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When I found out that Disney's next animated feature is going to be in 3D animation, I was like 'Oh no! Disney are going downfall again!' and I even considered giving this one a miss but when hearing about the strong critical response that reached up to universal acclaim, this became a must-see! When I watched it, despite the new high expectations, I was really surprised at it. It certainly did go back down memory lane and showed us the magic of Disney from the past (The Princess And The Frog also did that in 2009). I have to admit that I am surprised that there hadn't been a Disney film based on Rapunzel so this is perhaps a long overdue Disney film.
The animation was just amazing! In that way, I perhaps wouldn't recognize this as a latest Disney animated film that is the next on the list of the likes of Aladdin, The Lion King, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs etc but I would think that it was either by Pixar Animation Studios (who also work with Disney, obviously) but even DreamWorks Animation. In every film that Disney has ever done, they have taken us to a different world but it just depends on how enchanting the world really is and believe me, you are literally swept away in Tangled.
After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Flynn Ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by Rapunzel. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.
In every Disney film there is a storyline with a hero and/or a heroin, a supporting character or sidekick and a villain who sometimes has a sidekick or partner aswell and Tangled had all that so it was an ordinary traditional Disney animated film and there were moments regarding the characters that did bring back memories and did have some similarities. For example, Rapunzel is now officially the 10th Disney Princess (others are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana). Rapunzel reminds me of Giselle in Enchanted who is both voiced and portrayed physically by Amy Adams (who is included as a Disney Princess for me) because they are both very feminine, are very sensitive towards themselves and suddenly meet a man in awkward circumstances but gradually fall in love and for that very reason aswell as the villain, it did become a rather predictable story. The relationship between Rapunzel and her guardian Mother Gothel reminded me a lot of the relationship between Quasimodo and Judge Claude Frollo in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame because it is 'forbidden' for Rapunzel and Quasimodo to leave their towers and how they wouldn't be appreciated because of the cruel world when really those guardians are the ones that make the world a sinister place.
Like most of the successful Disney Classics, Tangled was directed by two directors and, they certainly did do a great job despite one of the directors hasn't even directed a Disney feature film before. The screenplay in Tangled was just brilliant! There are a lot of cheesy quotes in a lot of animated films but, quite frankly, in Tangled I don't think I spotted one.
Overall, Tangled is a film that admittedly did surprise me and does deserve its rightful place as another success from Disney but not quite one of their best and not quite one of the best films of 2010. A beautiful film for children to watch and would recommend to adults aswell. It certainly is a great film to mark as the 50th Disney animated feature film.
