Once upon a time there was a man named Walt who liked to draw pictures. No mere sketches, these doodles did wonders for Walt and friends, the public’s appetite for daubed dwarves belting out ballads and ditties and moral lessons for all to learn seemed endless. But, dear children, life is cyclical, and Walt’s eyes would have to open to a whole new world, one of pixels and tweening and layer definition. The moppets, once so mad for Mickey, struck dumb at the sight of Dumbo, got older. Their own dumplings only wanted digital. The ballads were boring. The wisecracking toys are funny! Those insects are a riot, that forgetful fish so ironic, those superheroes so knowing, that robot’s so cute! That dog TALKS!!! What was Walt to do?
Well… buy them out, of course. And, when going solo, if you can’t beat them, then copy them. But… with ballads thrown in. Tangled is Disney’s 50th animated feature, a reworking of the Grimm fairytale Rapunzel, the princess with extensions to rival the gaudiest of gypsy weddings. She’s been locked into a tower, and the arrival of the caddish cat burglar Flynn Rider leads her on a journey to find herself amid numerous adventures.
Disney’s animation branch is aiming to strike critical gold with Tangled, and in many ways the Mouse House has managed to deftly pay tribute to its signature style while competing with its contemporaries. The pencils may have gone, but replacing the graphite come top-notch graphics with a 3D rendering leaving no split-ended detail behind.
Mandy Moore, a rather underrated actress who’s offerings have included the forgotten, but very salvageable, satire Saved, voices the lead, and lends a naïve and spirited pluckiness to Rapunzel, while having the pipes to sing Alan Menken’s catchy score. Zachary Levi, best known as the hapless spy in Chuck, is equally appealing as Rider, cocky and fun, but rounded out. He too can hold a tune, but we’ll see how his chords cope when he performs the film’s Oscar nominated number at the ceremony later this month, presumably with more Moore in the duet.
At times this sinks into run-of-the-mill story telling; there should be no surprises that Rapunzel and Rider’s adventure turns out to be a protracted love story, and it’s clear from the offing that this blonde ain’t gonna wash that man right out of her hair. But there’s plenty of fun to be had, with a special mention for the animal sidekicks who steal their scenes with energetic giggles, and some thrilling action scenes to enthrall the whole audience.
But the Pro-V in this shampoo is Donna Murphy’s villainess Mother Gothel, perhaps one of the most insidiously evil baddies to ever grace the screen. Leave it to Disney to be the first studio to present an audience of children with a show-tune crooning Fritzl. Gothel kidnaps the infant princess for the regenerative qualities of her magic hair, only to raise Rapunzel as her own daughter, forever terrorising and brainwashing her of the dangers outside the tower walls. There is a knowing sadness in the scenes they share, and you cannot help but feel a palpable sense of the sinister in the secrets and lies the desperate Gothel sews together to bind Rapunzel to her.
A fun and sleek fairytale, and a worthy addition to the Disney canon.
4 Likes.
No comments:
Post a Comment