To open the current decade, we have Disney’s fiftieth animated classic, Tangled, which marked the debut of their first computer-animated princess. The story of Rapunzel was briefly considered for adaptation in Walt’s time, as far back as 1938, but the idea was ultimately discarded and did not resurface until 1996, when legendary animator Glen Keane and producer Roy Conli began planning an adaptation of their own. At that time, the project was going to be done in the usual traditional animation, but the studio was deep into the frenetic Renaissance period and the idea ended up being temporarily shelved once again while everyone was focused on other projects.
However, this time, Rapunzel didn’t completely fade away; by 2002, Keane and others were tinkering with it again. Between that year and 2006, a more satirical take on the story began to emerge which was planned for the emerging technology of computer animation – Eisner’s studio was trying to move away from the perceived “staleness” of the classic Disney style in favour of a more hip, contemporary “DreamWorks” approach, so Rapunzel’s film began to be subjected to the same treatment. That film was set for release around 2007, but then came the change in management in 2006 which brought John Lasseter to the studio.
By that time, Keane was working with Dean Wellins as co-director of the project and was (wisely) trying to steer it back towards a level of sincerity, as he felt audiences would respond better to a less snarky take on the fairy tale. Lasseter agreed, and he gave Keane the option to return to the traditional animation style for the film if he wished, but Keane had accepted the challenge of doing it in computer animation and decided to do his best to bring the artistic qualities of hand-drawn work to the digital age. After suffering a heart attack, however, Keane made the decision to step down as director and instead became the executive producer as well as animation supervisor for the film; Lasseter appointed Nathan Greno as his replacement, and when given the choice, Greno picked Byron Howard to be his partner.
The new directors embraced the classic Disney “formula” and turned the film into a musical in the style of the Renaissance fairy tales, with the whole tone of the project being re-worked into something lighter and more balanced. The title, which was then Rapunzel Unbraided, was changed to Tangled in an attempt to avoid the marketing problems endured by The Princess and the Frog, and the key artistic influence on the film shifted from Rembrandt to Disney’s own Cinderella, utilising the same “shape language” in its scene compositions to provide Rapunzel’s world with a sense of comfort and safety via lots of soft, inviting curves. Since the production was all about reconnecting with Disney’s roots, the filmmakers even took a research trip out to Disneyland in California to study the Imagineers’ architecture. To top it all off, the last surviving member of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” Ollie Johnston, then well into his nineties, visited during the production and gave Keane some simple but valuable advice about remembering not to get carried away by the technology at the expense of character development.
A lot of love went into this one, and the result speaks for itself. Tangled became a huge hit for Disney, the biggest they’d had since the Renaissance, so let’s take a closer look at it to see what makes it work so well.
Characters and Vocal Performances
When casting the parts for this film, all of the actors had to perform a song to prove their musical chops. Donna Murphy chose Children Will Listen from the musical Into the Woods, while Mandy Moore went with Joni Mitchell’s Help Me, a song she had covered herself on her fourth album, Coverage (2003). (A fortuitous choice, as Mitchell’s music had a big influence on the music of the film). Moore noted that she had to attend multiple auditions and didn’t really expect to get the role, describing herself as “over the moon” when she got a call-back as it had long been a dream of hers to appear in a Disney film. The role was highly sought after; Kristen Chenoweth was the original choice back when the film was going to be more satirical, but the later auditionees included Natalie Portman, whose audition was used for a pencil test of the character, as well as Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, who would go on to star together in Frozen three years later.
During the recording process, Moore didn’t meet with Murphy at all, and only recorded once or twice with Zach Levi as Flynn for their duet. The voice actors had to jog in place to sound realistic during the action scenes, and the animators interviewed and filmed them for reference footage. Apparently, after seeing the finished film, Moore was disappointed with her performance and felt it was too “shrill,” while Levi thought his sounded “incredibly nasally.”
So, who exactly is our heroine? Rapunzel is a young girl who’s lucky to have ever been born; her mother nearly dies before giving birth to her, but luckily she’s saved by the magic of a certain special flower and, lo and behold, said magic ends up passing into Rapunzel herself. Unfortunately, the flower had long been jealously guarded by the sinister Gothel, and she’s not about to just let it go – after breaking into the incredibly-easy-to-rob kingdom, she steals Rapunzel away and raises her in seclusion as her own child, using the magic (now in the girl’s hair) to keep herself young and healthy.
This is all set up in an effectively-delivered prologue, and as the main film begins, we meet Rapunzel a few days before her eighteenth birthday. Since being kidnapped, she has never left the hidden tower where Gothel keeps her and is now yearning for a glimpse of the outside world – specifically, she wants to see a lantern celebration which occurs every year on her birthday and plans to ask Gothel to take her. Now, I’ll admit there are a few problems with this set-up – I mean, what teenager in this situation wouldn’t have tried to get out before now? I know that Gothel has a powerful psychological hold over the girl, but still, did Rapunzel never feel like rebelling and seeing the world for herself before the age of eighteen? Also, many other critics have brought up the point about the date, wondering why Gothel didn’t just make up a fake birthday for Rapunzel to prevent her from making the connection (heck, she could’ve just not told her about birthdays, period). There are plot holes, but I can overlook them because of how intriguing this relationship is.
