The new Pixar influence makes this movie fantastic!

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2011)

Yes, this is a "typical" Disney movie, with singing heroes (and heroines) and villains, saucer-size-eyed characters, cutesy animal companions, and a coming-of-age plot. However, it's also a Pixar movie (genius John Lasseter was Executive Producer) meaning that it is hilarious in most scenes, heart-stoppingly beautiful in the visuals, wittier than 95% of all the other movies out there, and definitely something that can be loved and enjoyed by both little kids and their parents. The plot really has nothing to do with Rapunzel, apart from a woman being imprisoned in a tower, who has (very) long hair. The story Disney has come up with is probably one of the most beautiful they have ever crafted. A princess is abducted by an evil witch while she is still a baby, and grows up completely sheltered by the witch, who needs her magical hair to stay young. Every year on the princess' birthday, the distraught king and queen let beautiful lanterns rise to show her the way home. Of course, the princess, now almost 18, has no idea what they mean but knows that they are important, and wants to see them from up close. A young thief who stumbles upon the tower is just the right companion for her to get out, and from there the plot develops with never-before-seen speed in a Disney movie: just like we are used from Pixar. I don't have kids, but I loved watching this movie in a cinema that was filled with them - as soon as the adorable animal companions (a horse that acts like a dog, and a chameleon very much the same as the cockroach in Wall-E) fell over, the kids were screaming with laughter. And then they would make one of those cleverly animated faces that only adults can understand, and I had to laugh. There are other scenes that will forever stick in my memory: how Rapunzel transforms a tavern full of evil ruffians into a singing mob of people who follow their dreams, how the use of a frying pan in one small scuffle becomes the weapon of choice for a whole kingdom, and more than anything else, when the lanterns are being lit and released into the night sky. I'm a 33-year-old male, but I have to say: that brought tears into my eyes, it was that beautiful and moving.
I don't really understand why this movie hasn't received more attention. I used to be a very strong Disney fan until the company became weird (Pocahontas and later), but having watched Tangled, I can honestly say that this is easily the wittiest, fastest, and possibly even most beautiful Disney film I have ever seen.