Disney’s Tangled holds its own [Tangled]
For the Walt Disney Pictures’ 50th animated feature film, the company has departed from tradition in a number of ways.
Tangled is a retelling of the Rapunzel story (which, many people are only vaguely familiar with). To make the film appeal to more contemporary audiences, everything was tossed out except Rapunzel, her hair, and the tower.
In this Rapunzel story, as much time and attention are given to the male lead as our princess. The story begins with a thief named Flynn Rider (voiced by Zachary Levi from television’s Chuck) narrating the back story of a the missing princess who was stolen from her crib by an old woman who wanted the girl’s hair for its magical properties.
The girl is Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), who grows up in a secluded tower where her “mother” (Donna Murphy) tells her she must remain. Mother Gothel fills Rapunzel with stories of the evils of the outside, and forbids her from talking about leaving.
When Flynn stumbles across the tower while running from palace guards, he ends up reluctantly helping the girl escape from her imprisonment.
As far as story goes, Tangled has a lot to offer. It’s a fun romp and manages to tug on the old heart strings as well. Mother Gothel is far from the most terrifying villain Disney has dreamt up, but she’s realistic and twisted. And, of course, the story offers some anthropomorphized animals to add to the fun.
Flynn (Zachary Levi) and Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) from Disney's 50th animated feature film, Tangled.
The problem is that Tangled doesn’t feel like a Disney film.
Like Chicken Little, Bolt, and Meet the Robinsons, Tangled is done with computer generated (CG) animation. Yes, it’s beautiful, but it has the same look and feel of every other CG animated film on the market today. It could be another Shrek movie or How to Train Your Dragon. There is nothing here that says to me “This is Disney.” It is a far cry from the beautifully hand-drawn work of last year’s The Princess and the Frog.
Like the other Disney princess films, Tangled is also a musical. But here, as with the CG animation, Disney seems to have lost its art. The five songs by veteran composer Alan Menken lack any memorable quality. Again, blame the direction from Disney. Director Byron Howard wanted Menken to depart from the heavy Broadway musical-type scoring. As a result, the music doesn’t sound like the classic Disney films.
As recently reported in the Los Angeles Times, Tangled will be the company’s last animated film based on fairy tale — a tradition that began with its first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (See “Disney Animation is closing the book on fairy tales.”)
Why would the House of Mouse shoot itself in the proverbial foot and kill off its princess franchise? For part of the answer, check out The Princess and the Frog. Last year’s film returned to the classic hand-drawn style of animation. It, too, retold a classic fairy tale, this one updated to 1920s New Orleans. The film included two Oscar-nominated songs by Randy Newman (and won for “Almost There”). And the film was nominated for Best Animated Film. Yet The Princess and the Frog did not resonate with audiences.
The film, which cost $105 million to make was not considered a commercial success. As of March 2010, The Princess and the Frog had grossed only $104 million domestically. Disney learned that, though the film appealed to little girls, films with the word “princess” in the title just don’t attract little boys. In Hollywood, where accounting rules rather than artistic merit, this meant that Disney had to change up its tried and true formula.
Good-bye Rapunzel. Hello, Tangled.
With as much screen time given to our adventurous anti-hero Flynn as the princess and her story, Tangled is the future of Disney storytelling. It appears that the studio has learned nothing from the era of Michael Eisner. He, too, thought he could forge a new direction for the company. He thought he knew better than Walt Disney. He failed to listen to the fans and focused too much on the bottom line.
As diversified as the Walt Disney Corporation is, one would hope they could see the value in letting artistic merit come before money. But maybe artistic integrity, like princesses and hand-drawn animation, is something that belongs to another era.
Rated
for mild violence.100 minutes
FilmGuru’s Rating: Three out of five stars