Tangled Disney Movie Review: Things to Like and Dislike About This Film

Tangled (#ad) is a 2010 animated musical fantasy-comedy movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the fairy tale of Rapunzel.

I found the film to be pretty enjoyable and interesting, but I thought that it could have been so much better. What’s there to like and dislike about this adaptation of the Rapunzel story?

(*Warning for possible spoilers for said movie)

Good Things About Tangled

The movie started out so nicely, presenting a riveting storyline and managing to create a seemingly unique perspective on the aforementioned fairy tale, what with the magical flower and Rapunzel’s magical hair, among other things.

There were a lot of very humorous and amusing moments, but there was action and adventure too, all of which really blended well in the film.

Rapunzel and Gothel’s Relationship

I found the mother-daughter relationship between Rapunzel and Gothel to be very believable. It really seemed like Gothel truly loved and cared about Rapunzel, so much so that I don’t think I would have minded much if that was really how it was.

Gothel’s actions just appeared to be that of an overprotective parent who was really concerned and worried about the safety of her daughter, which made sense especially considering the magical hair and how there really were people who would want to take advantage of Rapunzel for that.

The Climax = Epic Fail?

However, while the beginning of the story was perfectly fine, I thought that it fell flat near the climax and especially during the parts where the film was about to end.

This was where things started to become very disappointing and where the Tangled movie could have been so much better.

Rapunzel Discovers the Truth About Her Mom

The way Rapunzel found out that she wasn’t really Gothel’s daughter and her subsequent reaction to this news seemed to have come from out of nowhere. This happened so fast that it just didn’t seem believable at all.

It’s like she was just looking at the symbols when, seemingly all of a sudden, she already knows the truth. Her reaction to this discovery also didn’t seem believable to me.

Previous scenes showed just how much she loved Gothel and how worried she was about disappointing her, but now it seemed that she had gone from being the loving daughter to hating her mother in practically 5 seconds flat.

No more than just a few scenes ago, Rapunzel was so happy to see her mother coming to her rescue, but now she suddenly hates her. How could she suddenly hate the woman who had raised her and whom she had been with practically her entire life?

What about all the times that the two of them spent together? The movie gave the impression that those weren’t exactly bad times for Rapunzel and that she really did love her mother, so how could she easily forget or discard that?

Flynn Looks for Rapunzel

After this, the disappointments just seemed to pile up though there was a good scene wherein the thugs from the bar show up to help out Flynn who now goes off to see Rapunzel. The last time the two saw each other, Rapunzel fully believed that Flynn had abandoned and left her.

Understandably, she should be angry with him for this. So why was she happy to see him when he showed up? How come she was no longer mad at him? How did she know what really happened unless Gothel explained things to her? But then why would Gothel tell her about that?

Why Did Rapunzel Have to Lose Her Hair?

Flynn gets hurt by Gothel, and Rapunzel insists on helping him. The outcome is that Rapunzel’s hair ends up getting cut thanks to Flynn. Why did this have to happen?

Her long, golden hair was one of the things about her that really made her stand out. This was part of what made her Rapunzel, but now her hair gets cut and she’s suddenly a brunette.

How the Villain Was Defeated

The film added more disappointments in the way the villain or antagonist was ‘defeated’, if you could even call it that.

You would have thought that this should have been harder, and yet Gothel didn’t even seem like a threat now even though in earlier scenes, she certainly appeared like she could be very threatening and you wouldn’t want to cross her.

Her defeat hardly made much sense. How could she age so rapidly just because Rapunzel’s hair had been cut? It made it seem like she needed to have the hair wrapped around her all the time when that hadn’t been the case at all.

Best Part of Tangled

Overall, I found the beginning of Tangled to be the best part of the film while the ending was rather weak and pretty disappointing.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

What about you? What are your thoughts and opinions on the Tangled movie? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.


Notes:
-Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by lilie-morhiril (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
-Image was chosen because it features Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled
-The rest of the pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above and via the Native Shopping Ads widget
-YouTube video features the trailer for Tangled
-This was originally published elsewhere on 15 October 2015 at 4:29 PM

The Frog Prince German Movie Review

I found this unfinished post in this blog's (Movies Meta) drafts list. The post's last updated date is listed as September 22, 2016 11:02 AM. Yep, this has been sitting on my drafts list for practically forever already. It's definitely time I got 'round to publishing this.

Besides, like I mentioned in my other blogs, I have a lot of unfinished posts stored on the drafts pages of my numerous blogs (particularly Tumblr and Google Blogger). I'm now trying to finish all these articles, so I can publish them already and decrease the number of my drafts.

