I won’t say Tangled is just like the animated Disney flicks I grew up on because, well, I didn’t… grow up on Disney flicks.
I won’t say Tangled is just like the animated Disney flicks I grew up on because, well, I didn’t… grow up on Disney flicks. Okay, so to an extent I did – as the story goes, the first film I saw at the cinema was The Jungle Book, and I remember catching the odd toon on The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights – but if I ever got bored of baking shrinkies (remember those? Haven’t seen anything as good in a cereal box, since!) I was more inclined to pop on Grease or Xanadu (Yep, had an Olivia Newton John fixation; funnily enough my daughter does now) or some other tame but terrific live actioner over Dumbo or Peter Pan. Yep, Michael Beck roller-skating into graffiti-covered walls was always just more entertaining to me than wooden boys with elongated noses.
It’s funny, I remember listening to the Disney audio books of The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Snow White and so on but I don’t really recall sitting down and watching the films. I’m sure I did, The T-Birds and Rizzo just took precedence at the time. And Shrinkies.
What’s funny is that I think I’ve seen more of these animated films – largely the classics – since I’ve become a father. My daughter’s worked her way through them all – Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, Aladdin – and it’s given me a chance to catch up on what I missed out on as a youngster. And I did miss out – these films are great.
Shocking to discover that a cartoon about a kid that gets about on a flying rug embodies a better plot than an Olivia movie with ELO, I tell ya.
If I’d opened my review of Disney’s latest animated effort Tangled with "they don’t make them like they use to" or "If I was 5 I’d like this better" it’d be a lie. For one, how do I know that these films play better at 5? I was too busy watching Dinah Manoff puff up her breasts and Darth Vader turning Kenobi into robe soup to know. But it might also be a lie because, for all intents and purposes, Disney still makes them like they use to. Walt’s crew, unlike a lot of studios, still avows to that original mission statement – quality family entertainment that’s as enriching as it is striking. Tangled is as good, if not better, than ‘the classics’ – in fact, it’s so good it’ll ‘be’ a classic itself in no time.
A little Beauty and the Beast (Which I watched with my little one for the first time recently), a bit Shrek (in that there’s jokes in there for both small and big), and a whole lot charming, Byron Howard and Nathan Greno’s jazzed-up retelling of Rapunzel is as beautiful a package as its lead voice artist – that’d be Mandy Moore.
It’s not the plot of a film like this that wins you over – small-time thief Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) helps our hairy hero (Moore) escape from the tower that her faux mother (Donna Murphy) has had her trapped in all these years – but more so how real these animated characters look and act, the messages infused in the story, and the voice actors.
In this case, the voice actors are superb – Moore, perfect as Rapunzel, and Chuck’s Zachary Levi, a surprising but effective choice as comic relief Ryder.
The songs, penned by veteran music man Alan Menken, aren’t entirely memorable (well, the opening track is) but they are well performed. Again, big tick for recruiting both an actor and musician to lend vocals to lead.
Disney were originally going to call the film Rapunzel but fearing the title would scare off young boys, changed it to the funkier a Tangled. Thank god! Would hate for me fellow boxer short adorners to miss out on something so fun! We’re it possible to hop a ride on Peggy Sue’s prom dress back to the past (prior to when she got married), I’d definitely make sure I inform my younger self to go check out The Sword in the Stone or The Black Cauldron over that John Travolta does aerobics movie – I’m sure I’d have been a happier, more satisfied tyke.
OK, off to bake a shrinkie.
