A witty, catchy, and beautiful movie that touches my inner child.

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2010)

I just got home from seeing Tangled, the latest animated fairy Tale from Disney animation.
Rapunzel (Voiced with sincere enthusiasm by Mandy Moore) is a girl who has long, long hair that contains the ability to heal, a power she obtained from a flower that saved her mother during pregnancy. For this reason the evil Gothel (Voiced wickedly by Donna Murphy), a woman who had stolen Rapunzel as a baby, keeps her hidden in a tower so that she may use it to keep herself young forever. But when a sly thief named Flynn Rider (Voiced by Zachary Levi) sneaks into the tower, she forces him to take her to see a city where lanterns are sent floating every year on her birthday.
The film follows the always classic Disney formula, and the prologue is worrisome, but directors Nathan Greno, Byron Howard and writer Dan Fogelman of 2008's Bolt manage a fine balance between humor, a lot of which was most welcome, divine heart, and wonderful character development. But the real storytelling comes from the brilliant animation. The animation is dazzling, specifically that of every strand of Rapunzel's golden locks of hair, which is simply gorgeous, and the physicality and facial expressions of each character are a great match.
The cast clearly have a lot of fun, Mandy Moore's Rapunzel is a sweet, and honest character, Zachary Levi is cleverly funny as Flynn, but the standout is that of Donna Murphy. It's a daring performance, as each time her character manipulates and lies to get her way, it makes the hatred for her rise, but that's the beauty behind it.
And of course, I MUST mention the music by the legendary Alan Menken, whose return to the animated musical is very much welcome. The orchestral score may not be one of his very best, but it's a sweetly arranged and brilliantly put together craft. The songs, by he and his lyricist Glenn Slater, are especially great ranging from old fashioned Broadway, to fast paced Honky Tonk, the best of which being the songs "I See The Light", taking place during the beautiful lantern sequence, and "Mother Knows Best" a catchy tune taking place in the film's first fifteen minutes, and re-prised at a later point in the film.
There's something else about Tangled that I love, but just can't explain. Maybe it's the cast, the characters, or even the music, but there's something about Tangled that warms my heart, and touches my nostalgic inner child. It makes me feel like I once did when I was a little kid.
So I obviously say go see Tangled, which I give ***1/2 out of ****