In spite of often paling in comparison to most other recent animations, Tangled is a charming enough romp which ticks enough boxes.

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2011)

Disney's latest is a feast for the senses in as much one cannot deny its colour; exuberance; 'crack on with it' attitude and generally fun, frantic nature - but this is all it is in regards to that age-old "feast for the senses" line, as I cannot say I felt a genuine nor heartfelt taking to it like I can to some of their other works and nor can I muster a reaction along the lines of being particularly moved. The film is sassy and effervescent, a film in the Disney mould of its depicting the adventures of a young, often socially starved by her father/mother, heroine getting caught up in all sorts of plots and pratfalls with a range of oddball folk along the lines of Aladdin; Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid resulting in change and great adventure. The film follows that of the Mandy Moore voiced Rapunzel, a young girl who lives with her mother and steadily approaches her eighteenth birthday. Only, she doesn't actually live with her mother but a faux-incarnation of a mothering figure – the dastardly Gothel (Murhpy), who begins the film as a haggard elderly lady before finding a magical flower enabling her to become young and stay young. In order to do so, she must constantly harnesses the power which comes about to be imbued within that of the infant Rapunzel's hair, a catch which is brought about when Rapunzel's REAL mother harnesses the life from the flower herself so as to keep her alive during childbirth. With Moore's character possessing a sort of trichological Holy Grail, and having been stolen away from her true parents, of whom look suspiciously like the king and queen out of 1959's Sleeping Beauty, she finds herself locked away in a tower by herself at the bereft of the person she presumes to be her true guardian.
The heroine on this occasion isn't the best of young female leads that the American animated movie making corporation have ever come up with. Cut from a stone more akin to that of a recent, Disney-mass produced 'conveyor belt' generation of young women along the lines of Hannah Montana and Selena Gomez, Rapunzel is a po-faced; "Best. Day. Ever!" quipping poster child incarnation more broadly representative of this and is disappointing in this light. She is, however, ridiculously talented in an array of fields which range from astronomy (perhaps at a time before most astronomers did what they did?) to dress-making; her burgeoning young adulthood cranking things up a gear when she desires to step outside of the proverbial bubble, much to Gothel's disdain when she realises the magic she possesses will go with her.
In essence, we have a film about a young girl wanting to grow up coming up against an elderly woman wanting to grow down – that is to say stay young. Said dynamic brings about the film's best song, "mother knows best", in a sort of verbal psychoanalytical orgy of why young Rapunzel should stay locked in the tower with her pet chameleon rather than get out and explore as she approaches adulthood like she wants to. Unfortunately, and on a much more detrimental note, we have had the likes of Black Swan released in 2011; the 'sordid' mother-daughter relationship here paling in comparison to Aronofsky's forcing drama with the whole thing, of which plays such an important role in the piece overall, landing at our feet more damply than what would have been away from exposure to said piece.
Respite in Rapunzel's world arrives with that of Flynn Rider (Levi), a cocksure young thief who's a lot more handsome than his two criminal cohorts and manages to steal some valuables from a castle and get away again before having the gall to double cross his partners in crime and make off. Flynn stumbles upon Repunzel's little hideaway in amidst the hills and forests and renders it his own to lie low – and that's when all the trouble starts. The sub-plot to do with the kingdom's chase, eventually led by a cross pollination between a horse and a bloodhound named Maximus, whose clothing sticks true to his name and sees him decked out in Roman Centurion-esque garb, to get the valuables back and Flynn's own double crossed friends chasing him down does well to intermingle with the central tract of Rapunzel's coming of age story and what eventually transpires on that strand.
We enjoy Rider and Repunzel's coming together extending beyond that of the tower's domain, something which kicks off an adventure similar to that of when Princess Jasmine and Aladdin first met and came to bond – the gimmick here seeing neither of them know of the other one's true-to-life foundations in royalty. I like the fact that her aforementioned trusty pet chameleon, Pascal, is mute; thus, I make it, rendering Tangled the first Disney film since that of Pocahontas to encompass creatures of the animal world whom do not speak. Where we might have had a hair-brained, fast-talking animal sidekick doing whatever, Pascal cuts a silent and often cheeky looking figure – a character who's all hand gestures and facial expressions, a character built on comedy of a more physical nature and making him infinitely funnier than a what might have been. The film, branded proudly by that of Disney themselves, is their fiftieth; if the run were a so-far indelible cricket innings by that of an individual batsmen, then Tangled is the nick along the ground for four runs through the slip cauldron thus proudly bringing up the half-century and enabling the player to raise his bat more than it is the imperious cover drive to seal a landmark. That said, the film comes with a buoyant energy; a charming love story and a fun chase narrative on top of a fair few laughs that compensate for a few lacklustre songs – it is worth a go.