With "Tangled," Disney animated classics are officially back. Slightly revamped and adjusted to include contemporary values while preserving the timeless ones, this new take on the tale of Rapunzel is great entertainment for all audiences, regardless of gender or generation.

Most importantly: "Tangled" is not a movie just for girls. One of its greatest strengths is its combination of a strong female and a strong male lead. They are well balanced in terms of screen time and story impact, and thus appeal to male and female audiences the like.

The female lead, Rapunzel, is of course a princess; however, for the majority of the film, her title is relatively unimportant.

Instead, it is her character that singles her out. Rather than idly awaiting her rescue through her prince, she hatches her own plan to escape and see the world, with her male counterpart merely acting as her means to an end.

Unlike previous Disney princesses, love and marriage are not very high on Rapunzel’s agenda, and although the two are ultimately inevitable (it is Disney after all) they seem more like by-products to the main storyline.

The male lead and professional thief Flynn bears a close resemblance to Aladdin as opposed to any of the other Disney princes and cavaliers. Just like Rapunzel, he has his own dreams that he tries to pursue, and despite his rogue lifestyle, he is thoroughly good at heart.

His cocky and womanizing ways create a lot of comedy, but not enough to compromise his ultimate sincerity and goodwill.

Flynn knows how to fight his battles (most of the times, anyway), and he does not necessarily need the "change through love" to bring out his true and good self.

Besides these compelling characterizations, "Tangled" also offers an immense variety of metaphors and themes to the viewer.

For one, "Tangled" provides an engaging "growing-up" story as it is experienced by any young adult, including the growing desire to explore the big wide world "out there," and the emancipation from the safe haven of home and one’s parents.

Equally, one’s very own hopes, dreams, and doubts associated with this leaving of the nest are picked up on, and the fact that these themes are experienced by both Rapunzel and Flynn alike makes them easy to relate to by all audiences.

"Tangled" also deals with the theme of dream fulfillment in a relatively new way. Rather than merely conveying the message to pursue one’s dream, "Tangled" actually incorporates and answers the question of what happens afterwards, once the dream has been fulfilled.

Just like love and marriage are no longer ends in themselves, the pursuit and achievement of other dreams aren’t either, and happiness becomes an ongoing process that can and should be worked towards in many different ways.

However, what makes "Tangled" such a strong candidate to become another Disney classic is above all else the way the story is being told.

Flynn and Rapunzel are no exceptions when it comes to in-depth and complex characterization in the film, and there is a great attention to detail in all of the scenes.

Comedy, drama, romance, and suspense create a multitude of plot twists and turns, and they are all dealt with in a fast-paced manner that never allows the viewers’ attention to stray.

The music and songs are back, too, and with them composer Alan Menken, who already successfully orchestrated the soundtracks of "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "Pocahontas" (among others) in the past.

Keeping up with our times, however, the songs in "Tangled" do not play a very dominant role, and while they occur at regular intervals, they are kept relatively short.

The only piece of critique one could utter is the way in which "Tangled" makes use (or not) of the 3D technology it has been created with.

The film’s directors, Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, hardly ever put the 3D feature into "play" within the story; instead, it serves much more to immerse its audiences within the world of Rapunzel and Flynn.

Given the fact that 3D tickets mean much higher prices, it might be worth contemplating whether paying extra for this feature is truly worth it, or whether in this case, the 2D experience might just suffice.

Thus, all in all "Tangled" is a great film to watch for any viewer, thanks to its great balance between the classic Disney formula and contemporary values and lifestyles.

Its fast-paced and extremely entertaining storyline where characterization, attention to detail, and genre matter fulfill all the expectations one could have for Disney’s 50th Animated Motion Picture, and although its use of 3D technology might be questionable, "Tangled" is more than worth the price of a cinema ticket.

"Tangled" opens Nov. 24.
Directed by: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Starring: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi

Reach Christine here.
Join our mailing list.