Tangled

I'm a little bitter. After years of waiting for Disney to add Rapunzel to its traditionally-animated classic fairy tale collection, out comes a 3-D, in-your-face version of the story, with an "edgy" name, "Tangled."
As per usual, Disney takes what it wants from the fairy tale and throws the rest out the window. For one thing, God forbid we have a man rescue a woman in a 21st century tale. Matter of fact, we'd better re-write the entire story just to make sure that it's the girl who must continually rescue the man. Some of it works. Some of it is suspect and forced. Being familiar with the Grimm tale, I'm curious about the reasoning behind some changes.
It's futile to discuss what now can never be, so, the facts are these:
1. Magic flower that heals and restores youth.
2. Evil witch wants youth all to herself.
3. Flower's powers get transmitted to princess.
4. Witch steals princess, locks her in tower, king and queen grow very sad.
This is all explained quickly at the beginning, as fairy tale movies often do.
Then, the movie gets down to business of showing us the grown-up(ish) Rapunzel, her "mother," and how she longs to see the world.
She employs the help of a rogue, Flynn Rider, to fulfill that dream. But, peril awaits as the two encounter natural and supernatural obstacles to their journey.
Despite preconceived notions, I did enjoy the film.
There are the typical Disney sidekicks, Maximus and Pascal. Since both are animals in a human-dominated film, neither speaks. However, both are sassy and expressive. Maximus holds most of the film's best moments, although, just once, I'd like for a Disney animator to put the effort into drawing a horse that doesn't look so...boxy (the Mulan, Home on the Range, Tangled steeds all share the same exaggerated, graceless features).
The main characters have their moments, too. There's a sequence in which Rapunzel can't decide whether she's happy or sad that she's left behind her tower, and therefore, her mother. It's fairly accurate for the mood shifts of most teenage girls. Flynn isn't quite as cookie cutter as the early Disney princes, and does more than show up at the end to be charming and handsome.
Does it hold the same magic and awe as say, "Sleeping Beauty," "Beauty and the Beast" or "The Little Mermaid"? Um, no.
For one thing, in "Sleeping Beauty," the sad king and queen who lost their baby princess had actual lines. The father, King Stephen, is actually an entertaining and sympathetic character.
Disney must not have had the budget to pay for actual voice actors on top of the animation, because Rapunzel's parents never say a peep. They don't even sigh upon her disappearance.
No matter. With computer animation they don't need to speak, they can just emote. But, oh wait, hand-drawn characters can too. And, they can do it without looking so...shiny.
Oh, and there's singing. Here's the film's biggest downfall. It's not necessarily Mandy Moore's fault; a singer can only do so much with what he or she is given. But Disney should know better. Heck, Alan Menken should know better. You can't follow "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," and "Pocahontas" with the bland musical messes that awkwardly pop into three or four scenes of this film.
And whatever happened to legitimate animated villains? Villains who are actual characters? Maleficent, Ursula, Lady Tremaine - they all make Mother Gothel seem pretty tame.
In an attempt to be modern and to reinvent the fairy tale for modern sensibilities, the "Tangled" crew may have gotten a bit carried away, and put a little too much blah into what isn't supposed to be a normal tale about normal people.
It's a fairy tale, and fairy tales operate on a different playing field. They're not about quests discover yourself, at least not through dialogue. They're about good and evil, dark and light, natural and supernatural, magic and mortal.
They don't necessarily sell happy endings, though that's what Disney traffics in. (But, happy endings are more satisfactory after the defeat of a gruesome, fearsome villain.)
As for this ending? Part of me wants to say Wilhelm and Jacob had it better, but, who's to say a story that has lasted over 200 years is better than this?