Even this late, the first genuine adult laugh-out-loud film of the year!

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2010)

A few years ago the technical wizardry of SHREK trumped the superior story telling of MONSTERS, INC. at the Oscars, and this may be one of those years. Early buzz has the wistful mixed bag TOY STORY 3 with a lock with Oscar voters who long for their lost childhood despite the monstrous children they show in that film, but the FAR more enjoyable experience, while still not without flaws of pacing, is Disney's deliriously enjoyable semi-musical (wonderful even if surprisingly unobtrusive score by Alan Menken) rethinking of the old Rapunzel legend, TANGLED.
The funny and yes, actually sexy animated leading man and his innocent but capable leading lady anchor a near perfect animated cast. The cavalry horse Maximus who starts as the hero's chief nemesis and winds up his best ally is a brilliant comic creation nearly matched by Rapunzel's faux "mother," a 21st century version of the classic wicked witch. While some of the most popular recent animated features have generated major and minor sequels, this is the first animated film in my experience where I'd love to see these animated characters AS DRAWN and VOICED reused in other, not necessarily related properties as if they were real actors. They're so much fun to spend time with, you want to spend more. If Disney had the good sense to try an animated version of George Bernard Shaw's perennial success ARMS AND THE MAN with the same animated cast they've already developed, I'd be willing to bet it would be just as big a hit.
Great cast, but also a great story told with amazing freshness and insouciance. By elaborating on the well known story of the maid in the tower to create a classic quest to center their refurbished story around, the film makers also opened the door to a dazzling array of fresh comic touches (I'm with Flynn - "I gotta get me one of these!" - in loving the possibilities of the rediscovered old kitchen and comic standby, the cast iron skillet) and amusingly twisted sub-characters (yes, even one momentarily covered with the comic rodents that have been a Disney good luck talisman for years) with "dreams" similar to but different from Rapunzel's and thus touched on something universal in all of us. We all have dreams that seem unrealistic, but with determination and faith may not be. TANGLED has its heart firmly in the right place as pure entertainment so that it's only afterward that we realize how strongly it was encouraging us in the audience to follow our own dreams, but the joy and the beauty that washes over us while watching it remains with us to inspire long after the credits (which, sad to relate, are the one unimaginatively filmed part of the movie and easily missed) roll.
Of course the more and more ubiquitous new 3D system works beautifully and makes the motion picture experience more than it will inevitably be on the small screen, but the story telling is so good, that when the DVD inevitably comes out, it is one which will have to be on my shelves for regular reviewing whether or not we have 3D technology on our home screens yet.
When the "previews" are as good as TANGLED's, you usually think they must have pulled ALL the best parts, but this is one case where a film lives up to it's hype. It really is one of the few "must sees" of a pretty good year at the movies. (Sadly, as of January 25, 2011, it appears my prognostication re. TOY STORY 3 was prescient: the Academy chose to only nominate THREE animated films - including the inferior "How To Train Your Dragon" as "Best..." - in the apparent fear that TANGLED might actually beat TOY STORY 3 as it has at the box office. Inexcusable.)