Tangled - my review

The still photo in my last post had me a little wary about going to see Tangled.  I was worried that it was going a be a totally modern and PC version of the original story.  Still I had a hunch that this could be a great movie and after finding that it was getting good reviews I decided to go see it.

As I had feared the original story of Rapunzel has been significantly altered, partly due to necessity of turning a very short story into a feature length film and also to make what I consider to be improvements on the original version.  The essence of the story though, remains well intact and yes, this is a true fairy tale in every sense of the word.  It never winks at you nor does it nudge you in the ribs with its elbow.  It is not a parody of a fairy tale and does not stop along the way to try and convince you to believe in its magic.  If you let it, it will make you feel like a kid again.  The story feels fresh and new and although it does have a modern feel it retains enough of the more old school serious elements of the story to be a refreshing change from the sarcastic humour and preachy propaganda cartoons modern Hollywood churns out these days.

In the real story of Rapunzel the girl was a commoner and the boy was a prince.  In Tangled in 2010 the girl is by default a princess and not only is the boy not a prince but he's a ruffian and thief as well.  That in itself is a topic for another day and I won't get into it here but I will admit that it did workout in the end just fine.

Although Tangled does contain elements of the ordinary modern animated movie (the obligatory miniature sidekick doing comic relief, this one's called Pascal) and a couple of nods to other movies (The Sound of Music and Raiders of the Lost Ark) I only heard one single extraneous "like" and zero pop culture references so this film should stand the test of time quite well I think.

I will admit to one disappointment I had along the way in Tangled.  Although there were several instances where Rapunzel was truly sad and her eyes did seem to moisten she never shed a single tear.  I was just thinking that it was too bad that our modern culture is in such a state that a girl can't be shown actually sobbing over a boy anymore, part of that whole fish and bicycle thing I guess.  Finally though, she does shed a tear and I realized that it was much better that she hadn't until that moment and my previous disappointment was suddenly silly and then forgotten.  In fact, I believe that there are exactly two tears shed in the entire movie.  Their impact was made much greater by their rarity.

There are of course several songs in this Disney movie and I found some of them to be just adequate, a couple were good and one in particular was just perfect. The main song, the one that Rapunzel sings a few times throughout the film is quite simple but is by far the best. Not necessarily because it might sound good on the radio but because of the context it has in the movie.  The very same song one time may be funny, another time just kind of nice and finally it becomes the climax of the whole movie when the lyrics take on a whole new meaning and purpose than what they signified earlier in the story. That is what made it so wonderful to me.

At its core the story of Rapunzel is about love and real sacrifice. This is what makes it great and what raises it above the level of so many other pretenders. In the original story both Rapunzel and the Prince suffer greatly for their love of each other. Although the circumstances are somewhat different in Tangled the demonstrations of love and sacrifice are well demonstrated once again.

To sum up, Tangled is funny, original and a straight up sincere fairy tale.  It's magical and moving in the most pure and non manipulative way. It's gorgeous to look at and most importantly it's a great story which is very well told.

I thought that after How To Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 this year, there would be no other serious contender for best animated feature at the Oscars but it wouldn't surprise me at all if Tangled beat them both.  I do love both those movies but I must say that Tangled is not only the best animated film I've seen this year, it's the best movie I've seen this year period!

By the way, be sure to see the 3D version.  This is Disney's 50th animated feature film and it's obvious they put their full effort into it. The whole movie is just beautiful to look at and one scene in particular is just gorgeous and heart warming. The 3D is really well done!

Finally and for ONLY those of you who have already seen Tangled here is a little something that will take you back to the best moment of the the movie. It's just audio except for the still photo which will remain unchanged until the end.  Enjoy! (and seriously if you haven't seen it yet this will be a huge spoiler even without video so only push play after you've watched the movie or at least consider yourself warned.)

Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin all Tangled

Now that I've got the obligatory title photo attached I find myself trying to remember just exactly where the idea for this post started and in fact where it is heading. Not a good sign I admit but anyway, off we go.

Lately I've being seeing ads for an upcoming Disney movie called Tangled.  Now maybe I'm wrong but isn't the fairy tale about the pretty girl with the long long blonde hair called Rapunzel?  Why didn't they just call it that?  Anyway, I'm thinking that I'll probably go see this one when it comes out in about three weeks but before I do I wanted to refresh my memory with the original story.  I found a website which contains many (possibly all I'm not sure) of the Grimm brother's fairy tales and Rapunzel of course is among them.

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: ’What ails you, dear wife?’ ’Ah,’ she replied, ’if I can’t eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.’ The man, who loved her, thought: ’Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.’ At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her–so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. ’How can you dare,’ said she with angry look, ’descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!’ ’Ah,’ answered he, ’let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.’ Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: ’If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.’ The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king’s son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. ’If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,’ said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Immediately the hair fell down and the king’s son climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king’s son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: ’He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does’; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: ’I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.’ They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: ’Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king’s son–he is with me in a moment.’ ’Ah! you wicked child,’ cried the enchantress. ’What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!’ In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king’s son came and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

she let the hair down. The king’s son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. ’Aha!’ she cried mockingly, ’you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.’ The king’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.

OK but where was the part about the gold and stuff. Then I remembered that there was another story about a locked up pretty girl which is called Rumpelstiltskin.  I must have confused them because of the mention of Rapunzel having "magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold."  Seems like there were lots of girls locked up in towers in the olden days doesn't it?
 
I think that J.K. Rowling must be a fan of The Grimm brothers too.  I wonder if she got the idea of healing tears (the pheonix in Chamber of Secrets) and Hermione's cat's name Crookshanks (one of the names guessed in Rumpelstiltskin) from them?
 
In addition to Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin I also read The Fisherman and His Wife and plan to refamiliarize myself with many more of the Grimm's stories.  They are so refreshingly unpolitically correct its almost shocking.  It makes me glad that I was part of the last generation to have vague memories of actually growing up with these tales. I'm sure the only exposure to old fashioned fairy tales most kids might have these days is when they are assigned to google them for a school project on how intolerant, uninclusive, racist and sexist people were in the olden days. They really put into stark contrast the socially engineered PC brainwashing goo and ever present fake smiley faces that children have to endure these days. 
 
It will be interesting to see what Disney has done to the story of Rapunzel here in 2010. I wouldn't be surprised if the extra long hair is the only part that has suvived the modernization.  I'm looking forward to finding out though.  If Tangled is disappointing at least there will be part one of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows coming out at around the same time.  Maybe I'll see you there.