Disney has a formula that works. It can get old, but they know what they’re doing.
Years ago, I had low expectations when I first watched this film. It easily cleared that bar.
Last week I came in with fond memories of first watch. It still easily cleared expectations, though I must admit to being biased for any film that extols the virtues of a cast iron frying pan.
Unlike many Disney films, Tangled doesn’t have a truly surreal standout musical moment, though the showtune at the Snuggly Duckling is awesome.
Also not to be missed is Rapunzel’s wildly fluctuating internal turmoil when she first touches grass.
Yet another classic Disney princess movie. No prince this time, but it’s got lush tropics, a demigod with animated tattoos, and a psychotic crab.
I wonder what a Pacific Islander thinks about the laundering of their culture for popular consumption. On my end, I’ve become more forgiving of appropriation of Chinese culture as mass media has become more diverse.
Maybe I’ve wearied of all the watching-over-your-shoulder critical theory overthinking of the past decade.
I just want to enjoy my time out.
In any case, Disney slammed their formula, with the nice twist of having a brown skinned world at the center of this movie.
When it isn’t featuring a psychotic crab in black light!
I came across this cult classic anime through a YouTube review. A few minutes in, I stopped the review to watch the two-hour film over three sessions.
If you want wild animation covering fast cars, a dude with a massive pompadour, cute girls, all manners of aliens, mechs, and crazy bionic monsters, you got it.
If you want a coherent story, you got it too! Just not very deep. A dude races a fast TransAm while hitting on a competitor as his mechanic deals with the mob.
As an almost entirely hand drawn film, it’s a love letter to a bygone era. It feels more comfortable in the late nineties than in the late-aughts. But with a production value that’s out the roof!
The surreal moments of slow-mo speed as the cars stretch in anticipation of the nitro hitting the engine are pure art. And I love the bold black shadow work throughout the film — it feels like Frank Miller’s comic finally made it to the big screen (I’ve never had the stomach to watch his Sin City movie).
The beauty of a cult classic as a commercial failure in the theater is that it’s now available on several free streaming platforms.
For the price of sitting through a few ads, you can’t go wrong (as long as you’re not expecting anything contemplative).
I’m not sold on the company in Emeryville dealing with internal matters. (I wasn’t hot on Inside Out either.)
But it was cool to have Jazz at the center of the movie.
And those quantum line Jerry’s in the other world were a helluva lot of fun. As I watch more animated films, I crave these I love these moments of visual absurdity. It’s not the best ROI, but a few moments of Jerry can redeem the rest of the time spent in a formulaic feature length film.
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I’m going to start a concerted push on here with my “Notes on My Consumption”. I don’t consume nearly as many books and movies as it might seem. I just decided to stop being so precious about these notes and flush out my three year back log!
Bear-Bear took a nap in a cozy bed of stuffed slippers with arctic seals and bears in overalls. They novelties came from our cousin in China when they were roped into an ill-fated retail venture. It’s not great to find shoes on your bed (I suspect the boy), but it’s impossible to get peeved over this!
When I was in private practice, I avoided thinking about cost and schedule. Not that I was wasteful with my clients’ money, but these matters weren’t my responsibility.
As an Owner’s PM, that’s flipped. Budgets and schedules are what I do. Half my job is to justify funding for these projects (and the other half is to spend the money).
This experience has made war really expensive.
An M1A2 Main Battle Tank costs $9 million. Four of those would build a new 67,000 square feet school of education building that took five years of my life.
It costs $44,000 per hour to fly an F-35. That’s what I paid to demolish a kitchen to create an activity area for disabled residents.
Let’s not even think of all the hours of training for each soldier and the years of productivity that are erased with each well placed bullet.
War is doubly expensive when we factor in the opportunity cost of what hasn’t been built with these funds.
Triply so when we think of the destruction. Even a just war doesn’t negate the wanton waste of such a calamity.
And then we’ll have to rebuild it — if we get that chance.
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Some Links
Last year, I stumbled across Bobby Timmons due to his brilliant Christmas album Holiday Soul. I recently discovered his awesome album This Here is Bobby Timmons. His life ended much too early, but he left us with some great music.
Nadia Gerassimenko writes an eclectic smorgasbord of essays, fiction, poetry, and guest posts that pulls from a wide field of influences including pop, horror, and video games. It’s always a pleasure to read, Her recent story “Siren with a soft sign” is a haunting story of a woman transforming into a flower bed.
I first met Debbie Ridpath Ohi elsewhere, but when she had Inkgirl I knew that Substack’s new “Notes” social media platform had a place for me. Her posts are always insightful, and her occasional long essays about her experience as an illustrator are applicable to anyone who starting (or continuing) a new endeavor.
