Tangled (2010): B-

The legend of Rapunzel gets a snarky, modernized CG update with Tangled, Disney’s 50^th animated feature, in which the flaxen-haired princess (Mandy Moore) escapes captivity with the help of dashing rapscallion thief Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi). Stolen as an infant from her royal parents by Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy), Rapunzel has been tricked by this new “mom” into staying locked away in her tower home, where the witch can horde the healing and fountain-of-youth powers afforded by Rapunzel’s lengthy magic locks. Dreams of escape – and, specifically, witnessing the flight of hundreds of floating lanterns that the king and queen release each year (in the hope of finding their daughter) – ignite the feisty Rapunzel’s heart, and when Flynn appears in her secluded home, the girl takes advantage of this opportunity to finally break free of confinement. Their subsequent adventure involves amusingly cute animals (a regal soldier’s horse who spars with Flynn; Rapunzel’s chameleon sidekick), vigorous chase sequences and ho-hum musical numbers, as well as messages about seizing the day and the mutability of life goals. Since this is a Disney effort, happily-ever-afters are destined to be fulfilled, albeit in this case over such a lackluster maternal villain that said triumph barely resonates. The film differentiates itself from its tiara-ed predecessors with somewhat awkward sarcastic humor rife with contemporary exclamations, as well as via bouncy, vibrant 3D computer-generated animation that resembles DreamWorks’ most recent CG works, and ably updates the genre’s aesthetic template for the new millennium. Mechanically hitting its prescribed notes while borrowing liberally from its predecessors (especially Snow White and Beauty and the Beast), yet generally devoid of the regressive gender dynamics that plague most of those films, Tangled may not break any new ground, but for better and worse, it’s the most inoffensive Princess affair to date.