Tangled

Last year's big Disney offering was a return to traditional hand-drawn animation, but with a take on The Princess and the Frog that was anything but traditional. The reviews were rather better than the audience figures and this year we're back to state of the art CGi animation and a story that (despite all the spin to the contrary) is very traditional Disney fairy-tale. You know how its going to go from moment to moment.

But familiarity is not always a big barrier. On the plus side the film looks good, with the effects for light and hair working very well. This being a version of Rapunzel, those are rather important elements. It also has a good sense of fun to it. It may be predictable, but its also funny and likeable. It has a good villain, who comes across more human than many of Disney's wicked witches, but is maybe more creepy for it.

I'm not sure whether we really needed too comedy animal sidekicks, though. Both have good moments, especially Maximus, the horse who thinks he's a bloodhound, but both tend to get lost towards the end of the action. Similarly the thug chorus are fun, but on screen too briefly for individual characters to really stand out. The songs are also decidedly average and unmemorable - Mother Knows Best being by far and away the pick of the bunch. But none of that amounts to a huge problem in a Disney movie.

Overall - 7/10 It won't live with the best efforts of either Disney golden age, but is a decent second rank effort which gives you what you expect from Disney.