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26.11.10 # Soundtrack # 27 Comments
The Tangled soundtrack. Quantifying Disney animation soundtracks is a tough thing to do – like an earnest uncle trying his inept best to connect with the kids at a family get together, they simply can’t be judged by regular standards. They are enshrined by their intention, by their innocence, by the fairytale majesty they aspire to. By any regular standard, Elton John singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight is simply not a reason to be cheerful. But the addition of cute animated lions, a role in a satisfying family friendly narrative, and the historical connotations of Disney grant such slushy ballads a kind of glistening eternal youth quality. We sing along because they make us happy, and our happiness is as if from childhood, and all is right with the world. Cynicism has little role to play in such contexts.
The thing is, ten year olds don’t have a lot of disposable income, and the vast majority of Tangled Soundtrack CDs are going to be bought by people old enough to grow facial hair and/or listen to Tori Amos, so let’s be sensible about this: the slushy pop balladry on the Tangled soundtrack is slightly more crappy than the slushy pop balladry on every other Disney animation soundtrack album, and significantly more crappy than the high watermark that is The Lion King.
And in a cinematic landscape in which animated features have their own Oscar category and are now regularly touted as possible Best Picture nominees (film critics being so baffled by the emotional resonance of the opening sequence of Up that they completely overlooked the fact that the Best Picture award probably shouldn’t go to a narrative largely concerned with comedy talking dogs and a zany chase sequence aboard a zeppelin) the viewing and listening public should be able to expect a little better. The Shrek films changed the game for animated soundtracks, combining genuine pop-rock sensibilities with venerable contributors (Eels, The Proclaimers, Weezer, The Carpenters) and successfully transferring the jaunty comedic appeal from the films, thereby appealing to both kids and adults. The Tangled soundtrack combines the slushy-pop-balladry talents of Alan Menken (Oscar winner for his soundtracks to The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Pocahontas and Aladdin) with the vocal “talent” of trivial tween drivel queen Mandy Moore. It has none of the humour or vitality that makes the Shrek soundtracks stand out, and is essentially, insufferable predictable twaddle.
But of course, if the kids like it, then vocally disapproving of the Tangled soundtrack will earn you a place in that special room in Hell, reserved for cynical urbanite malcontents who have lost all traces of their souls. Go ahead, pull up a chair, you can sit between pre-denoument Scrooge and The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and talk about how much you hate Hakuna Matata.
You can download the Tangled soundtrack as mp3s here
Or get it on cd here
(Or if you’re in the UK it’s here
Tangled Soundtrack (Songs) – Track List
1. When Will My Life Begin – Mandy Moore
2. When Will My Life Begin (Reprise 1) – Mandy Moore
3. Mother Knows Best – Donna Murphy
4. When Will My Life Begin (Reprise 2) – Mandy Moore
5. I’ve Got A Dream – Mandy Moore
6. Mother Knows Best (Reprise) – Donna Murphy
7. I See The Light – Mandy Moore
8. Healing Incantation – Mandy Moore
9. Flynn Wanted – Alan Menken
10. Prologue – Donna Murphy
11. Horse With No Rider – Alan Menken
12. Escape Route – Alan Menken
13. Campfire – Alan Menken
14. Kingdom Dance – Alan Menken
15. Waiting For The Lights – Alan Menken
16. Return To Mother – Alan Menken
17. Realization And Escape – Alan Menken
18. The Tear Heals – Mandy Moore
19. Kingdom Celebration – Alan Menken
20. Something That I Want – Grace Potter
Leave your thoughts on Tangled and the Tangled soundtrack in the comments. If you’re looking for a particular track leave a description and someone normally replies.
You can insult this movie and shrek all you want…
but don’t touch lion king.
