Tangled (2010)

Release date: November 24, 2010
Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Story by: The Brothers Grimm (Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm)
Screenplay by: Dan Fogelman
Cast: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman, Brad Garrett, Jeffrey Tambor

After the success — or not-success — of The Princess and the Frog, Disney decided to give the old fairy tale of Rapunzel a spin, called it Tangled and amped the male character. Call it a creative spin, or a marketing spin, it proved to work for Disney.

Tangled begins with the voice-over monologue of bandit Flynn (Levi), who tells us the movie is the story about how he dies. The story begins way back when the Queen was so ill that the only thing that could cure her was a magical flower, which was, at the time, in possession of Mother Gothel (Murphy) to keep herself from growing old.

The King’s men managed to find the flower and save the Queen, who eventually gave birth to a healthy, magical and very cute golden-locked baby, whom she named Rapunzel (later voiced by Moore). Mother Gothel tried stealing a lock of golden hair to discover it doesn’t work, so she kidnaps the baby, locks her in the tower… until the day she’s about to turn 18.

Well, that was pretty much the whole fairy tale aspect of Tangled, and it’s all in the introduction! My main problem with the film is that it doesn’t really feel like a princess film… Disney’s desperate attempt to market this to “boys” made it lose that aspect. Tangled has no magic, and by trying to make it more “modern” — admittedly  fell for Pink’s Trouble on the trailer — it sounded too much like Saturday morning cartoon dialogue.

It had its moments of gorgeous possible memorable scenes, like the one when Rapunzel visits the kingdom. But like most Disney princess films, it’s more about the bad guys than the princesses sometimes, and Rapunzel’s relationship to Mother Gothel is one of the most interesting bits in the film. Messed up, and somewhat needing of a psychologist… but interesting.

Flynn, however, is quite forgettable… like most of the musical numbers, except for Mother Knows Best maybe.

If Disney really wanted to make a modern Disney princess film, they fared much better with Enchanted — it even has better songs!

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

10 Responses

  1. Juan Barquin says:

    I’ve been listening to the soundtrack of this all night and I just love it so much. Like, it’s got a few flaws but I was really impressed by this one when I saw it and I couldn’t convince myself to give it under a 4 lol

    • amy says:

      @Juan Barquin, LOL no way!

      I didn’t think the songs were that memorable… though I do think the song with the bandits in the iffy bar was pretty funny. There were a few things that took me out of the film, and one of them was the actual language… it seemed… so contemporary.

      I definitely liked Frog better, in the sense that it was pretty traditional Disney, but also pretty modern. I really think she didn’t really needed to stick with the prince to open the restaurant! xD it’s one of my pet peeves with that film~~~

      • Mirella says:

        @amy, Well, she obv stuck with the prince for the amazing sex and because he needed a handsome waiter to attract the old lady clientele of course :P

  2. Castor says:

    I watched Tangled a few weeks ago. I was very impressed by it and surprised by how good it was. I know you liked The Princess and the Frog more lol

    • amy says:

      @Castor, I think I commented on your review and was surprised at how much you liked it. I don’t know what it was – I actually watched it twice… once on a screener and the other at the 3D theater (my mom’s first 3D flick, LOL). And… I liked the visuals in the film, of course… especially the scene with all the lanterns which I thought was the only really good effective 3D sequence in it… but something about the dialog struck as “saturday morning cartoon”.

  1. December 7, 2013

    […] casi de principio a fin . Incluso con la exuberante animación 3D – mucho mejor que en Enredados en la manera en que el paisaje se descubre ante sus ojos – hay algo en esta pequeña […]

  2. December 7, 2013

    […] Frozen has become Disneys’ biggest animated opening, easily winning over Wreck-it-Ralph and Tangled (we don’t talk about Planes… ever)! Also, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider has a cameo in […]

  3. December 28, 2013

    […] almost from start to finish. Even with the lush 3D animation – leaps and bounds ahead of Tangled in the way the scenery unfolds right before your eyes – there’s something about this little […]

  4. June 4, 2014

    […] would give their re-telling in Maleficent. After a mix bag of Enchanted, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen, anything was game- Would they go for the True Love Kiss ending, mirroring the […]

Leave a Reply to Juan BarquinCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.