Rapunzel is one of those stories we all know well, if imperfectly, from our childhoods. If nothing else, we remember the hair. The long, long hair that was the only way to get into the tower in which our heroine was kept by the evil witch who held her captive. ‘Cause of, you know, being evil. “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, that I might climb that golden stair,” the witch would intone. And then there was a prince, and Rapunzel being stupid, and the prince going blind, and then getting healed by Rapunzel’s tears. Happily Ever After. The End.

Of course, being a Disney movie, Tangled messes with that original fairy tale shamelessly. Rapunzel is no longer the daughter of a mere country gentleman, she’s a princess! And she wasn’t given to the witch in recompense for the stealing of her namesake lettuce, she was kidnapped! And her hair isn’t just super long, it’s also magical! And she isn’t rescued by a prince, but instead chooses to leave the tower under her own steam, accompanied by a thief (whose real name, I regret to inform you, is Eugene). And her tears don’t cure his blindness, they… no, I won’t spoil it. But never fear, her tears do come into play. They don’t disregard the source material that much.

But they do disregard it a lot.

Nevermind, though. Because the experience they have wrought from this simple if gruesome Brothers Grimm tale is simply a treat for the senses, and one that establishes Disney as still a force to be reckoned with in the race for animated feature prominence. Sure, Pixar consistently delivers amazing technological breakthroughs and engaging tales, Dreamworks has offered up more than one bona fide hit (with the recent Megamind being a particular standout), and even Warner Bros. is still hanging in, their latest co-production, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, especially dazzling in its artistry. But Tangled establishes emphatically that when it comes to princess-related fairy tale movies, accept no substitutes. Disney rules them all.

Our tale begins with a sickly and pregnant queen, a magical flower, and an old witch (Donna Murphy) who has discovered the fountain (or plant) of youth. The magical flower is used to heal the queen, and its properties are thence inherited by her child, a daughter. The old witch, grieving for her lost flower and determined to remain young, takes the girl and raises her as her own in, of course, a tower, using her magic hair as a kind of chant-activated Botox treatment.

Cut to eighteen years later. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), as the child has been called for no good reason we are given -- it’s not like the rapunzel plant comes into play here, at all -- is going understandably stir crazy in her high rise home and is anxious to leave the nest. She begs to go to find the source of an annual flood of floating lights in the sky that has long fascinated her (and which is, did she but know it, a memorial release of lanterns by the citizenry of her kingdom to mark the birthday of their lost princess), and when her “mother” denies her this boon, she decides to go anyway, with a handy bodyguard in the shape of one Rider Flynn (Zachary Levi), a wise-cracking wanted felon. Along the way, of course, the two fall in love; the wicked witch seeks to part them and regain her prize; we meet an assortment of wacky characters who become important later; and we have animals who act in an altogether too human manner (in this case, a horse and a chameleon, both of whom quite steal the show).

There are some fun-filled song and dance numbers and an occasional ballad, for which Alan Menken’s music is glorious, and if Glenn Slater’s lyrics don’t reach the unparalleled heights of Tim Rice’s Aladdin or The Lion King outings, they’re certainly a step up from that drek they served up in The Princess and the Frog (“Money ain’t got no soul/Money ain’t got no heart/All you need is some self-control/Make yourself a brand new start.” Ugh.)

The animation throughout is breathtaking, especially when it comes to the hair… our fair maiden glories is the most gorgeously rendered follicles ever seen, and I never thought such could get any better than in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Of course, one does wonder how Rapunzel manages to caper around the woods with a good thirty feet of silky blond tresses trailing behind her and not have it all become one giant knot, or home to a family of squirrels or something, but one also wonders how she manages to use it as a lasso and a grappling hook and a rope and restraints and not have it pull painfully against her scalp even slightly, so let’s chalk that all up to “it’s magic hair!” and be done with it.

Aside from this glaring oddity, the script is very taking; light and fluffy and fun, with nary a misstep. The three main leads are all outstanding in their roles, and make good dialogue great; all are hugely likeable as actors but as cartoon characters, they are simply entrancing. Levi’s comic timing is put to magnificent use here, and Moore’s lovely singing voice is showcased beautifully (just like in A Walk to Remember, but with less God stuff). Hey, even Zach Levi turns in a pretty decent love song duet performance. Cute! Donna Murphy, meanwhile, is truly remarkable as the dastardly Mother Gothel. Her regular speaking voice is mellifluous and expressive, as anyone who saw her in Star Trek: Insurrection (or, indeed, Center Stage) can attest, but her singing voice is a whole new kind of irresistible. I saw her perform on Broadway a few years back, in the musical Wonderful Town, and her way with a showstopper cannot be questioned, whether live or in animated form. She’s just phenomenally good at this.

Tangled is a welcome return to form for an animation studio that has long seemed to have lost its way… no Disney animated feature since 1995's Pocahontas has given us this kind of pure candy-coated pleasure, with a message. (In this case: run away from home, and maybe you’ll discover you’re royalty!) In the hierarchy of post-modern Disney princesses, Rapunzel is up there with Ariel, Belle and Jasmine -- and indeed, may even surpass them.

One question, though: how exactly did she end up with that adorable smattering of pale freckles across her nose? She spent her whole life indoors!

  -- Rachel Hyland