Tangled

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'Tangled' is another one of those movies where it genuinely surprises me that people are so shocked when I tell them I haven't seen it. Truth be told, my only genuine curiosity for this came along recently. Apparently, this one is the "coin-flip" for best new Disney princess movie against 'Frozen'. I saw 'Frozen', I quite liked 'Frozen' (although that song got way too out of hand), so finally I decided to check this out.

Of course, here we have a Disney take on the story of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore). She is held captive by Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) who plays nice so that she can harness Rapunzel's hair's healing powers, and stay young, youthful and pretty. But then, along comes Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), and the two make a deal that involves taking her to her old home town to see the lanterns the townspeople release on Rapunzel's birthday in hopes that she returns, although, she doesn't know what these lanterns are all about, and the journey is based on her curiosity. That's also not a spoiler, because it covers this in the opening credits.

I won't deny being entertained by this. The characters were definitely likable, the animation was beautiful, the songs were catchy and none of them got out of control on all sorts of media, and there was quite a bit of solid humor to it. However, in the end, unlike 'Frozen', I can't say that anything came as any sort of a surprise. I felt that for as much as 'Tangled' does have going for it, the overall story was relatively basic, and not far from the "usual". I felt like 'Frozen' had elements of that too, but it still did newer and more interesting things when it came to the plot.

But don't get the wrong idea, the two are rather evenly matched. I'd say watch 'Frozen' if you're looking for something a little more epic with an intriguing story, but watch 'Tangled' if you're looking for a bit more of a mild, fun time with some fun characters. To compare, I'd probably say 'Frozen' is to 'Lord of the Rings' as 'Tangled' is 'Harry Potter'. But hey, when all said and done, both are Disney animation, so either way you'll be supporting the same mouse.

I enjoy both films for what they are - modern Disney princess movies, which, let's face it, isn't exactly at the top of my genres list. But that doesn't mean I'm close-minded either, and I'm honestly glad that I finally gave this one the time of day. While I may like 'Frozen' better as an all-around movie, this one had a sense of humor that I would probably say outweighs it, and for that reason, I can walk away satisfied.

3/5

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