Tangled (2010)
Tangled (2010) — For a while Disney seemed to be struggling to make animated family films that were even one tenth the quality of the classic ones. That seems to be turning around now that Pixar’s John Lasseter has taken over the animation department. Between this movie and The Princess and the Frog, they seem to be going back to their roots: public domain fairy tales. It seems to be working for them, at least from my point of view. I’ve always had a soft spot for these types of movies and while this doesn’t rank alongside the best of them [Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, etc.] it’s easily they best they’ve done in years. I was a little disappointed that Little Shop of Horrors composer Alan Menken (who also wrote the music to Aladdin, Enchanted, Beauty and the Beast, & The Little Mermaid) didn’t come up with some more memorable songs, though. I saw the movie last night and I can’t remember the melody from any of them. The voice cast is pretty good, though I don’t think Chuck‘s Zachary Levi was doing his own singing… In terms of the characters the highlight for me was a totally non-speaking character: the palace guard’s horse Maximus, who was just funny. So there’s predictable Disney schmaltz in this movie, but if you’re like me that’s not really a bad thing. I think most people already know if they like this type of movie or not so if you do, check it out.
Persistence of Vision 