Some magical moments, but no match for Disney's better films.

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2010)

Disney animation certainly hasn't been what it used to be. After a share of mediocre to bad animated movies, they churned out an instant classic with the traditionally animated THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. But that film didn't catch on with the public as much as it should have (of course being released around the same time as the mega-super hit AVATAR didn't help matters either). Blaming the underperformance of their film on an assumption that boys were turned off by the phrase "princess", Disney decided to rename their subsequent feature, RAPUNZEL, a similar fairy tale in digital 3-D CGI. This name change is something that I still can't shake my head over. I realize the motivation was to try and attract more people, but c'mon, TANGLED? Sounds more like self-parody if you ask me! As expected, RAPUNZEL -- OK, OK, TANGLED -- is a very loose retelling of the famous Brother's Grimm tale. The title character is a young woman with the largest amount of golden hair imaginable shut away in a tower deep in the forest. Her only guardian is Mother Gothel, who stole the child away from her parents when she was very young. Rapunzel's hair has magic powers; it can heal cuts and make even a centuries-old being still appear young. It is for this latter reason that Gothel keeps Rapunzel captive, although of course our blonde heroine is told by her "mother" that the world is a dark and scary place and that she should stay in the tower. (If this doesn't give you echoings of Disney's HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, then what will?) Of course, Rapunzel years to explore the outside world, namely to attend the "festival of lights" held once a year on her birthday. One day, Flynn Rider, a runaway thief who has just stolen a jeweled crown, sneaks into the tower to hide. Knocking him out cold with a frying pan, Rapunzel forces Flynn to take her to the Festival in exchange for the stolen crown. At first Flynn tries to weasel his way out of the deal, but as he falls in love with her, his motives naturally change. But Mother Gothel wants Rapunzel back at all costs....
There are many moments when TANGLED truly shines, mainly anything involving genuine heart or magic. In the latter half of the film there is a breathtaking moment where glowing lanterns literally float up into the night sky while Rapunzel and Flynn sing the obligatory love song, "I See The Light". This is a truly colorful and imaginative sequence that ranks among the best at Disney. Similarly inspiring is when Rapunzel uses her enchanted hair to heal a cut on Flynn's hand. And the last half hour offers some powerful drama and heartbreaking emotion on the way to its happy ending (surprise).
Arguably the triumph of the film is Mother Gothel, who ranks as one of Disney's finest villains in a long time. She has shades of Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, but there is also a little bit of Frollo from HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. She's selfish, manipulative, greedy, and deceptive in every way imaginable. The dynamic between her and Rapunzel is both one of the strongest points of the movie and reminds one of the Witch/Rapunzel relationship from Steven Sondheim's dark fairy tale musical INTO THE WOODS. In fact, Gothel's signature song, "Mother Knows Best", one of many to be written for this film by Alan Menken, is strangely reminiscent of a Sondheim song. (The score is another highlight of TANGLED; Menken's songs are very pleasing to the ear, with some emerging as true stand-outs.
Unfortunately TANGLED falls short of Disney classic status for the following reasons. One of them is the overemphasis on slapstick comedy for much of the first two-thirds of the film. Most of this consists of Flynn getting whacked around by Rapunzel's frying pan, comical sight gags, and Looney Tunes style goofiness. This gets pretty tiresome quickly after every five seconds. Other sources of comedy comes from Rapunzel's chameleon sidekick, Pascal, as well as a gang of burly bandits who break into song at one point in the film. Both are absolutely useless in that they don't contribute anything valuable to the plot. The bandits, in particular, only show up in one scene that by the time they reappear again toward the finale, I forgot who they were! Pascal seems to be mostly the typical Disney cartoon sidekick intended to provide laughs and/or lure kids into the theater, because that's exactly what he functions as. He doesn't even do anything during the finale.
As far as the lead characters are concerned, Rapunzel is an appealing enough heroine, free-spirited and alternatingly schizophrenic (her various mood swings when she ventures out of the tower for the first time, for instance), while Flynn starts off as a smug, self-centered rogue who has a change of heart as he learns about Rapunzel's past. But while they both have a solid chemistry, there isn't enough of it in the film to emerge as emotionally impactful as it could have been. (Consequently, the climactic moments of the film, while otherwise very strong, don't resonate as dramatically as they would have with better realized leads.) Had the comedy level been cranked down by several notches and the story much tighter, TANGLED would truly be worthy of being Disney's 50th animated feature. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG was a much better production to earn that status. I did enjoy TANGLED overall, but I don't think it's one of Disney's greatest.