Anyway, this review is for the German version of The Frog Prince (#ad) movie. The title is Der Froschkönig / Žabí král (1991). My thoughts, notes, opinions, and commentary will be listed below in no particular order.

Prophecy

This movie talked about a prophecy, which I found pretty interesting. This was mostly because there was no prophecy plot point in the original fairytale. I'm always interested in seeing new things being done with fairy tales whether they're retellings or not.


This is because I know the basic story already, so I'd like to see what the creators of the film could come up with. It's always a plus to be able to inject some originality and creativity into a story.

Say No to the Love at First Sight Trope

I was pleased to see that the prince and princess actually got to meet before the prince was turned into a frog. I thought this could give them the chance to get to know each other before they ended up together.

I thought this could be a way to avoid the love at first sight trope, which I'm not overly fond of. So I was really disappointed when this movie still ended up going the love at first sight route. Sigh.

In the beginning, I thought it was going pretty well. The prince was getting attracted to the princess' beauty. The princess was spurning him and she even slapped him. But then the prince was suddenly like "kiss me", and then it all went downhill from there.

Why Did the Prince and Princess Fall in Love?

The prince and princess danced, and, suddenly, it was like Cinderella with the Prince Charming - they fell in love. But all I could think of was why?

Then the prince got turned into a frog, and, again, seemingly all of a sudden, the princess was like "I'm in love with the prince." So she refused to get married unless it was to the prince. I keep having to ask why?

When did she fall for him? How did she fall for him? She was deeply hurt, even crying, when she caught the prince kissing some other girl. The prince betrayed her by doing that, and yet she still loves him anyway.

Sure, this is sweet and all, but, unfortunately, it's just not believable because the two hardly know each other.

Then there's how the princess was like "he gave me his word, he will be back", and I'm just like "the prince is a liar". The audience saw how he kissed that girl, and he even bet that the princess would dance with him.

The prince is a charmer for sure, but, seriously, I still don't know what the princess saw in him. So he's complimenting her beauty. So what? Is that the only reason she likes him? Just for that? I mean, they hardly talked.

They didn't even get to meet up at the forest because the princess ran off when she saw the prince kissing this other girl. In short, their love was unbelievable.

Unlikable Main Characters

Also, I didn't think the main characters were all that likable, especially not the prince. He was arrogant, and he liked messing with people. He even kissed that other girl. The princess saw, so she cried and was all jealous.

The Problem With Royalty Refusing to Get Married

The princess refused to get married for the sake of the kingdom because she's in love with the prince. I guess the audience is supposed to see this as romantic. But, for me, all I could think of was that she was being incredibly selfish by doing this.

I mean, she's not just some girl. She's the princess. She has responsibilities. So the people being mad- I thought they had the right to be angry. Because the princess was only thinking about herself and her personal needs.

As the future ruler of the kingdom, she should be thinking about the people too. She should be doing what's best for them.

But, no. She even had the gall to look all scared. I wish she would look at this from the point of view of all those people. Their lives were at stake. And it seemed like their rulers didn't care or couldn't care less about them.

The King and Queen

Surprisingly, the king and queen in this movie actually love and each other and were pretty decent rulers. This was quite refreshing since the usual trope or plot point had one of them either:

• hating the princess
• wanting to force the princess to marry
• was a bad ruler
• etc

Apart from the queen and king being decent rulers and actually loving each other, it was also refreshing and interesting to see that they care about their daughter.

It was sweet how they didn't force her to get married even though the people were pressuring them to do so. They do seem to care for the people, but they obviously love their daughter too. They don't want to force her.

This is nice and all, but, as mentioned above, they're the rulers, so they also have to think about the safety of their people. They have a responsibility to take care of their people.

What's up With the Fairy?

I didn't really get that fairy thing- that woman who cursed the prince to be a frog. It was like she showed up out of nowhere.

Of course, I'm all for her turning the prince into a frog. He totally deserved that for being so arrogant. He was such a bully. He was just plain bad.

The Golden Ball

I thought it was nice how the king was the one who gave the golden ball to the princess. But what came across as contrived was how the princess was suddenly in the habit of going to the forest with the ball.

Actually, that can be forgivable. It can be explained that she decided to go to that particular spot because that was where the prince was last seen. The reason she's clinging to the ball could be because it reminded her of the prince. After all, the king was saying something about that before.

But what needs to be explained was why she only threw the ball near the last part. There were several scenes wherein we see her in the pond. She's just sitting there with the ball. But she never threw it until that last scene.

Why did she suddenly decide to throw it and play with it? How come that only happened in that last scene? That bit seemed to come from out of nowhere. It didn't make sense at all. Seriously, what was up with that?

