Saturday, 28 May 2011

DVD Review: Tangled

Rating: 8/10 - Excellent


This is the best Disney film in years. It is not on the same level as Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast but it is still a very good family film.





Director: Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. Screenplay: Dan Fogelman. Based on Rapunzel by Brothers Grimm. Producer: Roy Conli. Executive Producers: John Lasseter and Glen Keane. Editor: Tim Mertens. Score: Alan Menken. Distributor: Walt Disney Animation Studios. Starring (Voice Cast): Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy and Ron Perlman. Age Restriction: PG. Running Time: 100 Minutes.

The film plays with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Rapunzel. Mandy Moore plays a more wild Rapunzel than the trapped and bored character many people may have become accustomed to as children. Rapunzel was abducted as a baby by the witch, Mother Gothel, voiced by Donna Murphy. She was trapped in a tower and closed away from the world.

She has spent her young life within the tower with Mother Gothel and a tiny, silent chameleon called Pascal But, Mother Gothel should have realised that eventually Rapunzel would become too inquisitive about the possibility of their being a world beyond the tower. full of curiosity about the outside world. One day while Mother Gothel is away, Rapunzel is surprised by a visitor who has found her. He is the bandit, Flynn Rider (voiced by Zachary Levi). He is on the run from his former robber friends, the Stabbington Brothers, one of whom is voiced by the brilliant Ron Perlman. It turns out that she has something he wants and he has something she wants. Adventure ensues.

The film may be CG-animated but it does not feel that far away from Disney's 2-D movies of the 1990s. As long as a movie looks interesting, it does not matter what dimensions it is delivered to viewers in.

The songs are not that good but they work suitably well. Murphy's solo piece is in line with Aladdin's Whole New World in terms of quality.

The main characters work well together most the time. Flynn and Rapunzel show some chemistry but they are not Aladdin and Jasmine. Nevertheless, it would be harsh to compare Tangled with one of the finest films of all time, Aladdin. I enjoyed the villains more. Perlman and Murphy are very entertaining. Disney has a good track record of villains with the likes of Shere Khan in the Jungle Book and Scar in The Lion King. Tangled's ending disappoints, however. It kills a fair bit of the creativity in the film.

Verdict: If you want to watch a Disney movie that is not over-the-top in terms of its action scenes and ideas and that is not held back by Miley Cyrus' gut-wrenching it's cool to be young but act grown-up numbers, Tangled is a good start.

Alistair Anderson

Tangled is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

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