The best Disney musical in a decade-plus, "Tangled" is classic Disney, a worthy addition to Disney's fabled lineup of princesses.
A retelling of "Rapunzel," "Tangled" skews the tale slightly. In this take, Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore) is a princess whose birth had complications that endangered both mother's and child's lives. The King's guards sought out and picked a magical golden flower the witch (voice of Donna Murphy) had been using to keep her young.
The flower's magic transferred to Rapunzel, leaving her hair with the same youth-restoring properties. The witch kidnaps the princess and keeps her locked away in a remote tower, raising her as her own so that she may remain young forever.
Years later, as Rapunzel starts becoming a young woman, she yearns to leave her prison, but her "mother" won't allow her to, telling her stories of the evil world outside. Her hair cannot be cut lest it lose its supernatural properties, so over the years it grew and grew and grew and grew and grew until it's long enough to become an elevator of sorts for the witch, who says those immortal words, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair."
Enter Flynn (voice of Zachary Levi of NBC's "Chuck"), a petty thief who stumbles upon Rapunzel's tower looking for a place to hide out and stash his loot: a crown that suspiciously fits Rapunzel's head.
"Tangled" is old-school Disney musical magic, with 2 or 3 legitimate Oscar contenders for Best Song. The film's centerpiece number is a gorgeous affair set during the town's annual "floating lights" display, a yearly remembrance of Rapunzel's disappearance, which evokes memories of "The Little Mermaid"'s classic "Kiss the Girl" song (which, for my money, remains Disney's greatest single musical number).
Another bonus: no talking animals. There's nothing wrong with this inherently, but given two animal characters, Maximus, the Captain of the Guard's horse, and Rapunzel's chameleon companion, neither speaks but still maintains plenty of personality.
My one concern as the film wore on was the potential message that permeated the film that blondes are magical, and brunettes are ordinary and unspectacular. The script deftly handles that issue, though, but revealing much more would be too spoilery. And in keeping with the times, we get a more independent heroine who is thrust in the position of saving rather than being saved, but still maintains all femininity and vulnerability.
For a Disney film, "Tangled" is flying curiously under the radar, but rest assured, you'll be hearing more of it once it hits theaters. It's among the best films I've seen thus far this year, animated or otherwise, and earns a place of prominence among Walt's immortal ladies.