Rapunzel vs Tangled
by Pepa Llausas
It wasn’t so very long ago that it was fashionable
to accuse any film by Disney of being a terrible and dangerous version of a nice,
sweet and instructive old fairy tale. But when I asked my friends for their
favourite version of an old fairy tale, the fact is, they hadn’t any answers.
To criticize is easy and free, but recently, films such as Tangled have
developed a certain kudos – everybody seems to approve of the vintage Disney
format employed. At last, everybody loves Disney again. It is a common fallacy that old fairy tales are good, useful, and specifically for children. Not even one of those observations is true. We are all familiar with the so-called meaning or the symbolic meaning of fairy tales and have been encouraged to imagine that every old fairy tale in the world contains a moral – be it hidden or visible. Indeed, we are very conscious of this when we sit down to create a screenplay. But the truth is that not every old fairy tale has a useful moral for twenty-first century children.
Rapunzel is a fine example of how a good modern version – if we can call Tangled a ‘version’ – can be better than the original.
In the original Grimm Brothers’ version (if you wish, you can read it here) there is hardly any moral worth noting. Rapunzel tells the story of a girl whose expectant mother has a whim to eat some rampion from the garden of a dangerous enchantress; and so her husband goes to steal some. Of course, the dreaded enchantress catches the husband stealing and demands the child that his wife is pregnant with if he wants to save his own life. He agrees, obviously, and when the girl is born, the witch reappears, taking the girl with her. The enchantress (Mother Gothel, now for us, Dame Gothel in the tale) names her Rapunzel and raises her as her own daughter. When Rapunzel is twelve years old, Dame Gothel locks her in a tower secreted deep in a forest. The tower has no door or stairs. Dame Gothel goes every day to visit her and she enters the tower by climbing – with the help of the Rapunzel’s long, beautiful hair.
Rapunzel is a fine example of how a good modern version – if we can call Tangled a ‘version’ – can be better than the original.
In the original Grimm Brothers’ version (if you wish, you can read it here) there is hardly any moral worth noting. Rapunzel tells the story of a girl whose expectant mother has a whim to eat some rampion from the garden of a dangerous enchantress; and so her husband goes to steal some. Of course, the dreaded enchantress catches the husband stealing and demands the child that his wife is pregnant with if he wants to save his own life. He agrees, obviously, and when the girl is born, the witch reappears, taking the girl with her. The enchantress (Mother Gothel, now for us, Dame Gothel in the tale) names her Rapunzel and raises her as her own daughter. When Rapunzel is twelve years old, Dame Gothel locks her in a tower secreted deep in a forest. The tower has no door or stairs. Dame Gothel goes every day to visit her and she enters the tower by climbing – with the help of the Rapunzel’s long, beautiful hair.
One day, the son of the king hears Rapunzel singing
and looks for her without success. But he comes back and waits; until one day
he sees Dame Gothel calling Rapunzel. Once the witch is gone, the prince calls
to the girl in the tower; she lets down her braids and the prince climbs up to
her. Of course, they immediately fall in love and decide to get married.
Predictably, the enchantress catches up with them and cuts off the beautiful
braids of Rapunzel before taking her into a desert. The witch waits in the
tower for the prince to arrive, and when he does, she lets down Rapunzel’s hair.
Dame Gothel’s actions blinds the prince and everybody becomes miserable. The
prince wanders for years through the forest until, finally, one day he hears
the voice of Rapunzel and runs to her. She cries when she realizes he is blind,
but two of her tears wet the prince’s eyes and he regains his sight. ‘And they
lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented’.
So what is the ‘moral’, hidden or otherwise, in the story? Does love conquer all? What love? And how about the love of the Rapunzel’s parents or the love of Dame Gothel? Dame Gothel wanted to have a child, nothing more. She looked after her without any benefit. And, unlike her biological parents, she was willing to do anything to have Rapunzel with her. Dame Gothel is painted as evil from the outset, but we haven’t any reason to think that. She takes Rapunzel, okay – but with the consent of her parents. Who is worse? Rapunzel is a passive character who agrees her own luck. The prince is finally, reunited with Rapunzel; but by chance; not by virtue of his willpower.
