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Disney’s 50th animated feature, Tangled, really wants to be ranked with their very best. While it has its moments of hilarity and sparkling computer animation, the story is a bit of a soulless journey through the tried-and-true classic Disney formula of big-eyed girls embarking upon a dangerous world. As written,Tangled is all glitter and gloss with only the faintest of traces of the art and magic that made the hand-drawn frames and adventure of The Princess & the Frog so fun and memorable.
Written by Dan Fogelman, Tangled is essentially an updated look on the story of Rapunzel as originally penned by the Brothers Grimm. Our sweet and naïve Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is a Princess and, as a child, was kidnapped by Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) and raised to believe the outside world is a dangerous place. Truth is, Gothel is only interested in Rapunzel’s magic hair – which has been blessed by the sun with the powers to heal and reverse the aging process – and keeps the young woman hidden in a faraway tower from her true parents.
One day a charming thief named Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) discovers Rapunzel for himself and, after a brief entanglement between himself and her frying pan, the two strike a deal: he’ll show her what the outside looks like – especially the kingdom’s annual lantern release that is, ironically enough, released on the evening of her birthday – and, in return, she’ll give him back the tiara he stole. Panicked by the thought of being without Rapunzel’s magic hair, Gothel finds herself making a hideous deal with the notorious Stabbington Brothers (Ron Perlman) in an effort to bring her captive back.
In what is the film’s scripted best moment, Rapunzel’s mood shifts from excitement to guilt for being the stereotypical bad daughter and disobeying her “mother” by exploring the outside with the stranger at her side. With breakneck speed and edits, the scenes change from happy to sad and back to happy as Rapunzel’s mood changes. It’s hysterical and a promising bit of comedic magic that sadly isn’t capitalized upon throughout the rest of the overlong narrative.
I can praise this film’s animation all I want with this review; the lantern scene is among their finest ever put on film. It is beautiful and stunning and all things worthy of such glowing praise as its already received. Yet, just like a special effects-laden film of science fiction, the story matters first and foremost and here’s where the film falters. Most ofTangled is rather stoically paced with bits of familiar ground we’ve seen plenty of times before in these tales of young princes and princesses. It's also too long in getting to its climax; only originality warrants excess. Even the music – composed by Alan Menken and lyricist Glen Slater - seems uninspired as it’s all too often repeated by cast and music cues.
In this day and age of all things Pixar one would think that Disney would be stepping up their narrative game…not giving audiences the same old story and song and dance. Like I said, Tangled isn’t a horribly disappointing narrative…it’s just a very familiar one…with little, beyond how it looks, of that Disney magic.
MPAA Rating: PG for brief mild violence.
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