cjd-16
Joined Feb 2006
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cjd-16's rating
Despite the modern-sounding title, "Tangled" is perhaps the most classical-styled Disney film since the days of Disney himself.
What really makes this movie feel like a classic is that it digs back, way back, all the way back to Disney's roots, back in the days where the most common main character that you saw in every Disney movie was along the lines of "A completely innocent main character discovers the world." I'm talking Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. And now we can add Rapunzel to this list, because this is what Tangled is really about: Rapunzel finally stepping out of her tower after 18 years of experiencing absolutely nothing but her little room at the top, and seeing the whole world in wide-eyed wonderment. To some degree, this makes Tangled feel even more "Disney" than even the stellar films of the 90's Disney Renaissance. We fall in love with Rapunzel right from the beginning because we want her, such a kind and loving character, to live her dreams and find beauty in this new world she is experiencing. This aspect of the film is absolutely brilliant. Rapunzel is almost like Snow White in her kindness, and yet she also actually has a real personality! I can't say enough about Rapunzel's character. She is easily near the top of all Disney princesses, mixing the love and kindness of Snow White with the realism and believability of Ariel and Belle.
From a visual standpoint, this is definitely a throwback to the classics as well. The colors are vibrant and lively, and the buildings warm, rounded, cozy, and inviting, as if they themselves have been custom-chosen to convey the sense of wonderment that Rapunzel feels, like she is a child visiting Fantasyland at Disney World for the first time. This adds greatly to the tone of the film, and combines to make the whole world of this movie feel lush, romantic, and inviting. Because of this, the whole thing is a joy to watch even in its imperfect moments. There are some especially amazing scenes, most notably the floating-lanterns scene where the whole kingdom slowly lights up little by little until the whole thing looks like it is glowing from the inside. (It will no doubt be remembered as the "iconic" scene from this movie, like the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast.) Pretty much, nothing about this movie is "negative." It has very strong main characters with some really well-done complex relationships amongst themselves, great sidekicks, some good-natured humor, a great classical song-filled musical score that has had me humming it for the last two days, and the plot is staged without a single thing feeling boring or clichéd. And in that manner, I believe that this is the first Disney film in nearly 15 years that can truly be called a Disney classic.
On the film-geek side of it, there is some amazing technical wizardry going on here. This is the best CGI hair ever put on film thus far. For the first time, we have computer-generated hair that can truly be called "beautiful." It shines, it stretches, and has weight that just looks right. Plus just getting the world itself to look warm and inviting is a huge accomplishment, as CGI is generally much more inclined toward producing hard mechanical edges. Great stuff! IMO, this is the biggest step forward in animation since "Tarzan" introduced deep-canvas technology.
One other thing that makes this movie just like the best Disney classics is that it works on all levels. For the adults like us, there is some great thematic subtlety going on beneath the surface, touching on classic coming-of-age themes, mother-daughter relationships, and in Flynn's case, how often the over-confident ruffian is really just hiding personal shortcomings and really doesn't know what he wants. Plus the characters really feel like real people, and never just archetypes or caricatures. And for the kids, there is some really good-natured humor that doesn't talk down to them, a great romance story, and the film was near-perfectly-paced, with not a moment of the running-time wasted, and yet still taking time to breathe to let us see some of the acting "ticks" that really let us get into the heads of the characters.
The only reason I am giving this a 9 is because of some minor contrivance nitpicks that keep this film just below my favorite Disney movies. The only one that I feel is really worth mentioning is the excessive use of cartoon physics. Flynn and Maximus fall off a 100-ft cliff and emerge completely unscathed. Flynn is catapulted from a wheelbarrow over 50 feet through the air and lands perfectly on a horse. And that horse then jumps over 30 feet off of a rooftop and keeps running unphased. That bugged me, and made it feel slightly like this film was taking place in a cartoon universe rather than the real world like most Disney movies, taking away slightly from its credibility. Also, there was something that kept it from feeling as "complete" and "epic" as almost every Disney movie feels, but I can't quite put my finger on why. But ultimately, these things were all minor in the grand scope of things. This was really a character-driven movie rather than external-plot-driven, and the characters are absolutely amazing.