Other Plotholes in the German Frog Prince Movie

Another thing that didn't make sense was the frog. When the prince realized that he'd been turned into a frog, why did he stay in the pond? Why didn't he leave?

It couldn't be because he couldn't leave because we saw him leave later, so we know it was possible for him to leave.

So why did he stay there for so long without doing anything? He could have tried to find a way to change back instead of just lying there and doing nothing.

Then when the princess showed up in the pond, how come the frog prince didn't talk to her? He could still talk, so how come he only talked to her when she lost the golden ball? Why didn't he talk to her the first time she showed up? Why did he wait? Does that make sense or what?

Your Thoughts and Opinions

So, what about you? What did you think about this movie? How would you rate this film? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.


*Notes:
- Image is from Amazon.com; link shown above

Why Being Forced to Date Is Disgusting and Not Romantic?

Also known as, "What would you do if you were forced to date someone?"

I saw some scenes from this movie, and it really pissed me off. Why?

What happened in the movie?

There was this guy standing on the edge of a building, ready to jump to his death. He wore a sign. Can't quite remember the exact words, but it basically boiled down to, "Go out with me, or I will jump down from this building and kill myself."

Naturally, a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. The girl this guy wanted to date was also there. Every single person amongst the crowd was pressuring her into saying yes to the guy already.

The girl clearly looked conflicted. But you could see that the pressure was getting to her. Everyone there was making her feel guilty with their words.

The guy who wanted to date her moved even closer to the edge of the building. He looked like he was about to topple over any second now, which just added more pressure to the girl.

In the end, the girl yelled, "Stop," just before the guy could jump.

The next scene showed the 2 of them together. The girl was introducing the guy to her family as her boyfriend while the guy had a smug smirk on his face.

After that, I just couldn't watch it anymore.

With the way the entire scene played out, with the way the girl was forced to date the guy, he might as well have threatened her with a knife especially considering what little choice she got. Worse, people actually cheered for this guy, who has absolutely no sense of respect for women, and basically helped him guilt and pressure the girl into agreeing to date him.

What to hate about this scene?

What's not to hate? How could this scene ever be considered right? The guy claims to love the girl, but if he really loved her, then why would he force her to go out with him? Why would he resort to trying to guilt her and pressure her into going out with him?

To make things worse, everyone present in that scene was on the guy's side. They all thought the girl should say yes to him and stop him from jumping.

And, sure, the guy shouldn't kill himself and all that, but why should the responsibility to stop him fall on the girl?

Shouldn't the girl get a choice on who she does and doesn't date? It's her life. Why should she be forced to date a guy she doesn't like just to stop him from killing himself?

Someone there should have called the police or the firemen to try and get the guy down from the building.

Real love is earned, not forced or coerced

The girl shouldn't have been made to do something she clearly didn't want to do. Honestly, someone should have told the guy to grow up, to accept the girl's choice even if it wasn't him.

If he really loved her, he should have been able to let her go, should have been able to let her be happy, should have been able to let her decide things for herself instead of being forced and guilted into it.

Is that a smirk or what? The guy in the movie was looking all smug too when he finally got the girl to go out with him. He was smirking and looking so pleased with himself while the girl was forced to introduce him to her family as her boyfriend. He has no right to claim he loves her when he doesn't even respect her and her right to choose and feel how she wants to.

Taking away someone's right to choose is NOT romantic

As if that wasn't enough, the movie clearly thought this was romantic. It was obvious from the get-go that these 2 were going to be the end couple, which just made me hate it even more. How could this be touted as true love if the guy couldn't even respect the girl he supposedly loves? Ugh.

You'd feel all the more infuriated when you see the guy's smug smirk while the girl was introducing him to her family as her boyfriend. He looked so pleased with himself since he got what he wanted, so much so that I had the urge to wipe that smirk off his face.

Guys like him are completely horrible and despicable. Am I the only one who thinks this scene isn't at all romantic? Am I the only one who thinks this can't possibly be classified as true love? Am I the only one who felt so bad for the girl since she didn't get a choice in this at all?

Your thoughts and opinions

What do you think about this? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

Brian Leverton wrote on 30/10/16
Well we all should be free to do what we want but definitely not to use guilt in love.

Bozena Wojtaszek wrote on 20/10/16
Old good rule comes to mind - we don't negotiate with terrorists, period.

Luciaanna Luciaanna replied to Bozena Wojtaszek on 21/10/16
So true, Bozena

*Notes:
- This was previously published on Niume on 18 Oct 2016 in Movies & Series
- First pic with added text was modified by Freya Yuki using Canva based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Second pic is by cabepfir (CC:BY-ND) from deviantArt
- Third pic with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) using Canva based on the image by lilie-morhiril (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt