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Tangled
Tangled is a retelling of the classic fairytale ‘Rapunzel’ by
the Brothers Grimm although with some major changes to the original
story. In this version Mother Gothel maintains her youth by singing to a
flower born from a drop of sunlight. This flower is taken by the King
and his men and used to restore health to the pregnant Queen who is near
death, saving both her and her unborn child, Rapunzel. Mother Gothel
then kidnaps the child Rapunzel from her loving parents, and raises her
as her own, upon realising that the child’s hair contains the magic
properties once contained in the flower. It is here that Rapunzel stays
until the thief Flynn Rider climbs the tower to hide from the palace
guard. From here Rapunzel sets out to watch the lanterns that are
released every year on her birthday, lanterns that are set off for the
lost princess.
This
description sounds dry and stereotypical but this DVD is light,
refreshing and on the whole, an original reimagining of the classic
story. The opening line to the film is “This is the story of how I
died.” I was quite shocked to hear that at the start of a sanitised
Disney film and even more shocked when it actually delivered on that
promise, I even became a little upset towards the end.
Tangled is a well written film, the jokes are snappy and fast and I
found myself laughing out loud throughout the majority of the film. The
jokes aren’t just for children, though they don’t match Shrek for jokes
that cross the generation gap. Adults will find it pleasurable and
amusing to sit with their children and watch this DVD and of course,
being a film made for children, they will love it.
There
are a few instances where the film does conform to our expectations, the
last 5 minutes for instance, were overly sentimental and gives the film
a typical “happy ending”. This is slightly disappointing, as Toy
Story 3 showed us, children’s movies don’t need to be so
light-hearted, they can contain ‘adult’ themes.
Otherwise the only complaint I have about this film is the somewhat
lacklustre songs that the film is populated by. For instance ‘When Will
My Life Begin’ won’t ever make it onto a best-of list for Disney songs.
‘I See The Lights’ is the main song for this film, one that nominated
for an Academy Award, and yet even this is below par for Disney films. I
mean it just doesn’t compare to any of the songs from The Lion King,
Aladdin or even Beauty and the Beast.
There are only 3 special features on this DVD, the first
being two different alternate beginnings for the film, which are both
quite interesting to watch as you can see how the opening developed and
the basic drawings. The second is a compilation of the 50 animated
feature films that have been produced by Disney. This is nice for an
adult as they can pick all the films they have seen as children, or even
with their children. It is the third special feature, however, that I
find the most perplexing. It is the video clip for the main theme song
for the film, sung in Czech. Now I love a good foreign video clips but
this didn’t warrant being added as a special feature. I can’t imagine
that any child will want to watch it and unless you’re a huge fan of the
song I doubt anyone else will want to listen to it sung in Czech. |
