Tangled

2010’s Tangled was the blueprint for modern Disney before it reached near caricature status with Wish. The studio’s take on Rapunzel’s story is full of youthful joy, sharp wit, delightful earworms, and top-of-the-class animation. As a first attempt to bring the Disney Princess formula into 3D animation, Disney got it in one. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi (damn, talk about a drop-off) have great chemistry as Rapunzel and rogueish criminal Eugene, and Broadway veteran Donna Murphy is brilliantly cast as Rapunzel’s scheming mother. Disney’s depiction of Rapunzel as a sheltered but exuberant young woman looking for a life beyond the monotonous one she’s suffered her whole life inspired multiple Disney heroines in the decade that followed. Even after all those imitators, however, Rapunzel still feels like one of the most genuine depictions of the archetype. Her story ends in the tower where it began, but she and Eugene return to the prison changed, both willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. Those selfless expressions are what ultimately free them from their old lives and allow them to find something new together.