Tangled is an animated movie that was released by Disney Pictures in 2010. The movie is based on the German fairytale personality, Rapunzel, who is a fairy princess locked away in a tower, and wishes to be released. She allows a visitor to aid her by extending her long hair down to him, on which he climbs up to visit her.
The film took six years to produce and cost an overall budget of US$260 million, making it the most expensive animation film of all time and receiving a slot on the list of the most expensive movies of all time.
The movie was a complete success, premiering in the US, it was met with overwhelming thumbs-up approvals from the critics, while fans voted positively with a remarking 89%. The movie brought smiles to Walt Disney Pictures, producing a worldwide box office of US$592 million, the eighth-best-grossing movie released in 2010.
Singing along with Tangled
The world was more than ready to sing along with the intriguing theme songs of Tangled. Critics applauded the music and it was chorused in the 83rd Academy Awards with many nominations including Best Original Song.
Most fans were delighted with the sing-along tunes and movie concept that brought deeper interaction with the film. Rotten Tomatoes and other fanfare websites, lit up with praises of ‘best movie’, ‘greatest movie of the year, ‘impressive production’, ‘tremendous voice-over’, ‘unbelievable visual’, and so forth.
‘I have only good things to say about Tangled, and I believe it’s quite easily one of the greatest animated movies to date. The plot is an interesting, unique take on the original Grimm tale (though thank goodness Disney made it age-appropriate) and blends a beautiful mix of fantasy, comedy, romance, horror, and realism together into an original fairytale. The voice actors are well-picked and did an AMAZING job delivering each character’s personality and emotions properly.’ Ayesha Khurram, Rotten Tomatoes.
People were expecting a second sing-along sequel to the movie, Tangled 2, but were largely disappointed as Disney chose not to continue with the releases. Perhaps due to the slow development of the film, over six long years, is even tiring for a company like Walt Disney.
Tangled Series and Movies
Although most people were expecting Pixar to do this film, Disney decided to keep it all in-house. What more to say, it was not ready for another box office bomb. The movie used a unique artistic format, by uniting features of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and traditional animation while using non-photorealistic rendering to establish the impression of a painting.
Instead of creating a sequel, Disney was content to produce two reduced pieces of the same movie, a short film, Tangled Ever After, was released later in 2012 and a television series premiered in 2017.
The release of the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale film, changed its name from Rapunzel to Tangled, to avoid a gender ban at the box office, which apparently worked. Tons of fans never mind the retitling and Disney Pictures created a landslide victory by making us all sing along with Tangled.
While most people are overwhelmingly satisfied with the animated movie, Tangled, very few of them discovered who made them sing. Even more, hey have no idea who was responsible for the success of the film. The answer is not an actor or director, no, it is the pen of one of the best songwriters in the world. Glenn Slater.
Who is Glen Slater in Tangled?
Ben Slater was born on January 28, 1968, in Brooklyn New York. And graduated from Harvard University as a composer. He became interested in drama at an early age, but after failing miserably at writing songs for a musical band during the 1980s, he decided to study for a professional role.
After graduating he composed for the Hasty Pudding Theatrical, a theatrical group at Harvard University, which is the oldest theatrical group in the United States. His debut here as a lyricist was met with success and he won many awards. He has received the ASCAP Foundation’s Richard Rodgers New Horizon Award with composer Stephen Weiner.
Between 2001 and 2003, Slater wrote for the Off Stage Broadway Theatre and composed six theatricals for the circus group Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus.
In 2004, Slater landed on the big screen for the first time, with Alan Menken, writing the lyrics for the film Home on the Range 2004 and the stage production Sister Act the Musical (2006).
Both movies were well received and the theme songs of Sister Act The Musical, made the top ten charts in several US states, including New York. The fans crowned Slater with praise and the critics gave him a welcoming good review.
On to more Glory with Glen Slater and Tangled
Glen Slater was now a recognized composer and the industry wanted to hire him when they could, hoping that his music could blend with the success of their movies. In 2008 he wrote the music for Disney’s Little Mermaid theatrical version replacing Howard Ashman, who wrote the original music. That same year he composed the songs for Menken in the new version of Leap of Faith.
In addition, his career as a songwriter got a major boost, when in 2010 Slater wrote the lyrics for the songs in Disney’s 50th animated feature Tangled.
The film did extremely well and critics showered the movies with accolades and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Original Song. The success at the box office was due in large part to the songs written by Slater, which had fans and critics alike singing along with the film.
Not many movies are famous for their theme songs, but Tangled was one of them. Most critics, including Rotten made Tomatoes, praised the music as ‘uniquely original’ and ‘masterpiece of the century’.
In 2015 he worked again with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Broadway musical School of Rock and continued his working relationship with Alan Menken writing lyrics for the songs of Galavant on ABC.
Glen Slater, lyricist, composer, and writer, has made the big screen a public karaoke for fans and critics who can’t help themselves but sing along to his masterpieces.
