Review: Tangled

Tangled is Disney's 50th animated feature film. What a number indeed, and certainly Tangled was produced in commemoration for such a landmark. It shines throughout this musical fairy tale, retelling the story of Rapunzel. Tangled is presented as a pure, gleeful amalgamation of all Disney has offered through its other, 49 films. Its central character--Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore)--is Ariel-meets-Belle-meets-Jasmine. Her love interest--thief Flynn Rider (voiced by Zachary Levi)--is Prince Charming with the wit and humanity of Hercules. A horse named Maximus is the horse-from-Mulan's white cousin. The film's songs are practically the same as those of past Disney ventures. But that is the film's strength, its nuance, and its charm. It is its sole purpose in a way. 

The film is an adaption--and healthy expansion--of the classic Brothers Grimm tale of Rapunzel, the girl locked away in a tower for so many years her hair reaches exponential length. Tangled takes a tad different approach to that backstory. In this film, a single drop of pure sunshine grants a flower magical connotations, now capable of healing the ill. An elderly woman named Cher Mother Gothel (voiced by Donna Murphy) finds this flower and uses it to keep her young. But the queen of a nearby kingdom grows ill while pregnant with Rapunzel, and so her guards, looking for a cure, discover the flower and use it to heal the queen. When the queen gives birth to her child, her hair is blessed with the magic of the flower. Gothel sneaks into the tower, and planning on using her hair's powers to keep her young, kidnaps the infant.

"I stole a BABY! That's about as EVIL as it GETS!"

And so Rapunzel is kept in Gothel's tower for the rest of her life, under the impression that Gothel is her actual mother and that the outside world is far too dangerous for her to handle. (I'm just a kiiiiid / And life is a nightmare....) But all this changes the day before her 18th birthday, when charming thief Flynn Rider sneaks into the tower for sanctuary against guards chasing him for his latest heist. She convinces him to take her to the source of the flying lanterns that mysteriously fly into the sky every night on her birthday (such an event occurs to signal the princess to return, though since Rapunzel is unaware she's even a princess, it is fruitless) and the adventure begins.

Tangled is, as mentioned, a compilation of past themes explored by Disney. But the film uses such elements with wit and charm that it becomes a nuanced drive to it, and allows the film to make it their own. The story is in definition alone "rehashed", but it is a good story nonetheless, and an incredibly entertaining one at that. I laughed grossly more than I expected, astonished at this film's genuine wit and humor; the characters are well developed and realistic, despite their roots in Disney archetypes. I did not find the villain all too interesting, but luckily the film did not focus too much on her. The supporting characters are colorful and funny, particularly the royal horse character of Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is driven, entertaining, and luckily doesn't talk.

Also the Winklevi make an appearance.

The songs, as previously stated, are surprisingly similar to other Disney songs. Its' biggest (and currently Oscar-nominated) song "I See the Light" is essentially Aladdin's "Whole New World" meets Hercules's "Go The Distance". But even then, the songs are catchy and gleefully rendered by the one and only Alan Menken. This is the man who did The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and so many others. He is the master at Disney music, and I simply couldn't think of someone better they could have attached to do the songs for a landmark installment in Disney's pantheon of animation. However, I greatly preferred the soundtrack to last year's The Princess and the Frog, who I believe had the best original songs for a movie since 1997's Hercules. Still, these tracks are good too; I especially liked "I've Got a Dream", the film's Crowd Song. 

The animation in this movie is stunning. This is a CGI movie, which I feel is not particularly necessary for an ode to Disney's classic princess movies, and the fluid movement of each character is composed beautifully and intricately. I'd like to give special praise to the animation for Rapunzel's hair, which is unbelievably fluid. The chase and fight scenes are well animated, being both fun and exhilarating. Each shot and background was intended to be like a 3-D oil painting; this venture was incredibly successful, and each scene is simply beautiful, particularly the "money shot" of Rapunzel and Flynn in a rowboat surrounded by floating lanterns. It's also worth noting that this is the second most expensive movie of all time, behind POTC: At World's End. I'm unsure how such a number was racked up, but considering the delivery of the animation, $260 million dollars was not wasted. 

MONEH SHAWT~

But Tangled represents something other than just the commemoration of Disney's classic princess romps, too. Since the establishment of DreamWorks Animation (HEY REMEMBER WHEN I TALKED ABOUT THEM THAT ONE TIME THAT WAS FUN HUH), DWA has been hanging around in Disney's shadow, but it has constantly attempted to compete with Disney fair, in-house or Pixar. It's why Antz came out at the same time A Bugs' Life did, and The Road to El Dorado came out when The Emperor's New Groove did. Needless to say, DWA has never met the success of Pixar. But something started to happen as the 2000s reared an end: DWA started being more popular than Disney's animated films, commercially and critically. And then shit for reals got real when in 2010 DWA released How to Train Your Dragon. It was after all their years of fighting the Mouse House they finally said "Screw it!" and made a damn Disney movie. And it was amazing. So what was Disney's retort when they made Tangled? Make it as if it was DWA ripping off Disney. Thus the eyebrow thing.