So in one department, I felt that this was as much a classic Disney movie as any ever made, and near-perfect. Due to some slight contrivances, I feel like the physical plot was a step below Disney's best, but in general I feel like Tangled is the first Disney movie in over 15 years that can truly be called a masterpiece. I actively loved almost every second of it, and immediately wanted to go back and see it again. In a world populated by movies that are either too silly or too serious, "Tangled" is a bright ray of sunshine that is a joy to watch at every second.
What really makes this movie feel like a classic is that it digs back, way back, all the way back to Disney's roots, back in the days where the most common main character that you saw in every Disney movie was along the lines of "A completely innocent main character discovers the world." I'm talking Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. And now we can add Rapunzel to this list, because this is what Tangled is really about: Rapunzel finally stepping out of her tower after 18 years of experiencing absolutely nothing but her little room at the top, and seeing the whole world in wide-eyed wonderment. To some degree, this makes Tangled feel even more "Disney" than even the stellar films of the 90's Disney Renaissance. We fall in love with Rapunzel right from the beginning because we want her, such a kind and loving character, to live her dreams and find beauty in this new world she is experiencing. This aspect of the film is absolutely brilliant. Rapunzel is almost like Snow White in her kindness, and yet she also actually has a real personality! I can't say enough about Rapunzel's character. She is easily near the top of all Disney princesses, mixing the love and kindness of Snow White with the realism and believability of Ariel and Belle.
From a visual standpoint, this is definitely a throwback to the classics as well. The colors are vibrant and lively, and the buildings warm, rounded, cozy, and inviting, as if they themselves have been custom-chosen to convey the sense of wonderment that Rapunzel feels, like she is a child visiting Fantasyland at Disney World for the first time. This adds greatly to the tone of the film, and combines to make the whole world of this movie feel lush, romantic, and inviting. Because of this, the whole thing is a joy to watch even in its imperfect moments. There are some especially amazing scenes, most notably the floating-lanterns scene where the whole kingdom slowly lights up little by little until the whole thing looks like it is glowing from the inside. (It will no doubt be remembered as the "iconic" scene from this movie, like the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast.) Pretty much, nothing about this movie is "negative." It has very strong main characters with some really well-done complex relationships amongst themselves, great sidekicks, some good-natured humor, a great classical song-filled musical score that has had me humming it for the last two days, and the plot is staged without a single thing feeling boring or clichéd. And in that manner, I believe that this is the first Disney film in nearly 15 years that can truly be called a Disney classic.
On the film-geek side of it, there is some amazing technical wizardry going on here. This is the best CGI hair ever put on film thus far. For the first time, we have computer-generated hair that can truly be called "beautiful." It shines, it stretches, and has weight that just looks right. Plus just getting the world itself to look warm and inviting is a huge accomplishment, as CGI is generally much more inclined toward producing hard mechanical edges. Great stuff! IMO, this is the biggest step forward in animation since "Tarzan" introduced deep-canvas technology.
One other thing that makes this movie just like the best Disney classics is that it works on all levels. For the adults like us, there is some great thematic subtlety going on beneath the surface, touching on classic coming-of-age themes, mother-daughter relationships, and in Flynn's case, how often the over-confident ruffian is really just hiding personal shortcomings and really doesn't know what he wants. Plus the characters really feel like real people, and never just archetypes or caricatures. And for the kids, there is some really good-natured humor that doesn't talk down to them, a great romance story, and the film was near-perfectly-paced, with not a moment of the running-time wasted, and yet still taking time to breathe to let us see some of the acting "ticks" that really let us get into the heads of the characters.
The only reason I am giving this a 9 is because of some minor contrivance nitpicks that keep this film just below my favorite Disney movies. The only one that I feel is really worth mentioning is the excessive use of cartoon physics. Flynn and Maximus fall off a 100-ft cliff and emerge completely unscathed. Flynn is catapulted from a wheelbarrow over 50 feet through the air and lands perfectly on a horse. And that horse then jumps over 30 feet off of a rooftop and keeps running unphased. That bugged me, and made it feel slightly like this film was taking place in a cartoon universe rather than the real world like most Disney movies, taking away slightly from its credibility. Also, there was something that kept it from feeling as "complete" and "epic" as almost every Disney movie feels, but I can't quite put my finger on why. But ultimately, these things were all minor in the grand scope of things. This was really a character-driven movie rather than external-plot-driven, and the characters are absolutely amazing.
