Movie Review: Tangled

There are three types of modern quality animation films.

• Post modern culturally aware almost cynical movies e.g. Shrek
• Movies aimed as much at adults as they are children e.g. Wall-E
• Traditional classic storytelling e.g. Princess and The Frog

For all it’s CGI and controversy over distancing itself from the Disney Princess brand, Tangled definitely lands slap bang in the traditional animation camp – and I’m very glad it does too

Tangled is a magnificent example of Disney doing what Disney do best. Proper old fashioned quality kids entertainment. It has goodies and baddies, comedy animal sidekicks, and a cracking pace on a predictable but engaging plot. It even has musical numbers that wouldn’t feel out of place in a west end musical.

Sure, if this were made by Pixar the characters would have probably had more depth and the storyline would have been more nuanced. But that wouldn’t have necessarily made it a better film, certainly not from a child’s perspective anyhow.

Tangled was an uplifting, amusing, and very enjoyable ride from start to finish – and one I highly recommend. The role models were all positive, and the moral message spot on. Not only that but the animation was stunning, with one or two scenes being particularly breathtaking and made me almost wish we’d seen it in 3D (and you won’t find me saying that often).

But what pleases me most about the movie is that it was squarely aimed at it’s audience – kids. The adult audience was engaged by us choosing to tap into our inner child, rather than the movie affecting a forced adult dimension.

I love Pixar, don’t get me wrong – but my kids don’t. They much prefer the more classic Disney films, and there has to be something in that. We saw Tangled last night and Evan and Amy were still talking about it enthusiastically on the way to school this morning. That’s a hearty recommendation in anyone’s book.