An enjoyably take on the Rapunzel fairy tale

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2012)

As this story opens leading man, Flynn Rider, tells us how a sunbeam once fell to Earth and became a magical golden flower. This flower was kept by Gothal, an old woman, who used its magic to stay forever young and refuses to share its power. One day, when the pregnant queen is on the verge of death the palace guard search the kingdom and find the flower; they turn it into a medicine that saves the queen. The magic remains though; this time locked within the newborn Princess Rapunzel's hair. Gothal sneaks into the palace to steal a lock of the child's hair but as soon as she cuts it, it turns brown and loses its magic so she takes the baby. The years pass and Gothal raises Rapunzel as her own child; keeping her locked in a tall tower to 'protect' her from the dangers of the world. Rapunzel begs her mother to let her leave the tower to see the lanterns being released on her birthday but the request is refused. As luck would have it Flynn ends up in Rapunzel's tower after fleeing from the royal guard he has just stolen a priceless tiara from the palace! Rapunzel talks him into taking her to see the lanterns and along the way she learns the truth about her 'mother' and the two of them have the expected series of adventures before things appear to go wrong again.
This Disney 3D animation may not have been made in collaboration with Pixar but it has a charm of its own and a distinct 'Disney' look and more importantly sound; the characters sing a succession of songs throughout the film. The story is enjoyably with plenty of action, a good number of laughs, enough scares and even an apparent tragedy that may cause a few tears to be shed if you think a Disney film could let a protagonist die. The film's PG certificate is due to the mild violence; this is mostly comical though and frequently involves frying pans so it should be okay for most children to watch unless you are worried they will copy the protagonists and batter each other with frying pans! The animation looks really good; the characters move and show emotion in a genuinely human way even though they are clearly cartoon characters rather than realistically proportioned. I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Disney animation; it may not be classic hand drawn animation but it is still classic Disney.