Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is being held captive in this tower by the woman who she believes to be her mother, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). One day – while running away from the Palace guards – Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi), a dashing thief, stumbles upon the tower. Rapunzel ransoms Flynn’s latest treasure to make him be her guide as he takes out towards the kingdom to see the lanterns that fill the night sky every year on her birthday.

Disney over the years has been an odd cookie for me to crack. I remember as a child watching their movies, including Aladdin and The Lion King, and being amazed. Then as the years went by the quality dipped and I began to question whether the Disney love I had from my childhood was nostalgia telling me what I wanted to hear.

After years of deliberation – and time spent revisiting some of those age old classics – I’ve come to the conclusion that the studio just overall had lost their magical touch that they once had in the animation department. Then Mr. John Lasseter, originally the man in charge at Pixar when they came into the eye of the mainstream and creator of films such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, came along and he took over the animation department of the entire Disney studios. With Lasseter’s move over the Disney I’ve noticed that the last two years I’ve started to notice a sudden increase in quality. First The Princess and the Frog and now Tangled it’s obvious that this man is doing something right.

This movie is Disney reaching back into their old bag of tricks and doing it even better than before. They’re finally able to bring together the brilliance of their animation artists and the 3D computer generated animation that’s become so popular today. It has everything you’d expect to see in a classic Disney animated movie: two really likeable characters who go on a grand adventure and eventually start to fall for each other, a couple great sidekicks (animal non-speaking) that work as great comic relief, a great bad guy, and some great musical numbers. The movie is everything you loved about classic Disney and more.

The music in this movie is fantastic. I loved so many songs, especially the songs by Mother Gothel. “Mother Knows Best” and its reprise “Rapunzel Knows Best” are such fun interesting music that I haven’t been able to enjoy since Aladdin. The movie found a perfect way to bring out the theatricality in every character with each song and each scene where the characters are just being themselves.

The charm that Levi oozes can at times come off as cheesy, but since it was played for the younger crowd I didn’t mind it. Flynn never came off as childishly stupid which is a plus for any children’s movie. I also loved Moore as Rapunzel. Moore was able to bring to life the vivacious girl that has finally gotten a chance to have that adventure she’s wanted all her life. I particularly loved when she just left the tower and started having all these bipolar like tendencies as she tries to balance the fun of the adventure ahead and this new world she’s experiencing and the depression and worry of her mother finding out and being angry with her.

However the character of the movie has to be Maximus. The Palace guard’s horse that can track down any intruder and takes a personal note of every wrong that’s been done while at the same time never giving up on the target he has at hand is just so brilliant. The chemistry between this speechless character and his target, Flynn, is just more than enough fodder for anyone to die in stitches laughing.

This is a movie for anyone with a child, or with an inner-child, and you must see it without delay.

IMDB says 8.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 89%

I say 9.0/10