Tangled Review

Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard (Bolt)
Screenplay: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember), Zachary Levi (Chuck) and Donna Murphy (Star Trek: Insurrection)
Gross Revenue: $276,018,895 worldwide (As of 12/31/10)
Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter: 89%
IMDB Rating: 8.2

   Animation is a bigger business than ever.  The number one film of 2010 was an animated film, and they continue to bring in the big bucks year after year.   The animated feature film is perhaps one of the oldest traditions in Hollywood, a tradition that has lately been lacking in the company that started it, Disney.  Sure, Pixar continues to be the gold standard for filmmaking of any kind, not just animation, but that is a separate subsidiary that operates completely independent of Disney.  Disney has been in the process of re-energizing their animation department, which led to the creation of the world’s first 3-D CGI animated musical fairy tale, Tangled.

     Tangled takes place in in a mythical Grimm-influenced fairy tale world, similar to that of Disney classics Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Beauty and the Beast.  Rapunzel is a beautiful princess locked away in a tower by her evil “mother”, who used Rapunzel’s magical hair to stay eternally youthful.  Rapunzel, who has spent all 18 years of her life locked away in a tower, never experiencing the outside world, longs for adventure, and to discover the source of the mysterious lights that appear in the sky every year on her birthday.  Flynn Rider, a devilishly handsome and charming rouge bandit, is captured by Rapunzel and forced to escort her to the source of the lights, in exchange for his freedom.  They sent on an adventure will a host of entertaining and “classic” Disney characters, filled with action, suspense, and most obviously, romance. 

     I really wanted to like Tangled.   I really did.  Most people that know me know that I am an unabashed Disney aficionado, so I of all people should have been praising this movie.  Maybe it was due to my usually high expectations, which I always have for a Disney animated film, but I was just not generally impressed with this film.  There is nothing wrong with it naturally; it is a perfectly acceptable family fantasy adventure.  It just didn’t posses that same depth that I’ve come to expect from Pixar, or even past Disney animated films.

     Tangled had all the right ingredients to be an instant classic; a new take on a classic fairy tale, a musical score by Alan Menken, produced by John Lasseter, and the first Disney musical fairy tale since Beauty and the Beast.  Despite this impressive prestige going into production, the movie ultimately just feels…flat.  Rapunzel is kind of a one-note character, and a bit of a ditz that lacks emotional depth.  Flynn Rider is just a conglomerate of various Disney heroes; there is nothing remotely new or original about him.  The “sidekicks” did nothing to advance the story, and were just scene filler to provide laughs for the little kids.  Rapunzel and Flynn’s adventure lacks any genuine thrill or excitement, and their onscreen chemistry feels forced and falls flat.   The musical score and accompanying songs are pleasant, and it’s nice to see Disney returning to their classic musical style of filmmaking, but few songs stick out in one’s mind, and there are no instant classics as there were in the prime of the “Disney Renaissance”. 

    What makes this movie even sadder for me is that I know Disney can do better.  I loved Disney’s previous animated feature, The Princess and the Frog.  To me, that was the best Disney animate film in years, and was a proper restoration of the classic Disney storytelling technique.  Tangled falls in flat in the important areas for a film: story and character.  The story is boring and uninvolving, and the characters are one-dimensional and lack any depth.  I hate to say it, but I was bored by this film.  I rarely say this for a Disney film, but I was not at all interested in the action taking place on screen.

    Many of you readers will probably disagree with me about Tangled; it has in fact been acclaimed by critics and has a quite high rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  But I just do not see it.  Maybe my disappointment for what I thought was going to be an amazing film has filtered my review, but I just do not find this film to be particularly impressive.  Not terrible, but really great either.  If one is a parent in need of safe and harmless entertainment, their kids will fall in love with it, while the parents will be mildly amused.  For everyone else, the movie is a minor entry in Disney’s long and established animation canon.  Tangled is a mildly pleasing entry in the Disney animation canon, but lack of depth, excitement, and emotional investment makes the movie fall flat, and ranks far below previous Disney classics.  2.5/5.

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