Gothel and Rapunzel hug
Rapunzel is the Quasimodo to Gothel’s Frollo; this is easily the most complicated relationship between a villain and a heroine we’ve seen since the days of Hunchback and Hercules. With no memory of her real parents, Rapunzel has been brought up to believe Gothel is her only family, but there’s a crucial difference between Rapunzel and Quasi. Quasi’s prison was right in the centre of Paris, so Frollo had unwittingly left the lad free to observe the outside world and develop an infatuation with it, leading to his desire to leave and see what it’s like for himself. Sure, Frollo did try the same scare tactics as Gothel, telling Quasi about how horrible people are, but the lad could see for himself that this was not entirely true. Rapunzel, on the other hand, trapped out of sight in a hidden valley, has apparently never met anybody but Gothel in her entire life, so she has no such frame of reference. Consequently, she displays much more anxiety about leaving her tower than Quasi did, because she truly believes what she’s been taught about the world. It’s also implied that Gothel has been telling Rapunzel that she will be able to leave one day when she’s older, presumably just trying to placate her until she gets old enough to really rebel.
Rapunzel puts Flynn in closet
In the end, the outside world must come to Rapunzel. When Flynn sneaks into the tower, she learns a lot about herself after knocking him senseless with a cast-iron frying pan (damn, girl). The incident allows her to prove herself to herself, showing her that she is not as helpless as Gothel has tried to make her feel. Filled with a new confidence in her own abilities, Rapunzel comes close to revealing the unconscious Flynn to Gothel, but luckily she’s stopped by an outburst from her mother. This is a key moment, because it’s the first time that Rapunzel seriously begins to question her mother’s motives – having proved the inaccuracy of Gothel’s statements about her being unable to take care of herself in the outside world, she naturally assumes that there will now be no problem going to see the lights. However, caught on the spot, Gothel simply loses her temper with Rapunzel, screaming that she will never leave the tower, ever. This brings the rebel in Rapunzel to the surface – realising that she might never be allowed to leave, she sees an opportunity in Flynn and ends up keeping him hidden from Gothel, then devises an excuse to get her “mother” out of the way for a few days so she can make a bargain with him to take her to see the lights.
Flynn tied up in hair
All of this demonstrates a strong streak of ingenuity; from what we see of her talents and skills in the first few scenes, Rapunzel is clearly an intelligent and highly creative person. She fills her days with artistic expression and educates herself to the best of her ability with the few books she’s been given. There’s almost nothing the girl can’t do – she paints, bakes, knits, plays guitar, makes candles and pottery, and many other things besides, all in the space of one morning! She’s also a lot stronger than she looks, probably from hauling Gothel up into the tower every day; the ease with which she later subdues a grown man is impressive. Then there’s her hair; with seventy feet of it, you’d imagine it gets in her way a lot, but she’s learned to use it to her advantage and has become so adept with it that it is almost like a third arm.
Once Rapunzel has gotten Gothel to leave, she promptly ties Flynn up (with her own hair) and proceeds to grill him about his motives, overcoming her initial fear of him. It’s both amusing and surprising to see this petite girl in a frilly pink dress completely dominating the much larger Flynn, literally knocking him out any time he’s not cooperating and showing no hint of falling for his charms (although to be fair, this is the first man she’s ever met). In the end, she manages to force the cunning criminal into a deal and gets her chance to go outside at last.
Of course, all those years of psychological manipulation have left their mark, causing a great deal of inner conflict in Rapunzel from the moment she leaves the tower. Although it’s not handled with the same subtlety as Quasi’s conflict over Frollo was, it’s still made clear that Rapunzel does care for her “mother” and feels genuine regret at disobeying her. At the same time, once she’s out, Rapunzel finally gets to experience the world for herself and realises that while it’s not perfect, it’s also nothing like the hell-hole that Gothel described it as.
The remarkable thing is just how adaptable Rapunzel turns out to be. You’d expect someone so isolated to have suffered from some serious developmental problems and social anxiety at the very least, but Rapunzel is brimming with natural confidence and proves herself to be a bit of a social butterfly, easily making friends with the “ruffians and thugs” they meet at the pub after realising they’re not as vicious as they look.
Rapunzel kisses Hook-Hand
However, despite the pleasant surprise of reality, Rapunzel’s initial plan is still to return home after seeing the lanterns. This was a plot point the writers paid particular attention to: how could they maintain a sense of motivation after she’s escaped the tower? She needed a goal, something specific to make her leave, so she gets the lantern celebration which she’s been watching from her window for years. These lanterns take the place of the usual wishing star here, representing everything Rapunzel doesn’t know about the world but longs to find out. When she has something to focus on, Rapunzel is as determined and committed to achieving that goal as Tiana, never losing sight of the dream of reaching the lanterns no matter how worried she is about Gothel.
It is this very passion which sets off the budding romance of the film, in a similar manner to that of the last one. Here, as there, the dashing womanising hero finds himself unexpectedly falling for this driven and intelligent young woman, and although they start out very much opposed to one another, they gradually develop some chemistry, let their walls down and become friends. Once Flynn realises that Rapunzel has never been outside before, he comes to care deeply about helping her escape from Gothel once and for all; Rapunzel, for her part, sympathises with Flynn after realising that he’s just lonely (certainly something she can relate to), and the two of them grow closer from there. By the climax, they’re both willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, representing a huge amount of personal growth for both of them.
Rapunzel and Flynn tower kiss
Gothel never stops trying to get Rapunzel back, however, and she cleverly reinforces her mental hold over the girl by engineering a scenario whereby it looks like Flynn has betrayed her. After first giving Rapunzel the satchel with the stolen crown that the girl was using as leverage over Flynn, Gothel warns her that he’ll abandon her the moment she gives it to him. Then, she enlists the help of Flynn’s old partners, the Stabbington brothers, who have a grudge against him – they do her dirty work by getting Flynn out of the way and she promptly betrays them, staging a “rescue” to make herself look like Rapunzel’s saviour again. The heartbroken girl returns home with her “mother,” and the plan almost works – except Rapunzel has seen too much.
