Take A Look at Disney

7/15/14

Power of The Princesses : Rapunzel





Hello  &  welcome back to A Look at Disney and back  to Power  of The  Princesses  and this  is  the one  that  I've been  looking forward to the most. If  that  picture wasn't  any indication  but if  you've visited my  Facebook  page,  you've seen  it before.  That was made  me for  me by the Fans of  Disney  Facebook page and that  is just one of  two Rapunzel  pics that I've  had done for me. Alas,  I couldn't  find the other one  but  Tangled  does  have quite the presence around  me as  both  my  laptop  and  Ipad  wallpapers  are Tangled  related.  Here's  my  laptop  background.












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.  






Favorite  Moment

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. 

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