Tangled
Did you know if you pre-order the Tron: Legacy soundtrack you get the 'Derezzed' single right away? Did you know it's less than two minutes long, so you can totally listen to it 48 times in a row without even noticing?
Damn them for realizing the only reason I'm seeing the movie is for the soundtrack and bumping the release date.
Also, because several people on my friends list mentioned it, I went and saw Tangled
Overall, it was enjoyable, although it's far from any of the greats like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast and not as witty or unique as Lilo and Stitch.
What kept throwing me off was the pacing. From the start, with that vaguely 'Emperor's New Groove' voiceover, I was expecting a certain level of irreverent humor that it never quite delivered, and it also wanted to be equal parts big-castle-with-princess solemn and grand, but it never really slowed down enough to deliver on that, either. It was just cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-THE END!
Also, it wasn't clever or funny enough. I kept expecting comedy beats where the writers just weren't smart enough to add them. It did have a lot of very funny moments, a lot of great physical comedy, but they could have bumped up the script and I think it would have done a lot especially for the love interest. I needed about five more minutes with Flynn as Flynn, for sure. wouldn't have minded another five with Rapunzel, either. Overall, she was pretty cool. I liked that she was cute and happy and smart and self-aware. Kind of like a less annoying Ariel.
The animations with her hair were especially lovely. I wish the movie hadn't only been showing in 3-D. It did nothing to improve on the story and blurred out some of the prettier moments.
The one scene with the parents and the lantern was very well done. If the movie hadn't been so confused about whether it wanted to be screwball comedy or traditional fairy tale, it could have had a couple more successful moments like this.
It was nice that, unlike Princess and the Frog, they felt slightly less need to HAVE A MOVIE WITH A POSITIVE MESSAGE ABOUT AN IMPORTANT LIFE ISSUE. I liked Princess and the Frog but Tiana and Naveen didn't get to do nearly enough bitching at each other.
The evil witch in Tangled was especially interesting to me because of the oddly realistic way she was evil, that combination of false-teasing that was just meant to hurt and blaming Rapunzel for everything that went wrong, giving just enough encouragement when all her rules were followed to keep her obedient, and using the word 'love' like a weapon and an obligation. It was an uncomfortably canny portrayal of emotional abuse, not the sort of thing that shows up in kids cartoons, and I liked it. I hope maybe someone young who's being treated this way might see themselves in Rapunzel and realize they don't deserve to be treated like that either.
It's not a bad thing for kids to learn that people can say the word 'love' and mean it in many different ways, some of which aren't good.
In summary, not bad. Not great, but not bad.
Damn them for realizing the only reason I'm seeing the movie is for the soundtrack and bumping the release date.
Also, because several people on my friends list mentioned it, I went and saw Tangled
Overall, it was enjoyable, although it's far from any of the greats like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast and not as witty or unique as Lilo and Stitch.
What kept throwing me off was the pacing. From the start, with that vaguely 'Emperor's New Groove' voiceover, I was expecting a certain level of irreverent humor that it never quite delivered, and it also wanted to be equal parts big-castle-with-princess solemn and grand, but it never really slowed down enough to deliver on that, either. It was just cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-THE END!
Also, it wasn't clever or funny enough. I kept expecting comedy beats where the writers just weren't smart enough to add them. It did have a lot of very funny moments, a lot of great physical comedy, but they could have bumped up the script and I think it would have done a lot especially for the love interest. I needed about five more minutes with Flynn as Flynn, for sure. wouldn't have minded another five with Rapunzel, either. Overall, she was pretty cool. I liked that she was cute and happy and smart and self-aware. Kind of like a less annoying Ariel.
The animations with her hair were especially lovely. I wish the movie hadn't only been showing in 3-D. It did nothing to improve on the story and blurred out some of the prettier moments.
The one scene with the parents and the lantern was very well done. If the movie hadn't been so confused about whether it wanted to be screwball comedy or traditional fairy tale, it could have had a couple more successful moments like this.
It was nice that, unlike Princess and the Frog, they felt slightly less need to HAVE A MOVIE WITH A POSITIVE MESSAGE ABOUT AN IMPORTANT LIFE ISSUE. I liked Princess and the Frog but Tiana and Naveen didn't get to do nearly enough bitching at each other.
The evil witch in Tangled was especially interesting to me because of the oddly realistic way she was evil, that combination of false-teasing that was just meant to hurt and blaming Rapunzel for everything that went wrong, giving just enough encouragement when all her rules were followed to keep her obedient, and using the word 'love' like a weapon and an obligation. It was an uncomfortably canny portrayal of emotional abuse, not the sort of thing that shows up in kids cartoons, and I liked it. I hope maybe someone young who's being treated this way might see themselves in Rapunzel and realize they don't deserve to be treated like that either.
It's not a bad thing for kids to learn that people can say the word 'love' and mean it in many different ways, some of which aren't good.
In summary, not bad. Not great, but not bad.