So in one department, I felt that this was as much a classic Disney movie as any ever made, and near-perfect. Due to some slight contrivances, I feel like the physical plot was a step below Disney's best, but in general I feel like Tangled is the first Disney movie in over 15 years that can truly be called a masterpiece. I actively loved almost every second of it, and immediately wanted to go back and see it again. In a world populated by movies that are either too silly or too serious, "Tangled" is a bright ray of sunshine that is a joy to watch at every second.
While I think that it's really great that Disney decided to resurrect Walt's vision for "Fantasia," I think they could have done a much better job recapturing the magic.
The basic Fantasia concept, setting highly sophisticated animation to classical music in an attempt to make the music come alive, is still obviously intact, but what has been lost to some degree in "Fantasia 2000" is the mid-blowing high-art spectacle of the original Fantasia.
What I mean by this is that the original Fantasia was all about visual art. There were so many scenes that were stunningly beautiful, and were in the film for the sole purpose of being beautiful. You can see this all over, most noticeably in the Nutcracker, the Rite of Spring, and A Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria. They were beautiful in their simplicity, and neither animation nor music overpowered the viewer. But this simple beauty has dropped significantly with Fantasia 2000. Every small change in the music has been amped up to the hundredth degree in order to make the animation sync up with the music. On other words, they tried way too hard to make everything 'fit,' at the cost of the simple beauty of the animation / music combo.
That's not to say that this movie still isn't great fun, and has some amazing showcases of animation that will leave you open-mouthed at the rich and colorful visual spectacle. Because it does more often than not, and is still a must-see. But it's just that it pales in comparison to what Walt did on the original Fantasia, because it tried a bit too hard. If they had stuck with finding the essence of the music, then animating the simple beauty to be found in it, I have no doubt that this could have been an absolute masterpiece. But as is, it's just a bit too loud and a bit too cartoon-y rather than a mind-blowing artistic spectacle.
I only wish that this movie could have been made after the Pixar merge, because John Lasseter is a man who truly understands animation as an art, and probably could have made a much more sophisticated follow-up to "Fantasia" than Michael Eisner did.
Anyway, here's what I thought about each segment, since the quality is highly varied.
Beethoven's 5th Symphony - 5/10. This is, quite frankly, my least favorite segment in the whole film. The character is overdone, and the oversimplified animation is completely dwarfed by the music. The visuals are completely forgettable compared to the timeless music.
Pines of Rome - 9/10. There are moments where this piece is a bit too loud and comical, but this is also one of the most beautiful segments in the film. It takes ample time to breathe, and let you take the visual spectacle in. I especially love the sequence where the small whale rises up into the light at the top of the ice block. For just a second there, it rivals Miyazakian beauty.
Rhapsody in Blue - 8/10. I love the design of the animation in this segment, because its shapes and flow mesh with the music almost perfectly, creating a great jazz-era blues-iness for the music to go with. There are some great artistic moments that stuck in my head, but as a whole there's just a bit too much action happening in this segment to fully appreciate the unique and distinctive animation. Quite good, though.
Piano Concerto #2 (Steadfast Tin Soldier) - 6/10. Plain and simple, they were trying way too hard to make this segment fit the music perfectly; at the expense of artistic opportunity and character. This segment was completely forgettable.
Carnival of the Animals - 7/10. While this segment was very silly, so was the music. So the wild action and bright color pallet of the yo-yo-ing flamingos came together to form a quite amusing piece. While not a favorite of mine, it was great fun.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - 10/10. What can I say? This was, and still is, possibly the greatest six minutes in Disney history. A perfect blend of character, visual art, and subtext.
Pomp and Circumstance - 6/10. What Disney tried to do with Donald here was obviously an attempt to recreate what happened with Mickey in the original "Fantasia". And they failed. The arrangement of the music was fantastic, but all of the animation was too loud, and again completely forgettable. There was basically no simple visual artistry, and no subtext to ponder.
