Ten Reasons To Love Tangled
Jan. 4th, 2011 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityI had my doubts about this movie. And then I decided to just see what happened. And I'm really glad I did, because this might be my favourite Disney movie since Mulan, and definitely one of the best movies of the year. So in place of a review, I have ten reasons why Tangled is a great movie to love.
1. Rapunzel is kind of kick ass. In adorable ways. To start with, she's a freaking genius. She discovered all kinds of things about the world (like the part where the lanterns can't be stars) with THREE BOOKS to go off of (one's cooking, one's geometry and I think the third is history?). She's also really good at everything, because she has nothing to do but practice. Which is depressing, but I kind of love that she's developed a personality instead of just mooning away in her Tower, as others might have done.
Her character is also very well developed. When she leaves the Tower, she pretty much has a mental break down, and even though it's played for laughs (effectively, I might add), it's all really real. This girl has problems, and the movie doesn't skirt them.
As if general brilliance and believability wasn't enough, she's also quite independent. It's her decision to leave the Tower, not Flynn's or Gothel's as it is in the fairy tale. In fact, she uses Flynn. And when her first plan (ie. to impress Mother Gothel) doesn't work out, she HAS A PLAN B! And she tricks Mother Gothel so that she can put it in motion! She's also smart enough to figure out who she really is, and call out Mother Gothel on it. And she's smart enough to realize she's going to need another dream, even before she gets to fulfill the first one.
And that's without even mentioning the part about the frying pan! I'll admit, I was worried about this girl and her story, but it was very, very much her story, and she was a player in it, and I love her.
2. Flynn is voiced by Zachary Levi. Shallow, I know, but REALLY. Also, there are a couple of scenes that are pure Levi, and they are HILARIOUS.
3. Mother Gothel is an amazing villain. As far as I could detemine, she's not magical at all, she just knows how to exploit people, and MAN, does this woman exploit people! Her manipulation of Rapunzel deserves several gold stars for expert villainry. Not only is the woman smart enough to lie by telling the truth, she's also (relatively) nice to Rapunzel for her entire life. She's a clever villain, and Disney often so lacking that (hence the term "Disney Villain"). Psychological Scarring FTW!
4.
Seriously, you guys. And the scene was stunning too.
5. Actually, the "I See The Light" scene gets its own entry. BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME. Just pretty and heartwarming and for about five seconds I thought the eels were going to tip them over and then I realized I was thinking of another movie. ;)
6. Maximus and Pascal. I realize that non-talking animal friend is a Disney staple, but these two were AWESOME. Maximus has a character arc and everything, and Pascal is just HILARIOUS. Maximus actually has two of my favourite moments of the whole picture!
7. The Back-up Thug Chorus is actually pretty funny. And bizarre, of course, but genuinuely amusing.
8. There was a moment in the movie when I thought to myself "Okay, happy ending! WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" because a Disney movie sort of hoodwinked me into thinking that it might end with something OTHER than happily ever after.
9. They didn't get married right away. It's implied that she held him off for quite some time, while they both grew as people and developed separate identities. *draws hearts and flowers all over them*
10. I had exactly one reservation with the climax of the movie, and that was the part where Eugene cut off her hair. Now, I realize that he was being noble and trying to stop her from being noble, and buying her freedom with his death etc, but LORDEE I wanted her to cut off her own hair. I think the best part is that I'm actually okay with how it turned out, because it's still her story and she still does most of the saving and he needs something to redeem him beyond "not leaving" and preferring brunettes.
So there you have it. Disney made me like a movie in spite of myself. And yeah, there were underlying messages I'm not sure how I feel about, but generally speaking? 10/10.
(And I didn't even talk about the score and how it managed to be reminiscent without being a complete rip-off, or the animation which was just lovely, or the part where the plot actually sort of made sense!)
How is it, by the way, that the tagline for this movie is NOT "It takes two to tangle"? I swear, the fic is writing ITSELF.
(Though I will allow that "taking adventure to new lengths" is funny.)
1. Rapunzel is kind of kick ass. In adorable ways. To start with, she's a freaking genius. She discovered all kinds of things about the world (like the part where the lanterns can't be stars) with THREE BOOKS to go off of (one's cooking, one's geometry and I think the third is history?). She's also really good at everything, because she has nothing to do but practice. Which is depressing, but I kind of love that she's developed a personality instead of just mooning away in her Tower, as others might have done.
Her character is also very well developed. When she leaves the Tower, she pretty much has a mental break down, and even though it's played for laughs (effectively, I might add), it's all really real. This girl has problems, and the movie doesn't skirt them.
As if general brilliance and believability wasn't enough, she's also quite independent. It's her decision to leave the Tower, not Flynn's or Gothel's as it is in the fairy tale. In fact, she uses Flynn. And when her first plan (ie. to impress Mother Gothel) doesn't work out, she HAS A PLAN B! And she tricks Mother Gothel so that she can put it in motion! She's also smart enough to figure out who she really is, and call out Mother Gothel on it. And she's smart enough to realize she's going to need another dream, even before she gets to fulfill the first one.
And that's without even mentioning the part about the frying pan! I'll admit, I was worried about this girl and her story, but it was very, very much her story, and she was a player in it, and I love her.
2. Flynn is voiced by Zachary Levi. Shallow, I know, but REALLY. Also, there are a couple of scenes that are pure Levi, and they are HILARIOUS.
3. Mother Gothel is an amazing villain. As far as I could detemine, she's not magical at all, she just knows how to exploit people, and MAN, does this woman exploit people! Her manipulation of Rapunzel deserves several gold stars for expert villainry. Not only is the woman smart enough to lie by telling the truth, she's also (relatively) nice to Rapunzel for her entire life. She's a clever villain, and Disney often so lacking that (hence the term "Disney Villain"). Psychological Scarring FTW!
4.
Seriously, you guys. And the scene was stunning too.
5. Actually, the "I See The Light" scene gets its own entry. BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME. Just pretty and heartwarming and for about five seconds I thought the eels were going to tip them over and then I realized I was thinking of another movie. ;)
6. Maximus and Pascal. I realize that non-talking animal friend is a Disney staple, but these two were AWESOME. Maximus has a character arc and everything, and Pascal is just HILARIOUS. Maximus actually has two of my favourite moments of the whole picture!
7. The Back-up Thug Chorus is actually pretty funny. And bizarre, of course, but genuinuely amusing.
8. There was a moment in the movie when I thought to myself "Okay, happy ending! WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" because a Disney movie sort of hoodwinked me into thinking that it might end with something OTHER than happily ever after.
9. They didn't get married right away. It's implied that she held him off for quite some time, while they both grew as people and developed separate identities. *draws hearts and flowers all over them*
10. I had exactly one reservation with the climax of the movie, and that was the part where Eugene cut off her hair. Now, I realize that he was being noble and trying to stop her from being noble, and buying her freedom with his death etc, but LORDEE I wanted her to cut off her own hair. I think the best part is that I'm actually okay with how it turned out, because it's still her story and she still does most of the saving and he needs something to redeem him beyond "not leaving" and preferring brunettes.
So there you have it. Disney made me like a movie in spite of myself. And yeah, there were underlying messages I'm not sure how I feel about, but generally speaking? 10/10.
(And I didn't even talk about the score and how it managed to be reminiscent without being a complete rip-off, or the animation which was just lovely, or the part where the plot actually sort of made sense!)
How is it, by the way, that the tagline for this movie is NOT "It takes two to tangle"? I swear, the fic is writing ITSELF.
(Though I will allow that "taking adventure to new lengths" is funny.)
