Tangled

Tangled is Disney’s latest venture into fairytale storytelling, adapting Rapunzel from its sinister Brothers’ Grimm background and turning it into a family-friendly outing, complete with music from master composer Alan Menken, who you may know as having brought us those songs we shamefully still know all the words to in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. So how does it compare to its prestigious predecessors?

Those familiar with the Rapunzel story will recognise familiar elements in this adaptation; princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is kidnapped by an evil enchantress “Mother” Gothel (Donna Murphy) and locked in a tower. But the additional twist is Gothel’s disturbing motivations; Rapunzel’s hair possesses magical powers which can both heal and reverse ageing to whoever is wrapped in it if a special incantation is chanted. However, cut the hair, and it turns brown and loses it power (oh, the subtext of brunette inferiority!). Gothel harnesses this gift to turn back time and keep her beauty. But Rapunzel’s dull tower life is forever changed when kingdom thief Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) climbs up the tower for refuge – and comes face to face with the secret princess who’s desperate to experience the outside world.

As far as Disney princesses go, it seems Disney is trying to broadcast its feminist values with a frying-pan-wielding heroine who makes her own decisions (albeit with a male guide most of the way); she rebels against her ‘mother’, she single-handedly softens a group of thugs, and uses her hair as a resourceful tool to immobilise her enemies and swing from place to place. Yet with all of her assertiveness, she possesses a wide-eyed childish naivety that never makes us forget this girl’s only just turning 18.

Another strength of the film is one of the most believable and chilling Disney villains perhaps ever written; Gothel isn’t in pursuit of power, wreaking havoc for its own sake, or seeking revenge for not being invited to a party (yes, Maleficent, I’m looking at you), but is disturbingly human in her desires to cheat the passing of time. Though this motive itself gives her sufficient substance, her twisted relationship with Rapunzel (which in moments does appear to have sparks of real affection) generates some genuine discomfort in the viewer.

The story carries itself well; the aim of reaching the palace provides a dynamic framework within which the protagonists can run into various misfortunes and obstacles to overcome en route. A colourful supporting cast made up of a chameleon sidekick, a horse who bears a grudge, two dim thieves and the seemingly violent (but actually friendly) team of ruffians from ‘The Snuggly Duckling’ (best pub name ever) help the action chug along.

What does let it down is that its beautifully written music only plays a tiny cameo to the witty banter and self-mocking that’s seemed to be the focal point of kids’ films ever since the first Shrek did wonders at the box office. We’re only treated to four or five original songs (reprises not included) and they never get more than a couple of minutes’ worth of screen time. Instead of being grandly orchestrated and majestically drawn sequences that are remembered as the highlights of previous Disney films, they become sidelined, and as a consequence are never quite as embedded as they should be.

Nevertheless it goes without saying that, after a decade of somewhat questionable non-Pixar Disney releases, Tangled is certainly one of the best. Disney may not quite have returned to its early ‘90s superb standard of animation, but this is an indication that it’s on the right track.

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