Tangled (PG.)
Directed by Nathan Greno, Byron Howard.
Featuring voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor, Ron Perlman. 100 mins
Disney’s fiftieth animated feature is a loose adaptation of Rapunzel. The defining character though is not the long haired maiden but Flynn Rider the thief who stumbles upon her in her lonely tower.
Rapunzel is not exactly Snow White – she wields her supernaturally long blonde tresses like some kind of superhero – but she is broadly in keeping with the traditions of a Disney heroine. Rider however seems to have stumbled out of a Shrek movie. He is knowing and self aware and his language and speech patterns are entirely contemporary. But over the course of the movie he is knocked into the kind of charming prince (as opposed to the Shrek Prince Charming) who has come to the aid of distressed damsels in Disney movies.
Which is the film’s subtext - ten years after the green ogre and the talking donkey effectively trashed audiences’ appetite for standard Disney fare, Tangled sees the Mouse House regaining the initiative. Flip and ironic are pushed aside for heart and wonder.
Tangled has all the elements of the Disney films you were taken to when you were a kid: it’s a fairy tale, the voice cast is not filled with A list stars and it has lots of original songs you’d really rather not hear.
The difference is this time it is rendered in computer generated 3D and the film’s great achievement is the way it has transferred the feel of hand drawn animation into the new medium. It’s a bit of a mish-mash to begin with but once its hits it stride Tangled delivers the classic Disney recipe of light and dark, tears and smiles.
Directed by Nathan Greno, Byron Howard.
Featuring voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor, Ron Perlman. 100 mins
Disney’s fiftieth animated feature is a loose adaptation of Rapunzel. The defining character though is not the long haired maiden but Flynn Rider the thief who stumbles upon her in her lonely tower.
Rapunzel is not exactly Snow White – she wields her supernaturally long blonde tresses like some kind of superhero – but she is broadly in keeping with the traditions of a Disney heroine. Rider however seems to have stumbled out of a Shrek movie. He is knowing and self aware and his language and speech patterns are entirely contemporary. But over the course of the movie he is knocked into the kind of charming prince (as opposed to the Shrek Prince Charming) who has come to the aid of distressed damsels in Disney movies.
Which is the film’s subtext - ten years after the green ogre and the talking donkey effectively trashed audiences’ appetite for standard Disney fare, Tangled sees the Mouse House regaining the initiative. Flip and ironic are pushed aside for heart and wonder.
Tangled has all the elements of the Disney films you were taken to when you were a kid: it’s a fairy tale, the voice cast is not filled with A list stars and it has lots of original songs you’d really rather not hear.
The difference is this time it is rendered in computer generated 3D and the film’s great achievement is the way it has transferred the feel of hand drawn animation into the new medium. It’s a bit of a mish-mash to begin with but once its hits it stride Tangled delivers the classic Disney recipe of light and dark, tears and smiles.
