in the movie. Rapunzel hasn't fled because she's scared and unsure. Anyone would, being raised that way. That's why she needs Flynn to guide her. She even blackmails him in order to make sure he actually does it. For the majority of the movie, SHE is the one that calls the shots, even though Flynn has a saying here and there. Honestly, Rapunzel is the least Mary-Sue (or Bella Swan as I like to call it) of all Disney princesses. Mulan technically counts as a disney princess, but she is not an actual princess in her movie, unlike Rapunzel. Frankly, I can't wait for Rapunzel to fight alongside Sora in a future Kingdom hearts game, we all know what weapon she is going to use.
My only problem with Rapunzel is that her face looks suprisingly different seen from certain angles and her eyes can look big at times. When I saw this movie for the second time, I thought she looked like an insect in some scenes. It doesn't bother me now, as people in CGI movies do have big eyes, especially women. Just look at your average anime, the eyes take up more than half the face. These "problems" aren't major at all, just something I thought might be worth mentioning at least.
Compare this screenshot to the one above. Her face is a lot more round in this angle and with this particular facial expression. Just figured I'd give an example and not stack pictures directly on top of each other again.
The villain is actually fairly interesting, especially for a Disney villain. She's not up there with Frollo or Scar, but she is definitely an interesting take. She is kind of a mix of Lady Tremaine and Hades. She is evil to the core, but she doesn't treat Rapunzel as bad as Lady Tremaine treated Cinderella. I won't go into reason why she is keeping Rapunzel in the tower, but it's an act of selfishness to say the least. However, she is not always an evil stepmother character, she oftenly tries to joke around with Rapunzel and try to act like she is a nice person. Even if she's trying to joke around, you can tell she is just pretending and most of her comments on Rapunzel are genuine insults followed by a "just kidding" in hopes to make it sound like a joke and more lighthearted. I think it makes her interesting and not just some typical evil bitch, but someone that tries act nice in order to hide her selfishness. However, she is not entirely played for laughs, she has a good balance of trying to be humurous and genuinely evil. I can understand if people concider her a lame villain, she's no Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates in terms of greatness, but she is far from Disney's worst villain, least of all cinema history's worse.
There is also some issues with the story. While the story is pretty good for most part, there are still a few issues. Not going to give much details, but Gothel is supposed to go on a trip for three days. She then sees a palace horse (again, no details why, buy the movie and see why yourself) and somehow sees this as an omen or whatever and runs back to the tower to check if Rapunzel is still there. Problem is that she left the tower about 15 minutes prior to that scene in the movie and a lot of stuff happened between her leaving and her finding the horse. She must have gone a lot farther than that, especially since she so casually runs back to the tower like she was just a kilometer away from it. Once again not trying to get too many details down, but how did Rapunzel sneak "that thing" into the boat near the end of the movie? We never see her carry it until she gives it to Flynn, I doubt he could have missed her bring that on it, especially since it's a fairly small boat. Rapunzel is never seen carrying it from the time she is given it and the time she gives it to Flynn. How come Rapunzel's hair seems to shift its lenghth from scene to scene? At first it's long enough to reach down from her tower, then it's long enough to be put into a few braids (I hope that's the term) that's not even longer than her? I know that these kind of issues are VERY common in movies, good and bad, and I didn't think too much of it until she got the braids. Although even I understand that the hair would be in the way too much and the writers didn't feel like writing around it too much so they in a sense wanted to get rid of it. They do give a reason as to why she gets the braids, and I can understand why. That doesn't mean over 20 meters of hair (her hair is officially 70 feel long) can be shortened down like they did in the movie.
Like all Disney movies based on fairy tales, the is not much of the source material left in the movie. The original Grimm tale was about an ordinary girl named Rapunzel getting locked up in a tower by an evil enchantress (or somrthing). A prince climbs to her tower when he hears Rapunze's singing voice. They fall in love, and the enchantress finds out about their romance eventually. She throws the prince off the tower and he is blinded on some thorns. He once again finds Rapunzel when he hears her singing voice, is cured of his blindness and they lived happily ever after. The exact details varies from version to version of the tale, but this is the basic gist of the story. There is no prince in Tangled, no evil enchantress and Rapunzel is a princess in this version. I can understand most of the changes to the story, the fairy tale is hundred of years old and haven't aged too well. Perhaps it's a good reason they didn't called the movie Rapunzel in this regard. Tangled story is pretty good, but it kind of fails as an adaption. I still think some of the changes are good, like how Flynn isn't a prince. It's still not faithful to the source material, though, then again, this is Disney. Most of Grimm's tales are more like horror stories at times anyway.
