The browser, I use Firefox allows you to mess around with the look and change things such as your internet background. So, each time, I get online, I see this.
Each time, I get on Firefox, I am graced with the presence of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Nice little touch, that I really like and oh, in my room, I have a signed drawing of Rapunzel from Disney World that I got at a drawing class at Hollywood Studios. I won it by being the first to correctly answer a question about Tangled.
So, yeah big fan but most of you knew that. I mean, The Second Opinion lovingly mocked my fandom by having Rapunzel be the number one spot for all his lists on April Fool's Blog Swap. T-kun has mentioned it twice now in two of her poems and Les, jokingly said that I kick his a** , if he had left Rapunzel on the list of snubbed animated heroes. Which I told him that was not the case. Now seeing as you all know, how much I like Rapunzel, this entry will end a little differently. I'll still talk about the Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment (Ooh that is tough), Later Appearances but instead of ending with Is Rapunzel A Good Character, I'll instead attempt to answer Why I Like Rapunzel? With this rather long-winded intro outta the way, let's begin.
Original Voice Actress
Mandy Moore
Easily, the best aspect of Rapunzel is how Mandy Moore plays her bringing this youthful energy that makes her feel like a teenager that is setting out to become a young lady over the journey. What's interesting is that apparently Rapunzel is barefoot throughout most of the film and this is because Mandy Moore has been known to preform barefoot as she finds it more comfortable.
That's a nice little touch of incorporating quirks of the voice actress into the character. Also, I am convinced that Rapunzel with her short brunette hair at the end looks like what Mandy Moore would look like in animated form.
Now Moore is one of the few voice actresses that had a working relationship with Disney before playing Rapunzel as she was in The Princess Diaries as the character of Lana, the school bully and she was also in Brother Bear 2 as well and has continued to work with Disney since Tangled as she was in the short lived Tron: Uprising as Mara and she is the lead actress on the new Disney Junior western themed show, Sheriff Callie's Wild West.
I recall, when hearing the announcement that Mandy Moore was going to play Rapunzel, I was a little worried that the celebrity would overshadow the character as Moore, while not as big as some of her colleagues is still quite popular but thankfully, that wasn't the case as Moore did a fantastic job playing Rapunzel. Now I remember hearing that I think Disney originally wanted Kristin Chenoweth to play Rapunzel and if that is true, I'm glad, that they didn't go through with it because while I do like Chenoweth, her voice just seems to old for the age, Rapunzel was in the movie.
First Appearance
We first Rapunzel as a baby in the film, she is born after her real mother drinks a special medicine that gives Rapunzel's hair, it's healing ability. This of course leads to Mother Gothel kidnapping the baby and raising her as her own and we get a glimpse of what I assume was 5 year old Rapunzel in the prologue.
Ahem, that is so cute. And we first see an older Rapunzel at 17 years of age during the "When Will My Life Begin" number and I LOVE this song.
This is the moment where I fell in love with Rapunzel and knew that Disney had another great character on their hands. Because I'll be honest and say I went to this film kinda begrudgingly. I only ended up seeing Tangled in theaters because my grandmother wanted to see it and she wanted to see it in 3D because her town at the time didn't have 3D screenings. Honestly, from the first poster to the first trailer, everything from the marketing made me want to hate this film and call it a DreamWorks knock off but I was wrong, oh so wrong and I've never been happier to be wrong. And seriously, what was up with this poster?
I cannot underestimate how much I loathe this poster. It just sucks and tells you nothing about the film.
Personality
Rapunzel's personality is quite easy for me to describe. I've always said that she starts the film as a shy and timid flower that happens to blossom over the course of the movie but because of being locked up in the tower for all of her life , she is a little bit scared of the outside world but you can see how easily, she adapts to it during, I've Got A Dream. You can see how much Gothel has instilled fear into her, particularly with this sequence from Mother Knows Best, where Rapunzel uses her hair to hide.
