Tangled

Imagine my surprise when the self-declared ‘bad guy’ in Disney’s latest film gets tripped by Rapunzel’s chameleon sidekick and falls out of a high window to her death. From Snow White to Enchanted (there it was the chipmunk), Disney has sent bad guy after bad guy plummeting to their doom at the end of the film. Of course, in this case the bad guy was going to die anyway, which makes it even more infuriating. If Cal Lightman had been watching my face at the end of Tangled, he would have seen not surprise but a flash of utter disgust. When is enough enough? Why does Disney have to do the same thing over and over? WHY (because children have come to expect this at the end of a Disney film is most assuredly NOT a valid response, true as it may be)?

DISNEY, FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THE GENERATIONS OF CHILDREN WATCHING YOUR FILMS IN THE YEARS TO COME, PLEASE STOP IT ALREADY!

Without those few seconds of deeply offensive and unnecessary madness, this would have been a wonderful addition to Disney’s list of fifty animated features. All the writers had to do was let the old woman vanish under her cloak like the Wicked Witch of the West (that would still have involved killing off the villain at the end of the film but not in such a horrifying and murderous fashion). But no. What on earth went through their minds? And it’s not just the fall that’s the problem. It’s the fact that the ‘bad guy’ is never redeemable. Here you have a film where one of the protagonists is a criminal. What happens to him?Redeemed! Another major character (and real star of the film in my opinion) is a ‘bad’ horse. Redeemed! An entire pub full of nasty and vicious criminals. Redeemed! Every last one of them. Redeemed! It’s almost like the writers were trying to make a point and do something original. But no. Because THE REAL BAD GUY is as irredeemable as ever! They say Woody Allen is derivative, but Disney has been making the same film for 73 years now.

And what’s with the cast iron frying pan? Is it supposed to symbolize a less lethal weapon than the sword? These frying pans are deadly and our hero should have been pushing up the daisies after the first blow from Rapunzel!

Another day, another rant! Bet you can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow. Isn’t vacation fun?

Back to business.Tangled is a gorgeous (in 2D) and hugely entertaining film full of interesting characters, decent songs, and a wonderful theme about everyone having a dream (what a great humanizing musical scene in the pub). Not that the dream theme is new either, but I’ve always been a sucker for it. And the filmmakers didn’t even overdo the action the way many 3D animated films do. Up until the end, I was going to write about why I liked this film better than Rango. But then came the end. The inevitable end. The idiotic end. The utterly unoriginal end. Madness. Enough. For the second time this week, I can’t find my mug.