Tangled

It took me roughly four seconds to get over my disappointment that this film did not look like a Fragonard picture, as it had been hinted it would in preproduction. The film looks stunning, far better than I had anticipated from stills and clips, and what’s more, even more so than The Princess and the Frog, it leaves me feeling certain that Disney is about to come out of its slump (considered without Pixar) and begin a new era of films that are both of the moment and classically Disney.

This is absolutely the film Disney needed to make just now. After proving they could do something different, up-to-date, clever and slightly dark with The Princess and the Frog, they needed to go back to another classic story from the fairytale canon and do a good job adapting it in a more classic, traditional way. And that’s what they’ve managed to do. Rapunzel, a story told most famously by the Brothers Grimm, was a great choice for the Disney treatment, and the writing was pitched perfectly between the modern sensibilities of recent Western animation – all snappy dialogue and sarcasm – and the innocent, straight-forward mode of storytelling of classic Disney, complete with musical numbers, funny animals and magic.

The story bears only a slight resemblance to the original. Old Mother Gothel (who for a few minutes made my skin prickle a little, as I felt like she was an anti-Semitic character without quite knowing why – only for me to realise I was just thinking she looked a lot like Lisa Cuddy from House) happened to chance upon a magical flower that restores her youth. She cunningly hid it from the world to live forever until the king’s guards found it and used it in a tonic to heal the sickly, pregnant queen. When the child was born, she was imbued with the powers of the flower – so Gothel kidnapped her and locked her away in the tall tower. There Rapunzel stayed until, just before her 18th birthday, a charming rogue jumped through her window and forever changed her life.

The story flows well: the set-up is neat and precise, segueing into an odd couple comedy before turning into a predictable but effective story of life-lessons learned, daring rescues effected and true love shining through. The visual style is extremely pretty, CG made to look like pretty cel-shaded animation, only with stunning camera moves and some complex background sequences that really make for visually iconic moments. While the first song was a little awkward, a simple country-pop number with lyrics that were just a little too clever, the songs ended up being some of the best in Disney since at least Mulan, including the poignant central theme, the deliciously bravura ‘Mother Knows Best’ and the comedy number recalling Monty Python performed in the pub. The voice acting was smart and well-timed, and the only times it didn’t look quite like the voices were coming from the animated figures were in the big notes of the songs.

The film also saw two of the best mute characters in Disney. The adorable little chameleon Pascal and the rather brilliantly hammy horse Maximus provided some of the best entertainment in the piece, and showed lessons in physical comedy learned from Pixar. As you may be able to tell from the hints there, the fairytale setting is a remarkably diverse one: the royal guard seem to be Roman legionnaires, the pub is full of apparent Vikings and…well, there’s a chameleon. Somehow, the combinations work very well and never seem jarring, in the same way that the film can transition from arrant silliness to sincerely affectionate moments or to some genuinely frightening scenes, as when the heroes are about to drown, trapped in a cave.

Tangled does just about everything right, and does it without being a blatant rehash. Impressive!