Proudly announced as Disney’s 50th animated classic (though reading through the full list there are a number of dubious entries such as compilation flicks like Make Mine Music and more recent, dreary CG efforts like Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons), Tangled is their long-overdue take on the Rapunzel fairy tale.

Fortunately, unlike Shrek and its ilk, Tangled isn’t a knowing pop-culture fest, though some post-modern aspects of the fortunately brief narration do grate, it is instead a reasonably old-fashioned romantic adventure yarn with a smattering of songs. After an establishing prologue we cut back and forth between Rapunzel’s life imprisoned in a tower for her own ‘protection’ and dashing, cocksure thief Flynn Rider as he tries to evade capture after a successful heist. Ultimately the two cross paths, via a delightfully dark-edged comic sequence where Rapunzel tries to stow Flynn’s unconscious body in a closet, and eventually the pair set out so she can see the lights in the sky that mysteriously appear on her birthday every year.

It’s a relatively standard set-up and the plot jumps through all the expected hoops on the way to its happily-ever-after, but it does so with enough charm and energy that there’s always something around the corner to perk up the interest when the film sags.

Chuck star Zachary Levi has clearly been to the Cary Elwes school of heroism, his roguish thief baring more than a passing nod to Elwe’s Westley from 80’s fairytale classic The Princess Bride. Meanwhile Mandy Moore is a lively and bubbly heroine, with the relationship between these two characters absolutely key to the audience’s interest, it’s nicely, if quaintly, developed.

The songs in the film crop up infrequently, and sadly none of them have the punch of, say, A Whole New World or Under the Sea, et al. Instead there’s more of a distinctly Broadway vibe to the way the tunes enter the fray, with even the blocking distinctly theatrical. Though I’ve Got a Dream is a welcome burst of Python-esque silliness.

My only other real gripe with the film is that occasionally the narrative trundles to a crawl, but these moments are book-ended by diverting and entertaining sequences, and there are some plot machinations towards the end of the film that I found frustrating in both a technical and emotional way. But, as a piece of candyfloss this is good fun and the best Disney feature animation since The Emperor’s New Groove (though I am yet to see The Princess & The Frog).

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