A classic tale butchered like Rapunzel's hair.

Rating: 1/10 (24 November 2010)

When I first heard that Disney was working on an adaptation of "Rapunzel," I was undoubtedly excited. The classic Brothers Grimm tale has always been among my favorite stories, right next to "Hansel and Gretel," "Prince Swan," and "Brother and Sister." I was even more enthusiastic when I heard that it was going to be the most beautiful film Disney had ever made. During its "Rapunzel: Unbraided" phase, I started becoming apprehensive, clearly fearing (as most others did) that the film was going to be a Dreamworks rip-off.
My fears eventually died down and turned to joy once again when it was retitled "Rapunzel" and had the traditional leads of Rapunzel and Prince Bastion. An online interview with one of the animators I read spoke of how Bastion was the classic prince from the fairy tale who had a basset hound that pranced around his heels. More concept artwork emerged, making me count down the days until "Rapunzel" finally premiered. I didn't know until much later that Glen Keane suffered a heart attack and passed direction of the film to Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. When they changed the title to "Tangled" and changed the prince's name to "Prince Flynn," my feelings wavered a bit, but then I told myself that the changes weren't *that* bad. It was only when they changed Flynn to a common thief named "Flynn Rider" whose personality was a blatant rip-off of Prince Naveen's ("The Princess and the Frog") did I became angry and apprehensive more than ever before.
The marketing did nothing to bolster my confidence in the film, nor did it do so for anyone else. I spoke strong opinions of my utter hatred for "Tangled," but was accused multiple times of judging it before I'd seen it. I went into "Tangled" with a grudgingly open mind and came out as disappointed as I always knew I'd be. The animation was beautiful, but it wasn't the "moving oil painting" look we'd been promised. I'm also sure other studios could replicate the same look if they wanted to. A lot of the music was just as beautiful, but Rapunzel's opening song "When Will My Life Begin?" reminded me of an 80s sitcom for some reason, as well as something out of "Shrek." As long as I'm mentioning "Shrek," the second reprisal of said song was eerily similar to the Princess Fiona and bird scene from the first "Shrek" film. The only good songs "Tangled" had going for it were "Kingdom Dance" (a lively medieval tune) and "I See the Light" (reminiscent of "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin").
I didn't laugh at any point because I found the film's humor to be corny and like that of "Shrek." Calling the tavern "The Snuggly Duckling?" What kind of name is that? The only characters I found I could like were Rapunzel and her chameleon sidekick, Pascal (I finally found out where his name came from, which I thought was very clever). He's the most adorable sidekick to date. Maximus looked like a mash between the horse from "The Road to El Dorado," Samson ("Sleeping Beauty"), and Achilles ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame"). He also acted like Scooby Doo with his sniffing along the ground like a dog. The idea of a "cop horse" was also not funny. Mother Gothel looked like a cross between Janet Jackson and Cher, actually creeping me out. Obviously, my biggest complaint was that Flynn was changed from a prince into a thief. The character of Rapunzel's prince is among my favorite in the Brothers Grimm stories, and it ticked me off that they lowered him to such a pitiful and unoriginal character.
Disney can deny it all they want, but they made the changes they did because they didn't think boys would want to watch another "Princess" film. Since when did they care what we guys thought? Everything out today is either "Disney Princess" or "Disney Fairies." If they *really* cared about attracting a male audience, they should have worked on that "Disney Heroes" line they had going years ago, or make a film based solely on a male protagonist or a gender-neutral film. They shouldn't have used a beautiful fairy tale like "Rapunzel" to do it. And while I'm on the subject, where's the boys' merchandise? I haven't seen a single male-oriented "Tangled" toy on the shelves yet! I can only give "Tangled" two stars out of ten: one star for good animation, the other for good music. Everything else just ruined this once promising film. If it'd remained more faithful to the original story, then I'm sure this could very well have been Disney's crowning achievement. Their final product can hardly be compared to such classics like "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." If anything, it's more like "Shrek" or "How to Train Your Dragon." My hopes have shifted to the company's newest fairy tale film, "Brave," which I hope will make up for what "Tangled" lacks. I feel sorry for those who can't see this film for the travesty it really is (which is apparently pretty much everyone).