So what is the ‘moral’, hidden or otherwise, in the story? Does love conquer all? What love? And how about the love of the Rapunzel’s parents or the love of Dame Gothel? Dame Gothel wanted to have a child, nothing more. She looked after her without any benefit. And, unlike her biological parents, she was willing to do anything to have Rapunzel with her. Dame Gothel is painted as evil from the outset, but we haven’t any reason to think that. She takes Rapunzel, okay – but with the consent of her parents. Who is worse? Rapunzel is a passive character who agrees her own luck. The prince is finally, reunited with Rapunzel; but by chance; not by virtue of his willpower.
Do you really imagine that this story is better than the new Disney ‘version’? Just take a look at it! From a dramatic point of view, the Disney characters are more coherent and compact. They all have a reason for every one of their actions and have a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Mother Gothel is actually evil. She doesn’t love Rapunzel because, essentially, she doesn’t love anybody except herself. She has a good reason to kidnap Rapunzel and to keep her imprisoned. She wishes to be forever young; and for that she needs the magical power of Rapunzel’s hair. But the deep connexion between Rapunzel and her parents is never broken. A good mother exists and she never loses the hope to be reconciled with her daughter again.
The Disney screenplay illustrates, on one hand, the deep necessity of each one of us to know and understand who we are; and on the other hand, the necessity to confirm who we are to others. Both of these are aspects of the same subject: the journey to adulthood.
‘She has a dream’ and must to fight for it; because having a dream is the first step toward defining ourselves. From the dramatic point of view, she has an objective – as do the rest of the characters. Mother Gothel wants to be eternally young; the king wants to find his daughter; and Flynn, ‘the prince of the thieves’ wants to become rich and free. In fact, Flynn starts out as a superficial character but is soon smitten by the beautiful Rapunzel and he agrees to become engaged to her with little or no resistance. Even the secondary characters have clear motivations. The horse wants to catch Flynn, Pascal wants to see Rapunzel happy, and Flynn’s fellows want to become rich.
As it must be in such stories, the Mother Gothel
dies, in fact, disappears, thus enabling Rapunzel to return to her nice mum,
who is waiting for her. The bad witch must die, as everybody knows. It is
necessary and fundamental to the classic symbolism in fairy tales. The classic theory explains how, in traditional tales, the witch and the sweet mum are two faces of the same coin. When we are children we adore our sweet mum who loves and looks after us. But we don’t love this surrogate mother so much (Gothel) because she is always correcting us and dictating what is allowed and what is not. When we become teenagers we have since forgotten the sweet mum and we can regard our mother as the enemy, whose sole purpose in life is to make our life a miserable, unexciting one. And someday, it will be necessary to face this ‘evil witch’ in order to say, “No; it is enough. I am who I am, and I can carry on by myself”.
In fact, I am sure that most viewers felt an echo of familiarity when listening to the musings of Mother Gothel – especially in her songs: “Mother knows best … That's right; to keep you safe and sound, dear; guess I always knew this day was coming, knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest, soon, but not yet … Mother will protect you darling, here's what I suggest; skip the drama stay with mama … mother knows best …”
A huge effort was put into the music and songs by Disney and Alan Menken, who was responsible for the soundtrack. And who among us hasn’t listened to such lesson-of-life songs during their teenage existence; feeling trapped in a miserable tower in the middle of nowhere … or who didn’t wonder when their life was going to begin – and all the while imagining that their mother represented the Berlin wall?
In fact, I am sure that most viewers felt an echo of familiarity when listening to the musings of Mother Gothel – especially in her songs: “Mother knows best … That's right; to keep you safe and sound, dear; guess I always knew this day was coming, knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest, soon, but not yet … Mother will protect you darling, here's what I suggest; skip the drama stay with mama … mother knows best …”
A huge effort was put into the music and songs by Disney and Alan Menken, who was responsible for the soundtrack. And who among us hasn’t listened to such lesson-of-life songs during their teenage existence; feeling trapped in a miserable tower in the middle of nowhere … or who didn’t wonder when their life was going to begin – and all the while imagining that their mother represented the Berlin wall?
