Tangled - Movie Review

Disney has a special way of creating animated feature films. I have had enough of the whole Disney Princess thing. And just when I think they have made or remade every princess story they churn out another one. The story of Rapunzel is different enough to provide a nice platform for more Disney magic. So I will admit it...Tangled was pretty darn good. Princess and all.

When a sunbeam falls from the heavens and lands in a Kingdom (somewhere in Once Upon A Time), a special healing flower sprouts. This flower is discovered by an evil hag (Donna Murphy) who keeps the flower hidden under a basket as her own personal Fountain of Youth. When the pregnant queen falls gravely ill, the entire kingdom sets out to find the rare flower. The flower is plucked and mixed into a potion which helps the queen recover, delivering a beautiful gold-locked daughter, Rapunzel (Mandy Moore).

The hag realizes that this newborn princess has hair that possesses the healing quality of her flower. When she cuts a lock, the entire strand of hair dies. So she steals the child and locks her in a tower. The hag is able to retain her youthfulness by having her daughter sing to her, igniting the healing power of her magic hair. The hags attempts to hide the child from her destiny are challenged by a handsome young vagabond, Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) who stumbles upon the tower while hiding from the Captain of the Guard. Together, Flynn and Rapunzel set out on a journey of self discovery.

Rapunzel has seen many iterations in literature over the centuries. Tangled elevates her to the status of princess, where she was, at one time, merely a serf. It is the prince who finds her that bestows royalty on her. The story is based on an 1812 tale by the Brothers Grimm. Their story, however, appears to be the reincarnation of a 1698 story called Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. This story, in turn, bears resemblances to a tenth century Persian story of Rudaba.

Tangled adds its own new twists to this often manipulated story. Keeping consistent with their never-ending princess theme, they have promoted Rapunzel to princess by birthright. They have given her magic hair and made her prince a wanted thief. In the process of reinventing the tale, Dan Fogelman manages to create intriguing characters and a plot that has a typical fairy tale ending. While the story is contrived, it is done artfully with an eye toward pulling together the loose ends for the mandated "happily ever after."

I enjoyed Tangled. It had great animation, a typically Disney soundtrack (a good thing) and a cast of wacky but lovable characters. There were times when the voice-overs gave the impression of a sound stage with an almost distant quality in the dialogue. That surprised me given the high quality of Disney films. But those moments were not excessively distracting. The story was an interesting twist on a classic that dates back (possibly) ten centuries. An interesting, well constructed remake. 7.5/10.

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