When I walk into the theater to an animated movie filled with kids and their parents, I know it's going to be a good movie.
Tangled is a more modern version of the story Rapunzel. In the storybook version, Rapunzel is born to poor parents and taken away to a tower. A prince finds her and falls in love, but the witch finds out and tries to stop them from escape. Rapunzel's hair is cut off and they go away, find Rapunzel's real parents, and all go to the prince's kingdom where they live happily ever after.
Well, Tangled, is different from the storybook version. It begins with a magical orange flower that was born out of a drop of pure sunlight. An old witch finds it and keeps it hidden to use its power to keep her young. Then the pregnant queen of the realm gets sick. The soldiers go out looking for the flower to heal her. They find it and the queen is healed. A beautiful girl with blond hair is born. The queen and king, who both have brown hair, send up a lantern to the sky on the day she is born. The witch steals the princess that night and takes her to a hidden tower, that the soldiers, despite their search, do not find.
Rapunzel's hair has the same power of the magic flower and as long as it remains uncut it will always be magically. To unleash her power they sing a song, where the hair glows as they brush it. The queen and king and people of the kingdom always send up lanterns to the sky on her birthday in hopes that the lost princess will return. She doesn't know what they mean; she doesn't know that she is the princess. At eighteen, Rapunzel wants to go see the floating lanterns in the kingdom. As safe as the tower is, Rapunzel is willing to risk the dangers of the outside world to see them. The witch has always kept Rapunzel's dreams of leaving by scaring her with stories. But this dream the witch can't scare off.
Flynn Rider and two other really bad guys steal the crown that has been waiting for it's princess all those years. The soldiers go after them, and only Flynn escapes with the crown. The noble horse Max chases after him. He stumbles upon a cave that leads to Rapunzel's tower. He climbs it and she hits in with her frying pan and ties him up with her hair. Rapunzel and Flynn strike a deal that she will release him from the tower and give him back the crown he stole if he takes her into the kingdom to see the floating lanthers. He agrees and when the witch is gone, they escape.
The witch comes after them after seeing the horse Max and returning to the tower to see Rapunzel gone, and finding the satchel with the crown and a wanted poster of Flynn in it. She makes a deal with the two bad guys who want revenge on Flynn for betraying them. Her plan is to manipulate Rapunzel's thinking into making her return to the tower with her.
Meanwhile, Flynn and Rapunzel, after a stop to sing at an inn and running from a breaking dam and sword fighting a horse, they make it to the kingdom with some help from the reluctant Max. Some little girls braid her hair up for her and put flowers in it. Rapunzel and the townspeople dance together. She sees a painting of the queen and king holding her as a baby. Flynn gives her a piece of cloth with a sun on it. He takes her out on a boat to see them. I'm not going to spoil it what happens, but let's just say it's pretty cool. Rapunzel gets her dream.
She is prepared to give him back the crown (which the witch gave her and told her that Flynn would run once he had it) Flynn tries to give them back the crown, but they beat him up and send him to jail. The witch beats up the bad guys who try to kidnap Rapunzel and they return to the tower; Rapunzel feeling sad over Flynn, whom she has fallen in love with; he is also in love with her. Max gets the inn people to break Flynn out of jail, since he suspects foul play. Flynn rides with Max to the tower and climbs it.
And I am not going to spoil the ending either, but know that it is perfect ending, and a little surprising. Readers will just have to go watch this one for themselves. The only thing that I think might have possibly made it better is if it had not been animated. (But I don't know how that would have worked.) On a final note, I'll say that this is a movie to get tangled in.