As much as I gone on and on about the marketing and some minor issues, none of them are major enough to bring the movie down. Sure, the title is not too good and its marketing is awful, but that has nothing to do with the movie itself. Figured it is time to talk about this movie's good parts.I am sad to say that this movie isn't groundbreaking. The songs are suprisingly good, but not great. The animation is superb, especially Rapunzel's hair, but not groundbreaking either. The voice acting is very good, but no one is going to win any awards for their roles. It is strong in most of the things they deliver, but nothing that as of now will be regarded ahead of its time. However, I personally simply adore the character animations. Every facial expression on feels real to me, although no horse has facial expressions like Maximus. The characters feels real, since their animations are so brilliant. It feels so incredibly fluent somehow. Disney have some of the finest animators in the world, some might even come from Pixar, and it shows in this movie. Tangled came out the same year as Toy story 3 and How to train your dragon. While I really like both of those movies, Tangled has the better character animations. That doesn't mean that Toy story 3 or How to train your dragon are terrible. Toy story 3's characters move very realistic and fluent, despite that most of their characters are supposed to be made of plastic. How to train your dragon has spectacular special effects and usage of 3D, but Tangled's human characters still more alive to me. All three movies had the best animators in the world behind them, and all of them look amazing. Tangled will however always stick out to me, because I don't think this was supposed to be in mindblowing 3D. I don't think Toy story 3 was, either. Though I think How to train your dragon has many scenes that were made with 3D in mind. My point is that an animated movie doesn't meed to be action packed and have "spectacular scenes" for it's effects to be really nice. If animated well enough, two people having a conversation can be just as fantastic as a car chase scene. Although they are different kind of fantastic. Which is a good way to describe this movie's animation, different kind of fantastic.
This is where I could post thousands of screen shots showing various facial expressions of the characters, but I will instead tell you to buy the movie and see the animations yourself. Just don't expect tons of explosions or something, it's fairly down to earth with the things going on.
I know I have already talked about Rapunzel, but there's a few more things that need to be said about her. I honestly like her, suprisingly. This is mainly because Mandy Moore does a pretty good job when portraying her, and the animators for giving her realisting and fluent animations. Most of her facial expressions are really well done. She may not be a deep character, but she is a lot of fun to watch. This might be because I'm older now and things about these sorts of things, but she is very likable. For the record, I have rewatched most of Disney's animated movies, and Rapunzel is the one out of the Disney princesses I probably like the best. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the "bipolar scene". I won't say much about other than I think it's really fun, and is the only instant where the movie pays a clear tribute to The swing. I don't know if girls concider her annoying, but I like her at least. A very well done character, for Disney standards at least.
Hate to admit so, but Flynn is pretty funny. The directors brought in a few women and helped them design his looks, so I guess he's the archetype of a "good looking guy". Honestly, they nailed Rapunzel as pretty, so I don't blame the girls for finding the guy pretty as well. I guess. I've said several times that he's like a Dreamworks characters, always smug. Or perhaps he's like Aladdin, the guy who are like most Dreamworks characters are marketed as, your choise. Point is, I think he's pretty funny and most scenes where he interacts with Maximus are very entertaining. Most jokes work in this movie, and they work, they really work. Flynn's witty comments is an example. I can undetstand that Flynn became fairly popular, I think he's a pretty good character, too. I must remember to consult actual females before trying to create a character that is supposed to appeal to women.
As I said, the songs aren't great, but they could have been a lot worse. I doubt it's material that will be used alongside It's a small world in Disneyland, but they are far from terrible. I won't give examples, since I know people will try to hunt then down and subconciously judge the movie based on it, even if I might encourage some people to see it solely for a few good songs. I encourage you to see the movie and hear the songs in their context and judge for yourself.
During the same week I first saw this movie, I saw it a total of seven times. I simply could not get enough of it. I was truely suprise how good this movie was, and still is. I adore this movie, and I wouldn't mind if Disney made a full animated feature film sequel that would most likely upset fans of the original like Disney has done so well with most of its sequels. I want to see more of these characters, more of this world, even if it's mismaketed again. This time, Disney doesn't need to convince me. If I even see a trailer for a new Tangled feature film, I will most likely see it on opening day. It's a damn shame I didn't saw this back in 2010, this movie is up there with Toy story 3 in terms of greatness. I know I have spent a long time talking about the bad parts about this movie than the good, but I will still say that this is movie in spite of its flaws will be replaying in my DVD-player many times.
This movie is rich in its characters, animation and story (kind of). There are a few odd lines, moments and things about this movie that does keep it from being perfect, but it does not keep it from being one of the finest animated movies of the past decade and one of Disney's overall best movies yet. If I would make a top 10 list over my favorite animated movies, this movie would be in the top 5. I hope that I have awoken some interest in those who haven't seen this movie yet, and I could not recmmend you to buy this movie (not download illegally) and check it out yourself. If it wasn't for Toy story 3, this movie would have been a strong candidate for Best animated movie of 2010. I am proud to say that I have experienced some of Disney's best movies and I am, as Anton Ego would have put it, in full defense of the new, new being Disney's latest animated classic!
There is also a 5-or-so minute animated sequel/spin-off called Tangled ever after on Disney's official website you can watch for free. Feel free to check it out if you have seen Tangled, if you haven't seen it, Tangled ever after won't be particularly enjoyable.
Summary: This movie genuinely suprised me of how good it is, and hopefully you too will see that this funny and extremely well-animated movie will be one of Disney's finest so far. Buy this movie!
Grade: 8.5/10
All images found via Google and are copyrighted by their respective owners.
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