Rapunzel

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2010)

On paper, Tangled sounds ridiculous. It's the retelling of the Rapunzel story except that this time around Rapunzel's hair glows and has magical healing powers. But somehow, despite all the odds, Disney makes it work. Really well. It's a pity that Disney wants to back away from its princess and fantastical image b/c Disney does epic, ideal fairy tales so remarkably well. Tangled is funny, has likable characters, and a smart, complex villain, Mother Gothel. (When Gothel finally says, "Fine, I'll be the villain", I'm almost reluctant to see it end that way.)
I know that a lot of reviews have said that Tangled reminded them of Beauty and the Beast, but Tangled reminded me most of A Hunchback of Notre Dame, a happy fairy tale version of it. One of the most fascinating parts of the movie is Rapunzel's relationship with her mother. Gothel is in many ways like Frollo, except she's seemingly much kinder to Rapunzel, showers her with love and teaches her that the outside world is a wicked place and won't tolerate, in Rapunzel's case, how special she is. Rapunzel's relationship with Gothel almost up to the end, is complicated and I'm glad that they depicted it as such. Rapunzel herself is beautiful, naive, and at her very core, a dreamer as all Disney princesses should be. I do really appreciate the fact that they played up her naiveness since she really hasn't seen the world at all. Mandy Moore and Zachery Levi both do a fabulous job voicing Rapunzel and Flynn. My main qualms with the movie were the music. Moore, while she's a fine singer, somehow lacked that signature Disney singing voice. I may be biased though b/c I've heard quite a lot of her other music (when she was a pop singer). Donna Murphy (Gothel) and Levi both have it though. It's also such a pity they didn't have Levi sing more b/c he's really got a fabulous singing voice. Rapunzel is magical, delightful and goes to show that Disney hasn't lost it at all.