Film Review: Tangled

Tangled. Rated PG (mild animated violence). 100 minutes. Directed by Byron Howard. Screenplay by Dan Fogelman, based on the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm fairytale Rapunzel.

With an unofficial budget of US$260 million, Disney’s 50th animated feature clocks in as the most expensive animation and the fifth most expensive movie ever made (behind 1963’s Cleopatra $320m; 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $318m; 1997’s Titanic $200m and 2007’s Spider-Man 3 $273m). And while Disney obviously didn’t spend much of it on the screenplay (which flounders around in prolonged exposition early on), the studio eventually gets more bang for its considerable bucks once we finally get going.

In this adaptation of the celebrated, sinister fairytale, Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is being held captive in a tower by a wicked old lady, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy), who uses the magical qualities of Rapunzel’s golden locks to retain her youthful appearance. When mischievous young thief Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) stumbles upon the tower, Rapunzel convinces him to escort her into the world so that she can experience the kingdom’s annual lantern festival first hand. Little does she know that this lantern ritual has more to do with her fulfilling her true destiny than she might ever have imagined.

Led by the dazzling series of Tinkerbell movies, Disney has been cranking up their ‘feisty Princess’ output – and their very modern Rapunzel is no exception. When she’s not knocking the hapless Flynn unconscious with a frying pan or locking him in her closet, she is swinging Tarzan-like about the place from her hair while belting out those predictable Disney-esque tunes (courtesy of Beauty and The Beast and The Little Mermaid tuner Alan Menken).

Moore, Levi and Murphy acquit the vocal responsibilities with great charm and skill, even if they are frequently upstaged by two fabulously entertaining (voiceless) characters – Pascal (Rapunzel’s cynical pet chameleon) and Maximus (a horse with a justice obsession).

But what it lacks in the script department is more than made for in the “look” department. The animation is never less than superb, and features the most sumptuous 3D rendering of the astonishing lantern festival that is almost reason, alone, to go. As thousands of paper lanterns are released into the night sky, only the most hard-hearted cynic will not gasp in wonder at the magical display of sheer visual and technological wonderment on display.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.