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Back from the theater (Gees, two films at the theater in one week for me.  That's a record!) and I think we got another winner!  Yeah... so what if it is a Disney Princess movie... I saw it with my mom... stop judging me!

Errr... anyways, Disney has another hit on their hands here.  Great humor, fantastic characters, strong soundtrack, and possibly some of the best CGI I've seen in a long time.  Possibly better than Toy Story 3 and that's saying a lot.  I also saw the movie in 3-D and it was used well.  Had a bunch of great uses of that, especially with the lantern scene towards the climax.  Won't explain, but by God was it beautiful!  My only compliant is that music wasn't as memorable as The Princess and the Frog but that's a small compliant in the grand scheme of things.  We have a great family film here on our hands and I recommend it to everyone!

Maybe not the best animated film from Disney, but certainly one of the more interesting, as it takes many of the themes from the earlier films and expands on them. What it takes from the previous films.

(1) If there is an animal in the film, think  Maximus, it's probably smarter than most of the humans in the film.
(2) The villain or here the villainess will die in a fall.
(3) The music will be one of the film's highlights. While there have been some complaints about the music in the film, I quite liked it. But unlike most people who like the music, my favorite song was not the romantic ballad "I See the Light," but the comedic song "I Got a Dream."
(4) The action scenes will be quite good. (IMHO) this film has the best escape by the hero from the palace since Prince Philip escaped Maleficent's palace in "Sleeping Beauty," which dates from 1959.

Where the film expands on what has gone before is in the characters.

(1) The heroine is an innocent, but unlike past Disney heroines, her innocence makes her conflicted.
(2) The hero is good, but unlike past Disney heroes, he's not totally good.
(3) There villainess is evil, but unlike past Disney villainesses, she's not totally evil, and may be the most complex villainess ever to appear in a Disney animated film, and she is one of the few villainesses you can actually have sympathy for. For while she does wrong, she really believes in her heart that she is doing what is right.

And there is one big change from Disney animared films, the heroines's mother is still alive at the end of the film.

So wherre do they go from here. This was suppose to be the last animated film from Disney, but with its success, and the success of the merchandising effort, there may be more animated films from Disney. But in what form will they take. Probably CGI animation and in 3-D.

And one more odd thing about this film that I noticed, is how tall are most of the actors providing the voices, when they don't even need to be that tall as they are not seen in the film.

Ron Perlman 6"1"
Jeffrey Tambor 6"1"
M.C. Gainey 6'2 1/2"
Zachary Levi 6'4"
Brad Garrett 6'8 1/2"
Richard Kiel 7'2"

IIRC, they said Tangled might be the last Princess Disney film - you know, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, etc.  Not the last Animated feature film period. 

Yes, thank-you for that correction, Jim H. What you say does make more sense than my previous statement. As I kinow "Mars Needs Moms," which seems to be a parody of "Mars Needs Women" is scheduled for release sometime next year. Though that is not an exclusive Disney animated production, as they are seemingly involved with a half dozen other film companies in its production. Still, the relative success of "Tangled," at the last count over $100 million at the box office and counting, makes it interesting to see where Disney animation goes from here.

We finally rented this one (missed it at the theater!), and really liked it.  It was a ton of fun all around (and hey, managed to be fun for the adults without all the crude humor of RANGO...)

One question:  Why in the world was Rapunzel barefoot throughout the WHOLE movie? I get that when she was in the tower she didn't need shoes, and wouldn't have any to begin with because she never went outside, but after being outside for a few minutes, wouldn't that be something addressed?

It's a small thing, but I found it distracting.   :lookingup:

I loved the Maximus character - very cool and creative way they juxtaposed traits of one animal onto another; this was far better than simply anthropomorphizing the animal into a 'human character that happens to be furry.'

We just saw it on the weekend, and enjoyed it a lot. Very funny. It manages to be fun for kids without annoying adults, and fun for adults without being inappropriate for kids, and it usually achieves this with the same gags for both. Nice use of physical comedy, such as the early battle between Flynn and Maximus, that almost had more of a Looney Tunes than a Disney feel to it.

And as Disney princesses go, Rapunzel is not so much of a graceful girly-girl all the time. She can be awkward and clumsy and unsure of herself at times. She quickly makes herself right at home in the tavern with the tough guys, and manages to charm them not so much in an "aw shucks" Snow White sort of way, but by seeing past their outward appearance, treating them as good people and taking an interest in their dreams. She swings a mean frying pan. And at the end, when she is restored to full princess status, she's actually less like a typical Disney princess than before, with her choppy little chin-length brown bob cut.

Best film Disney has done in a long time.

Great characters and an interesting take on the story.

Still prefer Pixar (no singing in Pixar films, for one small reason).

I did not find Mother Gothel at all sympathetic.  She did NOT think what she was doing was right.  She stole a baby so that she could live forever, and she justified it within herself by creating the fiction that the world was not safe for Rapunzel.  She lived in the tower to hide from the King and everyone else, to avoid losing her immortality.  She hid the flower from others to keep it for herself, for her own long life (knowing that a dying queen needed it).

She is NOT a sympathetic character.  She is complex, but not sympathetic.

Why does everyone in this movie look like a plastic Barbie doll? The character designs just seem to scream "Buy me at your local Toys R Us! Real hair-bondage action!".

Simply an art-design decision by the production team.

From wikipedia:

Late to the party but finally saw this.

Loved it.

The story, the characters, the colours, the art design...
It all works so well.

The physical comedy is great and I usually get bored by that sort of thing. But the frying pan humour nad me chuckling along.

The villianess was intresting as she was selfish as oppossed to being evil. She didn't want to kill anyone or take over the kingdom, she just wanted a human form of anti-aging cream...

Rapunzel isn't stupid but resourceful with a little cluelessness. Her frying pan interrigation of Flynn was fantastic!

The only let down where the songs. They weren't bad, not by a long shot. Just a little bland and forgettable. I liked 'Mother Knows Best' and the opening song where she tries to kid herself into liking her prison.

Very true, the songs just aren't as memorable as they could be.  However, I love the song, I've Got a Dream.  Brad Garrett was awesome in it.

  I agree with ya AndyC. And unlike most of the "princesses" Rapunzel is not motivated by wanting to hook up with  cute guy. She wants to learn about herself, and those floating lanterns, which make up an impressive visual btw. Her character is just learning about the world, and is full of questions and doubts and wonder, which probably parallels the target demographic of the film. I think my little nieces responded to that.