Tangled – Film Review

Beautiful princess Rapunzel has been locked away in a tower since she was captured as a baby by an old hag. Her magical long blonde hair has the power to provide eternal youth, and the evil Gothel uses this power to keep her young. At the age of 18, Rapunzel becomes curious about the outside world, and when a prince uses her tower as a refuge, she asks him to help her escape.

Even if you’re not too much into fairytales, you probably know the story of Rapunzel. And even if you don’t, surely you have heard of her story before. The first time I saw Tangled, directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, was when I was twelve years old or so, and had only ever heard of the name Rapunzel before.

But to be completely honest, to this day, I’m surprised I even watched the movie at that age because I remember thinking it was a movie exclusively for girls. I had thought it was merely a Disney Princess movie with absolutely nothing else to offer, but boy was I ever wrong. Even my much-older brothers saw it before I did and thought it was amazing.

Tangled is a genuinely gleeful, optimistic, cheery, emotional, funny, and whimsical family musical that not only packs the goods with its action, but also with its investing story. Screenwriter Dan Fogelman could have easily just made this a film about a girl with long hair and not done too much with the source material, but he rose to the occasion, above and beyond.

One of my favorite aspects about this film is just how simplistic it is in nature. Sure, the film follows a girl with magical, long hair. There’s a creepy-looking horse and strange locations and people populating the kingdom of Corona. But at its core, it’s really a movie about said girl learning to actually see what life is all about and be with the people she wants to be with.

It’s a marvelously written film and tells a story that will be legitimately gripping for viewers of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. Even if you have never been in any situation similar to any of the characters in this film, you’ll still find yourself relating to it in at least one way or another. It’s magical how the best scripts are able to do that, and Tangled does that excellently.

There’s also, of course, plenty of jokes along the way. Sometimes, Disney jokes can just be downright lame. It can be difficult to sit through some of them as an adult because they were very clearly aimed towards small children, but thankfully, the jokes in Tangled are enjoyable even for the older viewers.

In fact, this is probably one of the funniest Disney films ever made. There were a couple of scenes in particular that had me genuinely laughing from the chest. Who would have thought that a Rapunzel film of all things would be capable of producing such laughs?

All of the musical pieces in Tangled are also extraordinary, with a few of my personal favorites being “When Will My Life Begin?,” “Mother Knows Best,” and “I See The Light.” They’re some of the most well-written, catchy, and meaningful songs in any Disney movie in years.|

The voice performances here are also all great, especially from Mandy Moore who voices Rapunzel. She injects the character with all of the charisma, heart, curiousness, and childlike wonder that we would all expect from the character, and she nails it. Zachary Levi is also a standout here as Flynn Rider, who is basically the ultimate badass but is actually a total softie under it all.

Tangled is a movie that I’d recommend to viewers of all ages. Don’t like Disney Princess movies? Give it a shot. Don’t like musical-themed movies? Give it a shot. Don’t like animated movies? Give it a shot. You may be surprised at how enchanted you’ll feel by the story.