Film

Tangled

Name: Tangled
Genre: Animation, Family, Adventure
Released: 2010
Cast: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman, M.C. Gainey

Disney's take on Rapunzel trades hushed fairy tale for full-blown pop musical: a girl with seventy feet of magic hair locked in a tower, a wanted thief who talks his way into everything, and songs built for singing along in the car. It's lush, funny, briskly paced, and hides a genuinely unsettling villain under all the sparkle. Great family-night viewing, especially for kids who like their adventures with a soundtrack.

TMDb rating

7.6

If you liked this

Frozen2013

Same studio, same era, same blend of comedy, big songs, and a fraught family bond, but it swaps the tower for an ice palace and flips the rescue-by-prince plot on its head.

But The soundtrack is even more inescapable than Tangled's — you may already know every word against your will.

Enchanted2007

A live-action princess literally falls out of a cartoon and into modern New York, gently sending up the very tropes Tangled plays straight, with the same wide-eyed charm and a cast clearly having a ball.

But The satire is soft and a little dated now; it's comfort food more than commentary.

Moana2016

Another headstrong young woman defying a parent to see the world, with gorgeous animation, huge Broadway-style songs, and a sidekick who starts out useless and slowly earns his keep.

But No romance plot at all, if the Flynn-and-Rapunzel dynamic was half the appeal for you.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dogtooth2009

Strip out the songs and the magic and you get this: a parent keeping children entirely cut off from the outside world 'for their own good,' with the moral horror left in instead of sanded down.

A pitch-black Greek film about a father who's convinced his grown children the world beyond the gate is lethal. Deeply strange, darkly funny, and impossible to shake once it's in your head.

But Unsettling and occasionally violent, deliberately alienating — nothing here is warm, and no one is coming to rescue anyone.

Aladdin1992

The film Tangled is quietly riffing on — a charming thief, a sheltered royal, rooftop chases, and a villain whose whole scheme runs on control. Robin Williams' Genie is still a small miracle.

But Some side characters and jokes have aged badly; it's very much a product of 1992.

The Princess and the Frog2009no page yet

Made right before Tangled, part of the same Disney hand-drawn renaissance, with New Orleans jazz instead of pop-rock and a heroine with fierce ambitions of her own.

But Quieter and more grounded — less spectacle, more slow-burn mood.

Shrek2001

Takes the fairy-tale rescue formula and turns it sideways with a swamp ogre, a smart mouth, and plenty of jokes aimed squarely over kids' heads at the adults.

But Cruder, broader comedy with pop-culture gags that don't all land the same way twice.

How to Train Your Dragon2010

Same year, same arc of a misfit bonding with an unlikely companion and discovering who they really are, minus the songs but with one of animation's best scores and flying sequences instead.

But No musical numbers, and a slightly more melancholy coming-of-age tone throughout.

Brave2012

Another fiery-haired princess pushing back against a mother who wants to control her fate, swapping the frying pan for a bow and the tower for the Scottish highlands.

But The mother-daughter conflict turns strange and creature-based halfway through — tonal whiplash for some.

The Little Mermaid1989

The film that restarted the Disney fairy-tale musical machine Tangled belongs to — the wide-eyed heroine yearning for a bigger world is all here, three decades earlier.

But Older animation style and a giving-up-your-voice-for-a-man message that reads differently now.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed1926

Ninety years before Rapunzel climbed down her tower, this German silhouette film sent a prince on a magic-carpet fairy-tale rescue — it's the great-grandparent of the animated adventure Tangled belongs to.

The oldest surviving animated feature in the world, made entirely from cut-paper silhouettes, and still gorgeous — flying carpets, sorcerers, and a fairy-tale rescue plot Disney would recognize instantly.

But Silent, in a very different visual language, and paced like the 1920s — no songs, no jokes, real patience required.

Big Fish2003

Flynn Rider is a con man who talked himself into a better story. Big Fish follows that kind of charming liar across a whole lifetime instead of one caper, and asks whether the tall tales were ever really lies at all.

Tim Burton's warmest film, about a dying father whose life stories have curdled into myth, and the son trying to find the truth underneath them. Whimsical, melancholy, quietly devastating.

But A slow, grown-up drama about mortality and estranged family — expect tears, not adventure, by the end.