I don’t like cartoons at the cinema. For a start, I hold this multimillion pound industry in such disdain I can’t help but refer to its myriad achievements on the shifting landscapes of visual culture as “cartoons at the cinema”. I don’t like films that are for kids ‘but really adults too’. I despise Shrek, hate Nick Park, have no interest in Toy Story, and absolutely can’t watch anything where Robin Williams is doing a squawky voice. It’s the words, definitely, but it’s the pictures, too. I live in a world of graphics geeks, but I just can’t seem to get appropriately worked up about animation.
I tell you all this so you will understand the weight of what I am about to say.
Tangled is one of the most perfect films I’ve seen in a very, very long time. You may mistrust my taste in things, and you may have good reason to. But as I feel certain you’d like Back to the Future, or the first Sex and the City film if you put the hours in and watch all the episodes first, I feel secure in saying: you will enjoy this film. As with the first time I watched Johnny doing Careering on the Old Grey Whistle Test, I wept confused, impressed, emotional, tears from beginning to end. A fresh, funny, vibrant film and a glorious achievement. Well done Disney.