Showing how scared she is from all the lies, that Gothel has fed her. Sure, this was moment meant to be played for comedy but I see it as Gothel's manipulation being all too effective on her "daughter" feeding her these lies that the world is a big and scary place that will swallow her up, if Rapunzel ever leaves the tower. That's why Rapunzel getting to see the Floating Lights is so gratifying. Because, Rapunzel is proving Mother Gothel wrong and I just have a big "Yeah" moment here.
Now Rapunzel is also very sweet, a little unsure of herself in the beginning, she grows to be strong-minded and learn to stand up for herself throughout the film and throughout the film grows up and becomes a mature young lady. I've always felt that after Eugene cuts her hair, Rapunzel looks more like an adult whereas compared to long-haired Rapunzel, she looks like a teenager.
Now, there are two other things that we need to touch upon with Rapunzel and I didn't know where else to put them except here but Rapunzel is also the first CGI princess, which I know some people were put off by that and I've run into some trolls saying that she's not a proper Disney princess because of this.
That is one of the flimsiest reasons to hate a character. Rapunzel is a good character that continues the trend of the Disney princesses being good characters that are strong and more than people like to give them credit for. Now, there is one other thing that we need to talk about regarding Rapunzel, her power. Rapunzel was the first princess to have a magical ability being that her strand of hair that stands at 70 ft. long can heal and reverse the aging process. That's why Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel as a baby because she inherited this power from the flower.
Now we get a taste of this at the beginning with little Rapunzel and see it again later in the film with Gothel using it for her selfish reasons and later again used by Rapunzel to save Eugene. And of course, he cuts her hair at the end of the film to save her.
Man, what is it with princesses and hair being cut this week. Of course for Rapunzel to use her power, she has to sing the Healing Incantation, (which I've used in previous storyline). Man, I love this song and I don't give it the credit that it deserves.
Hmm, I don't know. I mean, I like pretty much every moment in this film and I've done maybe 40 articles about Tangled alone on this blog. Hmm, I know I'll talk about three of my favorite moments. Two, I've already covered and one that I have not. Let's start with the latter first.
And when I promise something, I never ever break that promise. EVER!
Now this is scene that I haven't touched upon too much before but I like it because this is the first time that you get the feeling that Rapunzel is meaning what she says to someone other than Gothel and I believe every word of that sentence. And y'know what, Rapunzel does keep her promise at the end of the film. Now as for my second favorite Rapunzel moment, that just happens to be my favorite song from the movie...
When Will My Life Begin?
This is my favorite song in the entire film and this is the moment where I fell in love with Rapunzel and knew that Disney had a fantastic new princess worthy of standing beside Ariel and Belle. It's just a really great song that lets you know, who Rapunzel is. Now for my last moment , I've done an entire Breaking Down The Scene on this before but it's when Rapunzel finally stands up to Mother Gothel.
I love this moment because this is where Rapunzel finally grows up and takes her first step into adulthood. This is the moment where she goes from being a teenage girl to becoming a young adult. This is her moment of her maturity, she is finally standing up to her bully.
Later Appearances
Now, we do have a few appearances to cover but not too many, let's begin. Now, about a year after, Tangled came out, audiences were treated to her and Eugene's wedding in Tangled Ever After that first debuted in front of the 3D re-release of Beauty and The Beast and while this short was more Max and Pascal based, it was still nice to see Rapunzel and Eugene's big day.
Now Rapunzel also had a quick cameo in Frozen during "For The First Time In Forever"
Rapunzel is also represented in the parks such as with The Festival of Fantasy parade and one of the weirder ones is the Tangled Toilets, a a bathroom/seating area themed to Tangled but hey it has the tower. You can read my full thoughts on that here.
I know the bathroom seems a little odd but if you look at the pictures, it's well done. Rapunzel is also seen in Mickey and The Magical Map at Disneyland and World of Color at California Adventure.