Rapunzel holds Gothel's wrist
In a nicely handled moment of realisation, Rapunzel suddenly puts all the pieces together and works out her true identity – she is the lost princess from the nearby kingdom. There follows a battle of wills between Gothel and Rapunzel, with the former finally forced to reveal her true colours to her ward; with the mental hold broken, Gothel resorts to outright violence, chaining the girl up and using her as “bait” to lure Flynn to the tower and finish him off. This, too, almost works, but Rapunzel then offers her another of her deals – she will accompany Gothel with no further resistance, on the condition that she be allowed to save Flynn. The fact that she is willing to give up a lifetime of freedom for Flynn just goes to show how deeply she has come to care about him, and Gothel knows Rapunzel well enough to trust that she keeps her promises, so she allows it – her fatal mistake.
Flynn cuts the hair
Gothel hasn’t reckoned on Flynn coming to care about Rapunzel in return, dismissing him as nothing more than a petty criminal. She is thus horrified when he uses the last of his strength to cut Rapunzel’s precious hair, thus freeing her of Gothel for good by destroying the magic which Gothel has been keeping her for. It is a symbolic breaking of a toxic bond and although Rapunzel is shocked at first, she is still able to appreciate what Flynn has done for her in light of what she’s learned about her “mother”. Believing him dead, Rapunzel mourns for Flynn, but the last of the magic falls in her tears and he is miraculously revived – yet even here, we’re not quite done with this emotional rollercoaster.
There is one last thing Rapunzel must do. After having her entire life changed, she must begin again by finally reuniting with the birth parents she never knew. This is done with a simple but affecting scene with no dialogue, in which the four characters (Rapunzel, Flynn, the King and the Queen) face each other across a courtyard and approach each other with a gentle hesitancy, expressing a great deal of feeling through animation alone. The King and Queen must have long since given up hope that they would ever see their daughter again, so they are unsure and perhaps even a little wary – you wonder if they’ve ever had to deal with imposters posing as their daughter in the past. Rapunzel, meanwhile, has just had her whole notion of a “mother’s love” thrown out the window, so she is understandably cautious too. Only once they really look into each other’s eyes do Rapunzel and her birth mother relax, realising that they’ve truly found each other at last – no more lies.
Rapunzel hugs the Queen
Rapunzel’s arc is wrapped up with a neat little bow as she takes her place as the rightful princess, and after going through such a tumultuous story with her, we feel immensely satisfied to see her back with her family, where she belongs. I know some people consider her a bit of a Mary Sue and it’s true, she doesn’t have many flaws for someone with such an isolated upbringing, but within the confines of the story this doesn’t feel too problematic because plenty of conflict is derived from her relationship with Gothel alone. Rapunzel does display some of the naïveté and vulnerability that Quasi did, even if it’s not as obvious. At the end of the day, she’s a likeable person and easy to root for, so even if she lacks a little complexity, she does fine as our lead here.
Flynn says hi
The dashing thief, Flynn Rider (aka Eugene Fitzherbert), was the product of the famous “Hot Guy Meeting.” Faced with the ever-daunting prospect of having to create a good-looking male lead, the male directors came up with a novel solution – get a woman’s opinion. Or rather, thirty women’s opinions. Greno and Howard invited many of the female staff at the studio to bring pictures of their favourite hunks and discuss what made them attractive (even subjecting the directors themselves to some humbling critical dissection), with video footage of the meeting showing photos of celebrities like Johnny Dep, Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Gene Kelly on the walls. The result of all this discussion was Flynn Rider, our first computer-animated prince. Zach Levi auditioned for the role with an English accent and got it, but the accent was later dropped in favour of Levi’s own American accent.
The natural comparison here is with Aladdin, another charming young con-artist who winds up a prince after falling for a spirited princess. However, I think Flynn had more room for growth than Aladdin did, because at the start of the film – let’s face it – he’s not that great of a person. Even while living on the streets, Aladdin was giving up scraps of food for those who needed it more than him, whereas Flynn, who seems to be doing better for himself (robbing palaces rather than market stalls), is all too willing to double-cross his own partners for his own gain and ends up trying to swindle Rapunzel too. He is entirely self-absorbed in these early scenes, and it is only his charisma which keeps the audience on his side – it’s difficult not to like him, even though everything he’s doing is morally wrong.
Flynn fighting with the pan
Flynn is quite the player, and his first reaction upon seeing the beautiful Rapunzel is to try to hit on her, so confident is he in the power of his own good looks. Notably though, she shows no interest at all when he’s putting on this front, “smouldering” at her and whatnot; only after she begins to learn more about him as a person does she start to care about him. (Of course, she probably doesn’t recognise flirting, either). Meeting Rapunzel is the catalyst which sparks a change in Flynn – he’s stumbled upon that rare person who is resistant to his charms, and he cannot simply trick or rob this one. Forced to spend time with the girl, he gradually begins to realise the depth of her problem and surprises even himself as he starts to let his guard down around her in return.
After going through the events at the pub, on the dam and then in the flooded cave, Flynn finally sees how determined Rapunzel is to see these lanterns and learns why – they represent her freedom. Her desire for adventure and a life free of constraints is something he can relate to, because he grew up an orphan “with nothing” and has thus become a thief in his search for fulfilment. What he has failed to realise until this point is that it is not material things which he needs – it’s a family. He is lonely, and that, in turn, is something Rapunzel knows all about, having grown up with only a chameleon for a friend. The two of them bond over the misfortunes of their pasts and come together to create a brighter future together, with the revelation of his real name serving as his token of trust in her; there will be no lies in this relationship, and honesty is something Rapunzel has never really experienced.
