OMFG TANGLED.
I was going to wait to do this until the illustration I'm working on is finished, but I can't. This is going to be repetitive given all the other stellar reviews out there about this, but...
I ADORED Tangled.
Seriously, I spent the entire movie feeling like I was 8 years old again and Disney's glory days were back. I am so, so happy their 50th animated feature didn't suck. Not only did it not suck, it was stellar. I loved every minute of it. It had a strong story, strong characters, strong music, strong design... it's just such a relief to see that Disney can still DO IT. This is the best movie they've put out since Lilo & Stitch.
Story: I studied a lot of the original Grimm's fairytales in college for a children's lit class I took. As with most of the Grimm's tales, the story of Rapunzel was creepy. I don't remember all the details, but the prince impregnated her while she was in an enchanted sleep in the tower and she carried and gave birth to twins while still asleep. (Okay I got my tales mixed up. It's been almost seven years since I took that class and we studied a bunch of them in a two week period.) Disney did a wonderful job completely re-imagining the story to make it theirs. I do wonder why they made all the trailers for the movie have absolutely nothing to do with the movie itself. None of that shit was even IN there without being changed. I've heard other people say it and it's true: the movie is much, much better than the trailers. Rapunzel and Flynn had great chemistry, and I loved the end scenes in the tower with the cutting of the hair and the acting and everything (I mean, you knew one of the mirror shards would be used to hack off her hair as soon as they zoomed in on the broken mirror, but that's okay. It was still effective when it happened). I also liked the touch of the mother being dust by the time she reached the ground.
Rapunzel is cute as a short haired brunette. The long blonde hair tickles my artist bone that loves to play with hair. This will be evident when I post the first look at the Flynn/Rapunzel illustration I mentioned earlier. Hair galore!
Rapunzel was adorable. Flynn was a great character, too... both of them were solid, and they make an awesome pairing. I've already seen Mandy Moore in several other things in both acting and singing, so I was expecting great things from her and she delivered with flying colors. She's 50% of what made Rapunzel so cute... the other 50% was stellar animation. All of the characters were superbly animated, imo, and for some reason the mother's movements really caught my eye when she was singing. I liked her design, too... I think it was the hair that did it for me.
Mkay, it's not news that I loved Zachary Levi before I even went into the theater (icon choice in honor of him). I've seen every single episode of Chuck since season 1 and have all the DVDs. It's one of my favorite shows on the air right now, and I adore his acting/characterization of Chuck himself. I picked up on a lot of Chuck in Flynn... just with more confidence in the mix. This was a good thing. I know a lot of people were shocked that he could sing... I already heard before this movie came around that he could sing, I'd just never heard him. I was blown away by his voice! It's gorgeous! "I Have A Dream" was yeah, that's nice, but "I See The Light" was just amazing. I wish I could hear him belt something... I already thought he was hot. Hearing him sing only amplifies that about a hundred times over for me. I hope he gets more singing roles in the future because that was fabulous. His voice compliments Mandy Moore's in a great way.
The Music: Thank you, deities of music, for giving Alan Menken his golden touch back when it comes to animated movies. I know he's done some other stuff since his 90s brilliance with Tim Rice and Howard Ashman, but this was the first time in at least 10 years that I've been hooked on a soundtrack with one listen in the theater. I went straight to Barnes & Noble to buy it right after the movie ended. I haven't done that in I don't remember how long, and I've been listening to it non-stop since I got home, especially "I See The Light". My next quest is to find an advanced level piano book for the movie because I think that song as well as the healing incantation would sound great on the piano. I haven't wanted to buy a music book for a Disney movie since I was in junior high, and that was more than a decade ago.
The Art: Holy *#$&%^ this movie was beautiful. I saw it in 3D and highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet (or you've only seen it in 2D) to definitely spring for a 3D showing. The whole thing was eye candy, so much so that I ordered the Art Of book at the same time that I bought the soundtrack after the movie was over. I already mentioned the mother's character design, and for some reason I also liked the King's even though he's barely in the movie. Rapunzel was adorable and her animation just accentuated that. All the facial expression animation was superb, and I loved the fact that if a character was outside of the golden rectangle of the shot you could still see small things like their chest move from breathing. Maximus's behaviors and mannerisms were Sushi as a horse in many places. The chameleon's presence in the trailers always made me go WTF but he was a really cute little side character.
The visuals during the lantern release/ "I See The Light" were absolutely beautiful. I can't imagine animating all of that, but the effect was awe-inspiring for me. The way they handled the visual release of the lanterns starting with the King/Queen and then leading down the pathways of citizens was touching as well; I had thought they were released by the castle, not by the entire population. The King's facial expression right before the lantern release was a sucker punch for me as well. The subtlety of the animation in combination with the lighting was just beautiful, particularly since his eyes seemed to be more in shadow.
If Disney is going to start producing movies this good again (without Pixar's name on them since Pixar's movies don't count... they're awesome all by their lonesomes and were long before Disney owned them), I cannot wait to see what their next project is. Tangled is now in my Disney top 3 along with Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. That's huge coming from me.
Oh, and also: yay, Glenn Keane! You are still one of my animation idols as you have been since my childhood, my good sir. ♥
Alright, I think I'm done bubbling. I want to see this again. Badly. Gotta see HP7A first on Thursday, though, before Tron Legacy takes over the IMAX screen at the theater.
