Written by: Dan Fogelman.
Starring: Mandy (we’re seriously calling her this still? What about Amanda?) Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy.
Budget: A fucking huge $260 Million.
Gross Revenue: (so far) $355, 355, 242.
As much as I grew to hate the Disney corporation in my years as a politics major, you gotta hand it to them: They sure do know how to make children’s movies. I’m a 24 year old man and even I almost cried during the lantern sequence in this movie. If you forget about all the Jean Baudrillard ‘hyper-reality’ philosophising for just a second, you have to admit that Tangled, and virtually all the Disney cartoons are globally revered for a reason: They truly are classics.
A lot of the animated movies these days rely on stupid fucking pop. culture references and jokes with sexual subtexts in order to get adult laughs. Of course ‘adult laughs’ do not necessarily equal ‘intelligent laughs.’ (How many times have you watched the latest 3D animation just to be underwhelmed by the scene where the donkey has a wet-dream?)
I guess that’s why I always liked the Disney films. The Lion King has burnt itself into the collective consciousness almost as much (if not more so) as the play it was based on, Hamlet. And I can tell you folks, it didn’t get there by having one of the leads singing some stupid fucking 80s song, so all the achingly bourgeois parents could relive the days when they got so drunk they puked all over the dance floor at the local night-club. It’s because they all deal with universal themes that kids and adults alike can relate to. This is largely true of ‘Tangled’, which deals with some heavy ‘cutting-the-heart-strings’ themes. However I did notice that the modern self-referential humour of films like Shrek seeped in a little. The male lead does his whole "Here comes the smoulder" thing and it’s pretty shit-tastic, but Tangled makes up for it with some great story-telling and musical numbers, which contain the whimsical lyrics that we have come to appreciate from Disney. Whenever Rapunzel uses her hair to heal someone (yeah it does that now...), she has to sing:
“Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine/Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine/Heal what has been hurt, change the Fates' design/Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine.”
It’s a nice touch, and it works well in this movie. I saw Tangled with my mum, my eight year old sister, and my girlfriend. My girlfriend and I noticed a little girl in the cinema who was reacting so emotionally to each scene: When one of the happy musical numbers was playing, she was dancing her little heart out, and when one of the scenes involving the sinister Witch came on, she shrunk back into her seat with her hands over her eyes. It just goes to show that the folks over at Disney still know how to tap into the innocent emotional state of children. Shit, they better know how, this is their fiftieth animated feature.
Three stars:
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