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Rapunzel and Flynn end kiss
Flynn’s other significant relationship in the film is with Maximus, a palace horse who is out for justice and relentlessly pursues the crook throughout the film’s midsection. These two form a great comic double act with their shenanigans; they first “meet” when Flynn knocks Maximus’s rider off his back and tries to ride off with him, but Maximus isn’t having any of this and tries to get back the satchel himself. Things only go south from there; after the two wind up falling off a cliff (and surviving, somehow), Maximus diligently tracks Flynn from there on, going through a bizarre swordfight with him atop the dam and nearly drowning before finally securing his quarry.
By then, of course, Flynn is “tangled” up with Rapunzel, and she convinces Maximus to let him off the hook for just long enough to help her get to the lanterns. By the end of the day, Maximus has developed a grudging respect for Flynn – a kind of “any friend of hers is a friend of mine” type of thing – and when Rapunzel is in danger, he ends up teaming up with his former rival to go to her rescue. Flynn and Maximus are always entertaining whether they’re fighting for or against each other, and their relationship reminded me a lot of that between Tulio and Altivo in DreamWorks’s 2000 feature The Road to El Dorado.
Max and Flynn fight in kingdom
Flynn’s arc comes full circle in the film’s climax, where he goes from being selfish enough to rip off his own comrades to being selfless enough to try and sacrifice his own life for Rapunzel’s freedom. Being with her has brought out his better side and while he retains his roguish charm and sense of humour, he no longer feels the need to put up a show of bravado, acting with far greater sincerity in these final scenes than he displayed in his first ones.
When it comes to male protagonists, Disney’s best are usually of the non-prince variety; think of Quasi, Shang and Tarzan, for instance. As princes go, Flynn is (in my opinion) easily the strongest character we’ve seen since the Beast, although he does also feel awfully similar to Aladdin except with less of the boyish innocence (he’s apparently supposed to be twenty-six). Still, while he does feel like he’s wandered in from a DreamWorks film at times, I can’t help but like Flynn – he becomes Rapunzel’s biggest supporter and it’s touching to see how much he cares about her by the end. He, Naveen and Beast are certainly the only princes we’ve seen so far who actually get their own character arc – and funnily enough, all three must learn to be less selfish.
Gothel in mirror with Rapunzel
Ooo, Mother Gothel… I love her as a villain. I don’t know why she’s not more popular, honestly – perhaps it’s because she’s too realistic and it makes people uncomfortable. Either way, she is exquisite.
Gothel is the first character we meet in the prologue, at that point a shrivelled old woman who is the first to find the magical flower after it grows from a drop of fallen sunlight. She presumably has some kind of background in witchcraft, because she knows the special incantation required to unlock the flower’s magic and uses it to rejuvenate herself, rolling back the years until she’s a (relatively) young woman again. As the centuries pass, she becomes addicted to the flower’s magic and by the time of the main film, she is willing to go to any lengths to keep it.
Since the story is so similar to that of Hunchback, it is natural to compare Gothel to Frollo, but the two are actually played very differently. Tony Jay made Frollo cold, creepy and conflicted, never fully pleasant even when he’s trying to be, but Donna Murphy gives Gothel more of a bipolar personality. She’s hammy and even downright funny in her jollier moments, but what makes her so compelling is her other side. Like many real life abusers, she has a hair-trigger temper and it’s all too easy to push her “berserk button”. When Rapunzel is toeing the line, Gothel’s all hugs and niceties (although she stills peppers Rapunzel with comments designed to undermine her self-confidence), but when the girl dares to say or do something Gothel doesn’t like, suddenly she’s just as chilling as Frollo ever was.
Gothel screams at Rapunzel
Gothel’s brand of villainy is powerful because it’s so… normal. It’s truly disturbing how accurate her behaviour is; because she lacks any magical powers or abilities of her own, her only power is her position as Rapunzel’s “mother”. Using only her own cunning, she manipulates Rapunzel into wanting to stay in the tower by convincing her of two facts: one, that the outside world is a dangerous place filled with people waiting to exploit her, and two, that Rapunzel herself is too fragile and helpless to survive out there in the first place. Gothel is passive-aggressive rather than overtly violent, using veiled insults mixed with loving behaviour to make Rapunzel doubt herself and cling tighter to Gothel. It’s the type of thing that any real parental figure could be capable of and indeed, some parents do this to a less extreme degree even when they do love their children! After all, how many of us have been guilt-tripped into doing something our parents wanted at some time or another?
Gothel’s dual nature is portrayed so convincingly that I’ve heard some arguments that she may not be entirely bad and may have grown to genuinely care about Rapunzel over the years, with people pointing out examples of times when Gothel goes out of her way for the girl when she doesn’t stand to gain from it (the hazelnut soup, for instance, or the white shell paint). However, the thing to remember here is that all of this is part of Gothel’s elaborate mental “trap” – after all, we saw what happened when Frollo merely “maintained” Quasi with minimal effort and no attempt to provide him with entertainment. In that situation, the lad grew up yearning to be outside in spite of his fears and ultimately led to him testing the waters on his own.
In this case, Gothel has not deprived Rapunzel of pleasure – the girl has a comfortable home with plenty of books, paints and other equipment to entertain herself endlessly. While this seems generous on the surface, the idea behind it isn’t; Gothel knows that a happy Rapunzel is less likely to want to leave than a miserable one, so putting a little effort into keeping her happy makes her job easier in the long run. After all, where’s the conflict with a comfortable hero who has everything he could ever want? (The Hobbit aside). And remember, even Gothel’s “affection” is a front; pay attention and you’ll notice that every expression of love from Gothel is directed at Rapunzel’s hair, rather than the girl herself (she even refers to Rapunzel as “flower” several times).
