tangled

i finally got ‘tangled’. hehe! i always had a copy of this movie but i haven’t seen it. until this weekend. while predictable, tangled had a very good storyline. the right mix of slapstick and comedy made it an entertaining treat.

imdb summed it as: after receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby princess rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by mother gothel. mother gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock rapunzel in her hidden tower. rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. the beautiful rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. one day, the bandit flynn ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by rapunzel. rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.

the animation was great. true to disney tradition, tangled had that pastel colors that endeared disney animated feature films through the years. there were sufficient exciting action sequences and adventure that made the entire movie an enjoyable one. of course there was the obligatory fairy tale love angle, which had just enough cheesiness. evidently, the men and women behind the film wanted to capture not just the traditional watchers of this ‘princess’ movies, the women, but also the men. in fact, the movie was entitled tangled, not rapunzel, for that main purpose – get more boys in the theaters. they were successful in that i guess since this movie did very well in the tills. this movie did not produce one single song that can be compared to classics such as beauty and the beast but the selection was good and very much apt to the storyline. i particularly enjoyed donna murphy’s (who voiced mother gothel) mother knows best.

according to some writers, this rapunzel version is the closest to the original german fairy tale. still, tangled had a modern touch in its characterization. the whole cast was well-written, even the sidekicks pascal, the chameleon and maximus, the castle horse. the movie was a good one because it had a good villain, villainess at that. murphy’s mother gothel was not the traditional evil queen. rather, her wickedness was masked by being a caring mother, who just wanted to protect her only daughter from the evils of the outside world. mandy moore’s rapunzel and zachary levi’s flynn ryder were very likable. witty lines and exchanges, such as below, allowed for a good 90-minute entertainment. 

 

mother gothel: you want me to be the bad guy? fine. now i'm the bad guy...

rapunzel: so mother, earlier i was saying tomorrow is a really big day, and you didn't really respond, so i'm just gonna tell you: it's my birthday! tada!

mother gothel: no no no, can't be. i distinctly remember, your birthday was last year.

rapunzel: that's the funny thing about birthdays, they're kind of an annual thing.

mother gothel: rapunzel, please, stop with the mumbling. you know how I feel about the mumbling. blah blah blah blah blah, it's very annoying! i'm just teasing, you're adorable. i love you so much, darling.