DISNEY APPRECIATION FTW.
YESSSS.
So I FINAAAAALLLLLLLY saw “Tangled” this weekend!
Absolute love.
Well, I knew I’d love it the first time I ever saw a trailer before it was out in theatres.  Disney. Musical. Alan Menken. Zachary Levi. Yup. WIN.
So, all the music was fabulously fantastic and I loved it all.
But I think if I have to narrow it down to one favourite, it’s the ”Incantation Song” I guess it’s called. The song for the flower/glowy hair with healing properties. I don’t know, there was something about it that was just very haunting. And I just loved it. 
What I loved most about Rapunzel was her sheer enthusiasm. The moments of her excitement when she’s finally out of the tower (coupled with the opposing “I’m such a terrible daughter” moments) just killed me. Perhaps I aspire to be so overtly happy that I found such ridiculous joy in her shrieks of glee.
Also, using a frying pan as a weapon. Multiple times. This is MY kind of girl! *cackle*
I thought Flynn Rider/Eugene/Zachary Levi was just brilliant. His complete silliness and adorableness just done me in.
“Because to me that’s part man smell, and the other part is really bad man smell. I don’t know why, but overall it just smells like the colour brown. Your thoughts?”
“Frankly, I’m too scared to ask about the frog.”
“Chameleon.”
“Nuance.”
“You broke my smolder.”
Some of the other Disney “princes” … “men” … whatever … can, in comparison to Flynn/Eugene, seem quite condescending or rather … dim. But Flynn, I don’t know, he just felt genuine. You know? Kind of impressive for a thief with a fake reputation to actually feel genuine. XD
Also, he says “stupendous.” Who says that? Nobody. Which makes him EPIC.
I did want to say that the father/king won me over so completely, it’s remarkable. I mean, for a silent character, they animated him with such emotion, that my heartstrings were about to break. The moment before they light the lantern on her 18th birthday, with the tear streaking down his face – GUH.
Johnny's Fan wrote: Could it have been hand drawn? Yes. Would it have looked even better? Definitely. I thought the animation was superb but thinking how the hand drawn aspect would have looked for the lantern scenes and the scenes in the forest, it almost makes my mouth water.
Disney always does scenic so well, and the way they captured the tower with the waterfall and the plants and the forest, just beautiful. I love how even with computer animation, each film has a different "look," just how Disney used to do with the classic animated films. I just wish my hair looked that soft and shiny. 
Teh songs! Not one I didn't like.
This movie would have been AMAZING if it were hand drawn. No questions. That’s not to say the animation wasn’t good, because it was! But just imagining what it might have looked like hand drawn … GUH. It would’ve been magical. Evocative of the old days. (Christ, the “old” days??? How old do I sound? )
Nurrantiel Mashiara wrote: ZACHARY LEVI ZACHARY LEVI ZACHARY LEVI!! Do I sound like a crazed fangirl yet?
ErulissëEnethNîn wrote: The smolder was epic!
ZACHARY LEVI. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Nurrantiel Mashiara wrote: BUT JFISHNESS, YOU DIDN'T MENTION "I SEE THE LIGHT". It has to win an award. Somewhere. It's just too beautiful and too classically Disney. Such a gorgeous song. Plus all the art direction in there, and the lanterns and the....prettttttyyyy. And I again may be biased, because hey, it was Zachary Levi singing, but I was literally just gazing at the screen in wonder.
“I See The Light” was very inspired. Classic Disney. Classic Alan Menken. Coupled with Zachary Levi and his voice that melts my soul, throw in that incredible lighting of the lanterns, and I was completely lost.
Johnny's Fan wrote: Well I for one had no idea where the story was going, so I was kept in suspense (although a happy one because a lot of the film was happy fighting/running/escaping and then not so much) and I COMPLETELY thought Flynn was going to die. Thought Disney were trying to break the mould or something. So... yeah. Maybe I'm just dense but the last 40 minutes or so, I didn't know how it was going to end.
There was definitely a moment where I thought Flynn was actually going to die. Or rather, stay dead.  And let’s be honest, that would have been ground-breaking for Disney. Sure, they can kill the parents all they want, but don’t you dare get in the way of killing those men.
Nurrantiel Mashiara wrote: Mother Gothel. "Mother Knows Best" was an inspired song. I loved it. And she was a great villain character. A nice variation on the "evil stepmother" theme.
