Tangled, Disney's latest animated achievement, may surprise you. The film is a re-telling of the age-old story of Rapunzel, the princess locked away in a tower; however, the story is smartly re-imagined in a way that reinvents the “Disney Princess” genre. This film does not feature a persecuted princess, pining like a bird in a cage while her charming, virtuous, and unrealistically ideal prince battles valiantly with a treacherous, desperately evil witch. Instead, Rapunzel is a quirky, intelligent, and creative girl who just wants to see the world, her prince, while still charming, is actually not a prince: he is a wanted thief with a less than charming name: Eugene Fitzherbert, and the witch, whom Eugene never really fights, is a plain old woman with no magical powers at all who wishes to selfishly use the regenerative virtues of Rapunzel's hair to keep herself forever young. All-in-all, the film is greatly successful in portraying a cast of believable characters who interact with each other in realistic ways. In addition, the magical and fantastic elements of the story (such as Rapunzel's magical hair) are used primarily as devices to progress the plot in small, necessary ways rather than as the driving force behind the film. This is not to say that the film lacks magic. Tangled delivers all of the enchantment, romance, comedy and adventure that has become a hallmark of Disney films in the past few decades, while simultaneously treating audiences to a welcome array of heart-felt human emotion. Honestly, this film was a lot better than I expected it to be. Give it a try.
MPAA: Rated PG for brief mild violence.
