So many friends told me that I need to see this movie. I responded with an incredulous, "But I already saw the preview...no thanks on the whole thing." The number of fans grew and finally I began to think maybe my initial take from the preview was totally wrong. So I Netflix'd it. I'm so glad I didn't drop money on this one.
Gains: +4
The horse was hilarious. Humanizing it was a good choice. The animation quality captured my attention. It was a beautiful movie. Rapunzel's character's innocence and genuine-ness and how these characteristics carried her through the world made this a good kids movie when viewed from her perspective. The wicked mother really stood out from the normal Disney sort of bad guy. She easily could be any audience member. The mental justification she used, while slightly twisted, made sense. She wasn't just plain evil, she was just greedy. I enjoyed that.
Losses:
-3
Did you hear the music? Me neither. I've blocked it from my memory. Good grief. This from the company that produced fun musical masterpieces, movie after movie. Seems they took a step back.
The hair looked great. Unfortunately, the length changed from scene to scene. I know it was a CGI movie, but hair that long would be so unwieldy, snarly, and (well) tangled that Miss Rap would not have been able to leave her house. Also, her scalp had to be made of steel to not only hold the hair but to do all of the things she did with her hair. I know it was essentially a fantasy movie, but this element bothered me.
In a world where we have a heroine princess, a king and queen, fantasy elements, a magical flower, a humanized horse, and so on, I guess it's possible to have a totally worthless male lead end up marrying into royalty. I guess. What was his point? What was attractive about him? What made him heroic enough to marry her? I know he's supposed to be rogue-ish like Han Solo. But Han took 3 movies and went through terrible times to prove his loyalty and love for Leia. He did heroic things. Plus her parents were dead and her world was obliterated. So Hollywood, please feel free to have a rogue metrosexual character, but unless he does something heroic, please do not reward him in front of my children.
Final Judgment: +1
All in all, I was right. It looked like Disney on the preview and was Disney in execution. In my opinion, the Disney brand has diminished. They are, at best, the third best CGI movie studio.
You did realize that was Mandy Moore, right? Everytime we watch it (and that's like once a week right now!) I want to watch A Walk to Remember. Ceil loves it. And I may also point out that MAGIC hair is light & fluffy & never tangles. :P
ReplyDeleteChelsea and I loved it! The story is taken from a Grimms fairy tale and we all know many of those are pretty bizarre so the physics of her hair wasn't a problem for me. When it comes to one of those old stories, you just accept it was a magical part of the story and move on.
ReplyDeleteChelsea loved the villain most of all because she wasn't powerful, creepy or menacing like some others. She was just a messed up selfish lady and we felt the movie had a great message about family and how you treat others close to you.