Reader Recommends: Tangled (2010)

Today I decided to knock another movie off my recommendations list. Tangled has been most recommended by my friend @Foebeard, but I think I've had its named dropped from some others as well. I've also personally wanted to see Tangled for quite a while, so it's almost not a recommendation since I would have seen it eventually on my own. I was really disappointed that I didn't get to see it in the theater in 3D, as I had heard it was pretty good in that respect. One of the things I was curious to see was if there would be anything obviously done for 3D but was now pointless in a 2D viewing. My impressions after the jump.


Tangled is a re-imagined, retelling of the classic Rapunzel Brothers Grimm fairy tale. This time Rapunzel has magical hair that can bring back youth, or cure any wound when a special song is sung. The trick is that if it is cut, it turns into regular hair and loses its magical properties. It is because of this that an evil old woman kidnaps Rapunzel as a baby and keeps her secreted away in a tower, never cutting her hair, so that she can keep this fountain of youth to herself. Days before her 18th birthday, a thief stumbles across her tower while fleeing city guards in the woods. A terrified Rapunzel knocks the thief out and hides away his stolen treasure, demanding that he escort her out of the tower to see the floating lights that appear in the sky every year on her birthday. The trick is keeping it secret from the old hag. Let the adventure begin!

I quite liked the twist on the old tale, adding in some magic and some new fun side characters. There was also an interesting turn in that Rapunzel regards the old woman as her mother, who is just trying to protect her from an evil world that would harm her for her magical hair. As far as I recall, in the old fairy tale she knows she is being held prisoner, and can't escape because the tower is so tall. In this version though, Rapunzel is an athletic and incredibly strong (she wins a tug-of-war against a horse!) young woman who could leave the tower whenever she wants, but doesn't out of fear of the outside world.

Being that this is a CG animated film, I have to take a moment to talk about the graphics, especially because they are amazing! Disney managed to keep that cartoony style that all their hand drawn animated films are so recognizable for, but still keep the sharp crisp detail that can come from a CG movie. The hair, understandably, looks amazing, but not just on Rapunzel. Her evil witchy mother's hair, as well as all the other characters, looks great and is always flowing and bouncing just as hair should. Basically, everyone in the world is having the best hair day of their lives in this film.

The graphics, especially on the hair, are fantastic!

There are so many great pieces that all come together to make the movie work the way it does, from the music and songs, to the fluid animation and expressive, personality filled characters. I think my favorite part of Tangled was the characters. I found both the main and side characters to be great to watch and they all looked and sounded really good too.

While the city guards and the bar filled with touchy-feely thugs who dream of a better life were good, and the main characters Rapunzel and Flynn Rider were filled with likability, easily my favorite characters were Max the horse, and Pascal the Chameleon! There's just something about the expressiveness and the exaggerated way a character has to emote to get their points across when they can't actually speak. How to Train Your Dragon is also a perfect example of this with the silent black dragon Toothless.

Flynn Rider and Pascal are both shocked at how great this movie is

So the one possible demon left in the box is if the 3D treatment affected the film when watching it in 2D. While there were a few small scenes where I thought to myself "I guess that would have stood out more if it was in 3D" it was never really pushed in your face, making gimmicky pointless scenes. The stupid roller coaster scene in Despicable Me is a blatant crime of this nature. I found Tangled to be relatively unharmed and unaffected by many 3D remnants, so have no fear, those of you who seek this out in 2D as I did.

While Tangled seems to have an overly girly appearance from the outside, there is a surprising amount of action and awesome manly and darker characters, besides all the romance and pink, that I think absolutely everyone will find something to like in it. I also thought the comedy was suitable for all, male and female, young and old. This will easily be another Disney classic for years to come and I highly recommend anyone to see this. In fact I would say you should go out of your way to see it, because I really wish I had seen it sooner. My only fear now is that my strong recommendation might over-hype the movie for those who see it now, because I really hate it when that happens to me. Hope you enjoy it!

Pascal has got an eye on you!