Tangled!

That's more like it! Been a long time since we've had a good romp!

Really promising opening to this one: lots of narration and quick exposition to get us into the story and leave plenty time later for mucking about. Also helps to remind you that you're watching Disney do what the do best- telling us a fairytale.

Some really great animation more in the vein of Hercules and other more recent outings, with Maximus the horse being a great example of Disney's personified animals.

There are a few weak points however. In the tradition of the company's other features, Tangled is a musical... or tries to be. There are one or two really great stand out numbers, "I've got a dream" is immense fun with a horde (literally) of supporting characters taking the forefront. For the most part though, the musical interludes seem to have been created after everything else and forced into the narrative quite roughly. Lyrically, we are faced with quite mundane content littered with teen-friendly americanisms circa 2001. "Like" (as in "Like, no way man...) makes a less than subtle appearance in at least two songs. Ugh!

Narratively, everything is quite straight forward and predictable but that's not meant as a criticism. Disney don't really market themselves as being challanging, they're just telling a simlpe story. It's the characters themselves that keep us interested and constantly offer us surprising amounts of humour or depth.

All in all, Tangled is everything you would expect- a good natured buddy movie with a classic tale at it's heart. It does fall short in some areas and might not impress too much, but it's at least fun.