Tangled

New life goal! I want to grow my hair out so long that I can use it as a grappling hook. If it also gains magical glowing healing powers that would be ace, but I won't insist.

As you might have guessed, I just watched Disney's Tangled and was most favorably impressed. And not just by Rapunzel's hair, though its manifold superpowers (let me repeat: grappling hook) and beautiful animation did impress me mightily.

But Rapunzel herself is even more impressive: curious, bright, extraordinarily emotionally resilient. Though Rapunzel is not immune to the witch's insidious year's-long campaign to convince her that she's too weak and naive to survive outside her tower imprisonment, her curiosity about the outside world always outweighs her fear of it in the end.

I have to say, whenever I see people criticizing Disney princesses as bad role models - especially on the grounds that they're weak damsels in distress - I wonder if they've seen any Disney princess movies since, say, The Little Mermaid. Belle is a damsel in distress? Tiana? Mulan?

But back to Tangled. I do have on quibble about the ending: ( Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. )

But so anyway. The animation is just beautiful. The movement of Rapunzel's hair and her skirts flows smoothly, beautifully rendered, and the scene where the townsfolk release the paper lanterns into the sky, and the light reflects in the lake until up and down mix together and the whole screen is simply glowing lanterns against night sky -

Just enchanting.