Review: TANGLED

Hard to believe but in the mid 1980’s the animation department at the Disney Studios was in danger of being shut down. The recent documentary WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY shows the  turmoil there after their big release, THE BLACK CAULDRON, tanked at the box office. Luckily the animation division was able to pull itself up by returning to classic fairy tales and hiring the team of Alan Menkin and the late, great Howard Ashman (fresh from their stage truimph “Little Shop of Horrors”) to inject some big show tunes into them. Soon Disney animation was back on top with the hat trick of THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and ALADDIN. Now after having great success with Pixar’s films, Disney is making an attempt to revive  the musical fairy tale with TANGLED. Will it be a return to their former glories or will it croak at the box office like THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.

TANGLED is an expanded version of the classic Grimm fairy tale of Rapunzel. The story starts near an unnamed kingdom(maybe Italy?) when a piece of the sun breaks off and lands on earth. A magical glowing golden flowers sprouts where the bit landed and is found by the ancient Mother Gothel. When Gothel reaches for the flower her wrinkles magically disappear and her youth is restored. She covers the flower with a hollow bush and returns periodically to use it’s power. Meanwhile back at the castle, the pregnant queen ‘s health is fading quickly. The king orders a search for the legendary healing golden flower. One of the soldiers finds it and brings it back to Gothel’s horror. After drinking a potion made from the flower, the queen is restored to health and gives birth to a beautiful girl with shimmering blond hair they name Rapunzel. Late one night Gothel sneaks into the nursery to find the flower. She soon discovers that Rapunzel’s hair has the same rejuvenating powers, but not when the locks are sheared(they turn brown). Gothel takes the baby and disappears into the forest, never to be found. The heartbroken king and queen launch floating lighted lanterns into the sky on her birthday in hope that the girl will see them and return. But the years pass as Rapunzel grows up in a huge tower hidden deep in the forest. The young girl believes that Gothel is her mother and will not venture out after Mother tells her of the terrors of the outside world. That all changes on the eve of her eighteenth birthday as Flynn Rider discovers her alone in the tower while eluding the king’s men( he and the Stabbington brothers have taken a jeweled crown). After knocking him out, Rapunzel hides the crown. When he awakes, she tells him that he will get the crown back if he takes her to the kingdom so she may witness the lantern launch up close. They embark on a journey with the king’s soldiers, the Stabbington brothers, and Mother Gothel in hot pursuit.

The film has a much different look than other recent Disney features. Here they’re trying to combine the lush, modeled look of CGI with the hand drawn character stylings of earlier fairy tale features. The gorgeous, bright look of the film works thanks to directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard with a big assist from executive producer and master animation artist Glen Keane. The look and movement of many of the characters is reminiscent of Keane’s work on Ariel, the Beast, and Tarzan. Like Ariel, Rapunzel is a bright eyed, plucky young woman that all the young girls in the audience will identifywith.  Mandy Moore is great as her speaking and singing voice. Ryder Flynn is a lovable rascal like Aladdin and is given voice by TV’s Chuck, Zachary Levi. Mother Gothel, voiced by Broadway vet Donna Murphy, is not as strong a villainess as  previous Disney bad girls(particularly Ursula or Maleficent). She’s wicked, but seems to wield control over Rapunzel in a passive aggressive fashion. Great character work is on display with the two mute animals: Pascal the chameleon and Maximus the white stallion. One scenes has our heroes going to a forest eatery and meeting a motley group of thugs who might be related to the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON vikings. Although the artwork is great I had problems with the simple story of Rapunzel be stretched to feature length. The   chases  and the flood seemed like padding. The film’s not helped by some unmemorable songs. Of course Rapunzel must sing of her desire to explore the world, “When Will My Life Begin”, but it’s no “Part of Your World”. Mother Gothel’s wannabe showstopper “Mother Knows Best” quickly becomes tedious. Luckily “I’ve Got a Dream” is livened up by some great animation of the forest thugs. I found it distracting that these medieval folks were using modern phrases like “downer” and “freak-out”. Perhaps I’m nitpicking too much. The wee ones should enjoy the frantic action and animal antics. I just hope Disney doesn’t give up on these old classics. I think there’s another timeless masterpiece to be brought to the big screen using that old magic that Walt began over seventy years ago.

Overall Rating: Four out of Five Stars