Gothel picks flower out of hair
Then there’s the question of Gothel’s motives, which are kept rather vague. Why, you wonder, is she so obsessed with living? By the time of the film, she has already been around for centuries (a fact hinted at with the different styles of hers and Rapunzel’s clothing), but she doesn’t seem to have any grander scheme in mind to fill all that extra time. There’s no “world domination” or even a dream of overthrowing the kingdom (which didn’t even exist when she first found the flower) – she’s merely continuing to live the life she always has, except now she must maintain a person rather than a flower. We learn nothing about Gothel’s past, so there are multiples ways you can read her situation. Is she an analogy for a drug addict, addicted to the idea of living and unable to let go of the magic, even when she knows it would be best for her? Or could it be that she was never able to have a child of her own and is keeping herself going now because she’s addicted to her role as a mother? Ultimately, her goal is simply to remain young, much like the evil Queen in Snow White, and Gothel has certainly been around long enough to know the most effective way to go about it.
Gothel is one of those competent villains who pose a legitimate threat to the protagonist and keep the stakes of the story high, which is the main reason I enjoy her so much. Her hold over Rapunzel is so strong that the girl stills feels lingering doubts about Flynn even after sharing the most tender of moments with him, and it’s only broken at last when Rapunzel manages to put the clues together and work out her true identity for herself. Theirs is a battle of wits as well as of wills, and it if weren’t for Flynn’s last-minute solution, Gothel might have successfully kept Rapunzel imprisoned forever (remember, Gothel can activate the magic herself so she doesn’t even need Rapunzel’s cooperation). Flynn’s decision to cut the hair and thus end the magic is unexpected to Gothel because it’s something she would never do – as with many other clever villains, the trick to defeating her lies in finding something she doesn’t understand (selflessness) and using it against her.
Gothel screams at haircut
Gothel is an engaging character in her own right because she is every bit as committed to her goal of retaining the hair’s magic as Rapunzel is to seeing the lanterns. When any character, good or bad, has a strong motivation, it becomes much easier to invest yourself in their story – compare Gothel to someone like Alameda Slim, for example. Did you really care about Slim or his motivations? What even were they? The writers clearly weren’t sure, and the result was a lacklustre villain who was all ham but no substance. Gothel has plenty of substance (and I’m not just talking about her personality), making her the best villain we’ve seen since Yzma and arguably the best of the decade to date.
Maximus glares at Flynn
Thankfully, the supporting cast for this film is much smaller than in the last few! The standouts are our two animal sidekick characters, Maximus and Pascal. Maximus is a big, strapping Andalusian officer of the law whose main goal for the first half of the film is to track down the wanted thief, Flynn Rider. He is the “Javert” of this story, played like a cross between a hardened cop and a diligent bloodhound, who will stop at nothing to find his target. Although he is given some distractingly dog-like tendencies (such as sniffing scent-trails), he stands tall as one of the great comic animated horses and shares some hilarious moments with Flynn – their improvised swordfight has to be my favourite.
Max wielding a sword
However, once Max finally catches up with Flynn and meets Rapunzel, everything changes. His loyalties switch – apparently due to her possessing that inherent “goodness” which makes all Disney princesses so great with animals – and from then on, he’s committed to helping Rapunzel, even if he does struggle at first with trusting his former enemy. By the climax of the film, Max is able to team up with Flynn against the very guards he used to work for and races to Rapunzel’s aid like any true hero. He is rewarded for his loyalty with a position as head of the palace guard (don’t overthink it) and goes on to wreak mayhem with Pascal during the couple’s wedding later on… but that’s another story.
Pascal put the boot down
There was initially some resistance to including the usual “animal sidekick” at all because it felt like it had been done too many times before, but the filmmakers ultimately decided that Pascal had to be there to give Rapunzel someone to talk to in her isolation (remember how badly this same problem was handled by the writers of Hunchback? Urgh, those gargoyles…). He was apparently made a chameleon for a number of reasons; they wanted to avoid the standard “cute ‘n’ fuzzy” mammal, they wanted an animal that would represent Rapunzel’s artistic side, and a staff member had a real chameleon named Pascal that the animators took a shine to. Admittedly, his species doesn’t fit very well into the European setting, but he could be an escaped import, I suppose.
Wherever he came from, Pascal’s role in the story is similar to that of Jiminy Cricket’s in Pinocchio; he represents Rapunzel’s conscience and all of her repressed desires. With his many expressions, Pascal is able to encourage Rapunzel to do what’s best for herself and he’s always by her side (or rather, on her shoulder) as she goes through her adventures with Flynn in the outside world. His role may be fairly small, but it’s an appreciated addition – without him, Rapunzel would have had nobody but Gothel for all those long years, and that’s a depressing thought. His presence in the tower is also kept secret from Gothel, as another nod to all the hidden feelings of rebellion he represents.
Pascal trips Gothel
Interestingly, if you look him up on the Disney Wiki, he has a whole little backstory explaining how he came to meet Rapunzel; apparently she saved him from death after a deadly snakebite and the two became firm friends from that moment on. One other thing to note about him is that despite being such a seemingly minor character, he’s given the honour of finishing off Gothel during the climax! That’s perhaps the first time that the animal sidekick has been given such a pivotal plot point (unless you count Gurgi) and I thought it was a creative solution to the problem of who should be responsible for Gothel’s final defeat – after all, Rapunzel herself still has some lingering goodwill towards the woman who raised her, so it could hardly be her.
Stabbington brothers after flood
Among the other characters, we have a pair of secondary antagonists called the Stabbington brothers, two imposing ginger twins who start out as Flynn’s accomplices until he betrays them. After he leaves them to get arrested after a robbery, they have a score to settle – and they seize the chance when Gothel turns up and offers it to them (seriously, her manipulations work on everybody). Knowing that they will help her overpower Flynn and get him out of the way, she actually reveals to them the powers of Rapunzel’s hair, taking a considerable risk by having them turn their attentions from the crown to her own treasure. The brothers strap an unconscious Flynn to a boat (at least the fourth time he’s been knocked out in this film) and make it look like he’s abandoned Rapunzel; then all Gothel has to do is step in and “rescue” Rapunzel from them and she’s back in business. (It’s amazing that Gothel actually manages to knock the two of them out single-handed!) By using them like this, Gothel also reinforces Rapunzel’s beliefs in the evils of the outside world, killing two birds with one stone.
Although they’re brutes, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the Stabbingtons by their last appearance – they’ve been double-crossed by everyone they’ve ever worked with. Given that Flynn was on the brink of execution, you wonder whether they survived much beyond their last scene…
The assorted “ruffians and thugs” we meet at the Snuggly Duckling pub were based on a mixture of bikers, Vikings, wrestlers and much more besides – they serve mainly to challenge Rapunzel’s distorted view of the world by teaching her (and by extension, the audience) that you can’t judge everyone by their appearances. Many of them don’t have names and they function as a kind of group character, although the hook-handed one appears to be the unofficial leader. The thugs serve mainly as comic relief during their first appearance, but they also play a part in the climax by helping Flynn to escape the castle so he can rescue Rapunzel (how Maximus got them there is another story). They all go on to enjoy a life where they can express their true passions at the end of the film – possibly symbolising a “coming out” story, in which they finally drop their “macho” facades and embrace their inner (notably feminised) selves.
King and Queen by the window
The final characters of note are the King and Queen of Corona (the local kingdom), Rapunzel’s true parents. They are, surprisingly, both alive, and remain so right through to the end (although the mother has a close call in the prologue). While these two aren’t given a lot of screen time or proper names (they’re called Arianna and Frederic in the show), the animators do an amazing job with their limited scenes, packing a world of emotion into just a few moments. In a bold move, the characters never speak a word during the film, instead communicating entirely through their facial expressions and mannerisms – all their grief, their pain at losing Rapunzel, their shock and uncertainty and eventual relief at her return, all of it is done without words. It’s beautiful.
Mind you, it’s worth dwelling for a moment on some of their rather inept policies. For instance, why is this kingdom so absurdly easy to break into? Despite employing a wealth of guards, Flynn, the Stabbington brothers and even Mother Gothel (in her elderly form, no less) are able to sneak in with little trouble. No wonder Rapunzel got kidnapped! And then there’s the whole “execution of a petty thief” thing, which puts them on a level with villains like Jafar… Perhaps it’s better not to think about it.
Animation
Back when the project was first conceived in the nineties, Glen Keane planned for the film to be done in Disney’s usual traditional animation. However, by the time project got going again a decade later, executives David Stainton and Dick Cook were insisting that it be done with computers instead. Keane, to his credit, didn’t fight the idea – instead, he held a seminar called “The Best of Both Worlds” where he and about fifty other artists worked to separate the pros and cons of each style. The upshot was that they would make the film with computer animation, but they would utilise the technology to try and recapture the traditional Disney “aesthetic” that the earlier CGI efforts had been lacking.
The technology in question had of course advanced by the time Tangled went into production. Earlier problems with capturing the complexity of human forms and the basic principles of animation were no longer an issue and it would now be easier to combine the two styles. As Keane put it, he wanted to make the computer “bend its knee to the artist” instead of the other way around, and he worked to make the tech as “pliable as a pencil”. Still, even with advancements in technology, not everything the team wanted to accomplish was possible with the software available at the start of production, so Disney had to create it themselves.
Rapunzel sails out of tower
I’m talking mainly about the famous hair, which was naturally integral to any retelling of Rapunzel’s story. This hair had to be treated almost like its own character, with a whole team of animators working solely on it. Animating hair had proved challenging in earlier CGI Disney films – you may have noticed that characters like Lewis and Penny had rather stiff or short hairdos – so this time around, senior software engineer Kelly Ward spent six whole years writing programs to make Rapunzel’s locks move the way they wanted. Amazingly, the directors were still unsure about giving her so much of the stuff as late as January of 2010, just months before release. By March of that year, however, the problem was solved once and for all – an improved version of a hair simulation program called Dynamic Wires was created (the original had been prepared for Bolt). It was able to use discrete differential geometry to produce the desired effects of the hair floating in water and other such nuances, freeing the animators from days and days of exhausting work. The hair is truly a technical triumph and is definitely one of the major highlights of the animation here.
King and Queen grieving
Once again, the animation supervisors cannot be broken down by specific characters, with the exception of Rapunzel, who was supervised by Disney’s “greatest leading lady,” Glen Keane. Keane directed the entire team of animators, but there were other supervisors, including John Kahrs, Clay Kaytis, Lino DiSalvo and Mark Mitchell.
The improvement in human animation after just a few short years is astounding – they really do look so much better in this film. I would point to Rapunzel’s parents, the King and Queen, as the best examples of this; the silent moment they share before the lantern ceremony is simply sublime, conveying incredible pain with just the slightest frowns or tweaks of an eyebrow. It’s one of my single favourite moments in the entire canon, without question, and all because of the strength of the animation (admittedly, the lovely Menken score helps too).
The rest of the animation is also excellent, utilising the same non-photorealistic rendering as Bolt had to create the softer, more painterly feel that Keane was aiming for. The bursting of the dam is notable for showing off the greater level of realism the team achieved in animating water (and the river that Rapunzel and Flynn climb out of shortly afterwards looks stunning). Of course, the scene everybody remembers is the big lantern ceremony, which featured around 45,000 individual lanterns and stands out as one of the most beautiful of Disney’s recent films.
