Real Teen Award
-Best Director 2010: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
-Best Director 2010: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
The Gist:
A long time ago, a drop of sunlight fell to Earth. Where it landed, a glowing yellow flower blossomed. This flower had magical properties, such as the power to restore youth. An old woman named Mother Gothel found the flower, and learning of its powers, hid it away from the world, and used it to make herself young again. Centuries passed, and in a nearby kingdom, the King and Queen were expecting a baby. When the Queen became ill, the kingdom began hunting for the glowing yellow flower. They found it and mixed it into an elixir, which the Queen drank. The yellow flower healed her, and she gave birth to a baby girl with glowing yellow hair. Late at night, Mother Gothel snuck into the castle and cut some of the baby’s hair to keep herself young, but the hair shrunk and turned brown. Seeing this, she stole the baby out of the nursery and, like the flower, hid her from the world. Filled with grief, her parents released a floating lantern for their daughter, in hopes that she would return, and did so every day on her birthday. Eighteen years later Rapunzel is stuck in her tower. Her hair is ridiculously long from never being cut. She lives with Mother Gothel, who tells her the world is a dangerous place. Every year on her birthday she sees the ‘floating lights’ from her tower window, and wants nothing more than to go out and see them up close. One day when Mother Gothel is out, a thief named Flynn Rider climbs into her tower. After a struggle, she takes his satchel and the crown he stole, and agrees to give it back only if he takes her to see the floating lights. Rapunzel sets off into the world to see the lights, but ends up finding a lot more than she bargained for in her adventure of a lifetime.
What We Think
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Run Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: PG
I saw this movie on the day it came out, because my aunt wanted to take my cousins and my sister and I out to see something in theatres for Thanksgiving break. I was pretty excited to see it. Who doesn’t love Disney movies right? Plus, it looked really funny in all the previews I’d seen for it. Of course, my slightly-less-than-cultured family insisted on seeing it in 3-D. Yuck. But I refused to let that ruin the movie for me. So, donning the goofy, square glasses over my own sleek ones, I entered the theatre for a 3-D filled experience.
The story itself was good. Obviously, it was based on the story Rapunzel. It definitely wasn’t an exact translation though, because when I was a kid the story didn’t include a charming bandit, floating lights and magic hair. And Rapunzel wasn’t quite so rebellious or spunky as she is in the movie. But I liked the movie better than I liked the bedtime story. The plot was entertaining (obviously, if it’s based on a fairytale), and the changes from fairytale to Disney movie made the movie way funnier, and gave it the legs to stand apart from the classic tale. I loved the whole concept of the floating lights. I wasn’t sure how they made the lanterns float, but they were still beautiful. That whole scene was breathtaking. The ending was actually surprising, which was interesting. I always seem to forget while watching Disney movies that they never end exactly the way you think they will, and this one was no exception. The ending shocked me, which is difficult to do. And it wasn’t the whole ending, it was just one part, but it was enough to make the whole story better. There isn’t really a whole lot to say about the storyline except it was good, so: the storyline was good. There we go.
Rapunzel was a great character in the story. She was light and bubbly, but she captured attention well. She was fun and strong-willed, and she made a wonderful main character. My favorite character wasn’t her though. It was Flynn. He was a charming thief, almost like Robin Hood (except he stole from the rich and gave to himself, not the poor). He thought a lot of himself, which made it funnier that no one else really liked him. He was incredibly vain, and self-centered. But the best thing about him was that he learned. He gets better, less selfish and conceited, throughout the story. There’s nothing better than a strong character who starts off bad, but learns to be good. Well, I guess there are better things than that, but in a movie that’s pretty awesome. Mother Gothel was perfectly creepy as a villain and, strangely enough, the horse (Maximus) was a good supporting character. Which was weird because he never talked, he just did horsey things. And fought Flynn. But still. The characters worked really well together.
