Tangled

This is the review of how I gave Tangled a 5/5..... Well. Not really. Thus we almost get off on the wrong foot for Tangled. It's rather hard to go into the third act without any real tension. Now I know what you're saying, "It's Disney! It always has a happy ending!" Well, true as that may be that doesn't mean there aren't scenes of tension, especially closer to/during the climax. What Flynn's opening narration does is say "Hey I almost died but it's ok I'm better now!" and sort of hinders the ending a bit. Of course for some people they might not agree, so Your Mileage May Vary.

Moving on from that the rest of the film is actually a pretty solid film, and the best CGI one Disney has done to date. With their newest film 'Frozen' on the way we will see how long that holds up though. The story is great and has the usual Disney twist, changing Flynn from a prince to a thief among other various bits. There isn't really a whole lot to say about the story aside from the fact that it does seem to have been made with boys in mind. We get a lot more action in this one compared to the original three Princess films, and the film went through a name change that made it sound less Princess-ey.

Ok. Enough with the rambles. Characters. We get great characters here, Rapunzel and Flynn are probably among the best, if not the best, leading heroes from the last 12 years. Though for those of us who are more technical, they are the best, and only, main heroes of this current decade. Mother Gothel is a great villain, and one I will return to in a later post in more full detail. For now though I will say that she is a huge highlight of this film and is also one of the better villains we've had in a while. Our sidekicks are fun, though I do question if maybe Disney didn't get it quite right with Maximus and Pascal. The two seem to be slight opposites, Pascal is much quieter and honestly a tad forgettable when he isn't directly on screen doing something. Maximus on the other hand is much more over the top and it's really hard to forget about him. Perhaps if they had given Pascal a bit more of that energy, and taken away a bit from Maximus things could have evened out just a bit.

So. Songs! This is the first, and so far only, CGI film where the characters actually sing the songs. Which, as an Old-School Disney Snob, I approve of. While a couple songs are sung more in the background, such as our opening number, you at least have the benefit of those songs actually being sung by the voice actors and not just any band filling in. Probably my favourite of the songs is, of course, the villain song both the main "Mother Knows Best" as well as the reprise of it later in the film.

All in all this film has certainly earned it's 4/5 rating.