Viewed – 21 May 2011  Blu-ray

It’s very easy to enjoy animated movies.  The often beautiful visuals, the charming character design, the memorable sing-a-long songs and that timeless good overcoming evil storyline.  Disney has long been at the top when it comes to feature-length animation, and following their last effort, the highly entertaining Princess and the Frog, we now come to this, their 50th feature.

Rapunzel has the gift of magical life-giving hair, who is kidnapped as a baby and locked away in a tower for the next 18 years.  Believing her kidnapper is now her Mother and with the wool pulled over her eyes regarding her real identity, she lives in blissful ignorance, despite yearning to discover what lies beyond the tower.  That’s when rogue bandit Flynn turns up to turn her world upside down.

This charming premise, based on the age-old Brothers Grimm fable, is brought to life with lush animation boasting a cute fairy tale art style, and getting swept up in proceedings is inevitable.  As this is one of those musical-Disney offerings much weighs on the quality of the songs, but here veteran music composer Alan Menken offers mostly forgettable tunes that pale in comparisons to those in say, Aladdin or even the aforementioned Princess and the Frog.  Bandit Flynn, lovable rogue aside is also little more than set dressing with a very predictable character ark.  The story also relies a little too much on tried and tested clichés (wicked step mother, comedy side kick), meaning there isn’t much here that hasn’t appeared before.  That being said, it’s all done with such panache and with some stand out set pieces (the dam sequence for one), that such gripes shouldn’t ruin your enjoyment.  Oh and the horse is just classic.

Verdict:  3.5 /5

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