I grew up on what I consider to be the ‘classic’ era of Disney musicals- born in 1980, Little Mermaid started my real love of Disney and it continued up through the nineties as new classic after classic came out. I came to recognise when a really good movie was starting, or particularly classic moment in a movie was coming, from the chillbumps on my arms. Tangled brought chills- and like any good musical, it had a nice variety of music. “Pop” is hardly the only style in it- it opens with a “Mandy Moore” pop song, kind of fitting the character Rapunzel- a slightly moody, emo teen girl who lives in her own girly world of crafts. Very fitting, and a peppy song that narrates it all -very- well. Musical number 2- Mother Knows Best. How on EARTH is that pop? It’s a CLASSIC musical number done in a very traditional musical style with orchestral elements reminescent of musicals from the early Disney era and later. I can also tell they specifically chose it to balance out the potentially ‘scary’ connotations of the scene- a cheery and flutey music in contrast to the dark, candlelit scare scenes meant to frighten Rapunzel.
“I have a dream” – the third of four key musical numbers, is NOT pop music either. It has a very ‘bar song’ feel, which is clearly intentional, and once again like musical number two, NO pop connotations. It’s a classic sing-along akin to the scene in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast’s “Gaston” song, with very similar elements too.
We have a lovely reprise that wonderfully harkens to true musical theatre of “Mother knows best”, which is straight out of broadway in style.
Finally, the centerpiece musical number sung during the floating lantern scene- that’s a classic balad, NOT pop at all. The composer really tries to make this fit with the Disney classic songs, and the harmonies near the end are something right out of Aladin (literally- trust me, I grew up singing Aladin’s part in “A whole new world” for fun, and Flinn’s part at one point feels nearly identical choice of harmonic notes, if only for one measure or so). It’s a fully orchestrated ballad.
The only other ‘song’ is the ending song- which Disney has always chosen to do in the cheesiest pop of the time (when Lion King came out, I LOVED the music and learned the lyrics by heart (“He’s holding back he’s hiding, but what I can’t decide… why won’t he be the king I know he is, the king I see inside?”) Ahem, point made, and yes, I’m a 31 year old Dad now, stop gawking)… but the ‘pop version’ at the end was HORRIBLY cheesy to me then, and has only now grown on me. I’ve always found the pop renditions of the Disney musical classics from the 90′s to be cheesy. It’s the musical style ones I love.
So in this movie, I find your synopsis of the soundtrack- assuming you mean vocal, at least- a bit lacking. It is as though you heard the first song, and made your ‘review’ about that one alone. If you feel the other songs are ‘pop’, please give me proper references and backing as to how on EARTH “Mother knows best” or any of the others classify as that?
As for the orchestral soundtrack… well, I’m assuming you can’t mean that, because unlike Shrek (I honestly prefer Tangled’s soundtrack to Shrek, and if you think Shrek or any of them carry on the classic Disney style or come close to the Disney greats like Lion King or such- Shrek 1 and 2 and 4 are AMAZING, but they’re NOT musicals, and as such I found the musical side lacking in comparison to Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, AND Tangled).
Feel free to disagree, but give me some hard backing as to how you can do so based on your one key baseline of “pop”. That elminates only two songs (once of which is the credits song), leaving three solid songs and a whole orchestral soundtrack remaining.
As for me? I enjoyed Princess and the Frog, but it was lacking for me- it wasn’t the same as the classic musicals I loved from the 80′s-90′s… but this one DID it. This gave the same lovely feel those did, and the plot and intensity was far stronger/deeper than Beauty and the Beast or Lion King. One reason was, they took it deeper, they made it more emotional- the end scene was quite comparable to Beauty and the Beast, yet (/SPOILER start) instead of immediately skipping to “look, he’s all better now”… they held it… and held it… and the background music even stopped, leaving her weaping over his dead body for moments with no music and her crying… before suddenly bringing him back. It left MY face tear streaked (/end spoiler)).
So, great movie and a return, in my humble opinion, to the level of classic musical-style music that made those great ones so great. I’d be glad to dig up musical references to styles, composers, etc to refer you to how exactly musical numbers 2-4 are clearly NOT pop songs.
