Tangled - a review of the film

Tangled is a beautiful film to watch - the animation is superb, the lighting that is rendered is simply gorgeous. The story is pretty darn fun too - shame about the appalling ending.

**SPOILERS ALERT**
I will summarise quickly as I have to write about Kung Fu Panda 2 and Yip Man as well. The story starts with a quick intro into the birth of Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore) and it involves a magic Sun flower that bestows our little cherubin with magical qualities - via her hair of course - it glows and it's super cool - and interminably long which means it's a force unto itself but the animators come up with astoundingly creative ways for this young chirpy girl to not only deal with her hair (permanent neck ache anyone?) but it's sorta a real cool weapon and it has healing abilities.

Enter the lazy and uninspiring 'anti-hero' character who doesn't do much but add to the aesthetic and is well sort of fun..? (voice goes high like asking a question) And this is where the film falls on itself because it follows a rather predictable plot of two people needing to achieve something so they have a mutual need to work together vis a vis a 'deal' that is struck but each have their own agendas. The only depth is a clever plot line involving Rapunzel and her 'mother' - it brings up all issues of trust and love and is the only deep substance in the film - it has layers and all that but anyone else wonder what the hell that woman did all day?

BEFORE - cool healing hair! YAY

The 'hero' than spoils it all by trying to save Rapunzel at the end but makes a right pig's ear of it - he manages to get a fatal wound then bl**** cuts Rapunzel's hair off!!! WTF? I DID NOT get over that event at all because that hair was super amazing and could heal! Yes, there is the issue that baddy people would take advantage of that but apart from her evil 'mother', there was no one else who exploited her for her hair - that threat was never actually properly established and given weight and credibility because Rapunzel manages to travel all around the land and even reaches the kingdom etc and no one has exploited her for her hair - no one even appears to be even mildly bemused and/or intrigued that her hair cascades several feet behind her. And can we get over this lame 'teardrops save lives' malarkey? I must say I felt rather cheated because up until then the film was decent and in fact the characterisation of these animated people were really very, very good in terms of acting and performance - the expressions, the reactions - all very impressive.

AFTER - MY HAIR?!! Perfectly layered in choppy style by the way!
GODDAMMIT I was going to heal the sick!

Blah blah blah - plucky princess goes back to her real king and queen parents and happy ending etc etc.

Best part of the film - when the kingdom releases the numerous floating lamps and the entire sky lights up - so gorgeous - as the lighting of the lamps travels through the city, it mimics the glowing of Rapunzel's hair. Oooh pretty.

VERDICT: 7/10.