Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi in the movie Tangled

Bright and engaging, and blessed with two superb non-verbal non-human sidekicks, "Tangled" certainly is more like it.

For much of the last decade, the Disney corporation has struggled to regain its animation mojo, while one-time rival, and current business partner, Pixar -- and, at its more sporadic best, DreamWorks -- dominated the market.

While no masterwork, "Tangled" reworks the Brothers Grimm tale of Rapunzel clearly and well. It's rollicking without being pushy. After the narrative chaos of last year's "The Princess and the Frog," it's a gratifying improvement.

Walt Disney himself noodled with the idea of a feature-length Rapunzel film as far back as the 1940s, though it's unlikely he envisioned song lyrics referring to a "killer show-tune medley" or a heroine who deploys her magical 70-foot tresses variously as a whip, a lasso and a pulley system. Though the marketing campaign hides the fact, "Tangled" is a musical, harkening back to the '90s Disney successes, with a half-dozen pretty good songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. The movie's also enough of an action adventure to win over the princess mythology-resistant, such as my 9-year-old son. Like me, he enjoyed "Tangled" more than the trailers designed to sell it.

Those familiar with the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine stage musical "Into the Woods" will recognize some of the mother/daughter issues raging in "Tangled." On the cusp of her 18th birthday, Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore) wants desperately to be let out of her tower, where she's kept (though with plenty of arts-and-crafts diversions) by Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy, very plummy with the passive-aggressive evil purring intonations). The restorative powers of Rapunzel's locks keep the crone forever young, or young-ish.

In truth, Rapunzel's the long-lost daughter of the king and queen, and only when dashing bandit Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) enters Rapunzel's life does the young woman's destiny unfold, her dreams come true, and Rapunzel gets her long-awaited holiday, and her nasty, overprotective mother figure learns to let go, the hard way. I get it, I get it, says Flynn as he and Rapunzel get to know each other: "Overprotective mother, forbidden road trip. ..."

That sort of glibness extends to Flynn comporting himself like a second-rate Nickelodeon TV punk (he's a bad boy who must be tamed, improved, by the love of a good girl). The look of "Rapunzel" -- I saw the 3-D version -- is fastidious, operating on a slightly antiseptically pristine palette and design, heavy on the bluebell and lavender. (It's too bad, I think, that Rapunzel herself doesn't look more distinctively ... something.) The blend of photo-realistic outdoor backgrounds and doe-eyed digitally created human characters works fine, as far as it goes. Is it transporting? Now and then. The film has the advantage of getting surer and more heartfelt and beautiful as it goes, and the image of a thousand floating candles in the night does more than catch the eye; it nicely wraps up the plot.

The real ringers, though, are the horse and the chameleon. The horse is Maximus, one of the king's horses, and he's more like a cross between a horse and a bloodhound. Very funny, very noble, a lovely supporting character. So is Pascal, Rapunzel's watchful, chameleonic companion. I'd see "Tangled" again just for those two. Saying that the film is the best Disney animation project since "Tarzan" more than a decade ago isn't saying much (I had no love for shrill, showbiz-insider hits like "Bolt"). But it's nice to say it all the same.

 

MPAA rating: PG (for brief mild violence).

Running time: 1:40.

Voice Cast: Mandy Moore (Rapunzel); Zachary Levi (Flynn Rider); Donna Murphy (Mother Gothel); Ron Perlman (Stabbington); Brad Garrett (Hook Hand); Jeffrey Tambor (Big Nose).

Credits: Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard; written by Dan Fogelman; songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater; produced by Roy Conli. A Walt Disney Pictures release.

Tangled Movie Review - Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi