EXCLUSIVE: Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi Call 'Tangled: The Series' Their 'Dream Come True'

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It’s time to return to the magical world of Corona, because Tangled is back!

The 2010 movie gets a sequel in the form of Tangled: The Series, which picks up right where we left Rapunzel and Eugene (nee Flynn Rider). The show kicks off with the Disney Channel Original Movie Tangled Before Ever After, premiering Friday night.

“It's kind of been seven years in the making almost,” star Mandy Moore (Rapunzel) gushed to ET at the movie’s Beverly Hills premiere. “It's bizarre to be here finally talking about it, we've arrived.”


MORE: Mandy Moore Reveals Sneaky Tangled Reference on This Is Us

The film already got a mini-sequel in the form of the 2012 short Tangled Ever After, which saw Rapunzel and Eugene make it down the aisle and wed. The new show tells the story of what happened between the movie’s final scene and that short.

“This is the story of them really, truly getting to know each other,” Zachary Levi (Eugene) said. “That kind of strange dating process in the magical world of Corona, it's very interesting. It allows us, Mandy and I, to continue to develop the growth of these characters.”

“I mean, not to get too, I don't know, heady about a cartoon,” he continued. “What is my relationship with the queen and king? And what is my relationship with all my bandit buddies that are now coming back into the mix? Really diving into the magic of the world, and there's a ton of magic in the world.”

“Everything is exciting about revisiting this world,” Moore added. “I love all the new characters. I mean, we have Julie Bowen, who plays my mother, and a whole cast of incredible characters that will sort of be revealed as the series unfolds.”


WATCH: Zachary Levi Dishes on Disney Channel's New Tangled Series

“I'm such a latecomer!” Bowen admitted. “They did the movie, and they sing, and I don't. I just came in at the last minute to be the mom, and I'm so honored and pleased, but I feel very much like, I don't belong here.”

“They can sing, did I mention that?” she asked. “I told them, I am so happy to do it. I am honored. But please, don't ever in this process say, 'Everyone can sing.' It's not true. It is not true.”

While viewers won’t get to hear Bowen’s pipes, Moore and Levi’s beautiful voices are back with new tunes, courtesy of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater.

“[We’re] getting into this great musical playground that we established with the original movie,” Menken shared. “It's sort of a folk rock style that I love working in … Glenn Slater has been just fantastic at really working at what the song moments are going to be, coming to me with each song lyric.”

Both Moore and Levi admit this is one of their favorite jobs ever, bringing together acting, singing and, of course, Disney.

“It’s pretty tremendous,” Levi confessed. “I've been a huge Dis-nerd since I was a little kid.”

“It combines everything that I love, and being able to sort of revisit the musical side is so much fun,” Moore said. “It's great to employ your imagination in a way that I don't think any other kind of facet of my job employs, because there's no point of reference, it's not like you're looking at finished animation and you're recording your performance to that.”

“You really have to go into, like, the bowels of your imagination,” she joked. “Figure out who this woman is, what this world around her looks like, why she's making certain decisions. And it's so much fun.”


WATCH: This Is Us Kids Step Out to Support TV Mom Mandy Moore at Tangled Premiere!

Bowen copped to this being a pretty great job for her, too -- for a bit of a different reason.

“I hate watching myself, and when you get to watch yourself as an animated character, you're not really watching yourself,” she said. “You can really enjoy it. I enjoy all of the artistry that goes into making a voice and a drawing and a world match. It's so fun. I can leave myself behind a little more.”

“This was certainly a dream come true to be able to be Flynn Rider, and keep being Flynn Rider,” Levi added. “Slash Eugene Fitzherbert.”


Tangled Before Ever After
premieres Friday, March 10, at 8 p.m. ET. Tangled: The Series launches two weeks later on March 24, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Check out the video below for a taste of the new show.