TANGLED (Disney Cruise Live)****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFiQWzU5wSQ

Available until: Unknown

Tangled is the Disney version of the story of Rapunzel and I watched it with my baby sister Barbara. She liked it a lot. She smiled whenever she saw Maximus the horse and she didn’t cry about anything that happened in the story. I have never seen the animated version of Tangled but I have seen lots of other Disney films and I love the stage versions of The Lion King and Aladdin.

I think the Disney Cruises are so clever to be able to put on whole musicals on a ship. Especially productions with so many magical effects. I was going to say it was just like watching in a theatre but then I decided that’s not really surprising because it is a theatre. It has a stage and rows of seats for the audience so I don’t think it’s really less of a theatre than a theatre on dry land.

Tangled is shorter than most musicals. It’s only just over an hour, which actually makes it forty minutes shorter than the film of Tangled too. That is one big difference between a performance in a cruise ship theatre and a West End theatre – I don’t think many people would go all the way to the West End just to watch a show that is an hour long. But when you’re on a cruise ship, you’re already there so you probably don’t have to walk very far.

I can see it working as a longer story but it did work very well as an hour long musical. It was easy to follow the story and there was a chance to get to know the main characters. (I obviously kind of knew them already from the story of Rapunzel, but Tangled gives them all more personality.)

The music is really lovely. I especially enjoyed the two songs I knew already and the ensemble numbers. I really liked the dance routines and the costumes. Rapunzel’s hair is good. It is really long and she has to carry it around with her but I think it is a lot less heavy then it looks. It is braided and it looks really pretty.

The actors are really good but there is no cast list so I’ll have to call them by their character names.

My favourite is the same as Barbara’s – Maximus the horse. He has a lovely face and I love the way he gallops around and jumps up and down. There is only one actor playing the role of the horse. His legs are the front legs and there’s another pair of legs behind. It looks like it would be very heavy to carry the horse’s head, body and extra legs around but the actor moves around the stage easily so the costume is probably lighter than it looks, like the hair.

But I do like the human characters a lot too. Rapunzel looks beautiful and she has a really sweet voice and lots of personality. I think it maybe wasn’t sensible of her to ask a man who had broken into her tower to take her out to see the lanterns but it all turned out okay in the end so maybe she is a very good judge of character. She is definitely clever in other ways. But I would never do that.

Rapunzel’s Prince is called Flynn Rider (well, that’s one of his names) and he is a rebel to start off with. He is a thief and he is always in trouble. But he does agree to help Rapunzel. I was a bit worried about the number of times he was hit on the head but I thought he would be okay because it’s Disney and he’s the prince. Flynn is quite mischievous but he is a kind man. The actor has a good voice and a strong stage presence and he is very good at comedy.

The evil sorceress is called Mother Gothel. She is not always nice to Rapunzel but I don’t think she’s as evil as villains like Scar and Jafar. I felt like Mother Gothel really wanted her own little tower to be happy in where nobody would ever hurt her but when Rapunzel grew up she wanted something different. I think that is difficult for a lot of parents even if the child really is theirs. I think Mother Gothel is a really interesting character and I thought the actor played her really well because she made me care about her.

I don’t think Rapunzel’s parents ever say anything but they are still good characters. They are the King and Queen of Corona. I’m not sure if that is very unfortunate or if it makes Tangled an even more perfect choice for lockdown.