Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Tangled

I finally saw Disney's Tangled. I've got to say, I really enjoyed it. Of course, I may be biased because I have three kids and see a ton of kids movies and of course because I have long hair.

Disney changed the name of the movie from Rapunzel because they thought it would attract more boys. I kind of understand where they're coming from, but my five year old couldn't understand why the movie was called Tangled while the princess's name was Rapunzel.

If you're familiar with the old Rapunzel fairy tale, you'll know that the original story was a bit different (no surprise from Disney- I'm talking to you, Little Mermaid.)

The original fairy tale went something like this: A pregnant woman desperately craved radishes (or sometimes various other vegetables) from her neighbor's garden. Said neighbor just happened to be a witch. The pregnant lady begged and begged her husband to steal some radishes from the witch's garden until he finally relented (probably so he could get some sleep,) and snuck into the garden. The witch caught him and demanded the baby to pay for his crimes. The rest of the story should be familiar to it, but if it isn't, I recommend you Google it.

In the movie Tangled, the pregnant queen drinks a tea (?) made from a magic flower created from a drop of sunlight. Little did she know, a witch was using the flower to stay young forever. The princess is born soon afterwards. The princess has beautiful golden hair (while both her parents are brunettes.) This is to emphasize that her hair came from the sun flower. The witch sneaks in and cuts a lock of Rapunzel's hair, which shrivels up and turns brown. The witch realizes that Rapunzel's hair must never be cut if she wants to keep the magic alive.

Anyway, the witch kidnaps baby Rapunzel and raises her as her daughter (although her mothering skills are sorely lacking.) Rapunzel turns 18 (thanks, Disney for updating ages a little to reflect modern ideals. Ariel getting married at 16 has always bothered me.) She decides she wants a taste of the outside life, having live her entire life in the tower.

I won't spoil the whole movie for you if you haven't seen it.

I will say I was a bit disappointed with how the movie ended. I mean, I get why they ended it that way, but it still bummed me out a little bit. Either way, it's still a fun movie and I really enjoyed it.


1 comment:

  1. I guess I knew it would have to end the way it did with her hair, but I was still upset.

    I found the plot rather forced. I enjoyed the wit and the humor, but I thought there were some big holes. Such as, no one had ever told her that there was a missing princess, she had never heard that story, yet she somehow had a realization that she was the missing princess. I didn't find her sudden memories very believable.

    Really fun, though, and beautiful.

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