Plot
Tangled is a classic fairy tale handled with all the skill and flair we’ve come to expect from Disney. It’s more straightforward than The Princess and the Frog and it’s thus much easier to keep track of the events being depicted; the prologue in particular is fantastically done, setting the scene while keeping its exposition interesting (although I do question having Flynn as the narrator; perhaps an anonymous one would have been a bit less distracting).
Magic flower prologue
Of course, as with many fairy tales, this one required a bit of fleshing out to be capable of supporting a feature-length motion picture. The main problem the writers faced, as I mentioned above, was how to keep Rapunzel’s motivation going once she’s left the tower – after all, at that point, she has technically gotten what she needs. Animator John Ripa suggested the lantern idea to give her a goal to pursue after leaving, an idea which the others seized upon with enthusiasm. Instead of just getting out for the sake of it (which wouldn’t make much sense anyway as she’s quite comfortable in her tower for the most part), Rapunzel needed a specific reason to get her to go – once she’s tasted freedom and begins to fall for Flynn, the motivation essentially takes care of itself.
Beyond this, there’s not a whole lot to discuss plot-wise – except for plot holes, that is. Some of these I’ve already brought up (the easily-robbed kingdom, for instance) and many can be dismissed (such as how filthy Rapunzel’s hair should be after dragging it all over the forest), but there are others that are harder to overlook. For instance, Gothel has left some gaping holes in her grand scheme, like telling Rapunzel her correct birthday and thus allowing her to make the connection with the lantern ceremony. And why did she have to tell Rapunzel her correct name? (Then again, some sources claim that the name came from Gothel, leaving the question of what the girl’s birth name is). She also unwisely leaves Rapunzel alone after the girl has expressed a strong sense of wanderlust – I know she’s supposed to be confident in her psychological hold over the girl, but this seems to be tempting fate a bit, doesn’t it?
Flynn conked with pan
Then we have poor Flynn – he’s knocked unconscious so many times during this film that you wonder how he hasn’t suffered brain damage by the end of it! And there’s no way he and Rapunzel could have survived that dam-bursting part; how could they have held their breath long enough to shift all those rocks before drowning? Also, on the subject of bodily trauma, how did Rapunzel not snap her neck when her braid got caught leaping over a log? Perhaps we can just handwave it all as side effects of “magic.” Either way, there’s nothing serious enough to detract from your enjoyment of the overall story.
Cinematography
The production designer on Tangled was Doug Rogers, while the art direction was handled by the joint team of Dave Goetz and Dan Cooper. As I described above, one of the main goals of the team was to try to recreate the soft fluidity of hand-drawn animation from the classic Disney films. Keane credited Disney animator Kyle Strawitz with helping to combine the CGI and traditional styles, saying, “He took the house from Snow White and built it and painted it so it looked like a flat painting that suddenly started to move, and it had dimension and kept all of the soft, round curves of the brushstrokes of watercolour. Kyle helped us get that Fragonard look of that girl on the swing… We are using subsurface scattering and global illumination and all of the latest techniques to pull off convincing human characters and rich environments.”
The artists used Geppetto’s workshop from Pinocchio as the main inspiration for Rapunzel’s cosily cluttered tower, with Claire Keane (Glen’s daughter) designing the many murals that the girl has painted during her long incarceration there. The Rococo paintings of French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, particularly The Swing (1767), were used as the main references for the film’s art style, which Glen Keane described as “romantic and lush.”
The kingdom of Corona was inspired by places like Mont-Saint-Michel in France, while the hidden valley housing Rapunzel’s tower was based on Rocamadour. The lantern tradition, as most fans probably know already, was borrowed from Thailand’s Lanna culture, while the forest surrounding the kingdom was based on those of eastern Europe, filled with deciduous trees like oak, hornbeam and beech. The Snuggly Duckling pub was based to some extent on Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon (otherwise known as “Jack London’s Rendezvous”) in Oakland, California, and the castle is the latest in a long line of Disney castles with many of the same influences, although this one features a touch of Danish flair to distinguish it from its brethren.
Mont_Saint-Michel_en_gros_plan
Mont-Saint-Michel in France
Tangled is a truly sumptuous film, bursting with colour and radiating light. The various settings are all carefully designed and crafted to evoke that special “fairy tale” atmosphere that Disney does so well, but the excellence of the cinematography doesn’t stop at the set designs. There are a number of creatively shot scenes which work to get the maximum emotional reaction out of the viewer, including the scene where Gothel finds out Rapunzel is missing (conveying a strong sense of panic with the sharp cuts and harsh lighting) and the scene where Rapunzel is going through mood swings upon leaving the tower, alternately ecstatic and guilt-ridden.
The natural highlight of it all is the lantern sequence, which exudes pure Disney magic. The score is at its most beautiful here (always saying something when it comes to Menken) and works off the strong animation to sweep the viewer off into the romance of the moment as Rapunzel finally gets her dream while also falling in love with Flynn. My favourite part is the brief moment of shared grief between the parents before they go out to light the first lantern, followed by the wonderful swell of hope as the rest of the kingdom lights up. Their lantern, marked with the kingdom’s insignia, even “finds” Rapunzel out on the lake, a small but touching detail.
Corona pennant
Then we have the fantastic drama of the climax. After Gothel has gotten Rapunzel safely back in the tower again, she leaves her alone for a moment while she goes to prepare dinner. The poor girl lies back on her bed, crushed at the thought of Flynn’s betrayal, but still enraptured by the things she’s seen and learned during her time on the outside. With Gothel out of the room, Rapunzel reveals the Corona pennant that Flynn got for her, hidden inside her hands – the sunburst insignia could be seen as representing Rapunzel’s inner spirit, showing us that she cannot be repressed, no matter how hard Gothel tries (Gothel herself even alludes to this with her comment about the dark, selfish and cruel world destroying any “ray of sunshine” it finds, apparently not seeing the irony in being the one to point this out).