Rapunzel can also be seen in some of the Disney On Ice shows such as the one I saw, Rockin' Ever After.
I know I didn't mention this for any of the other princesses but the older princesses had so many other appearances that I thought it was okay to omit these but yes, princesses like Tiana and Mulan have appeared in Ice shows, (I really should've mentioned that with Tiana!) I thought it was okay to leave this out but that's not the case as we get to the more recent princesses. Rapunzel was also the first princess added to the Disney game, Disney Infinity. I'm not sure what the game is but apparently, you use figurines and they pop up on your screen after you place them on some sort of platform.
The figurine looks pretty good and nice to see the frying pan. Rapunzel is set to appear in a season 2 special of Sofia The First, titled The Curse of Princess Ivy. Where the main character Sofia with help from Rapunzel has to stop an evil princess from draining her kingdom of all it's color. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that but it's not airing until the fall. Now, we get to an elephant in the room for me. Once Upon A Time.
Rapunzel On Once Upon A Time
You see, there was a character named Rapunzel on Once Upon A Time in an episode from this season titled The Tower but she had really nothing to do with this version of Rapunzel or the show at all, she was just a one off character that was so boring and even though, I had read interviews saying that this Rapunzel was not going to be like the one from Tangled, I was a little confused because the Saturday before The Tower aired, the Tangled Facebook on Once Upon A Time, which led me to think that maybe this take would borrow some elements from Tangled. Now, I'll freely admit I had my hopes up for the Tangled version of Rapunzel to appear on Once, maybe in Storybrooke as a hairdresser but that never came to pass and needless to say, I was a little letdown with this episode. Because this isn't what I was expecting or hoping for. More the latter and also because this Rapunzel was quite honestly was a boring character. Even putting my Tangled bias aside, Once's Rapunzel was a one off character that was only there to move the plot along and not be an actual character herself. She had no character, and Once is guilty of doing this to a lot of their one offs.
Why Do I Like Rapunzel?
As I stated up top, I wanted to attempt to answer this question. I think in part, it comes from that this film and Rapunzel in particular reminded me that Disney could still make good movies as around the time, the film was being released in theaters, I was starting to lose hope with Disney ever releasing a new movie that was actually good but when I saw Tangled and when I heard, "When Will My Life Begin?", my faith in Disney was restored and I love Rapunzel because she is a mix of Walt's princesses and the Renaissance era princesses, while still being her own character. Rapunzel is a character that in many regards I could relate to, at the time, the film was being released because as the first song asks the question of "When Will My Life Begin?" I was asking myself a similar question because that film came out in 2010, two years after I graduated from high school and I was still in my early college years. I didn't know which direction, my life was going in and in some regard, that is still true to this day. Rapunzel is also a character that I try to be like as she tries to show kindness to everyone, has a big heart and wants to see and do good for all around her and also like Rapunzel , at the beginning of the film, I had a hard time standing up for myself. That's why this scene in particular resonated with me so much.
This article for all intents and purposes is a fan letter to Rapunzel. And I'll admit that I was a little upset, when people decided to declare Rapunzel an inferior character, when compared to Elsa and say that she's a flat and terrible character. I honestly do not believe that to be true but that is an aspect of the Disney fandom that I've noticed, they like to turn on a previous film, when a new one comes out and people think it's good. And I'm sorry but you really can't compare Elsa and Rapunzel. They are both their own characters that should be able to stand on their own. And in my opinion, Rapunzel does that in spades. She is such a great character and every time I see her, there is a big old smile on my face. That's why I love this collage so much.
I mean, it's no secret that I love Rapunzel. On most sites, I am a member of including Manic Expression, my avatar is Rapunzel. There's really not too much more I can say on this, I love Rapunzel and she will always be one of my favorite characters and one that I'll always love and admire for who she is. I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed this very personal and special entry into Power of The Princesses.
No comments:
Post a Comment