Tangled

Welp the series has finally and ended and I and a lot of other fans who managed to stick around till the end have some... thoughts. Very bitter salty thoughts, so this marathon will be a bi-weekly critique of the series in order to give some of us a place to vent and gain some closure.
But for today, we’re starting off with the movie to give ourselves a refresher.  

I just finished rewatching the original film and my thoughts on it are pretty much the same as they were when I first saw it back in 2011. It’s a well structured, tightly plotted film that, while I don’t mind watching every once in a blue moon, will never make my top ten just due to personal tastes. Much like Beauty and the Beast before it, it’s a competent film that tells a tried and true story very well, but doesn’t bring enough new things to the table to hold my interest for very long.   
However, while there’s not much in the way of things actually being wrong with the film, no movie is prefect so I still have a few criticisms. 

Summary:  The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.

Rupunzel is an Ariel clone 

In terms of design I mean. 
I said this back when I was an animation student at art school and I’ll say it again now; Tangled started the trend with lazy female lead designs in recent Disney films and, given Glen Keane’s previous work, there was no excuse for this. It goes against the basic fundamentals of character design.  
One thing I will praise the tv series over the film is the character design department; that manages to fix Rapunzel’s design into something recognizable while still giving her a different shape/silhouette.

Why didn’t Gothel just leave Corona in the first place? 

In a film with a very tight story, this is the only plot hole that manages to stand out. 

Diegetic vs Undiegetic

Diegetic music is music that the characters can hear and undiegetic music is music only the audience hears. Don’t start a song off as undiegetic and then switch to diegetic in the middle of it. Do the character’s suddenly have mind reading powers or something? 
(Also, this is an opinion only, but to my mind ‘I See the Light’ is the blandest song Alan Menken has ever wrote. Don’t believe me? Then listen to the pop version at the end credits without the pretty visuals or likable characters for it to stand on.) 

Rapunzel isn’t flawed

She has flaws, or quirks rather, but nothing that needs to be over come by the story’s end. Her struggle is not one borne of personal reflection. What she needs to learn is the truth behind Gothel’s lies, not the truth with in herself. She’s not responsible for being a victim, so anything that might be a flaw, like her naivety, winds up not having an impact on the plot. 
This doesn’t bring the film down too much. I just described 75% of all Disney protagonists, both male and female alike, with that above paragraph. You can still make a character sympathetic and likable, while keeping them static. Plus Eugene is the one who carries the film with his character arc instead. 
However, it’s generally considered to be better writing when a main character’s flaws actually impact the narrative and drives it forward. Good writing then has them learn from said flaws. 

Conclusion
And that’s it. Not much to complain about really. Join in next time on Sunday for Before Ever After.