Tangled - 2010 Featuring Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi

I don't see movie trailers on TV, since I time shift everything and fast forward through commercials. So I knew nothing at all about this other than it was a Disney movie. Nothing online, hadn't heard anyone talk about it, I mean it was an absolute null to me. But I generally really like Disney and Pixar movies, so when I came across it, I had to see it with my 7 year old.

To say I was blown away would be putting it mildly. I didn't know Mandy Moore did the voice, but as soon as the first song started, I recognized it straight off. Same with Zachary Levi. Now Mandy I could see, since I've loved her voice ever since I saw A Walk to Remember. Zachary was a surprise, having known him only from the series Chuck, I never thought of him as a voice actor.

And after seeing the movie a few times, I can't picture any other choices doing as good of a job. They both do an outstanding job of emoting. Both in the songs and in the dialog, the inflections are just absolutely perfect. Her squeak when she first hits him. His "Surrounded by enormous piles of money" in the "I've Got a Dream" song... The way her voice shifted so well in her bipolar scene... It was the little touches like that which put this movie right to the top for me.

Songs? I had to buy the soundtrack and it's all my son wants to listen to now, whether on the TV (I use a media center PC for my TV so it's all available), on the computer, or on the ipod in the car. We're singing tangled songs all over the place. I found these songs to be my all time favorites now from any of the animated musicals. I never thought they'd get anyone to shine better in their musical animations than Jodi Benson (hope I spelled that right) from the Little Mermaid, but Mandy Moore nailed it. Songs are incredibly rich and have a lot of depth musically, and as always, are hilarious and very, very enjoyable. Even the score for the rest of the movie was great, and I crank the music from the dancing scene when I'm driving around too, great stuff.

The animation was wonderful, and the job they did with her hair, as well as the horse's expressions (as someone else mentioned in a review, the horse is a riot), and Pascal, the Chameleon... Was everything that Disney is known for when they're doing their jobs well.

Another review also mentioned the poor marketing job and such, which I guess I can attest to at a different level, as I had not noticed anything at ALL about it until March 2011 here, a few weeks ago. But despite that, this has shot right to my number one animated movie... And I never thought I'd see ANYTHING supplant that spot for my 7 year old, above Cars and Wall-E... But this one did for both of us.

Great movie for all ages, and hopefully a sign that Disney is solidly back on track.