January 26, 2011: Tangled
I saw Tangled because of its single Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. It had reviewed OK so I wasn’t dreading the experience, so I trotted off to the nearest multiplex to see it in 3D. It turns out to be totally formulaic but well enough done to stand with the typical Disney pedigree.
I was skeptical after a pandering introductory sequence which explained the whole back story and what we were supposed to think about it, which struck me as a overly spoon-fed even for a kid’s movie like this. In this telling of the Rapunzel story, a young girl is kept captive up in a tower by a woman claiming to be her mother, when in reality she is a kidnapped princess, taken shortly after birth in order to pass along her gift of eternal life to her selfish and vain captor. She is discovered and saved by a Prince Charming type, and returned to the life she was meant to live.
Of course, we need to throw in some conflict along the journey home, including a run-in with some gruff individuals in a tavern who turn out to be not quite so rough when someone lends a sympathetic ear, and a horse who behaves like a dog and tries to track down Prince Charming who also happens to be a thief. There is as always a goofy and supportive pet, in this case a chameleon. The princess has ridiculously insanely huge glowing eyes. Everyone breaks into song when it suits them. Generally, it’s the standard Disney animated film template. For a brief moment I thought they might chop out the invetitable conflict and just end the movie, but no dice.
All of this sounds like I’m kind of getting down on the movie, and it really wasn’t that bad. It’s just that it didn’t really stand out in any way. The 3D was OK but probably unnecessary, the story didn’t vary from exactly what we knew would happen, and the characters are cookie-cutter players from countless other similar Disney films. Tangled was fine, but I didn’t feel that my afternoon had been used to its fullest potential.
Disney animated template fare for kids.
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