Some stories hit harder because the people telling them have lived through their heartbreak. Seth Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, have a deeply personal connection to Tangles, inspired in part by Miller Rogen’s experience of watching her mother live with Alzheimer’s for many years. Now, the film’s first trailer brings that emotional connection into focus, blending heartbreaking themes with dark humor and unexpected warmth through its monochromatic visual style.

The first trailer for Tangles offers an intimate look at a family navigating Alzheimer’s, where fading memories collide with love, grief, and moments of unexpected tenderness.

The first trailer, as revealed by Variety, for Tangles pulls no punches when it comes to the heartbreak of watching a parent slip away, but it knows when to find humor amid the tears. The animated film follows Sarah, voiced by Abbi Jacobson, as she returns to her conservative hometown and confronts the reality of her mother’s likely Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

When Sarah and her family meet with a skeptical doctor, voiced by Bryan Cranston, the diagnosis sends their world into a surreal spiral. The trailer plunges the family into swirling dark waters, while a spectral skeleton looms around them, turning the psychological weight of the disease into haunting, hand-drawn imagery. The monochromatic animation gives these moments an intimate, unsettling quality.

Yet Tangles is not content to leave audiences drowning in sadness. The trailer revealed by Variety also follows Sarah as she attempts to manage her eccentric family, including a chaotic trip to Mexico and back, while making them take their mother’s condition seriously. Between the absurdity of family life and flashes of unexpected warmth, the film finds room for laughter even as memories begin to fade.

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Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen, whom Rogen made sure to appreciate during TIFF, made sure  had plenty of personal reasons to bring Tangles to life, but the source material gives their already intimate project an added emotional dimension.

The story behind Tangles began long before its animated adaptation, with Canadian author Sarah Leavitt documenting her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s in a deeply personal graphic memoir. Published in 2010, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me grew from six years of diary entries, notes, and sketches following Midge Leavitt’s diagnosis at just 55.

Leavitt eventually pieced those memories together after her mother’s death, using spare black-and-white illustrations and candid reflections to capture the realities of caregiving. Even the title carries several meanings, referencing the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s, the curly hair shared by mother and daughter, and the complicated relationships shaped by the disease. That layered personal history gives Tangles an especially intimate foundation for its screen adaptation.

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What did you think of Tangles first trailer? Let us know in the comments!