Johnny's Fan wrote: I think Mother Gothel is such an interesting character. I mean, apart from wanting to be young and kidnapping a kid... she wasn't really a bad person. I know she obviously would do pretty much anything to keep Rapunzel with her... but I think a REALLY big, powerful villain song would have made no sense, considering she had no plans for ruling a kingdom/people (Ursuala, Scar, Radcliffe) or any other big acts of villainy. And another thing was her big number was really a very concealed song about what she wanted, a lot of the others kinda tell you what they're after, but to keep it real for Rapunzel she had to carry on with the "mothering" persona, so it couldn't be really big and bad otherwise Rapunzel would have known straight away she was not all she seemed. And again with the reprise, she was getting more villanous but not to the exent that Rapunzel knew. I think "Mother Knows Best" is one of Disney's cleverest bad guy songs, and as I said, Donna Murphy is absolutely fantastic when she sings it. I think my main complaint is, after all she has done for Rapunzel - she was hardly abusing her - and that little saying "I love you - I love you more - I love you most", which even this cold hearted woman thought was "aahhh", there didn't seem to be even a tiny bit of remorse or anything... and some of the scenes it was hard not to think there was something of love or affection for Rqapunzel. I suppose it may have made the rest of the film seem pointless if she did repent slightly... but still... although she was selfish and wrong... I'm not sure she deserved to die as she did when so many really bad Disney villains didn't.
Yes, I like Mother Gothel in case you didn't know.
Mother Gothel was definitely a different, but interesting character. I always saw her as a very cold, merciless woman. Maybe not bad, per se, but definitely self-obsessed. Whenever she was emoting any love or affection, I never saw it directed towards Rapunzel at all. I mean, sure, it was supposed to look like that, but in ”Mother Knows Best,” there’s a moment where she’s caressing Rapunzel’s hair, and at least I saw it as her doing all this to protect the hair. Because, of course, that’s all she cares about. Protecting what keeps her young and “beautiful.” And she spent so much time just critiquing Rapunzel, even if was in a joking tone, it really indicated, to me, that she was not a very nice person.
Very clever, though. Narcissism gets the best of her. XD And I actually thought her death was quite different. When I first saw it, I thought, ”Oh my god, we’re going to watch this woman crash into the ground after falling HOW many stories??! But this is DISNEY!!”  But then she turned to dust, and I thought that was an interesting idea. Poof – all gone.
I agree about how soft and shiny Rapunzel’s hair looks. I was practically drooling over it. XD I just kept thinking, "Maaaaaan, why can’t MY hair look that fantastic??!"
Johnny's Fan wrote: "Mother Knows Best". Wow-ee.  I thought the imagery for that song, the way it looked, was a lot less threatening than some villains songs but it really suited the music well and the "performance" of the mother.
Gothel’s song was such a great new take on the “villain’s” song. I mean, she wasn’t the “evil stepmother” or the Big Bad either. No doubt she was a baddie, but a very interesting take on it – so I was nice to see that the song reflected that. What I loved about that song wasn’t so much the lyrics, but the animation and expression of Gothel herself. It was so hysterically fantastic and over-the-top. I LOVED it. I was just in fits of laughter every time she crescendoed to "MOOOOOTHEEERRRRRRRRRRRR knows best!" 
But I have to agree, the Reprise of that song, was much darker. Much more of Gothel’s act, as it were, slipping away to reveal what she’s really all about.
Johnny's Fan wrote: Haldir wrote: Anameleth wrote: One thing that bugged me (because these things tend to do) was that her hair was really super long, but when they braided it, it looked like it'd been just kind of long before. Was that when the kids were braiding it in the square? It didn't strike me as odd at all, because when it was braided it looked a lot thicker than before she had braided it - my assumption was that they folded/wound up the braids several times in order to get her hair off the ground and tied them into place like that. You could see quite clearly how the hair was wound and almost doubled, so it was really thick. Very pretty.
Johnny’s Fan wrote: So.. yeah... oh, and I know there is a big debate on IMDB about her hair, personally I LOVED the braided look... and short look... not so much... mainly because it was scraggy at the back. I had hoped in the final scene she would have grown it out or something. Blonde suited her face better as well... but we can't have everything.
