Ok, this is not a rant, in fact this post will be a positive one for a change.
You know, I don't mind that there's like a fuckzillion of computer animated movies made every year, we've entered the Shrek Era some time ago and it doesn't look like it will end anytime soon. Some of these movies are entertaining (I mean ALL of them are supposed to have high entertainment value) but unfortunately most of them turns out to be generic and just meh to me. It seems inevitable with this many titles, the ideas and jokes just start to feel recycled and stale. Even one of my personal favorites, Madagascar (Dreamworks 2005) can give you a solid sense of deja vu once you've seen it's highly underrated peer, The Wild (Disney 2006) - or the other way round, depending on what you see first.. does this make sense or am I rumbling nonsense already?
Anyways, it's hard to impress me when it comes to mass produced animated motion pictures nowadays. But it happened. Yesterday [actually, it was like a month ago but I never had time to finish this post so I'm taking you back in time to that yesterday - whenever that was (can't remember)].
I'm still in shock mode. It just so happened that Tangled (Walt Disney Animation Studios 2010) was on TV and I was pretty bored. Ok, I was not really bored, I was just killing time instead of doing something, you know, useful. I even skipped the first 10 min or so, that's how low my expectations were. Oh, I couldn't have been more wrong.
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| source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Tangled_poster.jpg |
This production turned out to be incredibly funny, hart-worming and entertaining. It's the story of Rapunzel, a girl blessed with magical hair that can never be cut (or they'll loose their power) and cursed with an overprotective mother that keeps her locked in a tower. But when puberty hits Rapunzel she decides to leave her home and armed with a frying pen she sets off to explore the world a bit - withe the not so willing help of a runaway criminal, Ryder Flynn. Now, the plot is obviously not original, it's the same old story of Rapunzel, huh? Well, maybe with a little twist. Watch it, I'm too lazy to say more. As far as other aspects of the movie...
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| source: http://0.tqn.com/d/create/1/0/V/v/6/-/tangled2.jpg |
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| source: http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4663/tangled2010mkvsnapshot0.jpg |
First of all, the animation is pleasing, colorful and well made. The backgrounds are well designed and don't change that often, so you won't feel too disoriented as the movie progresses. I guess what I like most about this movie are the characters - and the fact that there isn't that many of them. I mean, diversity and all that, but sometimes there are just too many of those fuckers. But not here, we've got 4 leads, two of which are mute (a horse and a chameleon, so no wonder they're mute). And that's just enough. Moreover, they're voiced pretty well with Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi (whoever he is) as Flynn Rider. The dialogs are funny and natural although... they sometimes sing... hate that, but that's why all remotes have that 'mute' button. Use it if you don't enjoy the singing cut scenes. Apart from that, the movie is lovely.
So all in all, highly recommended, four stars! [don't blame me if you won't like it]
