January 16, 2011

Tangled (2010)

4/5

Disney's Tangled is a return to the fairytale genre they seemed to have singlehandedly created way back in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The plot follows Rapunzel (Moore) as a young princess who was stolen by the aging Mother Gothel (Murphy) and placed in a hidden tower for the magical healing power of her hair. She dreams of what the outside world is like and one day her wish comes true when she gets rescued by a thief named Flynn Rider (Levi). Flynn is being chased by royal guards, and one particular royal horse named Maximus, who is quite possibly the most hilarious and memorable character in the entire movie, even though he never speaks a word. Disney knows good entertainment, and this movie continues in its tradition by producing this fantastic story with spectacular visuals.


I really loved the animation: it had a distinct style (unlike Beauty and the Beast) that I absolutely adored. It was painterly and beautiful and smooth and luminous and just about perfect. Except for one thing. The eyes really bugged me, because they were huge and outlined with like three million tiny eyelashes. So bizarre. I had smaller qualms with the movie as well. The narration was 100% unnecessary (the intro and ending would have been far more poignant had they tried it silently like in Up). The acting, the music, and the dialogue failed to impress me, although they never detracted from the rest of its greatness. What frustrated me the most about this movie was that it was so close to being something special. It was so close to being more than just another enjoyable flick, but unfortunately that's all I found it to be.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398286/