Brings back that old fashioned Disney Magic

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2010)

I have to admit I wasn't impressed by the trailers & commercials for this movie, which made it look like another "Shrek" wannabe, full of slapstick and snarky characters. However, I liked what I saw of Rapunzel and animals and heard good things about it from those in the know, so I gave it a shot. I'm very glad I did.
It takes us back to the time when Disney was at their best. I felt like I did the first time I watched the classics like "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Little Mermaid". And that's a good thing. It may sound like too much praise, but in this era of animated movies more interested in pop culture references and wacky (read: grating) antics than good stories and memorable characters, we could really use more cartoon movies like the ones of old.
Even the opening narration reminded me of old-school Disney in how it told us the back story in its older movies. And I like how we get a different take on the story of Rapunzel, changing her from a farmer's daughter who ended up in the hands of a witch to a princess kidnapped to keep a woman (I wouldn't really call her a witch) young, and instead of a prince we get a thief forced to take her from that tower.
The characters are the best we've gotten from a non-Pixar Disney movie it a while. Rapunzel makes a good heroine. With big green eyes and 70 feet of golden hair, she's more engaging than Snow White and Aurora, as wide-eyed and venturesome as Ariel and Belle, and as clever as Mulan. And she's wonderfully versatile with that hair, like Indiana Jones with a built in whip, or Wonder Woman's lasso as a part of her body. Mother Gothel, like Disney's very best villains, is unassuming while manipulative, cunning and, above all else, cruel and self-serving. We get really good sidekicks in the animals. They don't talk (which I'm glad of), but communicate greatly via facial expressions, gestures, and body language. Pascal the chameleon has a good sense of comic timing and his color changing adds to his communication. Meanwhile, Maximus the horse steals every scene he's in, acting more like a dog than a horse, putting up a better fight than the castle guards, and even having some interesting depth. The one character I didn't like was Flynn. Having seen a lot of him in the trailers, I thought he'd be a weak link. And I was right. Not only is his storyline all too familiar, but I've seen his kind in several Dreamworks movies (starts out selfish, snide and scheming then gets better over time). He's basically a pretty Shrek, or one the heroes of "Eldorado" (he even kinda looks them)
This is the second Disney animated movie since "Mulan" to have song & dance numbers, and most of them are pretty good, bringing back memories of "The Litte Mermaid" and "Aladdin", which isn't surprising with Alan Menken in charge of music. The best one is the reprise of "Mother Knows Best" (once again, the Villain gets the best song!). And I should warn you about the weakest, "I've Got a Dream", which is supposed to emulate ensemble numbers of cartoons movies past, but is just too over the top and silly for its own good.
I'll admit its not groundbreaking like Disney Classics of old. But after a decade of many failures, including a few that were close but still missed the mark, this is the kind of movie that made Disney all those years ago with great animation, colorful characters (literally in Pascal's case), and a story that nicely mixes romance, comedy, adventure and heart. This is Disney at its best. And we need more like it.