So because this is a Disney movie, there’s still one more thing for me to comment on. Music! Hooray! Wooooo! Now that that’s out there, I can begin. If you couldn’t tell from the explosion of excitement, I love music. Music in movies is a very good thing for me. So Disney movies are pretty amazing because they all have good music. Tangled is not the movie to break that tradition. The songs in the movie were fun to listen to, and are the kind of songs I would walk around singing if I could remember all the lyrics. As with most Disney movies, there’s one song that everyone can relate to in some way. In this movie, it was Rapunzel’s song, “When Will My Life Begin?”. The title pretty much speaks for the whole song. I can’t pick a favorite song from the movie, because I loved them all (and need to buy them on iTunes), but the rest of them are: Prologue, Mother Knows Best, When Will My Life Begin (reprise 1 and 2), I’ve Got a Dream, Mother Knows Best (reprise), Healing Incantation, The Tear Heals and I See the Light. There’s also a song at the end sung by Grace Potter called Something That I Want, but that’s not a Disney song in my mind because it isn’t sung by the characters. I See the Light was the duet in the movie, and it was one of the most powerful scenes in the whole film. I loved that song so much it was scary. One of the greatest parts of this movie, as with all Disney movies, is that it’s the actual actors who sing the songs, not other actors singing for the voice actors, which I appreciate. The music was just phenomenal in this movie.
This movie was just awesome. I know you might be thinking ‘this is a kids movie, it isn’t for me, it’s stupid or silly, I’m not going to see it’. But you’re very wrong. If you get the chance, this is a movie that’s worth seeing.
Real Teen Rating~ A-: See it with some friends 
Reviewed by Deam Catcher
Reviewed by Deam Catcher
I had been waiting to see this movie for a long time before I went to the movie to actually see it. I had pretty high expectations – because it looked really cute and I’ve always loved the story of Rapunzel. It definitely lived up to my expectations. The plot was great, as well as the funky characters, and the music – though a bit predictable at times – was very disney and cute.
The plot was unlike any Rapunzel story I’ve ever heard. The classic tale of a damsel in distress, trapped in a tower by a witch and rescued by a dashing prince was far from what this movie was. I mean, there was a girl in a tower. With really long hair and an evil woman named Gothel. But things were quite different. Most of the time when people change a classic story I don’t like it. I constantly bring up the unwelcome changes they made and complain the whole time. But I actually liked how they changed the story here. It was new and magical. I loved how Disney managed to make the fairy tale their own. I thought the whole thing with the lanterns was really cool. It was sweet and gave the story a lot more plot then there would have been if they’d stuck to the original story. It was a great little addition that made the whole movie what it was.
The characters were the best part, though. This Rapunzel was not like the original one at all – in a good way. She didn’t just sit around in her tower and wait for someone to rescue her. She took things into her own hands and went out to see the world. She was a great character who wasn’t afraid to have a dream. But, like Living Destiny, my favorite character was Flynn Rider. He was charming and cunning and not like most other Disney “good guys”. The one complaint about characters – or maybe the script? – for this movie is that you don’t learn enough about Flynn. I mean, you learn one or two things about his life before he became a bandit, but not enough. He says he’s not into back-stories, but I’m sure the audience is. I kept waiting for an emotion back-story scene. But no. Ah, well, he was still a great character. Mother Gothel was the perfect “bad guy”. At times she really did seem like she cared about Rapunzel. Other times..not so much. But her character was spot-on and interesting in her selfishness. Pascal – Rapunzel’s pet chameleon – seemed unneeded to me. Yeah, it added to the movie’s funny-factor but besides that there was really no need for him. Maximus was another character there to be funny. But I could see his point. He was a good character that grew throughout the movie – despite the fact he couldn’t talk. Overall the characters were lovable. Really great.
The animation was obviously amazing, so there’s really not much else to say about that. Finally, the music. I had totally forgot there was going to be music in it until Rapunzel burst into song, singing “When Will My Life Begin?”. Listening to Disney music is like listening to music on Broadway – you have to pay attention to the lyrics or you’re lost. The only problem with this first song was that I could predict the lyrics right before she sang them. But besides that it was good. That song wasn’t my favorite, though. The one I liked the best was “Mother Knows Best (Reprise)” sung by Mother Gothel (or Donna Murphy). “Mother Know Best” was good too (and kinda creepy) but I liked the reprise better because it was more dramatic. “Healing Incantation” was another good mini-song that was really pretty with Mandy Moore’s voice. “I’ve Got a Dream” sounded like classic Disney music. A bunch of people chiming in at different times about their various dreams. It was cute, but not my favorite. “I See the Light” was a cute duet and Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore sounded really good together.
The movie overall was great. It may be animated and it may be rated PG and it may have been made specifically with younger kids in mind, but those things shouldn’t keep teens from seeing it. It was sweet and pretty epic. A definite must-see for young kids. As for teens, I say you should see it too! Everyone needs to be a kid at heart every once in a while. And why not be a kid at heart at a movie theater surrounded by five year olds, watching an honestly good animated film? Why not indeed. I would certainly reccommend people go and see this movie!
Real Teen Rating~ A- : See it with some friends!
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