Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Re Disney's "Tangled": Stop Worrying. It's Good.

Since Tangled was already on my radar today I was reminded of some old news (from the end of May) about how the movie is turning out.

From a Disney forum, the post was titled: "I just saw Tangled! Stop worrying. It's good."
Here are a few little excerpts from the post and replies (there are pages of them):
Even in this rough form, it is a VERY entertaining movie, and the audience was laughing their butts off at the gags (even the ones still on storyboard) and was very engrossed in the exciting stuff...

There are some GORGEOUS set-pieces in the works. We had to use our imaginations, but we could tell where they were going. They're gonna be stunning, especially this one thing near the end that I refuse to spoil for you.

Those who were disappointed in the musical numbers in The Princess and the Frog ... Get ready, cause they're about to make it up to you. WONDERFUL songs. At least two of them are Oscar worthy IMHO. One in particular, which involves a tavern full of assorted dangerous scoundrel-types singing about their secret dreams in life, has the potential to be a personal favorite of mine, not to mention a stone-cold classic. It is hee-larious!
... it is a crowd-pleaser, fun for all ages and all sexes (yes, boys too, so FORCE them to go see it), lots of laughs, wonderful music, and potentially fabulous art direction. I absolutely can't wait to see the finished product.

Especially where in the heck they're going to put all that dang hair in each scene.


>>A dear friend told me that humor isn't à la Shrek or à la Princess and the Frog (for Princess, humor was too slapstick and there is too toilet humor) and in Tangled humor is intelligent... Do you agree?<<

Not exactly. There's a LOT of slapstick. Rapunzel herself swings a mean frying pan.
You can't generalize about the humor too much - there's a variety here. Nothing particularly scatological that I can recall. But there is a lot of slapstick. Very funny slapstick. I enjoyed it, and I'm not much of a Three Stooges or Tom and Jerry fan.

I failed to mention that R has a pet chameleon (non-talking). He's the source of a lot of the gentler humor, and is one of the least obnoxious Disney sidekicks ever (the non-talking thing has a lot to do with that IMHO). There's also this horse that I think is going to be a big hit.

There's a little bit of pop culturism related to the ruffians in the tavern - nothing too distracting IMHO. Certainly nothing Shrekkish. They play the fairy tale vibe pretty straight, although the plot bears only superficial resemblance to the original Rapunzel story.
Romantic? Yes, but I don't recall the mushy stuff getting as much screen time as in the Menkin-Ashman flicks. This movie is heavier on the action.

>>would you say the overall storyline follows the fractured fairy tale idea, or is it more like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which takes existing characters and creates a new (albeit entirely appropriate for the characters and situations) story around them, much like a sequel might?<<

I'd say it's a whole new story that uses elements from the Rapunzel fairy tale as a jumping off point. It's a straight fairytale-style adventure - not a satire.
You can read the whole discussion board HERE.

Disney Feature Animation is obviously a lot further a long in production right now and remains on target for the Thanksgiving release (note the 'date' on new teaser poster in the previous post) so fingers crossed.

3 comments:

  1. What caught my interest most, oddly enough, is the fact that the animal sidekick(s?) is(are?) not talking. I love anthropomorphic animals, but too many chatty sidekicks end up just filling the space with forced lines rather than offering funny faces or entertaining antics.

    Learning that the songs are good is engaging, too. I loved the musical formula of 70s-90s Disney movies and The Princess And The Frog frankly failed to capture that spark.

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  2. I'm so glad to hear this reassurance, as so many people are complaining already. (Likely they're just worried after some of the disappointments in The Princess and The Frog.)

    I also have to add my agreement to commenter Sheryl above--the first thing that struck me in the teaser was that the horse looks to be *such* a classic non-verbal Disney horse (with a bratty temperament.) Love that. It is often better when the animal sidekicks only sort of "talk," not actually using English.

    Surviving Grannie's Guide

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