Tangled

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

MPAA Rating: PG for brief mild violence

Appropriate for: All Ages

Genre: Animated Fairytale Musical

Length: 92 min

Year of Release: 2010

(Family discussion questions for this movie can be found at http://christianperspectivereviews.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_3851.html)

Tangled is a lighthearted and adventurous Disney adaptation of the classic German fairy-tale about the long-haired blonde, Rapunzel. The story begins when the pregnant queen of a happy, thriving kingdom is healed from a deadly sickness with a magic flower. Soon, a healthy, blonde baby girl is born to the king and queen, and they celebrate her birth by releasing a floating lantern into the sky. However, the golden hair of baby Rapunzel appears to have acquired the magic qualities of the golden flower that saved her mother. Hoping to use the princess’ magic hair to keep herself young forever, an old, selfish woman named Gothel kidnaps the baby princess and locks her in a lonely tower, far from the kingdom. The king and his men search far and wide for the beloved princess, but their search is futile. Clinging to hope, however, the king and queen release hundreds of floating lanterns into the night sky every year on the Rapunzel’s birthday in hopes that she will one day return. Rapunzel (the voice of Mandy Moore), forbidden by her “mother” Gothel from leaving the tower, sees the lanterns through the windows of the tower every year, and every year her desire to see them up close increases, even though she does not know their meaning. On her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel gathers up the courage to ask Gothel if she can go to see the floating lanterns. Gothel refuses, explaining that Rapunzel is not ready to face the challenges and evil people in the world outside of the tower. But when an unsuspecting thief, running from the palace soldiers, tumbles through the window of the tower, Rapunzel has her chance to live her dream and prove to Gothel that she is strong enough to handle the world. 

The first and most prominent objection to the movie is that the whole movie rotates around a girl’s disobedience to the authority in her life. Along with this element of disobedience comes a discussion of rebellion between Rapunzel and the thief, Flynn Ryder. Right after disregarding Gothel’s orders by leaving the tower, Rapunzel experiences a see-saw of emotions concerning her choice. One moment, she is overflowing with joy because she is finally free, and the next moment, she is despondent and tells herself she is a “despicable human being” for disobeying her “mother.” Noticing the battle Rapunzel is carrying on with herself, Flynn, who Rapunzel bribed into chaperoning her to see the floating lanterns, decides to give her some advice about growing up. He basically tells her that it is healthy for every teenager to rebel against his or her parents at some point. Although this is exactly opposite from the Christian view of rebellion, viewers must note two things before totally bagging this movie. First, Gothel is not really Rapunzel’s Mother. The rules she gives to Rapunzel are not given out of love for Rapunzel, but out of a selfish desire to keep anyone from taking her source of youth and beauty. Second, Flynn gives this advice to Rapunzel in an attempt to make her feel guilty so that she will return to her tower and let him out of their bargain. However, this objection is still very present and very prominent in the movie, especially since Flynn never takes back what he said about rebellion. As a result, I would not watch this movie without discussing the biblical view of a child’s relationship with his or her parents with the younger members of the audience.

With the major objection aside, there are only a few more things to be aware of regarding this movie. The movie involves some violence, including sword fights, fist fights, people being hit on the head with frying pans, and one stabbing. However, this is an animated movie, and there is virtually no blood and certainly no gore involved in the fights. There are also a few suspenseful parts of the movie that may be scary for young children, but the individual scenes of suspense are no worse than what you would find in The Lion King, for example. Additionally, Gothel and some of the ruffians and thugs are rather scary at times, and an underlying thread of magic is deftly woven into the fabric of the movie. However, the magic is only to be expected in a fairytale, we soon discover that the ruffians and thugs are not people to fear, and the evil Gothel is ultimately given what she deserves. 

While keeping in mind the previous objections, there are still many beautiful and valuable elements to this movie. The soundtrack and music are lovely, the animation is impressive, the ending is satisfying, and, overall, the movie is as fun and lighthearted as you could hope for. More significant, however, are the lessons that the movie offers to its viewers. The movie has some wonderful elements that enforce self-sacrifice and friendship and other elements that could potentially spark valuable discussions regarding growing up and obeying parents. Tangled also reminds Christian viewers that God’s plans for us are often even bigger and even better than our greatest dreams. Finally, to you audiences who enjoy government and politics, the main plot of Tangled can be analyzed as a poignant political allegory that has some interesting things to say about governments with too much power.

Overall, I found this movie to be very appropriate for a PG audience, unlike many PG movies, and would readily recommend it to viewers of all ages (allowing for the discretion of parents, of course). Not only is this movie fun and lighthearted, but it is also a great discussion starter for some very important topics. Tangled is a family movie worth seeing.

(For more of my thoughts on this movie see my blog posts Tangled, and A Government Like Mother Gothel.)