With Tangled, Disney returns to its roots with a story of a traditional princess, a reluctant hero, and a wicked witch and although many are tired of this old formula, if anyone can do it right it’s Disney.

Tangled is the classic story of Rapunzel with, of course, a twist. You know, there’s a princess kept in a tower by an evil enchantress who uses her long hair to gain access. One day, a young man runs into her and they set off to find her true parents. There’s magic, adventure, and a nice love story. We’ve all seen this plot before, but here it feels natural and has enough new elements to keep even the most experiences movie-watcher entertained.

First of all, the film looks great. Here, Disney Animation Studios doesn’t try to emulate Pixar, but attempts to imbue this computer-animated film with the magic of their classically animated fairy tales. The entire movie, from the design of the characters to the way the world looks, just feels right. At no point are you left wishing that the film was traditionally-animated. Each medium has its own advantages and disadvantages, and Disney is really starting to see that distinction. This story works with computer animation. The animation in Tangled is vibrant, cartoonish (as in, not too realistic), and fun.

The film is also presented in 3D, which I am not a fan of. Still, the financial benefits at this point all but guarantee that we will have to deal with many more films in three dimensions during the foreseeable future. As with any computer-animated film, the 3D effects work better here than they would in live-action. And while most of the time, the 3D did not add anything to the film, there were occasions where the effect was actually visually interesting. So while I think overall 3D is not worth it, there are sequences, most notably the latern-releasing scene, in which the 3D visuals enhance the film.

The comedy is also spot-on. Kids will find it extremely entertaining, but adults will also find themselves laughing. This is due to the fact that the movie is genuinely funny. It doesn’t rely on cheap jokes, potty humor, or innuendo but instead uses physical comedy and legitimately hilarious moments to be a surprisingly funny movie.

But what really marks this as a high point in Disney’s recent history is its heart. The movie feels like it should. The characters are warm and familiar, the story is magical, the visuals are, as I’ve mentioned, great, and you are emotionally invested in the film. At the beginnning of the movie, I was not impressed, but as the movie went on I found myself more and more invested in the characters and what happens to them. In fact, the finale of the film packs a significant emotional punch, despite the fact that you know that everything is going to be okay in the end.

So while Tangled is definitely no Beauty and the Beast or Lion King, it is definitely a return to form for Disney. The story is fun, you fall in love with the characters, the visuals are breathtaking, real emotions are involved, and the film is pure fun for all ages.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

There’s no getting around the fact that Ron Perlman has what it takes to play a barbarian. In fact, if you have any doubts just rent Howard McCain’s Outlander where he plays the big burly leader of a Viking clan. Add in the trailers for the upcoming Season of the Witch where he’s spearing wolves and monsters next to Nicolas Cage, and he seems like the perfect person to play the father of Robert E. Howard’s greatest creation, Conan the Barbarian. I prefer Perlman to Mickey Rourke, who was originally slated to take the role.

What happened there is that Tarsem Singh’s Dawn of War (the myth epic formerly known as War of the Gods) pulled in Rourke, and then Perlman signed on for the role of Corin, Conan’s dad. He’ll be playing papa to Jason Momoa, the Hawaiian model who’s stepping into the battle-hungry barbarian’s loincloth. Perlman is the latest addition to Marcus Nispel’s cast that also recently added Stephen Lang as the film’s villain, a sorcerer looking to rouse sleeping demonic forces, and Said Taghmaoui, the leader of a gang of thieves that joins forces with Conan.

Perlman, who currently plays the patriarch of a much different clan (bikers) on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, has made a career out of playing heroes and villians both monstrous and gentle. In fact, Perlman’s gift is the ability to move between the two, sometimes in the same role. Perlman made his biggest mark back in the 80’s, playing the half-human, half-feline Vincent, a subterranean vigilante with the soul of a poet, in television’s 3 season series Beauty and the Beast. He’s handled the tough guy with a warm center many times, including 1995’s City of Lost Children and Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy films.

I look forward to seeing what Perlman will do with this role and, in truth, how large the role really is. Previously, Conan’s dad was alive for just about five minutes before he was brutally killed by invading forces. I’m curious to see how it all fits together. Also, I’m wondering when/if we get to hear anymore about Perlman’s involvement in the follow-up to Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep, where he’ll be replacing Bruce Campbell as Elvis.

Following up a celtic warrior with The King would be something else.

What do you think? Is Perlman a better fit than Rourke?

Aliens vs. Vikings. That series of words will likely cause one of two reactions. Either you roll your eyes and hit the back button or part of you cheers inside, hoping against hope that it’s not going to be another Sci-Fi Channel “original”.

