When 迪士尼 decided to give traditional 动画片 another shot, it was somewhat logical that they would try to start this “new era” with a 迪士尼 Princess movie. After all, each glorious era started with one. “Snow White”, “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” were small masterpieces. But the “Princess and the Frog” proved to be problematic from the very beginning.

I was not happy when I heard that the 下一个 princess would be black. Not because I didn’t want a black princess, but because I feared that she was created for all the wrong reasons. If they had chosen an African legend as 来源 I had rejoiced. If I had believed that the creators had thought along the lines of “Frogs – Swamp – New Orleans – Black Princess” I would have 说 “Go for it”. But I was early on under the impression that the black princess and not the 来源 text were the start of their creative efforts. The creators deny it, so I might be wrong, nevertheless, it made me weary.

But that’s not what put me off the movie before it even hit the theaters. What really got to me was the complaining beforehand – 或者 更多 the fact that 迪士尼 actually caved in and made changes in the movie because of those complains. I could make a long 列表 of them, but I don’t bother because I don’t think that any of them are valid. They couldn’t be, because 你 can’t judge a movie before 你 have actually seen it. One element makes nothing racist (or sexist, for that matter), 你 always have to see the whole picture (literally) before 你 are equipped to judge.

The biggest problem I see with “The Princess and the Frog” is that they tried too hard to please all the complainers. 你 want a black princess? 你 get a black princess! 你 think that the princesses are not feminist enough? We make the most feminist ever! 你 think our message is bad for the children? We have a new, modern message.
But the thing is: the complainers are not the main audience. People who like 迪士尼 电影院 are rarely all about working hard and living in reality like Tiana, they are 更多 like Lottie. Not in the sense that they are dizzy and waiting for their prince, but they want to believe in a world in which wishing to a 星, 星级 makes a difference and in which true 爱情 exists. 或者 at least, dream of a world like that occasionally. And they certainly don’t want to get told 由 a 迪士尼 heroine of all things that they should take a reality check. It also doesn’t help that after years of saying that every girl can be a princess, Tiana has to become a “real” princess to break the curse.

It’s easy to admire Tiana for her determination, but it’s difficult to like her. And Naveen at the beginning of the movie is just a nightmare. There is nothing charming about a lazy womanizer who intends to marry for money (and then cheat on his wife). They’re both changed at the end of the movie, but first impressions tend to stick. Naturally 你 can also argue that imperfection is a good thing in characters (I don’t disagree there), and that they are 更多 realistic and interesting than the other pairs (I’m not so sure about that). Personally I was never a big friend of the idea that personalities which initially clash which each other make good couples. I’m not totally opposed to it (opposites attract after all), but it has to be sold believable, and I don’t think that the movie manages it.

I mentioned before that one of the failings of “Snow White” is that there are so many filler scenes, which are funny, but serve no purpose at all. “The Princess and the Frog” has the same problem. Louis sending Tiana and Naveen in the wrong direction – filler. The frog hunters – filler. On 最佳, 返回页首 of it there are so many storylines that all of them suffer and feel somewhat incomplete. The ending of the movie is symptomatic for that. Following the defeat of Facilier, they need roughly ten 分钟 to 包, 换行 up all the loose ends. That’s just too long.

Which is too bad, because between all those wacky characters, who turn up for a brief stint, there is a lot of interesting symbolism in this movie. Facilier tends to give people what they want, but not what they need (Lawrence wants power and admiration, but what he really needs is a little bit respect), Mama Odie does exactly the opposite. Facilier is the shadow, Mama Odie is the light.

This movie gives the feel of a concept on which details got added and added and added, with nobody there who would do a proper 编辑 and making sure that the story stays on track. There is at least one character too much in it (either Louis 或者 Ray), too much time spend on Tiana and Naveen sniping at each other (roughly two thirds of the movie) compared to the time spend on the romance (one third, but only if one counts from the first words which aren’t part of an argument between them), too much comic relief – just too much of everything. Similar to Pocahontas, this is a movie which I like 更多 for the 动画片 and for what it could have been than for what is actually there.

