Movie Review: 'Tangled'

Oh the power of impossibly long hair and the frying pan! I’m telling you, the next time I find myself in a sketchy dark alley, those will be my weapons of choice. Then again, anything I can do to make me more like Disney’s new princess in TANGLED is a go for me. Feisty, gorgeous, and with 70 feet of magical, golden locks, Rapunzel fits in like a glass slipper right alongside Jasmine, Ariel, Belle and Cinderalla, making her the Disney princess to finally bring us back to the glory days of the Disney heroine movies that the formers enchanted us in. In this take of the classic Brothers Grimm tale, the film opens with a narrator recounting a tale from years ago about a princess named Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), who was kidnapped when she was a baby by the evil Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) who keeps her in a tower and uses her hair to restore her youth. We then cut to years later: Now Rapunzel is 18, and she longs more than anything to explore the world outside of the confines of her tower. When the cocky (yet charming) thief Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) climbs up into her tower to seek refuge, she takes him hostage and negotiates a deal with him, leading to him being her guide out in the real world, and a movie so filled with adventure that it will delight girls and boys of all ages.

Though you wouldn’t know it from the trailer, TANGLED is a musical. Not only it is a musical—Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken, who is responsible for the music from ALADDIN, POCAHONTAS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and most recently ENCHANTED, is the one behind the films songs. It doesn’t hurt that Mandy Moore has the voice of an angel and was born to be a Disney princess, either. Combining the catchy, wonderful music the classic hand-drawn animated Disney movies always had, with a gorgeous Pixar look, TANGLED is like the best of both worlds. We finally get a movie that doesn’t abuse the whole 3D mania going on nowadays, and uses it only to enhance the already stunning movie (turning it into a visually breathtaking movie), along with a few songs that will be instant classics. There isn’t a shortage of laughs either–thanks to a heavy dose of well-used slapstick, two adorable (and mute) animal sidekicks, and a colorful array of characters, I found myself constantly dealing with a fit of giggles, as was the rest of the theater. Spellbinding and heartwarming to the max, there’s nothing not to love, and no moment not to enjoy, in this new notch on Disney’s already illustrious belt of movie magic.

Rating: A