 If you fall into that second camp, there’s a good chance you and I share a common memory. It’s a memory of the local video rental joint circa 1980 to 1990. Not just before Netflix, but before Blockbuster too. I’m talking pre-dvd here!

I’m not old enough yet that I can’t remember wandering through just such a place in my youth;arms piled up beyond carrying capacity with vhs display boxes that looked like they were hard-bound copies of Moby Dick. Those titles? Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Legend and in one unfortunate instance, Yor: Hunter from the Future.

I’d stare at the cover of each one with my eyes swimming over the Frazetta styled paintings of stoic warriors and the maidens clinging to their sides. There were also the monsters; horrible trollish brutes, tentacled fiends and if you were lucky, some sort of peasant-eating, fire-breathing dragon. Oh, the agony of choosing only one to take home!

The film opens with a starship hurtling through the vastness of space and smashing into a fjord in Norway. The year, as a helpful title card tells us, is 709 A.D. After a spectacular crash sequence where a bewildered shepherd watches the heavens vomit forth plumes of fire, the film introduces the apparent lone survivor of the crash. His name is Kainan(yes, pronounced like the biblical one) and he’s surprisingly humanoid. So much in fact, that he’s played by James Caviezel(Passion of the Christ) wearing threads only a little less flashy than a Star Fleet uniform.

The next morning he finds the body of his fellow comrade torn to shreds. After interfacing with the ship’s translation device in order to upgrade to the local language, Kainan grabs his blaster and heads off into the dark wilderness. He’s tracking something but stumbles across an empty, ravaged village and is captured by Viking riders from another clan who assume he’s been involved in the sacking of it.  The warriors bring him back to their village, the fortified Hereot, and their king, Rothgar. Kainan reveals that the force responsible for the deaths was a stowaway on his ship. A creature he initially identifies as a dragon, and then later calls a Morwen. And just like that, we have the film’s big idea: Vikings hunting an alien monster.

The first thing I noted about Outlander was the strength of both the casting and the acting. Caviezel seems an odd choice for this role initially, and he plays his part relatively subdued for the early chapters. As Kainan prepares for battle with the Morwen and warms to the world around him, Caviezel brings a necessary humanity to the more ridiculous elements of the story. McCain and company also give Kainan a few more layers than the typical B-movie hero. This man has scars that run beyond the physical, and he’s hiding more than just his knowledge of the Morwen. Caviezel manages to convey most of this through his eyes and body language. It’s an interesting move for a film where every other actor has their heroic machismo factor set to 11.

Within the walls of Hereot, we are introduced to the Vikings and their leaders, Wulfric and Rothgar. Jack Huston is Wulfric and he’s playing the kind of character one expects to see Karl Urban or Orlando Bloom haunting. The benefit for Huston is that within the confines of his role he can play up his charm and his energy without needing to carry the film as its primary hero, and that’s exactly what he does. He embodies youth, vitality and recklessness. He is in line to become king in the footsteps of his father, but Rothgar is reluctant to usher him into this.

 John Hurt plays the old king, and again the casting pays off. Hurt’s Rothgar is the moral soul of this community. From his throne, a mighty tree grows that overtakes the roof of Shield Hall, and Hurt reflects this visual motif in the way he plays his character. From his interactions with his unwed daughter Freya to his conversations with Wulfric down to the way he handles a violent exchange with the leader of a rival clan, Rothgar proves to be the binding root of his kingdom and his people. Sophia Myles as Freya is obviously being groomed by the script as a romantic interest for Kainan, but she plays fierce independence well enough to hold her own amongst an entire hall of macho warriors.  

As for those warriors, there is care taken to create a unity among them. The mead and blood flow freely, but Outlander isn’t about giving us a group of sweaty misogynistic barbarians. The emphasis is on an almost familial brotherhood that proves to be both a strong foundation in their battle with the Morwen and an endearing vision for the lonely, broken Kainan. Colorful characters abound, and the script is generous enough to make even the drunken sidekick a heartening source of comic relief and not just a wayward buffoon. And the leader of that rival clan? It’s none other than Ron Perlman as the biggest, burliest dual hammer-wielding Viking you have ever seen. Perlman’s Gunnar isn’t in the movie long, but he makes an impression during his stay.

There’s one final member of the cast that is absolutely essential to making the film work as it needs to. The Morwen. At first, we only hear of it or see flashes of red, ominous thunder in the surrounding woods. It isn’t long before we have seen it though, in all of its monstrous glory. The monster design here is really top-notch and the creators have taken care to make the Morwen both a true alien and something more familiar in a mythological sense.

