Lazario wrote:Nice disemboweling job. Too bad you picked a movie that is generally disliked by movie fans.
It's still extremely popular among Disney fans, and even Disney proudly flaunts it every now and then. Besides, it doesn't hurt to gut
Pocahontas a bit more

.
Lazario wrote:I also disagree with you on Princess and the Frog vs. Tangled. Tangled is easily the more memorable and impressive film.
To each his own, I guess. To me,
The Princess and the Frog is a clear winner, at least when artistic credibility / authenticity is concerned.
Tangled appears to have suffered storywise due to emphasis being put on technical aspects of the production, such as verisimilitude of CG hair (because realistic hair is exactly what viewers care to see the most in a fantasy film; not to mention they still somehow managed to fail at their own game*). All that visual hoopla basically just served as a façade for sloppy story and underdeveloped characters. For argument's sake, let's just compare main characters in PatF to those in
Tangled.
In PatF, you have:
- Tiana - a determined young woman, whose primary interest is not some esoteric freedom/romance/adventure-based dream, but an actual, real life-based goal/achievement. And that's exactly why many Disney fans found her to be dull and boring - for straying away from the Disney heroine/princess archetype (and just to make things clear, Tiana is not among my favorite Disney heroines).
- Naveen - a prince/male character who's only interested in self-indulgence and hedonism (a trait which is sadly underplayed, but it's still there)
- Charlotte - now this is a major precedent for a Disney film: a comic relief character (and a side-character to boot), who by the end of the movie blossoms into a rational adult, and who, despite limited screentime, practically steals away the show from the protagonists. In any other movie, this type of character would probably be turned into a semi-villain sometime by the middle of the movie (i.e. a jealous ex-girlfriend).
Now for
Tangled:
- Rapunzel - basically
Enchanted's Giselle (her development in the movie even mirrors Giselle's) with hints of Ariel and Quasimodo thrown in. There are, however, moments of pure brilliance done with this character - the 'bipolar' montage in particular - but we never get to see a follow-up to this scene and the character sadly never rises above 'cute and sweet' until the confrontation with Mother Gothel in the end.
- Flynn - an Aladdin/Kuzco/Prince Edward/Naveen combo; it's like they weren't even trying
- Maximus - Pegasus +
Toy Story's Bullseye
- Pascal - Flit 2.0.
- Mother Gothel - the only character in the movie who's not an obvious knock-off (despite similarities to Frollo) and appears to have been actually worked on. The only genuine complaint I have about this character is that she awkwardly moves between a full-on villain and, to a lesser degree, a genuinely concerned parent.
It's not very hard to see which characters were given more care. Coupled with the music and the setting (
Tangled's setting irritates me to no end - I wrote a bit about it
here), PatF is undeniably a more distinguishable film - to me, at least.
Goliath wrote:@ Mooky: Interesting things you have to say about Rapunzel (it's called that in The Netherlands and I stubbornly stick to it). I don't agree with all of it, and I certainly don't think PatF was the better movie, but your claims about it "ripping off" parts from other movies do have some merit. For example, I always though the musical scene with the thugs in the Snugly Duckling was hilarious, but it was also very reminiscent of something DreamWorks would do in one of their Shrek movies. And yes, the 'I See The Light' song was not very good, but all songs were weak in my opinion. While I'm typing all this, I'm listening to 'Part Of Your World' from The Little Mermaid, which I watched last week, and while I love Rapunzel, this simply reminds me that Disney will never, ever achieve that level of perfection again.
I was actually referring to other two scenes: baby kidnapping reminded me of a similar scene in
The Secret of the Sword, while the rip-off part was directed at Rapunzel's talent being painting/art. Now, if only there already wasn't a "Rapunzel" movie where that artistic skill was a significant character trait. Oh wait,
there is! Please note that Rapunzel being a gifted artist is not a part of the original tale, so it's not like Disney could not have chosen anything else (like playing an instrument, sculpting, or book writing - yes, she does some of those in the film, but not as prominently as painting).
To be honest, "Snuggly Duckling" ruffians singing seems like a typical Disney thing to me; you know, not exactly the classic show-stopper number like "Prince Ali" or "Under The Sea", but a slightly less-extravagant sequence, much like "Gaston", or "A Girl Worth Fighting For". The only DreamWorks-y vibe (and I hate that term for I truly believe DreamWorks is undeservedly despised around this forum) I recognized is that aura of pompousness and cheekiness present in Flynn's personality.
I totally agree on "Part Of Your World".
jpanimation wrote:I agree. See, part of Rapunzel's problem is that it's soo bland. The character designs, the villain, the medieval location / setting, the music, etc. whereas The Princess and the Frog had more appeal as far as character designs, the villain, the New Orleans location / setting and music (which I didn't care for) are concerned. Rapunzel's strength is the well developed relationship between Flynn and Rapunzel, the core of the movie, compared to the half assed handling of Naveen and Tiana's in The Princess and the Frog. Both are flawed movies, and I don't really prefer one over the other. Rapunzel just happens to be highly rated on IMDB (whereas The Princess and the Frog isn't), especially when compared to other DACs, hence I'd consider it overrated.
Thank you, very well put. Precisely the point I was trying to make. Both movies have their shortcomings, but PatF gets way too much bad rep, even though I still think it's a creatively superior movie.
*How did all of this…
…get to be only this long?
