This Disney re-do begins with the basics -- Rapunzel, a baby with magically long golden hair -- is kidnapped by a mean old lady, and locked away in a remote tower, only to be later discovered by a cute guy. In the film, the guy -- a dashing thief -- helps Rapunzel escape and, after some minor adventures, all ends well. The horrors of the Brother Grimm tale are cheerfully replaced with jokey animals (a horse and lizard), and a surprisingly well-adjusted and independent Miss Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore). The computer animation looks great (that long hair never stops moving!), but Nathan Greno and Byron Howard's film feels forced, a dumbed-down story filled with three-dimensional hot air and deeply insipid songs. It's probably high time that studios stop raiding the fairy-tale cupboard -- or at the very least, dial back all the "modernizing" that robs these stories of their time-honored appeal. In 3-D at select theaters.
