TANGLED

It’s time for something a little different.  Enough of the dark films, of doom and gloom, of violence, it is now time to review a Disney film.  “Tangled” is a re-telling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale, “Rapunzel”.  In this Disney version, Rapunzel is kidnapped from her royal parents by Mother Gothel and hidden in a tower, in an attempt to keep Rapunzel away from the outside world, so she can use the magic of her hair exclusively.  Rapunzel’s hair has the power to heal the sick and injured and regenerate the old, and Gothel uses it to stay forever young.  Gothel raises Rapunzel as her own child, with no intention of letting her ever go outside, however the tower’s walls cannot hide the outside world completely from the curious young girl.  

Each year on their daughter’s birthday, the king and queen raise thousands of lanterns into the air, with the hope that one day their lost princess would return.  From the window of her tower, Rapunzel witnesses this annual event and it soon becomes her dream to witness the phenomenon in person.  Meanwhile, a young handsome thief named Flynn Rider has just stolen the lost princess’s crown and while trying to escape from the kingdom’s army, stumbles across the hidden tower.  Believing it to be empty, he climbs the tower and enters the window, only to be knocked unconscious by a scared Rapunzel (who uses a fry-pan to perform the deed).  When Flynn finally comes to and convinces Rapunzel that he is not there for her hair, she ends up making a deal with him to take her from the tower to see the “magic lights” that she has dreamed of seeing her whole life.  He eventually “agrees” and the two set out on their fantastic journey together, but when Gothel realizes that Rapunzel has gone, she will do anything and stop at nothing to get her back.

There was a time back in the early 90’s when the new Disney animated film was an event to me (and my brother).  They were always of such high quality and I eagerly anticipated them.  It started with “The Little Mermaid” and continued with such fantastic films as “Aladdin”, “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas” (to name a few), but eventually the quality of the films begin to drop, and once Pixar entered onto the scene with their computer animated brilliance, Disney’s hand drawn films no longer seemed fresh or exciting, but rather dated, and they lacked the magic they once had.  It is with great pleasure that I can say that for the first time in a very long time, they have recaptured that magic.  “Tangled” is an absolutely delightful film and is easily the film I have watched more than any other in the past couple of months.  My two daughters adore this film (making it special already), so it is on our television almost 24 hours a day, and it is a testament to the quality of the film that I seriously never tire of it.  In fact it’s quite the opposite, and I almost know the film line for line.

What makes the film so great are the characters.  Rapunzel and Flynn are both fantastic characters, and are incredibly well drawn (no pun intended), that it is a joy to be with them throughout their journey.  As usual for a Disney film, there are cute animals throughout.  Rapunzel has a pet chameleon named Pascal, while Flynn is constantly being chased by a government official’s horse named Max (Maximus).  Wisely, Disney decided not to go down the familiar route and having the animals talk, which is a huge plus, because although they cannot speak, they still have plenty of character and are so hilarious (especially Max).

Recently, animated films have got into a trend of using big famous names as their voice talent.  While this is all very entertaining, it can cause a problem by making the voice so recognizable that we find it had to separate the actor from the character they are voicing (this is a common criticism of George Clooney’s performance from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” – didn’t bother me at all, though).  However with “Tangled” they have gone back to using relative unknowns to voice the characters, which is incredibly beneficial for the movie as a whole.  Mandy Moore voices Rapunzel (and does so brilliantly and innocently), but I only think of the character when I watch the film, and never of Moore’s own personality.  Zachary Levi voices Flynn Rider and does so with amazing energy that makes Flynn feel so alive and fun.  It is a fantastic performance.

All the great Disney films of old all had great songs and “Tangled” is no exception.  In reality I think there may be only four songs in total throughout the whole film but they are all standouts, with my personal favourites being “Mother Knows Best” and “I’ve Got A Dream”.  Alan Menken’s work on these songs needs to be mentioned as he is a big reason this film is so great. 

While the animation is now done by a computer, it is expertly done like the old hand-drawn Disney classics.  This was a film that was made in 3-D (unfortunately I have only seen it in its 2-D incarnation), and it looks spectacular and incredibly detailed (just look at the hair on Max to get some sort of idea), and the character designs are all spot on (is it just me or is Flynn the spitting image of Adrien Brody), both the humans and the animals (Max again).

Overall, this is just an amazingly fun film to watch that I never seem to bore of.  It is endlessly exciting, has great action (the knife vs. fry-pan battle between Flynn and Max is both brilliant and hilarious), along with endlessly quotable dialogue, but in the end it is incredibly human and has great heart to it.  The story itself is incredibly well told and it comes as no surprise that John Lasseter (from Pixar) had his hands on this film.  The direction from Nathan Greno and Byron Howard is faultless, but best of all is the fact that my kids adore this film.  My only real complaint is the title – “Tangled”, it really needed to be called “Rapunzel” (which it is in some European countries).  Still that is such a minor quibble and doesn’t affect the quality of the film at all.

4 Stars.