The soundtrack for the
Walt Disney movie Tangled, which offers up a quirky, comedic take on the Rapunzel story, features songs and music from Academy Award-winning composer
Alan Menken and Grammy nominee
Glenn Slater. Rapunzel, expertly voiced by
Mandy Moore, heads a cast that includes Zachary Levi as the dashing thief who exposes the princess to the world beyond her prison tower, Brad Garrett and Jeffrey Tambor as a pair of bumbling thugs, and Tony Award-winner
Donna Murphy as the evil Mother Gothel, who intends to use Rapunzel’s magical gifts to stay forever young.
Moore and
Murphy take on the lion’s share of the work here, and both deliver the goods. The songs, especially the omnipresent “When Will My Life Begin?” and
Murphy’s appropriately conniving “Mother Knows Best,” are cut from the same pop cloth as all of the late 20th/early 21st century Disney offerings, and
Menken's score finds just the right balance between swashbuckling, goofy, and tender. ~ James Christopher Monger