Hey guys, what's up? It's pretty much my eventual return back to blogging, but now I prefer to critic on movies due to the fact that I got on the trend of jumping on the bandwagon. EVENTUALLY I HAD TO, DO I?
Let's get things rolling, shall we?
Alright, you guys know about that popular story of Rapaunzel right? The one that some kids may have heard of when they hear fables or stories of some sort. Well, Disney decided to return it INTO FULL ANIMATION for it's 50th animation debut, and now we folks get to see the story of rapaunzel unfold into a new dimension, thanks to CG awesomeness. New Story, New Character, New Villans, and New Everything!
Now everything revolves around this magical flower. YEAH SERIOUSLY. OF ALL THINGS. A MAGICAL FLOWER with powers that can make enough cows go on crack. And this old woman named Mother Gothel (what a weird name indeed!) was hoarding it for about a century...to keep herself beautiful BY SINGING AN ENCHANTED SONG. So after like many years later, a certain pregnant queen of a certain country got sick, and they deploy soldiers to go find the flower to make flower soup for her. Well, when mother drinks whatever, the child becomes what she eats, right? Yep, turns out that the soup made the princess (Rapaunzel) have awesome gold hair.
That old woman have to get things her way, so she decided to 'party van' (kidnap) Rapaunzel for her own use. In a large and tall tower, that is. Feeding her lies on the selfish world and stuff. Now disney made things weirder than the original story- the hair has the same power as the flower! So yeah, you get my drift. You sing the song, you get your age reversed. Over time, the hair grew long and it become multipurposed (WOW alas, disney modified the whole story) and thru that disney-equue singing session the princess was shown as a fantasy world NEET, literally staying at home painting THE ENTIRE FREAKKING WALL IN ONE DAY with so many stars, cooking stuff, and many more.
Now here's the funny thing about the princess over her prolonged exposure with the old hag; she learnt speed singing; so when she is summoned to sing the song, she sings it in like, 4 seconds LOL. The scene was hilarous that i have to rewind it several times to get sick of it.
Now we get introduced to this highwayman named Flynn who steals a tiara from that kingdom along with two other thieves, betrays them when he was conered by the king's men, and literally was cornered by the high guard's horse, Maximus (or simply put, The Horse-his role in the story too, is significant!). Because of the horse, Flynn was thrown down the ravine and tries to break into the tower- in which he did, but eventually got KO'd by rapaunzel using a saucepan!!
Since poor education by that old hag had made Lil' Rappie (I decided to shorten her name) assume that all people are BAD, she's like, KO'ing Flynn every time he tries to get up with the saucepan. Eventually she had to store him in a cupboard with so much effort with long hair's help. Once things settled down, she decided to plan to use him to take her out to see the lanterns- however, waking up him would be trouble, so Pascal the chameleon did much to wake him up, and only by STICKING HIS TONGUE INTO HIS EAR did he woke up eventually. Seriously, what kind of new trick is this? But it was funny anyways.
We see a bit of negotiation going around about the tiara and the promise to take her to see the lanterns, and in the end, Flynn decides to do it.
Meanwhile, the Horse was tracking down Flynn like a dog (he was sniffing on the ground like one!!) and upon seeing a poster of him, he takes it off, and shreds it like a PAPER SHREDDER MACHINE! How many evolutions can IT go through?? Rappie and Flynn at the same time, was having a wonderful moment, with the exception of the joy/despair session in which Rappie was having the conflict of her conscience. This is because of her long term exposure as a NEET, and the emotional buildup contribution. Incredible, Disney finally used a NEET princess...(i might be wrong, because i can't remember the last neet princess made by disney, since they always leave the house eventually EXCEPT rappie.)
While they left, evil old hag discovers that Rappie was kidnapped and plans to murder her. Oh well, it's much predictable-this leads us to the Snuggly Duckling bar WTF IS THAT NAME SUPPOSED TO BE?! Rappie steps in, only to see a bunch of thugs, which really freaked her out.
"That's a lot of hair"- Anonymous Barbarian
So when they saw Flynn, they decided to take him in to be arrested, however they stopped when Rappie owns one particular one with her HAIR. In which she starts her lecture and the dude was like, I have a dream...and THERE WE GO AGAIN, another disney-eque scene describing how all of them wanted a dream. I never get sick of these moments, because they are essentially vital for a typical Disney Movie. However, the transition of an average bloodthirsty barbarian to a broadway performer was way over the top unbelievable. And to top it off, everyone starts becoming broadway performers LOL LOL LOLHANDBAR!
So thus, they attempted to run from the thieves that escaped earlier along with the guards.
"Let's just assume the fact that everyone don't like me!" -Flynn
While he was surrounded, he literally owns everyone with a saucepan!
"Owh mother, I've gotta get one of these!" -Flynn,after using the saucepan
Eventually the Horse comes in (again!) and fights him with a sword IN MOUTH!! and beats the crap out of him. Well, they did escape, thanks to random tsunami created by their careless actions, and they mysteriously recovered the saucepan! Normally this wouldn't occur in the original story, but it seems that Disney decided to up the level of the story by more notches due to the fact that kids nowadays like action and stuff, so this happened.
After escaping from the flooded cave in which Rappie's hair glowed by the song, and the suction led them to discover the entrance, Flynn's hands were injured by his attempt to claw his way out, so Rappie decided to reveal the third power of her hair (besides its glowing age reversing effects and its multipurpose) which is recovery...WOW A MULTIPURPOSE HAIR...MAN I REALLY NEED TO GET ONE OF THOSE!! too bad when it gets cut off, it loses its power.
"I'm very interested in your hair" -Flynn
After the healing session, both sides have a awkward and spontaneous confession session; Rappie got confined due to her multipurpose hair, and Flynn trying to relive the legend of his idol Finnigan Ryder. So it turns out Flynn is just a fake after all- his real name is Eugene.