I ADORED Tangled.
Seriously, I spent the entire movie feeling like I was 8 years old again and Disney's glory days were back. I am so, so happy their 50th animated feature didn't suck. Not only did it not suck, it was stellar. I loved every minute of it. It had a strong story, strong characters, strong music, strong design... it's just such a relief to see that Disney can still DO IT. This is the best movie they've put out since Lilo & Stitch.
Story: I studied a lot of the original Grimm's fairytales in college for a children's lit class I took. As with most of the Grimm's tales, the story of Rapunzel was creepy. I don't remember all the details, but the prince impregnated her while she was in an enchanted sleep in the tower and she carried and gave birth to twins while still asleep. (Okay I got my tales mixed up. It's been almost seven years since I took that class and we studied a bunch of them in a two week period.) Disney did a wonderful job completely re-imagining the story to make it theirs. I do wonder why they made all the trailers for the movie have absolutely nothing to do with the movie itself. None of that shit was even IN there without being changed. I've heard other people say it and it's true: the movie is much, much better than the trailers. Rapunzel and Flynn had great chemistry, and I loved the end scenes in the tower with the cutting of the hair and the acting and everything (I mean, you knew one of the mirror shards would be used to hack off her hair as soon as they zoomed in on the broken mirror, but that's okay. It was still effective when it happened). I also liked the touch of the mother being dust by the time she reached the ground.
Rapunzel is cute as a short haired brunette. The long blonde hair tickles my artist bone that loves to play with hair. This will be evident when I post the first look at the Flynn/Rapunzel illustration I mentioned earlier. Hair galore!
Rapunzel was adorable. Flynn was a great character, too... both of them were solid, and they make an awesome pairing. I've already seen Mandy Moore in several other things in both acting and singing, so I was expecting great things from her and she delivered with flying colors. She's 50% of what made Rapunzel so cute... the other 50% was stellar animation. All of the characters were superbly animated, imo, and for some reason the mother's movements really caught my eye when she was singing. I liked her design, too... I think it was the hair that did it for me.
Mkay, it's not news that I loved Zachary Levi before I even went into the theater (icon choice in honor of him). I've seen every single episode of Chuck since season 1 and have all the DVDs. It's one of my favorite shows on the air right now, and I adore his acting/characterization of Chuck himself. I picked up on a lot of Chuck in Flynn... just with more confidence in the mix. This was a good thing. I know a lot of people were shocked that he could sing... I already heard before this movie came around that he could sing, I'd just never heard him. I was blown away by his voice! It's gorgeous! "I Have A Dream" was yeah, that's nice, but "I See The Light" was just amazing. I wish I could hear him belt something... I already thought he was hot. Hearing him sing only amplifies that about a hundred times over for me. I hope he gets more singing roles in the future because that was fabulous. His voice compliments Mandy Moore's in a great way.
The Music: Thank you, deities of music, for giving Alan Menken his golden touch back when it comes to animated movies. I know he's done some other stuff since his 90s brilliance with Tim Rice and Howard Ashman, but this was the first time in at least 10 years that I've been hooked on a soundtrack with one listen in the theater. I went straight to Barnes & Noble to buy it right after the movie ended. I haven't done that in I don't remember how long, and I've been listening to it non-stop since I got home, especially "I See The Light". My next quest is to find an advanced level piano book for the movie because I think that song as well as the healing incantation would sound great on the piano. I haven't wanted to buy a music book for a Disney movie since I was in junior high, and that was more than a decade ago.
The Art: Holy *#$&%^ this movie was beautiful. I saw it in 3D and highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet (or you've only seen it in 2D) to definitely spring for a 3D showing. The whole thing was eye candy, so much so that I ordered the Art Of book at the same time that I bought the soundtrack after the movie was over. I already mentioned the mother's character design, and for some reason I also liked the King's even though he's barely in the movie. Rapunzel was adorable and her animation just accentuated that. All the facial expression animation was superb, and I loved the fact that if a character was outside of the golden rectangle of the shot you could still see small things like their chest move from breathing. Maximus's behaviors and mannerisms were Sushi as a horse in many places. The chameleon's presence in the trailers always made me go WTF but he was a really cute little side character.
The visuals during the lantern release/ "I See The Light" were absolutely beautiful. I can't imagine animating all of that, but the effect was awe-inspiring for me. The way they handled the visual release of the lanterns starting with the King/Queen and then leading down the pathways of citizens was touching as well; I had thought they were released by the castle, not by the entire population. The King's facial expression right before the lantern release was a sucker punch for me as well. The subtlety of the animation in combination with the lighting was just beautiful, particularly since his eyes seemed to be more in shadow.
If Disney is going to start producing movies this good again (without Pixar's name on them since Pixar's movies don't count... they're awesome all by their lonesomes and were long before Disney owned them), I cannot wait to see what their next project is. Tangled is now in my Disney top 3 along with Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. That's huge coming from me.
Oh, and also: yay, Glenn Keane! You are still one of my animation idols as you have been since my childhood, my good sir. ♥
Alright, I think I'm done bubbling. I want to see this again. Badly. Gotta see HP7A first on Thursday, though, before Tron Legacy takes over the IMAX screen at the theater.