MyRating: YYYY1/2Director: Nathan Greno & Byron Howard
Voice: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman, M.C. Gainey, Jeffrey Tambor, Brad Garrett, Paul F. Tompkins, Richard Kiel
MPAA: Rated PG for brief mild violence
A charming and delightful 3D animated musical film by Walt Disney, based on the classic German fairy tale Rapunzel, written by the famous Brothers Grimm. This movie also marked the 50th animated feature film in the Walt Disney Animated Classsics series. And this time, Disney did it again! It stunned us with its wonderful and magical fairy tale touch, that brought so much cheers and joys to the movie theatre, and added to another unforgettable movie experience that will stay with us for a long time.
Princess Rapunzel (voice by Mandy Moore) is kidnapped from the palace while she was a baby by a wicked woman, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). Since Mother Gothel witnesses how the little princess is healed from her sickness by the healing powers of a magical flower, she knows that the same magical powers are growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel. As she is aspiring to forever stay young, Mother Gothel has to lock Rapunzel in a hidden tower and encourages her not to leave the tower due to the dangerous world outside. Eighteen years later, Rapunzel has grown to become a beautiful teenager, while her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. But she is also becoming more and more curious of the world outside her tower, until one day, when a handsome bandit and a thief named Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) breaks into the tower while escaping the Palace guards. And that changes Rapunzel's life forever, as the bandit is the key for her to travel outside, to a world that she could only imagine for the last 18 years. A wonderful wide world that is waiting for her to be set free from her caged tower. But will Mother Gothel let her go?
This is an old school Disney animated film, story taken from one of the famous fairy tales ever written, with the old Disney's formula that has proved again and again, since its first full-length animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, that Disney's fairy tales has never lost its touch. A simple storyline, but sweet and cheerful fairy tale, with a beautiful love story that was very fun to watch, plus some dazzling actions and good humors. The animated graphic was beautiful and colorful, even though not as rich as those of the Pixar's. And the 3D made the movie to become more interesting, as well as giving a slightly different nuance from the conventional 2D Disney animated movies.
Beautiful, funny and lovable characters. Besides the beautiful Rapunzel and the handsome Eugene "Flynn Rider" Fitzherbert, the movie also has the funny non-speaking animal characters, Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon friend, and Maximus, the horse of the Palace Guard. Even the wicked character of Mother Gothel, that is necessary in every fairy tale, has her own place. Great jobs done by the actors who voiced over the characters, especially Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy, who gave a dynamic character and color tone to the voices of the three main characters. Beautiful voice of Mandy Moore while signing the beautiful songs, and interestingly, great voice too from Zachary "Chuck" Levi.
A Disney's movie is not complete without beautiful songs and grand music scores. And Tangled has many to cheer with, including the memorable songs such as When Will My Life Begin (sang by Mandy Moore), Mother Knows Best (by Donna Murphy), I've Got A Dream (ensamble by Brad Garrett, Jeffrey Tambor, Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi & Company) and I See The Light (duet by Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi). All thanks to Alan Menken, an Academy Award-winning American musical theatre and film composer and pianist. He has collaborated and done so many wonderful scores for Walt Disney, that have won him 8 Academy Awards, 4 awards for Best Original Scores for the movies The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas, and another 4 awards for Best Original Song for those same four movies, from a total of 18 Academy Awards nominations, including for other Disney's movies The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Enchanted. And Tangled will definitely compete again for these categories in the Academy Awards next year.
This movie made me feel young at heart. It made me want to dream again like I used to be when I was a child, when fairy tales used to amaze me and nothing else mattered. It made me wish that life was as sweet as a fairy tale, even though it's not.
This is a wonderful and heart warming movie that will win the hearts of many people. And it will become a contender for Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon to compete for the price of Best Animated Feature Film in the Academy Awards next year. It has been an interesting year of many great animated movies this year. (MJ)
