Mother Gothel always about ... who’s best for the part". Film critic James Berardinelli of "ReelViews "observed that this decision echoed "Disney's approach during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when big name stars where often bypassed in favor of lesser known talents." An additional asset was that the actor be able to perform well both independently and collaboratively. Mother Gothel is voiced by American actress and singer Donna Murphy, a Tony Award-winning Broadway actress who was informed about the casting call for "Tangled "by her agent. Having never voiced an animated character before, the actress decided to audition for the role
Mother Gothel the very best of [Stephen] Sondheim's crazed heroines". IGN's Jim Vejvoda penned, "Mother Gothel nearly steals the show, with her overprotective tyranny being made to seem almost rational". Dubbed Disney's "first passive-aggressive villain" by Helen O'Hara of "Empire", the author reviewed, "the fact that [Gothel] is entirely bereft of superpowers and reliant on her considerable wits to keep her going makes her strangely admirable". Writing for the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel", Cathy Jakicic called the character "a great contemporary villain" who "many daughters (and mothers) will find ... funny and a little too familiar". In "The New York Times" A. O.