This eyebrow thing more specifically.

For those not in the know-how on this animation-competition-marketing-bullshit, the Eyebrow Raise is DreamWorks Animation's signature pose for their marketed posters. Nearly ever single one of their features has a complimentary poster featuring (sometimes consisting entirely of, like with Megamind) one of the film's characters raising one eyebrow and dipping the other, to signify that the film was going to be edgier and more cynical than something you'd get from Disney. And this is how DWA has handled themselves in their fight to beat Disney: being an edgy Disney. 

But with Tangled, Disney did the same, using the cynical nature of the Eyebrow Raise on the film's posters. And fittingly, Tangled is surprisingly cynical and witty. It really does play out a lot of the time like if DWA ripped off Disney, but what makes it work on its own is that the sum of its parts is a wholly entertaining experience.

Overall: A-

 

Picking On...DreamWorks Animation

"They're just not biting today, y'know, Huck?"

Hello, (hopefully) faithful readers, and welcome to a segment-type deal on "...And You Smell Like One Too" entitled "Picking On". In blogs labeled such, I will personally analyze to the best of my ability a specific subject or topic. Today's "Picking On" entry is about--in honor of the recent release of Megamind--DreamWorks Animation. Having been around for about ten years now, this specific animation studio has become known for many things, and in this blog entry, I'll Pick On as much of those things as I feel like, dammit!

So from my understanding, DreamWorks Animation was officially founded back in 2000 as a business division from the already-existing DreamWorks SKG. Before that, though, DW had created two animated films which I suppose can technically be called DK Animation's first projects: 1998's Antz, a hilarious CGI comedy that actually holds an effing 98% Tomatometer rating, and 1998's The Prince of Egypt, a beautifully traditionally-animated epic that also blended some CGI. 

Once officially launched, DWA produced The Road to El Dorado and Chicken Run; the first was flat but tolerable, while the latter was a work of British genius that, as an animation buff, I hold the utmost professional respect to. The label finally made their mark with 2001's Shrek, which, while racking up huge bucks, rave reviews, and even an Oscar, also established the stepping stones for not only the rest of DWA's films, but also the majority of CGI cartoons that would come in the next decade.

So, uh, good job...Yeah...

So how did one little animated film about farting ogres and talking donkeys produce such a myriad of imitators to the point that it could be effectively called "revolutionary"? It's basically the same principal as the abundance of Home Alone clones back in the '90s: movie studios saw that what one movie (in this case, Shrek) was doing made crap-loads of money, they decided that doing what that movie did would make them crap-loads of money, and everyone would be happy. Meanwhile, DWA themselves saw the successful formula, and it became a focal point of its productions.

So, what the hell is The Formula? Simply compiled:

• Celebrity voice actors in the majority of roles
• Fart/poop jokes, and general scatological humor
• Pop-culture references
• Risque barbs
• General satire

"Did you get all that?"

To put it in simpler terms, animated films everywhere began establishing themselves as children's comedies that were loaded with stuff "for teh growed-ups". Sure animation had done this before, but when Shrek got released, the technique spread like wild fire. The results of this from other studios varied--for example, 2005's Robots, which was good, compared to 2009's Planet 51, which, uh, should speak for itself--and the same could be said about DWA's next efforts too.

Shrek 2 was perhaps even better than its predecessor, and in terms of box-office intake, it was massively more successful, grossing over 900 million dollars worldwide. The Formula wasn't being abused enough to be tired, the gags were fresh, and the characters were likable and well-written. Most people would say their first CGI stinkers were Madagascar and Shark Tale, but to be completely honest, I absolutely loved Madagascar, probably even more than any Shrek, and I found Shark Tale to be brilliant. In fact, the only DWA film I completely disliked was Shrek the Third; it was at this point, I believe, The Formula finally collapsed on itself, while the characters became simply too tired.

Nice going.

Now in 2010, DWA is still following some aspects of The Formula--such as the all-star voice cast--but has basically made its attempts to stray away from the expected and try and be fresh. Pop-culture references are still abound in many places, but it's much less than it was in, say, Bee Movie (which I think is the last time DWA used The Formula and still made acceptable work). This year's How To Train Your Dragon is perhaps the epitome of the company's new success; it holds a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes (which DWA hasn't seen since Antz) and is raved by pretty much everyone I know that's seen it.

Now with Megamind out, DWA has continued to depart from The Formula, going more for a general satire and focusing more on its characters. The film's basically being labeled as "could've been better", with most of the praise going to the celebrity voice actors and the animation. Still, DreamWorks Animation will always be respected in my eyes as a source for genius, and despite its unfortunate creation of The Formula that has bogged down so many animated projects of recent times, there's still a lot to love.

 And a lot to Pick On.

Megamind is out in theaters now.