Tangled (2010)
The latest Disney fairy tale feature, but a little more in the spirit of The Emperor's New Groove or Dreamworks' The Road to El Dorado than any of the 1990s Disney features. It's a solid film, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly worth the time and money to see. It is funny, and a lot of that humor is in the visuals (poses and motion) and the editing. That's an approach I'm glad to see Disney taking.
Its big flaw is the usual one in Disney films--the tone takes a hard turn toward maudlin at the end, and after not being all that serious throughout, it's a little hard to swallow. And though the generic homogenous Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar CG character design is pleasant to look at throughout the film, when we reach the end credits, we suddenly realize what we missed--why doesn't one of these animation studios do an entire film in the style of the end credits? Either hand-drawn, or transferring that style to CG characters, I don't care. Tangled is charming, but the Milt Gross-inspired end credits had more charm than the rest of the film's visuals put together.
Soon:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
- The Fighter (2010)
- True Grit (2010)
- Black Swan (2010) (whenever it gets here)
- The Illusionist (2010) (if it comes here at all)
The Maybe List:
- Due Date (2010)
- The Tourist (2010)
- TRON: Legacy (2010)
I totally agree with your analysis of Tangled! I really enjoyed the physical humor made possible by the mute sidekick, Pascal, the adorable chameleon. Overall, I liked the film a lot.
The credits do have a really fun and interesting art style, but I'm not sure I'd want to see 90 minutes of it. I guess if Disney pursued it with the same vigor that they do the normal art style, it could be good.