For their 50th feature-length cartoon, Disney has returned to the genre that defined the studio: fairy-tale princesses. With Tangled, Disney takes on the retelling of Rapunzel in a style we’ve come to expect—softening the edges and assuring a happy ending. That’s not a criticism—Disney knows their audience and is adept at crafting fables for maximum appeal. Here, we’re introduced to Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore), a princess stolen from the palace nursery as an infant and raised by the dastardly Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). Mother Gothel is a vain old woman who uses the healing powers of Rapunzel’s golden hair to keep herself eternally young.
Rapunzel, kept isolated in a tower, dreams of the day she will be allowed to roam free alongside her faithful chameleon. Her chance arrives on her 18th birthday, while Mother Gothel is away. Professional thief Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) climbs the tower looking for a place to hide after a robbery. Instead, he encounters a determined young woman with an iron frying pan who knocks him out and ties him up. Then she makes him a deal. If he acts as her guide for a journey into the world below, she’ll return to him the contents of a satchel he had on his person when he invaded her room. Of course, mommy dearest is none too eager to let her fountain of youth get away, so their trio into the world won’t be an easy one.
All the proper “Disney elements” are in place: a plucky princess; a chaste, star-crossed romance; a cute animal sidekick; songs by Alan Menken (and his lyricist partner, Glenn Slater); a diabolical villain; and, of course, a happy ending. Mother Gothel is the ultimate villain. Every ‘I love you,’ to her “daughter” is followed by a comment meant to undermine her confidence. It’s a subtle kind of cruelty, but it’s easy to understand why Rapunzel hasn’t ever attempted to leave the castle.
If Alan Menken’s songs were on par with the rest of the film, Tangled might have been considered an instant classic. The dialogue, from a script by Dan Fogelman, is contemporary without being dated, and Glenn Slater keeps the songs up to speed lyrically, but this is the weakest batch of songs that Menken has ever written for Disney. They’re not awful, they just don’t come close to anything he did for Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin. The music isn’t the only thing keeping Tangled from reaching elite status; would someone as conniving as Gothel really tell Rapunzel when her actual birthday is, knowing what the king and queen do in tribute to their missing child? That bothered me.
In terms of the voice talent, Mandy Moore possesses a generic female voice and strong vocals that allow her to perform her own singing – she’s not immediately recognizable and that goes a long way toward audience acceptance of the character. Similarly, the secondary performers – Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor, Brad Garrett – possess similar qualities. They bring life to their characters without forcing the viewer to dissociate an animated avatar from a familiar voice. A sweet story that’s animated very well, Tangled is definitely recommended to the Disney fans out there.
The film is framed at 1.78:1, with detail so sharp that Rapunzel’s individual strands of hair are easily discernable. Colors are rich and excellently mastered without gross oversaturation. Because much of the film takes place in dimly-lit interiors, colors here aren’t quite as much of a standout as they are in other CGI films. Black levels are strong, and there is no evidence of banding in the image.
The Blu-ray has been outfitted with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound mix, and it’s a very effective one especially impressive in its use of the LFE channel on several occasions. While dialogue is mostly relegated to the center channel, there are some instances of directionalized dialogue. Menken’s music score gets the royal treatment in its placement throughout the soundstage with key orchestral sounds quite noticeable in front and rear projections.
We get the following special features:
- Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale – (12:30) Mandy Moore and Zach Levi take viewers on a behind-the-scenes tour to learn how the film was made.
- Deleted Scenes (12:30) – Co-directors Byron Howard and Nathan Greno introduce three scenes (The Jaunty Moose, Chemistry Develops, and Vigor The Visionary) and illuminate why they were ultimately cut. All of these scenes are still in a storyboard format so don’t expect polished scenes.
- Extended Songs – (8:00) The complete versions of two songs from the movie ( “When Will My Life Begin” and “Mother Knows Best”) are shared in a unique feature that explains the co-directors decision to scale them down.
- Two Original Storybook Openings (4 mins. Each) – Two alternate versions of the film’s opening sequence described by co-directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard.
- 50th Animated Feature Countdown (12:30) – A video montage celebrating Tangled as the 50th film to join The Walt Disney Studios’ prestigious lineup of classic animated features. A bunch of clips of the previous 49 Disney movies that made up the list.
- Tangled Teasers – (9:25) Features nine quirky teaser ads about some aspect of the movie in infomercial contexts.
- DVD Copy of the Film
- Digital Copy of the Film
