Tangled

Walt Disney Pictures took a massive gamble with the company's 50th animated movie, Tangled, its version of the classic Grimm Brothers story of Rapunzel. With total costs reportedly reaching a $260 million, it was the second most expensive film ever made to date (exceeded only by Avatar). Within two months, its global box-office gross was nudging $400 million, and the gamble will pay off handsomely.

Kudos will go to John Lasseter, the Pixar chief executive and movie director who began his career as an animator at Disney and now also runs the corporation's animations division. His Pixar record as an unfailing creative and quality control genius surely persuaded Disney's board to risk a large chunk of the farm on an old-fashioned fairy story with no super-star voices.

Assuming that the quoted cost is not an accounting souffle, inflated wildly for taxation or other advantages, one has to wonder where the money went? Giving a film 3D effects accounts for a lot, and a lot of funds must have been spent paying for a small army of CGI animators to design, draw and light scenes that looked like hand-drawn paintings. The traditional show-off tricks of their trade are the usual delight to see: shadows, water, reflections, hair, movement, lighting, emotional eyes. When an audience just accepts them and concentrates on the story, Disney has achieved its traditional magic.

The scenario was written by Dan Fogelman, an award-winner for Cars who also wrote Bolt. He maintained the Grimm Brothers' outline, which Disney rightly assumed could be a winner. There were precedents galore: Rapunzel, a naive princess (Princess and the Frog, etc) kept away from the outside world (ala Little Mermaid, etc) by an evil witch (Cinderella, etc) is introduced to reality by a cheeky intruder (a sexily goateed Aladdin with Errol Flynn cockiness). She will have a cute animal friend (animators' dream creature, a chameleon) and there'll be a mock-villainous animal thwarting the hero (this time, pompous guardhorse Maximus).

The horse is delightful; a little disappointingly (but wisely for the story) the chameleon isn't allowed to play a distracting role. The key animation challenge, and success, is Rapunzel's multi-metred head of magic hair. It can cure lethal ailments, and be used as a rope, elevator and whip. It never looks lanky or bulky and is rightly featured like a co-star in some advertising. Equally masterful are the hundreds of floating lanterns launched to mark the lost princess's birthday.

The voices of the teenage princess (singer-actress Mandy Moore) and her young saviour (Zachary Levi, Broadway musical and TV series star) could have been heard in any other Disney modern classic: clear, sassy and very American. Ditto for the music and songs from Disney stalwarts Alan Menken, the leading living Oscar-winner (eight by 2010) in his specialised category, and lyricist Glenn Slater.

Donna Murphy (Tony-winning Broadway actress and Sondheim singer) is the voice for an under-stated evil character (Mother Rothel), whose dependence on Rapunzel's magic isn't scorned, and she merrily sings my favourite song in the movie, Mother Knows Best. There seemed to have been a conscious decision to downplay her character and not exaggerate it in the style of Little Mermaid or 101 Dalmatians. The usual Disney musical extravaganza, in the exuberant OTT style of a Busby Berkeley choreography, is a happily fast-paced scene in a thugs' character-full forest bar, the Snuggly Duckling.

A Christmas release and 3D-premium seat prices helped Tangled do well with its customary family market. After six years in expensive pre-production, it needs to gross close to a billion dollars to convince Disney that a 51st old-style animation should be greenlit. One hopes so because such movies are pure entertainment.