Gothel old by mirror
There follows a series of short but intense scenes intercut with one another as we go back and forth from Rapunzel to Flynn, with the former realising her true identity and confronting Gothel at last (“Did I mumble, mother?” … CHILLS), and the latter realising that Rapunzel is in danger. This final confrontation with Gothel is so well-shot and paced, creating a powerful sense of drama rooted in real stakes the likes of which we haven’t seen for many, many films at this point. And yes, we all know Disney weren’t really going to kill off the male love interest, but they do let the moment hang there for long enough that it starts to sink in a bit – what it would be like if they didn’t bring him back (a gutsy move like that could have made this an even bigger success, if done well). My only criticism of this whole part is a minor trifle – couldn’t Flynn have cut Rapunzel’s hair a bit lower down? It looks dreadful, all choppy and uneven, and it’s implied she can’t grow it back! He could have left her a little more length to play with, but this is the pinnacle of nit-picking.
For the 3D version of the film, the team focused more on aesthetics than realism. The stereoscopic supervisor, Robert Newman, said, “We’re using depth more artistically than ever before, and we’re not as concerned with the literal transcription of depth between camera and projector as we are the interpretation of it.” This was done with a new technique called multi-rigging, which involved multiple pairs of virtual cameras. Each pair would be used individually on separate elements which add depth to any given scene, such as the background, foreground and characters, but without adjusting for the relation with the other pairs. When these effects were sandwiched together later in production, they had an appealing look for the film which couldn’t be achieved in the real world.
Soundtrack
After passing over Alan Menken for the score of The Princess and the Frog, Disney turned to him once again for the score of this film. He had just finished Enchanted when he got the call in 2008 and accepted the assignment with relish, inviting his friend and collaborator Glenn Slater to be his lyricist (the pair had already worked at Disney together on Home on the Range, as well as the Broadway adaptation of The Little Mermaid).
This is Menken’s most recent score for a Disney canon classic and I absolutely love it, choosing it as my ninth favourite animation score in an earlier post. When creating it, Menken was inspired by the motif of Rapunzel’s “long hair and the freedom she wanted,” so he went in a different direction and drew inspiration from 1960s folk rock, especially singers like Joni Mitchell. Among the instrumental pieces, my favourites are the back-to-back “Kingdom Dance” and “Waiting for the Lights”, as they add so much to the scenes they’re a part of with their delicate string melodies and moving swells of brass.
When creating the film’s songs, When Will My Life Begin and Mother Knows Best were instrumental in helping the writers to “find” Rapunzel and Gothel’s characters, respectively, allowing them to get to the heart of what each of them wanted. For the recording of the duet, Moore and Levi first sang live on a soundstage accompanied by the 65-piece orchestra in order to give everyone a feel for the “vibe” of the scene, before going to isolated recording booths to record clearer versions of their respective parts.
When Will My Life Begin imagery #1When Will My Life Begin imagery #2When Will My Life Begin imagery #3When Will My Life Begin imagery #4
Our first number is Rapunzel’s, When Will My Life Begin, which sets up her life in the tower and ends with her dream of going out for the first time. It’s such an earworm, but it has to be said that it does feel just a tad generic, with the contemporary style of the guitar making it sound like any old top forty hit. This was the first song to be written for the film and went through six different iterations before Menken found one that clicked – he wanted a song that would move the plot forward, which is why it ends with the question of Rapunzel’s future and what she’s going to do about it.
Menken himself acknowledged the thematically similarity between this and Quasi’s “I Want” number, Out There, which was also his work, saying he was “painfully aware” of it. However, he pointed out that “there is a difference. Quasimodo looks out [from the church bell tower] and knows he wants to be out there in the world—but Rapunzel is not so sure; she’s afraid. We have to want it for her. So, it was a challenge. There’s also a very different energy in Tangled.”
Once Gothel shows up and realises that Rapunzel is starting to grow restless in the tower, she decides it’s time for a refresher lesson on the outside world, which she delivers in the film’s big villain song – Mother Knows Best. This is my fourth favourite villain song from an animated film and it’s the first we’ve seen since at least Frollo, yet another connection between this film and Hunchback. I’ve really missed these big, theatrical numbers – they’ve become rare in the modern Disney era and this one was a welcome return to form. Apparently, the song was a special request from the directors, so I’m clearly not alone in this!
While much of the music of Tangled has drawn some criticism for being rather uninspired, Mother Knows Best is widely enjoyed and appreciated as the film’s best song (certainly not the first time a villain’s song has gotten such a reception). Murphy’s phenomenal voice really elevates it to a whole new level and the lyrics are also wittily inventive, creating a perfect blend of humour and darkness that fits the sweet and salty Gothel to a tee. Apparently, the directors got that classic line “Gettin’ kind of chubby” from an interview with an actual Disney employee, who recalled her own mother saying it to her. Yikes! For her part, Ms Murphy pictured her character as an entertainer, which is why she hammed up the performance so spectacularly.
In true Disney fashion, Rapunzel soon gets a reprise of When Will My Life Begin, which she performs over the emotional moment when she finally steps out of the tower for the first time. (There actually was another reprise which was cut from the film, but you can still hear it on the soundtrack). As with many earlier reprises, this one is short but sweet, perfectly capturing Rapunzel’s whole spectrum of feelings upon getting out – the joy, the confusion and the fear – building to a gloriously triumphant finish that really lifts your heart with hers.
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