Tangled (2010)

It’s an exciting time to like Disney movies and I am inclined to believe that a new “renaissance” is before us, probably thanks to John “I saved Disney” Lasseter. While I was pleasantly surprised by the Princess and the Frog I was more or less blown away when I saw Rapunzel...I mean...Tangled, in theaters. When I first saw the trailer I thought to myself, “oh man, not a Dream Works knockoff!” Then, being the father of a little girl, we found ourselves so desperate to see a family movie one Saturday night that I wound up buying tickets for a movie I assumed I’d hate (at least twice). Boy was I wrong, by the time the opening monologue was over and we were introduced to Rapunzel’s character, played by Mandy “Are you freaking kidding me?” Moore, of all people, representing what I take to be Disney’s interpretation of home schooled kids, who busied herself with a myriad of funny, stifling tasks set to catchy pop music....I felt that I might be in for something special. I was totally right.

By the next scene, when we’re introduced to Donna Murphy’s amazing character, Mother Gothel (the witch), and a hilarious yet truly disturbing display of passive aggression in the form of a song called “Mother Knows Best”, I absolutely knew that I was going to love this movie...and what’s not to love? The pop music, done by Menken, was pretty great. The animation though not better than the best Pixar movies was appealing and crisp, if a little bit stale cliche at the same time. The characters were deep and interesting. The story well crafted, well paced, and moving at all the right moments and in all the right ways. It is just a really great movie.

Just like the Princess and the frog and unlike older Disney fairytale movies, Tangled is really at its heart a comic love story between equally and very well developed male and female counterparts. In the old days the “prince” was just an accessory to the Disney Princes' ensemble and he got very little in the way of story, development, or even personality. Not here and herein lies the reason why the movie’s title was changed at the last minute from Rapunzel to Tangled....because it’s not really simply about Rapunzel but about her relationship to the character Flynn Rider. This makes for the very best Disney love story, one of the funniest Disney movies ever made (maybe only second after the Emperor’s New Groove), and a quality story that actually digs deep into a lot interesting issues surrounding such topics as aging and dyeing and the true conceptualization of love.

I give it 4.4 frying pans to the face