Film review: Tangled (2010), directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Once upon a time there was a king and a queen who loved each other very much. A princess was born, and because her mother drank an elixir from a flower with magical powers while she was still in the womb, the princess has magic hair. If you cut it, though, the magic goes away.
A witch (Donna Murphy), who had been using the flower’s restorative powers for years to keep herself young, kidnaps the baby princess and locks her in a tower. For the next 18 years princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) looks out over the hidden valley and wonders what those lights in the sky are that always appear on her birthday, but her “mother” doesn’t want to let her out of the tower to find out.
One day when the witch is out running errands Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), adventurer and thief, shows up, and the princess is in for an adventure of a lifetime …
Also features the voice acting talents of Ron Perlman as a Stabbington Brother.
Disney do fairytales very well. The long-haired Rapunzel is no different. Plenty of singing guides us on our way through the woods. There are the obligatory anthropomorphic animal companions (a castle guard’s horse and a lizard), ruffians and … an entire inn full of tough guys who dream of becoming … you know Monty Python’s I’m a Lumberjack and I’m okay song? It’s basically that.
Sometimes when there’s singing in a film I just wish they’d shut up and get on with the story instead. While it was true for Tangled as well, the songs weren’t too intrusive, and most of them were actually amusing.
The conclusion to the story is inevitable and predictable (this being Disney and all), but if it hadn’t been that way we’d probably have been disappointed. It’s a fun film for both kids and adults. I can’t speak for kids, but they’re bound to enjoy it, and as an adult I thought it was great fun. There were even laugh-out-loud moments.
I don’t know why they didn’t think to braid that long hair of hers earlier (not to mention how heavy it must be to carry all that around, but it is a fairytale) but never mind. It’s a delightful film, full of adventure, and topped off with a little bit of love. See it when/if you have a chance!
4 out of 5 pulleys.
(UPDATE August 2021: Flynn Rider is amazing and Tangled is better than Frozen. Fight me!)
On our way to Disneyland we ended up sharing a shuttle with a Disney employee who said they re-vamped the plot of Tangled quite a lot to ensure a strong female character, infofensive gender roles etc. I haven’t seen it – do you think they achieved that, and if not, HOW BAD DO YOU THINK IT WAS BEFORE?
Hmmm. I’m not sure, to be honest. Rapunzel is fairly strong (especially with that frying pan! :D) but it still takes a man to get her out of the tower. But if they were semi-successful with the story as it is now, perish the thought what it was like before! O.o