Movie review: Tangled ****

Tangled  ****

Stars: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman
Director: Nathan Greno/ Byron Howard
Rated: PG
Showing: Neptune Theatre week of Friday, December 10 - Friday 7pm; Saturday and Sunday 2:30pm; weekdays 7pm. For more information, call 292-7296.
Runtime: 104 minutes
Animation/family/adventure

Classic Brothers Grimm fairytale Rapunzel gets a modern makeover courtesy of Disney — but this is a far cry from their traditional princess films.

Recognising that movies need to appeal to a broad audience and not just young girls — as they discovered with The Princess and the Frog — they changed the title to the gender-neutral Tangled and are focusing marketing on the swashbuckling male lead.

The result is an entertaining and not too sickly sweet adventure with plenty of action and humour.

The story follows Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), who has been locked away in a woodland tower by the witch Gothel (Donna Murphy), who needs the princess’s restorative powers to stay young.

She refuses to let her out, claiming the outside world is dangerous and bleak, and will not cut her hair as it is the source of her magic.

But Rapunzel, who grows up believing the witch is her mom, longs to leave to find the “floating stars” she sees on the night of her birthday.

And she gets her chance when on-the-run bandit Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) hides out at her tower.

After taking him hostage by hitting him over the head with a frying pan, he promises to take her to the lights in exchange for the return of the tiara he has stolen, which Rapunzel has hidden.

Their journey is full of excitement and adventure with both the law and Gothel hot on their tails.

There is a surprising amount of violence for a Disney movie and while this is charming, it lacks the heart and memorable music of the studio’s other movies — there is no Whole New World or Under The Sea that you will be still be singing weeks later.

There are the requisite cute animal sidekicks — a horse called Maximus and a chameleon, Pascal — who offer plenty of comedy and constantly steal the thunder of the leads.