Film Review: Disney Has Another Brush With Greatness in ‘Tangled’

CHICAGO – Movieland is awash in feature length “cartoons,” with virtually every season cranking out more new entries in this new golden age of animation. The Disney Studios, the grandaddy of the genre, aims to keep the bar high with its latest, the amazing looking and hilarious 3D version of the Rapunzel story, with a post modern title of “Tangled.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore) begins her life as a privileged princess, whose mother was saved in childbirth by a magical healing flower. The plant was formerly tended by an old woman, who became young again whenever she was in proximity of the bloom. Rapunzel’s mother had ingested the flower’s essence and passed the healing power to the child and her long hair, which glowed whenever the power would assert itself.

The old woman felt cheated that she lost her youth, so in retaliation she kidnaps Rapunzel and holes her up in the legendary tall tower. The child thinks the woman is her Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) and is constantly singing a special song that activates her magical hair and keeps her “mother” forever young. All is well until Rapunzel’s 18th birthday, when she desires to see the festival of floating lanterns, ironically started by her royal parents as a memory to her missing status.

Fate plays a hand when a young rogue named Flynn (Zachary Levi) infiltrates the tower while running from both the law and his robber partners (they stole the crowd jewels). Rapunzel has never seen an outsider, and knocks him out with frying pan. She hides the crown, and forces Flynn to take her into the royal village for the festival in exchange for getting it back. This new adventure will test the resolve of Mother Gothel to get Rapunzel back to her tower and Flynn’s life of robbery. In between is the freedom of the girl with the longest hair.

”Tangled” opens everywhere on November 24th in ‘Real D’ 3D. Featuring the voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor, Ron Perlman and Brad Garrett. Screenplay by Dan Fogelman, directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. Rated “G”