“Tangled” is as good as anything Disney has ever done. The film has an old-fashioned feel — unrepentantly sentimental, unashamedly sincere, an unapologetic fairy tale — that suggests it might just become an instant classic.

I loved every second of it.

Essentially the story of Rapunzel, “Tangled” follows the adventures of a young, dashing rapscallion named Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) who is on the lam after stealing the kingdom’s crown jewels. Chancing upon a mysterious tower in the forest, he decides to hide inside, unaware that the tower is home to an evil old woman (Donna Murphy) and a feisty young girl named Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), whose 70 feet of silken blond hair has magical properties. Realizing her chance to escape the tower and see the outside world for the first time, Rapunzel sets off on the adventure of her lifetime.

Directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard have made a beautiful film. Though crafted with the same 3-D CGI magic used to create Pixar’s gems, “Tangled” nonetheless maintains a traditional, hand-drawn, two-dimensional, almost painterly feel.

Recent fairy tale fare has centered not on the earnestness of the genre, but on the irony (case in point: the Shrek films) — gleefully deconstructing long-established and time-honored tales to serve as little more than surrogates for satire, sarcasm and, at times, mockery.

There is a place for this treatment, but you won’t find even a whiff of it in “Tangled.” “Tangled” comes from a place where characters still break out, without irony, into “I Wish” songs, gallivant through the story with riotous animal sidekicks and believe in the power of true love to overcome any evil.

Full of thrilling daring-do, Monty Python-style slapstick and soaring music, “Tangled” proves that nothing gets straight to our hearts faster than good, old-fashioned, sincere storytelling.

“Tangled”

Cast: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Brad Garrett, Ron Perlman, Jeffrey Tambor Directors: Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

Directors: Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

Rated PG (for brief mild violence)

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Grade: A

Photo by TMS