As you may have noticed from some of the themes and names above, Outlander is essentially another retelling of the Beowulf legend. So the Morwen must simultaneously function as an otherworldly menace and as the Grendel the story needs. It walks the line well. There are scenes where it’s perfectly alien, and scenes that could have been ripped from the cover of one of those fantasy posters I mentioned above. There is even a flashback to the Morwen planet that gives the monster some unexpected depth.

The production design deserves special recognition. The shield hall with the aforementioned tree growing out of it, the sunken star ship at the bottom of a lake and the labyrinthine tunnels where the film’s final hunt takes place are all amazing. My favorite scene of the film involves Kainan explaining to Freya what really happened between his people and the Morwens. As he describes in terms she can understand, we see through his eyes the events on the Morwen home-world. It’s here that the science fiction pedigree takes over and shines, and it’s also the point where the film grounds the Beowulf story in a poignancy it didn’t previously have in other versions.  

If you missed this one in theaters, as most did, it’s been available on DVD since the summer. So start planning those beer/ pizza shindigs and Viking costume parties. If you are looking for high drama or important themes, abandon ship. But if you want a rollicking adventure that captures a different era (not ancient Norway, but 1985), look no further. The lost world of pulp fantasy lives again in Outlander.

Next week on the Overlooked we move from high fantasy to creepy thriller with the recently released terror-on-the-seas mindbender Triangle.

Check out the trailer below:

Thanks to IGN.com, we have our first look at the upcoming Season of the Witch starring Nicolas Cage, albeit a very brief look. 30 seconds isn’t quite enough to differentiate one film from the rest of the crowd, but this does give a good sense of the tone of the film … and Cage’s chosen hairpiece.

Season of the Witch is directed by Dominic Sena (Whiteout, Swordfish) from a script by Bragi F. Schut, who’s a relative unknown. The film deals with a group of knights in the 14th century, who deliver a witch into a monastery in order to determine if her powers might be responsible for the devastating Black Plague. from the look of things, I’d guess they’re on to something. Also, the film co-stars Ron Perlman, who is fantastic in just about everything.

The film is scheduled for release on March 19, 2010. Get excited for another Nicolas Cage horror rampage, and watch the teaser below!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer of movie fun. This week boys and girls I am going to talk to you about Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a sequel to 2004′s Hellboy. Just like the first movie, this one is  written and directed by Guillermo del Toro with writing assistance by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

A war is about to happen between the mythical world and human kind and only the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense can stop this from happening.  Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is joined again by Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and Bureau Director Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) in their battle against the Mythical Creatures.

Years ago the good King of Mythical Creatures was in a war with mankind. During that war he had a Golden Army created to destroy all the humans. After the first bloodshed by these monsters was complete, the King opted to strike a truce with the humans. A mystical crown was created that only royal blood can wear to control the Golden Army. This crown was broken up into three parts – two stay with the King and his family while the last piece is sent with the humans for protection. This was done to stop the Golden Army from ever being used again, their power and strength is too much for one man to wield.

Today, the war will be starting again as Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) wants to rule both lands and rid the world of humans. It seems that the humans are too materialistic and with their always growing mentality, they have forgotten about the creatures that use to walk the lands with them.  To to do this, Nuada must connect the three pieces of the crown together and locate the Golden Army. One piece is held by the King, with the second piece being held by his sister, Princess Nuada (Anna Walton).

Enter Hellboy and the gang. They are first brought into the mix when Nuada and his right-hand monster, Mr Wink (Brian Steele) steal the human’s part of the crown from an auction in Manhattan.  Mystical creatures known as a “Tooth Fairy”  have killed everyone at the auction by eating human body parts for the calcium.  Hellboy and the gang must now locate the Prince and stop him from his goal of destruction while protecting the Princess from being caught.

You don’t need to see Hellboy to understand Hellboy 2. Nor do you need to see the two direct-to-dvd animated movies that came out between these two either.

Compared to the original Hellboy, this was a decent movie that covered all the bases of a sequel (bigger and badder) but still could have been polished a bit more. Some of the mystical creatures such as the Tooth Fairies seem to be straight out an episode of Torchwood or Doctor Who with the Golden Army looking as if they may have battled the Power Rangers prior to being shut down.  The fighting got a bit tiresome due to the tons of CGI work being used on the creatures and for me, took me out of the fantasy and back into reality. As for the run time it could have been tighter by cutting 10-15 minutes allowing for a tighter pace.

Overall if you liked Hellboy, you’ll want to see Hellboy 2. If you’re new to the Hellboy character and story, you may want to see this with someone that can help you understand the characters and plot.  Hellboy II: The Golden Army is rated PG13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