The old hag eventually finds Rappie, and attempts to manipulate her with the lie that Eugene was trying to use her for the tiara. The more Rappie fights, the more the old hag tries to use her 'motherly lies' to brainwash her. Retreating later, we see her joining the two thieves.
"All good things to those who waits." -Mother Gothel (am i detecting a grammar mistake here?)
So the next day, the annoying Horse is back to corner Eugene. However, after encountering Rappie, it suddenly reverted to the obedient dog type. She later forces the both of them to agree to a deal not to fight in order to bring her to the castle to see the lanterns.
Arriving to the city, Rappie had a heck of a time there, in which the original story never revealed. Here, she had a heck of a time for herself: more dancing, more reading, more painting, and even more dancing. Lol, typical Disney-eque show, but still good.
The night scene was arguably the best scene in the entire show, because it just warms my heart! We see the sad king and queen, whom had lost their daughter a long time ago, releasing the lantern to the sky, and ONCE THAT HAPPENED I SWEAR EVERYTHING LIT UP!! It was dramatic in such a way it becomes engraved in my head. Other lanterns followed suit, and it makes the sky look like an entire milky way. Believe me, this is the best present for a lost princess. Epicly romantic yet memorable- the ideal present for a lost princess! Here's the corny part though: as Rappie gives Eugene the tiara, he breaks into a song about his dream. She joins in and it becomes one heck of a lovey dovey (and unbearably cringing moment for me) karaoke moment. They were about to kiss when Eugene gets distracted by the two thieves who was searching for him.
I liked the idea how Disney decided to use some craftiness to the plot. I never thought about Eugene getting tied to the boat and sailing away, while the thieves tell Rappie he dumped her.
So, this would seem everything's going to end- until...
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Rappie looked at the star napkin she bought, and looks up the ceiling. Things get "Da Vinci Code" all over, as she discovers her own past: Napkin leads to Sun formations on ceiling mural, mural leads to memory of her baby mobile in the shape of that sun, that sun bringing her to remember her parents, identical to the mural of the King And Queen that she saw earlier on. At that very moment, she realised she had been party van'd all long, and was being used by that old hag.
While Eugene discovers the real enemy is the old hag, Rappie decides to confront the old hag with the truth she learnt, as the old hag fought back with her lies. Headstrong and confident, Rappie refuses to listen and backs off to escape, as she knew that not all people are that bad as said by the hag.
"Did I mumble, Mother, or should I even call yourself that!" -Rapaunzel
"You want me to be the bad guy, now I'm the bad guy!" -Mother Gothel
The next part is one the best part. As the guards lead Eugene to be hanged, the guards leading him vanished mysteriously as the old man made a distraction to slow things down. The following scene was pretty much showing how the barbarians from the Snuggly Duckling got a few minutes of screen time doing much ownage everywhere, including the mime.
The singing man returns, instructs him to do random stances, as a large barbarian launches him into the air via wheel-cart lever, conveniently sitting him onto the Horse's back...JUST LIKE THAT. Just then, Eugene realises that the Horse brought the dudes here! Turns out Maximus (the Horse) is the fastest horse to be found, as it can jump at a freakkishingly far distance.
A hell lot of sneaky plans occurred here, with the old hag pretending to be Rappie, letting her hair down and stomach stabbed our hero. Desperate, Rappie decides to make a deal with the hag to heal him in exchange for her life. (wow i'm surprised that the hag even agreed!) There was a sudden change of the atmosphere as Eugene cuts off Rappie's hair and kills the hag completely as she lost her ability to regain youth, and falls down to her own death, aging really fast while falling.
Alas, the deed is done, Eugene dies, and the princess cried. A tear drop falls and revives our fallen hero.
Now this is pretty much a different take to the love's first kiss aspect, as biology comes in to demonstrate how tear water seeps into the cheek to create miraculous ressurrection. Even as we speak, I am reeling from that exposure and am not convinced that such methods exist. Well, it's understandable, everyone's getting sick of Love First Kiss, so they decided to go creative. Nice job, Disney, but I'm still sticking to LFK instead of Biological Reviving Tear....it'll need me to take some time to accept that as a fact.
Then there is this cheesy line before they did the epic kiss. Which pretty much broke much of my expectations of a perfectly executed Disney Romantic Movie.
"Did I ever tell you that I've got a thing for brunettes?" -Eugene
I was like lol lol lol the whole time.
So everything's turn out good, as they return back to the castle. And a party was thrown for A WEEK! Now they narrate everyone's happy ending (which is a heaps good improvement!), and many years of asking, Eugene finally gets Rappie's hand in marriage.
and they lived happily ever after.
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So, i'll narrow everything down to 3 points. Both pro's and con's
Pro's
- Entertaining take to new aspects, e.g. Biological Reviving Tear instead of classic LFK
- detailed CG and story, beautiful effort on the rendering!
- Plot twists were relevant and dramatic. . It doesn’t rely on cheap jokes, potty humor, or innuendo but instead uses physical comedy and legitimately hilarious moments to be a surprisingly funny movie.
Con's
- Transition of story and characters were too fast, certain buildup were slower and faster than expected, not balanced.
- Too many awkward scenes with may become lame to certain audiences.
- Poor start of the movie, lack of coherent build
I really do thank Disney for making an awesome movie, it was entertaining to kill my 1 hour and 45 minutes of my life instead of random stalking on facebook. They really did a good job, so i won't go uber harsh on them
A decent 8/10 would suit them well. That would include the bonus +1 for the brunette princess....YES I DO HAVE A THING FOR SHORT HAIRED BRUNETTES.
If you have anything to say for or against, please do not hesitate to leave your comment. I will be glad to look through them and discuss.
