Tangled

I was hooked from the prologue. Whatever I had going on in life as I walked into this movie just melted away when I found myself along for this delightful ride as the combination of the Rapunzel tale with mythical elements is downright enchanting. Much like in "Beauty and the Beast," the premise here is immediately laid out and hints precisely at where we are going but gives you a thrilling sensation at the dramatic possibilities.

In keeping the tradition of a princess in distress, the team from Disney appropriately swaps the roles of the female and male from the Brothers Grimm tale and creates an Anastasia-like twist with the lore of a lost princess. It doesn't satirize fairy tales in the cliched manner that has become popular since "Shrek," but instead offers a fresh blend of modern humor and traditional charm. The lengthy hair is given appropriate attention and a worthy purpose to further the story.

At $260 million this is easily the most expensive animated film to date (in fact it has the 2nd highest budget of any film behind only the third Pirates of the Caribbean) but boy howdy did the animation for that golden, magical hair look astonishing! I was skeptical when I read of the filmmakers' intention to create the look of a traditional hand-drawn film within a CGI environment but it seems to have prevailed handsomely as the result is reminiscent of the hand-painted work done eons ago.

This studio is alive and is beginning to once again make its contributions to the art of animation. After basing their previous success mostly on spectacle and charm, they'll have to do some catching up to get their scripts up to the level of narrative structure and character development that Pixar has risen to, but these last two outings give me hope in their potential. (Next year will be a down year for Pixar with "Cars 2," a very unnecessary sequel. Can "Winnie the Pooh" get Disney its first Animated Feature Oscar?)

For the price Disney paid, they should hope to gain a few Annie awards or something to validate the wonderful work they have done here because they aren't going to win the Academy Award over Pixar's climatic Toy Story finale. Although do expect the legendary Alan Menken to add another nod (statuette maybe?) to his resume in the Original Song category.