Tangled Up In Blue – A Review by Donald Price

Up to bat today is the film randomly drawn from the fez of a colleague, the 2010 Disney film Tangled. It continues the long Disney tradition of transforming storybook fairy tales into full length animated features by basing the movie on the tale of Rapunzel. The film stars the voices of Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zach Levi (Chuck from TV’s Chuck) as Flynn Rider. Both Moore and Levi have great voices that I had never really taken notice of that before having seen the film.

The film for the most part is the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel’s quest to escape her tower imprisonment to seek life outside the high walls of seclusion. Also it’s about her hair…can’t forget that. Rapunzel has the ability to use her hair in a variety of different ways. From using it as an Indiana Jones style whip, to a means to bind people like Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. She must also use Mane ‘N Tail shampoo because her hair has some super strength. She has the ability to not only swing from it back and forth by herself but also with a party of adventurers. Seriously, I haven’t seen this much swinging from place to place since I played the Spiderman 2 game on PlayStation 2.

Tangled is the fourth fully computer animated film in the Disney Animation Studio’s line. You can really track the studios visual improvements since their first fully computer generated film Chicken Little, to Meet the Robinsons, to Bolt, and finally with Tangled. Each film has its own different style but they still retain certain signatures. Today most modern film crowds can tell the difference in something that’s produced by DreamWorks, Pixar or Disney. The process used in the animation overlays and textures make the film almost look panted at times, which is a nice throwback to the classic hand animated styles of animation. The overall look of the film is great, from the water to the character’s hair, real top notch work.

The film is comparable to Disney’s 2009 film The Princess and the Frog with a few differences behind the scenes. First off the biggest difference is that The Princess and the Frog was traditionally hand animated and had a semi-limited theatrical release whereas Tangled was computer animated with a wide release. Another key difference is that The Princess and the Frog was targeted to little girls with princess Tiana being the main focal character, with Tangled having both Rapunzel and Flynn sharing the screen. Having now seen both films, they are both entertaining in their own ways. Watching this film was better than having to sit through another Shrek movie.

One of the best characters in the film doesn’t even have a voice. I am referring to Rapunzel’s closest thing to a best friend, Pascal the color changing chameleon. The animations of his movements are truly well executed. I haven’t been amused by a non-speaking character in a long time, and this movie is great for having one (especially with it being a strongly voiced cast).

Tangled is proudly touted as being Disney’s 50^th animated feature. Being put in the same league as The Sword in the Stone, The Lion King, and The Black Cauldron is not easy to live up to, and in this aspect, the film comes up short. As I said the film looks great, but it’s like marrying a supermodel in some instance; a great looking trophy of modern technological achievement…but lacking personality and intelligence. The Taylor Swift-esq songs feel tacked on to the film as if someone had glued handlebars onto a horse. Animated films use songs as a means to help drive the story along, but some of the songs in the film really leave me scratching my head saying thing like “did she really break out an modern acoustic guitar?”.

Overall Tangled is a good movie for children, but the parents may not be too wrapped up in it. See what I did there? But seriously, the animation is great, the voice acting is executed well, the story is pretty good, but the music is pretty awful and the characters don’t really get the chance to be as fleshed out as classic Disney characters. I would suggest seeing this film if you have children or love animated films.