Pun Salad

The Pun Salad Manor Animation Fest continued with Tangled, which Disney claims as its 50th animated feature.

It's loosely based on the Grimm tale of Rapunzel. She's a princess with Magic Hair; due to some legerdemain with a glowing superflower when she was still in the womb, her uncut follicles have healing and rejuvenating powers. All she has to do is sing a little song. Unfortunately, Rapunzel was kidnapped as an infant by the evil Mother Gothel, and squirreled away in a tall tower. As she nears adulthood, however, she feels the ever-increasing pull of the outside world. And the situation is transformed when one Flynn Rider, a petty thief, stumbles upon the tower and lets himself in.

Tangled is solidly in the Disney formula, and I mean that in a 98% good way. Everything is gorgeous. The script is clever and funny. The heroine is spunky and resourceful. The protagonists speak in Southern California accents and slang. ("Don't freak out," Rapunzel counsels Flynn, as she reveals her hairy powers.) Songs by Alan Menken. Two colorful and amusing animal sidekicks, a chameleon and a horse. The good guys win, after enduring multiple perils, and evil is defeated.

It's not The Lion King, but nothing is. Just a lot of fun to watch.