Tangled: Critic Reviews

Disney's new (yet not quite novel), musical (yet not quite memorable), 3-D (yet so what) animated retelling of the Grimm brothers' Rapunzel.

The heart of Disney animation lies in song and spectacle, and while none of the musical compositions here are quite at the level of "The Little Mermaid" or "Beauty and the Beast," they are good enough...

It's workaday stuff with unremarkable 3D and little mythological resonance.

Tangled braids strands of traditional storytelling and a contemporary sensibility with stylish if predictable results.

The result is an uncommonly pretty visual experience, especially during a climactic scene when hundreds of lanterns are sent aloft into the night sky. One thousand points of light never looked so fetching.

I can't think of a cartoon more confident about how to use jump cuts for comedy. Those senses of cleverness and innovation merely underscore how shopworn the rest of this movie is.

Tangled is unusually attuned to the emotional frequencies of mothers and daughters, considering that, like basically every Disney/Pixar feature, its writer (Dan Fogelman) and directors (Nathan Greno and Byron Howard) are a bunch of dudes.

A Rapunzel retelling could have become just a retread of the studio's past princess tales, but this genuinely charming, chintz-free story does something new: It takes the time to chill out, as its heroine might say.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, you are lovely to look at it and occasionally charming. But there just ain't much to you beyond the hair.

Tangled is bound to be a hit with its target audience, and will keep parents entertained.

It eventually establishes itself as not just a fleet and engaging cartoon entertainment, but something of a latter-day classic... worthy of consideration alongside... Beauty and the Beast.

There are no unnecessary pop references here, just fluid, graceful storytelling.

The film has the advantage of getting surer and more heartfelt and beautiful as it goes...

The tale of Rapunzel gets a cheeky make-over in this gorgeous Disney animation, which combines the studio's traditional hand-drawn look with the sculptural qualities of digital 3D.

While it is a diverting Disney animation -- the studio's 50th -- it lacks the emotional undercurrents of a movie from the studio's Pixar division.

I don't feel like writing a review of "Tangled." I feel like throwing it a parade.

Tangled is the best animated film from Disney in the past 15 years.

With "Tangled," a delightfully fresh spin on "Rapunzel," the entertainment powerhouse delivers its first classic-caliber computer animation outside the Pixar family.

Old-fashioned storytelling barely prevails over sassy contempo attitude.

A solid if not-quite-classic musical version of "Rapunzel"...

This version of Rapunzel lets down its hair just enough to deserve a place of honor with all the other glorious Disney "princess" tales.

Adventure, ho! And much of it is quite funny, well scripted by screenwriter Dan Fogelman, who previously wrote Bolt and Cars.

Tangled, Disney's 50th animated feature, is a splendid tribute to the best moments from decades past but also a thrilling example of what could be the future of animated family entertainment from the studio.