The Firebird Suite - 10/10. Finally, after 65 minutes of animation and music, there is a segment that comes close to recapturing the magic of the original "Fantasia." That's not saying that this is prefect; far from it. There still aren't enough "breathing" moments, where you can just pause and enjoy the beautiful animation, for my tastes. But this is by far the most visually stunning and insightful of the new segments. It's no "Princess Mononoke," but for the new Disney, it's close enough.
The basic Fantasia concept, setting highly sophisticated animation to classical music in an attempt to make the music come alive, is still obviously intact, but what has been lost to some degree in "Fantasia 2000" is the mid-blowing high-art spectacle of the original Fantasia.
What I mean by this is that the original Fantasia was all about visual art. There were so many scenes that were stunningly beautiful, and were in the film for the sole purpose of being beautiful. You can see this all over, most noticeably in the Nutcracker, the Rite of Spring, and A Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria. They were beautiful in their simplicity, and neither animation nor music overpowered the viewer. But this simple beauty has dropped significantly with Fantasia 2000. Every small change in the music has been amped up to the hundredth degree in order to make the animation sync up with the music. On other words, they tried way too hard to make everything 'fit,' at the cost of the simple beauty of the animation / music combo.
That's not to say that this movie still isn't great fun, and has some amazing showcases of animation that will leave you open-mouthed at the rich and colorful visual spectacle. Because it does more often than not, and is still a must-see. But it's just that it pales in comparison to what Walt did on the original Fantasia, because it tried a bit too hard. If they had stuck with finding the essence of the music, then animating the simple beauty to be found in it, I have no doubt that this could have been an absolute masterpiece. But as is, it's just a bit too loud and a bit too cartoon-y rather than a mind-blowing artistic spectacle.
I only wish that this movie could have been made after the Pixar merge, because John Lasseter is a man who truly understands animation as an art, and probably could have made a much more sophisticated follow-up to "Fantasia" than Michael Eisner did.
Anyway, here's what I thought about each segment, since the quality is highly varied.
Beethoven's 5th Symphony - 5/10. This is, quite frankly, my least favorite segment in the whole film. The character is overdone, and the oversimplified animation is completely dwarfed by the music. The visuals are completely forgettable compared to the timeless music.
Pines of Rome - 9/10. There are moments where this piece is a bit too loud and comical, but this is also one of the most beautiful segments in the film. It takes ample time to breathe, and let you take the visual spectacle in. I especially love the sequence where the small whale rises up into the light at the top of the ice block. For just a second there, it rivals Miyazakian beauty.
Rhapsody in Blue - 8/10. I love the design of the animation in this segment, because its shapes and flow mesh with the music almost perfectly, creating a great jazz-era blues-iness for the music to go with. There are some great artistic moments that stuck in my head, but as a whole there's just a bit too much action happening in this segment to fully appreciate the unique and distinctive animation. Quite good, though.
Piano Concerto #2 (Steadfast Tin Soldier) - 6/10. Plain and simple, they were trying way too hard to make this segment fit the music perfectly; at the expense of artistic opportunity and character. This segment was completely forgettable.
Carnival of the Animals - 7/10. While this segment was very silly, so was the music. So the wild action and bright color pallet of the yo-yo-ing flamingos came together to form a quite amusing piece. While not a favorite of mine, it was great fun.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - 10/10. What can I say? This was, and still is, possibly the greatest six minutes in Disney history. A perfect blend of character, visual art, and subtext.
Pomp and Circumstance - 6/10. What Disney tried to do with Donald here was obviously an attempt to recreate what happened with Mickey in the original "Fantasia". And they failed. The arrangement of the music was fantastic, but all of the animation was too loud, and again completely forgettable. There was basically no simple visual artistry, and no subtext to ponder.
The Firebird Suite - 10/10. Finally, after 65 minutes of animation and music, there is a segment that comes close to recapturing the magic of the original "Fantasia." That's not saying that this is prefect; far from it. There still aren't enough "breathing" moments, where you can just pause and enjoy the beautiful animation, for my tastes. But this is by far the most visually stunning and insightful of the new segments. It's no "Princess Mononoke," but for the new Disney, it's close enough.