wonderful...

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2010)

I was frankly quite amazed by this film. After all, last year Pixar brought us "Up" and this year Dreamworks brought us "How to Train Your Dragon"—there was no way that anyone could produce a CGI film that is every bit as good, could they?! Yet, surprisingly, I adored "Tangled" and enjoyed it just as much as these other films—showing that we are in a period of time when amazingly wonderful computer animation has become the norm.
"Tangled" is wonderful for two main reasons. Foremost, the animation style is so new and vibrant—and looks so much unlike all the other recent CG I films. I read that Disney deliberately tried to create a computer-generated film that looked a lot like a traditionally animated film—and the exquisitely rendered backgrounds attest to the fact that they achieved this goaland more. The other reason I adored it was because the film had a magnificent sense of humor—making a very simple story much, much more enjoyable. The animal friends (the horse and chameleon) were terrific and the film had me laughing repeatedly—particularly with its surprisingly adorable barbarian hoard (who, incidentally, remind me a lot of the Capital One commercials' Vikings). The final reason I loved the film, though it's not as prominent as the other two reasons, is the wonderful love story. The final scene of self-sacrifice by the male hero is touching—and set my tear ducts flowing.
By the way, it turns out the only thing about the film I did NOT love (the similarity of the ending to that of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast") was NOT the fault of bad writing—it's actually one of the few aspects of the that is from the original fairy tale! This tidbit comes from my amazing older daughter who is a folklore major.
The bottom line—watch this film! You'll be glad you did—and it's much better than it appears to be based on the TV commercials and previews.