Lovely movie, but not classic

Rating: 7/10 (31 December 2010)

Disney's Tangled is hands down one of the best films they've met in years. I had tears streaming down my eyes the minute the lanterns starting appearing all the way to the end. The animation is gorgeous and the storyline, for the most part, is pretty solid and believable. The film still, however, has a number of serious flaws.
The sidekicks: While amusing, the sidekicks play a very, very small part in this film. Pascal is cute - and pretty much pointless after that. He doesn't really serve much purpose except as a sort of nice pet-on-the-back. He really isn't even substantial emotional support. Also, the whole chameleon idea in general was pretty bizarre. They obviously just generated a sidekick for the sake of having one. Maximus, while amusing as well, helps out to some extent in the climax, but really isn't even featured that much. More than half of the film he's chasing Flynn, and then Rapunzel treats him nicely and he's just hunky dory for most of the rest. Again, the robo-cop-horse idea itself was... weird. And when he starts acting like a dog, it's... even weirder. It's like they can't decide to make him human-like or canine.
Flynn's name: As I understood it, Flynn revealed his real name towards the end. But when I saw it, he reveals it towards the middle, and Rapunzel calls him by it the *entire rest of the movie*. The name gives him back-story, but it definitely confuses the audience on what to call him. I can't help wondering if it could have been dropped altogether.
When Rapunzel realizes she's a princess: little can be said on this part because it's so confusing. She somehow is able to recollect a memory from when she was barely a toddler. And it's all very sketchy and not totally believable. Also, kind of anti-climatic.
Rapunzel's character design: her eyes definitely change size a few times, and quite honestly she often looks really ridiculous. Her facial features often grew quite out of proportion.
The villain: Donna Murphy plays Mother Gothel very well. And Mother Gothel is definitely a villain. But she really just lacks something that especially the original Gothel had - a kind of maddening obsession, a real sense of threatening power. Gothel is vaguely complicated here because of maternal actions, but not in the way that Frollo of Hunchback is. She has very shallow motivations and really isn't very frightening at all. She's creepy looking, but that's about it.
The music: The music is pleasant, but... in the end none of the songs manage to really grasp you. A lot of them are really pretty, but nothing gorgeous and memorable. This could partially be blamed on Menken's source of inspiration - 60's rock, although even Gothel's villain song falls short. Slater's lyrics weren't a treasure to hear either.
Changes to original: as good and functional as the plot is, it actually would have been better being kept closer to the original. There are just some elements that really made the original shine that have been lost here.
The Pub thugs: As someone else mentioned, the pub thugs really didn't play that significant a part in the movie. They were comedic and played a (contrived) role in the finale. That was it. Essentially, with the exception of the three main human characters and the Stabbington brothers (and Rapunzel's parents of course), all of the characters were really expendable.
The town scene: it was just kind of strange and didn't make sense. Rapunzel just starts dancing with all kind of people, despite never even SEEING so many people before and just suddenly has social skills. And then she's painting stuff and reading mysterious books and... I kind of had no idea what was supposed to be going on. It was all epic and exciting, but still kind of ridiculous.
The action scenes: we all know why they were in there. Disney had to entertain the boys, because boys are only entertained by fighting and violence. What utter nonsense. Quite a few of the scenes were utterly pointless and unnecessary. I understand the need for some action scenes, but there were a few in here that were just present to make attempts at entertaining the male crowd.
Ultimately, Tangled is a really nice movie. I don't feel like it supplants Rapunzel, however. The two are still very different in essence. Also, this is a pretty meager attempt at the complexities of Rapunzel.