I bought the ticket, sat in the cinema, and was immediately surrounded by couples.

It didn’t occur to me that I could’ve gotten the corner seats, or somewhere front enough to put off other people, but my movie-going sensibilities were healthy and less bothered by the concept of being in the cinema alone, so it made me choose the seat smack in the middle.

I was the lone guy, still in work attire, hands crossed and waiting to watch an animated feature, a ‘Bah, Lovebugs’ already at the tip of my tongue and ready to jump off.

Everyone was couples there, except for that one guy behind me. He was the lamp post. And he was talking very little as to not appear so.

But I wasn’t quite alone, not really. I was watching it with someone in mind.

And I placed that thought on the spare seat beside me, and fed it popcorns.

***

Entangled

That's one hairy girl, Flynn Rider. You don't mess with them.

(Here’s a disclaimer, which I’ll put in very large letters, so that people don’t come and throw scissors at me later:

SPOILERS HERE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

And it’s for the movie Tangled, titled Rapunzel in Asia, because Disney Asia either 1) Felt that Asians would not be familiar enough with the Grimm fairy tale or 2) They lack the marketing skills of Disney America, otherwise Lords Disney, or 3) They know Tangled is really a marketing sort of title, but kept Rapunzel anyway because they’re Disney and people will still pay them money for everything. Westerners. What idiots.)

I guess, in most ways, that me considering Tangled as the best animated feature of 2010 is perhaps utter bollocks. But it is the year’s best, to this writer’s honest opinion. Yeap. You’re probably staring at me now, mouth agape. The scissors in your hand is very throwable, and you’ve practised before, especially on unfortunate cockroaches. You know I’m really just being daft. 2010 was, after all, the year of How To Train Your Dragon, and Despicable Me, and Toy Story 3 (“Especially Toy Story 3,” you said, twirling the scissors. It catches the light and gleams). What Disney concoction, no matter how nice or cool, could ever trump this?

Well, it’s because (and in this writer’s honest opinion): It’s Friggin’ Disney. Wow, good throw. Got my ear there. Very clean.

But well, this Disney we’re talking about here isn’t the Disney that closed down their traditional animated studios and made Chicken Little. This is the Disney that has that spark for characters, storytelling, wonderful visuals and the good old Believing In Themselves. Like The Princess and the Frog, Tangled is very much a traditional Disney movie. Disney of Walt’s time. Disney of the Animation Renaissance, which they had started. Disney who knew what they were doing. Disney with that childlike wonder in their hearts, and the adult-like dedication to bring them out as imaginatively as possible.

Oh, missed me there. But it’s Okay; I dodged. Just wanted you to know that. Don’t feel so bad about yourself.

Alright, Tangled isn’t without its flaws. It didn’t start off too well, and I can’t exactly tell you why. But once the plot got along, taking these established characters into the wilderness and giving them alcohol, it became a life of its own. I got lost in it. I stopped feeling like I was watching a movie. I was caring about the characters, I was laughing and I was sad, and it didn’t matter if I had actually seen most of everything coming – I was already so deeply lost in it that it surprised me anyway. It only took the reality of the End Credits to being me back, and also only because cinema cleaners here have no respect for End Credit watchers.

It was like watching Disney in their prime again, getting swept along in that carpet ride, getting to know Hakuna Matata, wanting to be Out There or Part of Your World, and knowing that Love conquers all.

Sure, I may be wrong. I may be biased, and there’s perhaps one or two of you out there who know that I am. But if you’re ever a Disney fan, you do yourself a favour to watch Tangled, before it faded into the unattainable (until the DVD release). Because, well, It’s Friggin’ Disney.

Hoho, close one there, that one clipped my heel that Ah Ok, there goes the eye, you got the eye, haha, and yeap; oomph; the pancreas. Always the pancreas…

***

That was the technical reason, the movie critic in me. Here is the real reason, and also where the SPOILERS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD disclaimer come to play.

Our heroes were on a boat, and they said something. Something I had been waiting for them to say. And after that, the lanterns came.

And the Song came. They sang about meeting their dreams, or chasing after pointless ones. They sang about seeing each other. They sang about having new dreams. And we know, then, as the lanterns descent and lit the water and their eyes; that they dream of each other.

It took a Song, and the mass of floating lanterns, so beautiful and close and real, to make me know that I’m really dreaming, too. And I have a new dream.

You’re my new dream.