Nevertheless, I’m glad that the movie was successful enough to lift the CGI-only restriction on the 动画片 Studios. There are people who say they shouldn’t dabble into CGI at all, but I disagree there. I don’t think that they should give up traditional animations – that’s after all what made the studio big, and that’s what they do the best. But they should decide which kind of 动画片 they use based on the kind of story they want to tell.

“Tangled” would have never worked with traditional animation. A believable movement for all this hair would be impossible. Even for CGI this wasn’t a small feat. I have read a couple of reviews in which people complained that the 动画片 was nothing special. Well, they didn’t look hard enough. The flying lanterns? Kids stuff, other movie already had something similar.

But hair and water are the two things which are the most difficult to do in CGI, and the animators of “Tangled” not only did both (they really don’t get enough credit for the scene with the breaking dam), they did it perfectly. The hair of Rapunzel (and Flynn and Gothel for that matter) moves very believable. If it were done badly, everybody would notice, but it’s done so good, that it’s easily to overlook, and that’s the real mastership in animation. Not the things which look flashy, but those things which look natural.

“Tangled” is one of those rare cases in which countless problems during development didn’t end with a movie mess. And I really appreciate the spirit behind this particular project. It takes guts to plan a project, knowing that necessary software isn’t even invented yet. That’s the kind of 前锋, 期待 thinking the 动画片 Studios need to prevail. And that’s what brings the audience into the theater, not a misleading marketing campaign.
Although nobody would deny the technical quality of “Tangled”, there has been a lot of critic that the movie is too much like its predecessors. On the one hand that’s true. It’s impossible to see Rapunzel and Eugene in the 船, 小船 and not being reminded 或者 Ariel and Eric 或者 to see Eugene die and survive without comparing the scene to the Beast’s death and transformation. But the movie I think “Tangled” is the most similar to is “Mulan”.

This seems to be an odd choice, if 你 only pay attention to the visuals. But if 你 pay attention to the dialogue, not so much. Both 电影院 have scenes which are 更多 deep and thoughtful than what 你 normally expect from this kind of 迪士尼 movie. Not that there isn’t any deepness in the other ones, but they convey their message 更多 over the visuals and the 音乐 than over the dialogue. If I had to choose my 最喜爱的 迪士尼 Princess quotes, most of them would be from those two movies.

I mentioned before that “Mulan” is 更多 about asking 问题 than giving an ultimate truth. The same is true for “Tangled”. Is Rapunzel’s power a curse 或者 a gift? At which point does 爱情 turn into abuse? How important are dreams in live? It’s also a movie about 秒 chances, and I don’t just talk about Flynn and the thugs, 或者 Rapunzel’s parents who get a 秒 chance with her daughter. The world got a gift in form of the flower, but because Mother Gothel didn’t share it, it got destroyed. The world got a 秒 chance in Rapunzel, but due to Mother Gothel’s greed it got destroyed again.

To me, “Tangled” is the culmination of everything which is good about 迪士尼 Princess movies. It’s like the old concept of a 迪士尼 Fairy Tale Movie has been brought to perfection in this one, and one of the few I watched a 秒 time in the theaters, just because it was so good. And I’m wondering how I’ll see this movie in ten years, but I think, it will hold up just fine. Who knows, perhaps it (or “Princess and the Frog”) will be hailed as the movie which started another Golden Age for Disney.

And that concludes my travel through the ages and my memories. There is a lot left to say about the movies, the princesses and the princes, but I’ll do so in other 文章 series. 下一个 up will be the “Sound check”, and series 或者 文章 in which I’ll take a good look on the musical aspect. If 你 haven’t answered the picks I created in the last weeks yes, please do so, I’m very interested in your opinion and your comments. Voting for all of them will end at the 18.11, and I hope I will have the first 文章 up the very same weekend.