Speaking as someone who’s nickname on occasion is in fact Rapunzel (I kid you not), let me assure you that even remarkably long hair shortens in length when you braid it. Especially when it’s full of other braids and wound around and tucked here and there. Oh. And it’s a Disney movie. XD I just spent most of the time wish my hair was that epic. Sure I spend a great deal of time hating on my long hair, but if it was that shiny and soft and awesome, I think I’d be much more okay with it. Especially if I could braid it up to look THAT cool. Flowers in hair = greatest thing ever.
As for her new ‘do, I didn’t like it much at all. (Does being a blonde make me biased? ) I don’t know, it was just too styled and hip and I loved her big old braid too much, I guess.
Anameleth wrote: And also how the king and queen just kind of automatically accepted that she was their daughter, even though it'd been 18 years and she look completely different and her hair was brown, even! I guess it's the Disney happy ending again, but it was just a tiny bit too easy for me.
I completely agree with you on that one. It kind of bothered me that they somehow ended up at the castle, and no explanations were necessary. But, I’ll just convince myself that the look on the guard’s face meant that somehow they explained it all it all made sense. XD
ErulissëEnethNîn wrote: The scene with the lanterns was so beautiful. I was sitting there with a big goofy smile on my face. Had I been a little girl, I would have been in seventh heaven (just like I was when The Little Mermaid came out).
Johnny’s Fan wrote: The animation, as I mentioned before, was in my view, amazing. The scene with the lanterns was just truly magical, and for a moment it carried me back the evenings I spent in Disneyland Paris, where everything on the parade floats twinkled and glowed and the world just seemed a prettier place to be. So that was a truly lovely connection, one which I've never had before.
Arwen the webmaster wrote: The lantern scene especially was jaw-dropping.
The lanterns scene. Guh. I was just dumbstruck. Kind of took my breath away. I was actually so distracted by the beauty of it that I completely forgot that there was a song being sung. And then of course Mr. Levi just had to steal my heart with that voice. *melts*
I now desperately want those lanterns. I don’t care if they don’t float, they are just waaaaaay too pretty. Okay, yes. I want them to float.
In all seriousness, the lantern scene was flat out, hands down, by far one of the most stunning moments I’ve ever seen. In anything. Anywhere. No word can really describe it properly.
ErulissëEnethNîn wrote: And the guy with the unicorns.
The guy with the unicorns MADE MY DAY. I just lost it when he smiled after clinking the two together. GAH! LOOOOOVE.
Also, the old man with the wings. I about died every time he was on screen.
”What’s the password?!”
“What?”
“Nope.”
“Open the door!”
“Not even close.”
Arwen the webmaster wrote: I love Tangled so much - have seen it twice now, once in 2D and once in 3D, and I have to say, even though the glasses are annoying - 3D was spectacular! Did anyone else catch the lyric in I See the Light about things being "crystal clear" and think AAAAAHHHH A WHOLE NEW WORLD ALAN MENKEN IS REPEATING HIMSELF WHY AAAHHHH??? ...or was that just me being a Disney song dork?
Mah dearest Arweb, yes. You are being a Disney song dork because I never noticed that. XD But we love you any way. (Or maybe that’s because “A Whole New World” is a song that makes me cringe just a little and I avoid it at all possible. *hides*) It’s ALAN MENKEN and I love that man to bits and worship the ground he walks on so I forgive him if he repeated himself maybe. You can only write so many original love songs. Ha ha ha ha ha!!
ErulissëEnethNîn wrote: I despise 3D with a passion so I refuse to see anything in 3D. They'd better have a 2D version of the Hobbit available or I think I'll have to gather my torch and pitchfork. But that's another discussion.
I’m with teh Eru on this one. 3D NEEDS TO DIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. *cough* Torch and pitchforks at the ready if no 2D version of the Hobbit. 
Although, I will admit that it might have been interesting to see the lantern scene in 3D. But I’ll think I’ll survive having not.
Johnny’s Fan wrote: I hope Alan Menken lives forever because Disney needs his music.
YES.
ALAN MENKEN IS A FRAKKING GOD.
HE IS MY CHILDHOOD.
HE IS MY HERO.
I honestly don’t want to think about how depressing this world would be without his music.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. As long winded as they are.
I LOVED THIS MOVIE.
And now I need the soundtrack.
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As long as they make a profit and make people happy.
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