Zachary Levi interview with The Daily Telegraph about Tangled

IF IT was any other movie, Zachary Levi's admission of a crush on a co-star would set tongues wagging. Fans of his NBC television series Chuck have been hoping for an off-screen romance with that show's Sydney-raised leading lady, Yvonne Strahovski.

But Levi's affection is directed at the character Rapunzel, the star of Disney's latest animated fairytale, Tangled.

"I have a crush on Rapunzel, I don't know, it's weird," he says.

"I do know why, it's the nose, the freckles, the eyes."

Levi is the voice of thief Flynn Rider, a beefed-up male lead designed by Disney to enhance the film's appeal to boys, while singer and actor Mandy Moore provides Rapunzel's voice.

Young viewers are expected to swoon for Rider, whose looks have been deliberately created to make young hearts flutter.

"I'm honoured to lend a voice to what is considered to be the hunkiest Disney prince," Levi says. "Thank God, I didn't know about any of this stuff until after we were done recording the movie, that would have been way too much pressure," he says.

Animators had to design new software to bring Rapunzel's 20m of blonde hair to life.

But Levi says that crowning glory was not Cupid's arrow.

"Hair is not a deal maker or breaker to me," he says.

"It's about the girl. That's true. That being said, I thought Rapunzel's short little brunette bob cut at the end of the movie was gorgeous."

The film is likely to be the last classic fairytale produced by Disney, with the children's powerhouse halting work on two others that had been in development: Jack And The Beanstalk and The Snow Queen.

"The guys who are in charge of Disney now, as in John [Lasseter] from Pixar, they are reinventing fairy tales," Levi says. " They are not borrowing from the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, they are creating their own thing that is in some ways even greater. They are making new fairytales; WALL-E is a fairytale, A Bug's Life is a fairytale."

A self-confessed Disney tragic, Levi says asking him to name a favourite Disney movie is like asking an alcoholic to name a favourite brand of scotch.

"Since I was a little kid, I dreamt of doing a Disney movie, specifically a Disney musical because I've always loved singing," he says. "For them to take a chance on me - believe in me and give me a chance to fulfil my dreams - is so surreal."

Most of all, he really appreciates the cartoon empire's honest approach to storytelling. "Unfortunately Hollywood doesn't really adhere to that any more. They come up with 20 kind of ridiculous gimmicks and loosely string them together and call that a movie," he says.

"I'll sit in a movie sometimes and I'll go 'what, there's so many logic problems'. It angers me as an audience member, especially when you're paying $15 for a movie ticket and the people making the movie didn't take the time to make it make sense. Garbage ... I hate it."

Tangled, PG, opens on Thursday

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