TANGLED
Rating: G
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
MSRP: Amazon has the blu-ray combo pack for $19.99, and Target has the four disc combo pack, which includes the 3D version of the film and a digital copy, for $24.99, and you can use this coupon for five dollars off of that.
Running Time: 100 mins
What’s Going On?
This is Disney’s take on the classic Rapunzel story. Rapunzel has spent her whole life kept away from the world by Mother Gothel in a tower away from the rest of society. Every year she sees floating lights fly into the sky on he birthday, and thinks that it has to be more than a coincidence. After the thief Flynn Ryder breaks into her tower, Rapunzel convinces him to take her to the lights and leave the tower so she can figure out what they really mean.
Who’s In It:
Mandy Moore voices Rapunzel and Zachary Levi, who is best known as the lead on the NBC series CHUCK voices Flynn. Tony Winner Donna Murphy, channeling Bernadette Peters, does it up as Mother Gothel.
If You Like…:
90′s era Disney films like THE LITTLE MERMAID or BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, which TANGLED is very indicative of, you’ll like this.
Special Features:
There’s quite a lot of stuff to be had here, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Untangled: Making a Fairy Tale: is a sort of making of featurette, hosted by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, only it’s a making of by way of Dora The Explorer, meaning that as the featurette rolls on, the hosts will ask questions about the film and then sit in silence and wait for you to yell at your television. This is why people can’t shut the hell up in movie theaters.
In spite of this, there are some interesting tidbits here, like that Walt Disney had started working on a Rapunzel adaptation as early as 1940, that the crowd scenes used software that created the crowds of over 3000 in the ending sequences of film, the largest ever in a Disney film. Mostly though, I would have actually preferred one of those little interactive quizzes that sometimes come on kid’s DVDs to awkward silences.
There are also Original Storybook Openings, which are animated sketches of the “once upon a time” opening of the film. Both openings are relatively close to the actual opening of the film, which is a composite of the two.
Since Tangled is Disney’s fiftieth animated feature, there’s 50th Animated Feature Countdown, which is a quick montage of scenes from each of the films, but unfortunately, none of the films are titled listed with the years of their release, so it’s tailored for the ultimate Disneyphile, because even I didn’t know all fifty movies.
There are three deleted scenes introduced by directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. There’s one which is an alternate take of the Snuggly Duckling called the Jaunty Moose, there’s an extended scene that takes place after Rapunzel and Flynn exit the pub, and there’s a pretty hilarious deleted scene with a fortune telling monkey and a gypsy. It’s quite funny.
There are also Extended Songs, which are partially animated and cut in-between the final cut of the film. Both “When Will My Life Begin”, the film’s first song, which is recut to open the film rather than to come in five minutes into the film, and there’s a longer cut of “Mother Knows Best”, which is longer and much campier than what ends up in the movie.
The Technical Gist
When I originally saw the film, one of the things I didn’t like about the film was that it’s use of 3D was really underwhelming and deterred from my enjoyment of the film because it muted the color palate and blurred everything. Watching the film in 2D makes it so much better; the colors are bright and vivid and the textures, both of the hair almost everything else has incredible detail that I couldn’t make out with the glasses.
The soundtrack is lovely and is really reminiscent of a lot of Disney favorites and is clear and utterly sing-along-able.
The Verdict
I think I must have grown more senile since the film was released, because I forgave a lot of the derivative nature of the film and really was able to sit back and enjoy it. I could still hope for a little more originality, but the film is very cute and has a positive message that I wouldn’t have an issue showing to a young future daughter or son with long glistening hair.
If you didn’t get a chance to see this in theaters, see it now since the blu-ray is the ideal way to see this movie, and if you’ve got a young person in your household, they’ll love it. So let your hair down and check out Tangled.
