Tangled (2010)
Directed by Nathan Greno
Feisty teenager Rapunzel, who has long and magical hair, wants to go and see sky lanterns on her eighteenth birthday, but she's bound to a tower by her overprotective mother. She strikes a deal with Flynn Rider, a charming wanted thief, and the duo set off on an action-packed escapade.
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18 films that influenced Tangled
What critics say influenced Tangled
“Tangled” is a lively, funny, deft and delicious musical in the vein of Disney’s 1989 classic “The Little Mermaid.”
"Tangled" is reminiscent of the successful run of movies Disney made in the early 1990s and would fit right in with those films which included "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King."
While the music - by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater - are engaging and move the plot along, they don't stick in your consciousness like "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid," Menken's classic collaborations with the late Howard Ashman.
The fact that Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) wrote all the tunes makes it feel like it’s 1990 all over again, albeit with computer-generated, rather than hand-drawn animation.
It's not to the level of modern classics like Aladdin (1992) or The Little Mermaid (1989) and of course it shouldn't be compared to classic classics such as Dumbo (1941) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), but for 2010?
"Tangled" is reminiscent of the successful run of movies Disney made in the early 1990s and would fit right in with those films which included "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King."
It's astonishing to think that Tangled is Disney's first traditional fairy tale since 1991's Beauty and the Beast .
The fact that Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) wrote all the tunes makes it feel like it’s 1990 all over again, albeit with computer-generated, rather than hand-drawn animation.
It’s also difficult to recall a computer-generated animated film that has so successfully managed to evoke the feel of hand-drawn animation without sacrificing the eye-popping visuals that CGI has become known for, which ensures that Tangled instantly joins the ranks of such beloved animation classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The final confrontation between her and Rapunzel is quite breathtaking - visually and with Menken's score - and reminiscent of the Queen's demise in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs .
One supposes that a sense of rising to an occasion, of wanting/trying to make the 50th animated feature in its way as exciting and engaging and groundbreaking as its first (that would have been a little thing called " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs " back in 1937) also occurred to the production team at one point.
Move over, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Lion King."
It's not to the level of modern classics like Aladdin (1992) or The Little Mermaid (1989) and of course it shouldn't be compared to classic classics such as Dumbo (1941) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), but for 2010?
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Flynn Ryder and the company he keeps bear a lot of resemblance to "Beauty and the Beast's" Gaston while Mother Gothel is much like Snow White's evil Queen and of course there are animal side kicks and plenty of generic songs by Alan Menken ("Home on the Range," "Enchanted").
Unlike last year’s The Princess and the Frog, where Disney stuck to its traditional hand-drawn animation and storytelling formula, Tangled takes all the familiar elements of the “princess movies” (think The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) and combines them with Disney’s application of new technology -- CGI and 3D.
But in spite of its pedigree, Tangled doesn’t come across as a traditional Disney film, certainly not in the spirit of 2009’s conscious old-school throwback The Princess And The Frog .
In 2009 there was the lovely, hopeful Tiana in The Princess and the Frog, and now there's another fairy tale heroine who's worthy of adoration: Tangled's Rapunzel.
But their fiftieth animated feature as a solo studio continues the re-emergence of the romantic fable after 2009’s The Princess and the Frog , and marks a return to the big tales that guarantee big success.
Like the traditionally animated The Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled returns to the older style of Disney storytelling that incorporates musical numbers into the narrative.
Facilier from The Princess and the Frog , Mother Gothel wants to preserve—not destroy—our protagonist.
There is a good villain entry with "Mother Knows Best," sung by two-time Tony Award-winning Donna Murphy ("The King and I" and "Passion").
Blaming the "outdated" media for their failures, they rebooted their animation department, which then produced the computer animated zany comedy Chicken Little (2005) -- fairly successful, but not in the league of the more successful Pixar and DreamWorks releases.
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The journey is the thing in a setup like this, which is eerily reminiscent of DreamWorks’ excellent, supremely underrated The Road to El Dorado in both wit and the fluid animation, and Greno, Howard and Fogelman deliver at every turn.
The basic beats of Flynn and Rapunzel's journey are familiar from sources as varied as Aladdin and It Happened One Night, as the two encounter some strange characters on the road, get into a bit of trouble and inevitably fall in love before reaching their destination (in this case, seeing the floating paper lanterns that mysteriously show up each year on Rapunzel's birthday).