-Patrick
I am irked by the fact that no one on this forum has commented on Alan Menken’s score for Tangled, which I find to to be his best effort musically since Hunchback. The songs are nice but forgettable yes, but the score is a master work. I am annoyed that the CD is not in chronological order.
Actually, I did comment on the soundtrack by Alan Menken, in my comment just before yours – though you should note that Alan Menken, to the best of my knowledge, wrote all the music in Tangled short of the poppy end song. The key point of an excellent musical, particularly a Disney animated one, is that the background music/soundtrack shares melody with the key musical numbers as well, bringing up reoccurring themes. I’m dissapointed that you call the songs ‘forgettable’- don’t forget, Menken made the music for those too, you know. I wonder if some people are letting nostalgia cloud their judgement here? As for the orchestral soundtrack- it’s gorgeous, as I think the vocal songs are. It all goes wonderfully together.
I LOVE the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, they’re among my favourites, as are Aladin. I rather like “One Jump” from Aladin better than Tangled’s opening song, however, I do not see “I just can’t wait to be king” as being much better, tune wise and in relativity to the plot as well, than Tangled’s opening musical number. “I have a dream” is right up there with Gaston’s musical number, though not quite as dramatic and involved. I think the greatest reason these songs weren’t better than they are, and more involved, is because Disney almost seemed ‘ashamed’ of them- the fact this movie was a musical was never even hinted at by the previews, not hyped up at all, and you had to dig to find it out yourself! I feel as though more support for the musical aspect of the movie would lead to better quality overall- I know I would have enjoyed more songs.
This is a children’s animated feature- and one that goes to a higher level emotionally than previous ones at the end. I think we’re holding Tangled to an unfair standard that can’t very well be met. It’s a great movie, a great musical when it goes there, and I think shows potential for Disney to pursue musical work more and have wonderful results.
Most importantly- nothing is in there that doesn’t contribute to expanding, forwarding, or enhancing the plot of the movie.
If you prefer Shrek, go watch that new Puss ‘n Boots movie that will come out in the next year or so- or old Shrek movies. If you prefer Lion King, go watch it, it’s classic. But open your mind to enjoying new treats that really are well done. Could you do better? If so, great, go make it and I’ll watch it.
-Patrick
I love the songs, and so does my little sister.
The music is absolutely perfect for the kind of audience they are going for.
I actually downloaded all these songs on my ipod
dudeeee im a fifteen year old and i absolutely loved the movie! its beautiful
and the soundtrack, even though i hate poppy sounding music, was really sweet and uplifting. dont be a hater, yeah? mandy moore was a perfect singer/voice over for the movie. i loved her in it 
Hi there, people,
I didn’t want to go see this movie initially. Luckily I eventually did. I went out the theatre with a smile on my face and humming “when will my life begin”.
It may be true, that Mandy Moore is no exceptional singer, but she did great for this movie.
Also I think, soundtracks shouldn’t be rated “individually”, you should always take into account the movie they were written for and see the two as a unit. And as such Tangled is a really good soundtrack. When I listen to songs from it I always “see” the scenes they accompany in my head
Let me finish by saying that I totally agree to chris who said, Tangled and its music can make you escape the reality for a few moments at least!
Cheers everyone!
I AM ONLY 10 BUT ILOVE TANGLED VERY MUCH.AS A GIRL RAPUNZEL IS MY FAVOURITE PRINCESS.I SIMPLY LOVE PASCAL.I HAVE DOWNLOADED THE MOVIE ON MY COMPUTER.THANKS TO MY FRIEND WHO TOLD ME ABOUT THIS MOVIE AND ALSO TO MANDY MOORE WHO MADE RAPUNZEL COMPLETELY REAL.
nice
I Love Tangled Movie.
i really love this movie…….
and the songzzzz oooo goshhhhhhhhh i love that
<3
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Post By Chris Neilan
26th Nov
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