Tangled is a great film
because it touches our deeper and more intrinsic feelings. In fact, along with
having all the elements of a classic Disney film, which indeed we all love,
inside of this lurks a contemporary film where any given frame reveals the
mastery of technical class.
As a contemporary film, the feminist characters have self-will and power. The story turns the humble, fragile and passive character of Rapunzel into a princess with powers and wishes. Thanks to this, we have a modern relationship between Flynn Rider (whose real name is Eugene Fitzherbert) and Rapunzel. Tangled has the look of a ‘classic’ fairy tale, because it incorporates: a princess; a castle; an evil witch, and a secluded tower in the middle of a forest. But, in fact, Disney answers with this film all the claims about the role of the woman in their stories. Who has a dream and the will to make it come true? She. Who has the power? She. Who has the money? She. Would she have found the way to make her dreams come true without Flynn? Sure. Flynn, however, finds meaning to his life when he meets Rapunzel. A meaning and a solution. It is interesting to consider another well used ingredient in classic fairy tales, and widely used in contemporary films: the importance of name. ‘The true name’. Flynn is a fake. His ‘true name’ is Eugene. It is the symbolism of the acceptance of oneself. Flynn is a disguise that he is not ready to lose until he meets Rapunzel and they think they are about to die. She needs him to arrive unto the castle and understand who she really is; and he needs her to accept him and his own true values – which are not money, but love.
As a contemporary film, the feminist characters have self-will and power. The story turns the humble, fragile and passive character of Rapunzel into a princess with powers and wishes. Thanks to this, we have a modern relationship between Flynn Rider (whose real name is Eugene Fitzherbert) and Rapunzel. Tangled has the look of a ‘classic’ fairy tale, because it incorporates: a princess; a castle; an evil witch, and a secluded tower in the middle of a forest. But, in fact, Disney answers with this film all the claims about the role of the woman in their stories. Who has a dream and the will to make it come true? She. Who has the power? She. Who has the money? She. Would she have found the way to make her dreams come true without Flynn? Sure. Flynn, however, finds meaning to his life when he meets Rapunzel. A meaning and a solution. It is interesting to consider another well used ingredient in classic fairy tales, and widely used in contemporary films: the importance of name. ‘The true name’. Flynn is a fake. His ‘true name’ is Eugene. It is the symbolism of the acceptance of oneself. Flynn is a disguise that he is not ready to lose until he meets Rapunzel and they think they are about to die. She needs him to arrive unto the castle and understand who she really is; and he needs her to accept him and his own true values – which are not money, but love.
It is important to the story format
that women are the more active characters. Mother Gothel is bad, indeed, but
bad with an excusable will and also gains respect for being brave. She is the
necessary antagonist for the main character. And she is a woman. Bad, but
wonderfully manipulative, active and imaginative. As a ‘Dorothy model’ (or the millions of characters before her) Tangled has to begin with a lesser motivation within Rapunzel: to see the lanterns. But she gravitates through natural curiosity to discover who she is. Because that is the only true goal for a ‘hero’ to accomplish – an understanding that: there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. In the words of another sublime fairy tale character, Morpheus.
Which means: confront your own fears, go out and do these things by yourself – for yourself.
Such are the pearls of wisdom that are hidden inside of fairy tales: they provide us with a perfect scenario in which to train our brain in order to confront the challenges of life and come out unscathed. One of the best elements of a good fairy tale or a good film is that it provides a truly useful and credible training land, often in beautiful surroundings. And Tangled is, without doubt, a better training land than the Rapunzel tale of the Brothers Grimm because the contemporary point of view and culture of a twenty-first century child is no longer the same as that of a nineteenth century child …
Which means: confront your own fears, go out and do these things by yourself – for yourself.
Such are the pearls of wisdom that are hidden inside of fairy tales: they provide us with a perfect scenario in which to train our brain in order to confront the challenges of life and come out unscathed. One of the best elements of a good fairy tale or a good film is that it provides a truly useful and credible training land, often in beautiful surroundings. And Tangled is, without doubt, a better training land than the Rapunzel tale of the Brothers Grimm because the contemporary point of view and culture of a twenty-first century child is no longer the same as that of a nineteenth century child …
The Animator's Corner - 2011