Tangled: Before Ever After

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Anyone that knows me and has followed A Look at Disney for a long enough time knows that Tangled is my favorite Disney movie of all time.  So, with the announcement of new Tangled TV show, I was plenty excited.  And last Friday, the pilot movie, Tangled: Before Ever After aired. And it was quite good.  It perfectly lived up to my expectations and gave me more of what I had hoped to see in the kingdom of Corona.   With that outta the way, let's begin.

The Plot

Our film opens six months after the events of the film and things couldn't be going better or could they? Rapunzel is about to be coronated as Corona's official princess but as we hear in the opening song, Life After Happily Ever After.  Rapunzel feels daunted by everything that she needs to do as a princess. It's just so much for her to try and accomplish and get used to with this new lifestyle.  While Eugene on the other hand is more than excited about being able to finally settle down in one place and is about to pop the big question and ask Rapunzel to be Mrs. Eugene Fitzherbert.  Well, we know the answer to that one as we've already seen the wedding.  

Rapunzel airs her grievances to her lady-in-waiting, Cassandra about feeling overwhelmed with all of the new princess responsibilities that have suddenly been thrust upon her.   Cassandra has been given the task of protecting Rapunzel and helping her fit into society.  And yeah, best princess had an easier time doing that before she knew she was princess.  That's one thing that I gotta give this film props for.  The marketing played up the return of the hair and made it seem like that was going to be the big conflict.  It is in a way and I do hope that every episode of this show isn't just focusing on ways to get rid of the hair and thankfully that seems to be the case as previews aired all night including one that showed Eugene training to be a royal guard and that possibly spoiled the return of Mother Gothel.

What do I mean by this? Well, the hair and this might be a stretch seems to represent the conflict of Rapunzel having a hard time adapting to her new life. She wants too but for 18 years, she was locked up in that tower and the hair was a part of her old life.  And perhaps, her getting rid of the hair will signify her finally being able to accept her new life.  It's not for a lack of trying on Rapunzel's part as she really is but so much is being thrown at her at once.  As stated, we know that she's been at the castle for at least 6 months but that 6 months compared to the 18 years, that she was locked up in the tower.  In many respects, Rapunzel will probably never get over what Gothel did to her and while six months may seem like plenty of time, that may still not be enough time to adjust.  And this also brings us to the other big conflict, Rapunzel wants to explore the outside world but her father in fear of losing he denies her this opportunity and when we get to the end, it gets a bit worse.   

While watching this, I kept thinking of Ariel and Triton with the relationship that was presented between Rapunzel and her father especially in regards to this. Though, there are a couple key differences here.  First, Rapunzel's mother is still alive and also unlike in the original Little Mermaid movie, you really didn't get much of a reason as to why Triton didn't want Ariel to go to the human world. You got some of it but just only a small taste whereas with King Frederic, Rapunzel's father, you can completely understand why he would do this, even if it is a bit unhealthy.  

I say that it's unhealthy and it is, Rapunzel doesn't just want the world outside the kingdom walls.   She needs this, she needs to be able to explore and go on her own.  Telling someone that just recently been rescued from a captor that had been holding and lying to them for 18 years and then putting this kind of a boundary on them isn't the best way to handle this situation.  

That night, at the coronation dinner, Eugene proposes to Rapunzel and she doesn't exactly say yes because Eugene keeps emphasizing that he wants to spend of the rest his life here in the castle.  Which again, for Eugene makes sense as before now, he was always going from place to place as Flynn Rider and as Flynn Rider and he never actually had a place where he could settle down and be happy. But once he accepted that he was actually Eugene Fitzherbert, he found a home that he loved and a family that was happy to welcome him.  Man, I know that I've made comparisons with  Aladdin in the past in regards to Eugene but thief that falls in love with princess and moves into castle is perhaps one of the more on the nose comparisons between the two.  With the only difference being that the princess in the main character in this series.   

The proposal is just another in a long line of things that overwhelm Rapunzel and she runs off in panic and goes to her room.  There, Cassandra feels that Reps as she calls Rapunzel (and I hate that nickname just as much as the fan given nickname of Punzie and if that is said on the show, I'm gonna scream)  could use some downtime and agrees to take her outside the palace walls.  Meanwhile, Eugene goes to apologize and pour his heart out and explain that he only wanted to keep their love alive.  Though, it turned out that he been pouring his heart to Pascal pretending to be Rapunzel.  Probably, one of my favorite moments of the show.  Eugene warns that they need to find Rapunzel and quick.  Especially since they see King Frederic come by and he wishes to talk to his daughter but Eugene quickly makes up an excuse that Rapunzel doesn't want to talk to anyone.  

Meanwhile,  Rapunzel and Cassandra ride out beyond the kingdom and go past an old rickety bridge with the aid of Maximus and a new lady horse named Fidello that Max has a crush on.  Cassandra has taken Rapunzel to the spot of the healing flower that saved her and her mother's life, when her mother was pregnant with her. There are these mysterious thorn shaped rocks there that are unbreakable and as Rapunzel goes to touch one, magic bursts out and they start to spread out all over and it also causes Rapunzel's hair to grow back.  And as we will find out later, this has now made Rapunzel's 70 ft strand of hair unbreakable.   The ladies have no time to process what happened as they need to escape but Rapunzel's hair gets stuck but it's Max to save the day.  And they make it in time but the bridge has collapsed.

That's not to mention, while all of this is going on, there is a new and not particularly all that interesting villain named Lady Caine is planning to exact her revenge of the king because the day that Rapunzel went missing, the king had every criminal of Corona locked up including her father.  Well, that seems to be some misplaced daddy issues.  

Morning rises on the day of Rapunzel's coronation and as stated, there is no way to get rid of the hair. So, they just have to hide it for now. But yeah, trying to hide 70 ft of hair. That's not gonna be easy.  So, they stuff it all in an old timey oversized powered wig.   Rapunzel goes to have breakfast with her parents and we learn that her mother, Arianna talked to Frederic and got him to be a bit more lax on his decisions in regards to Rapunzel's freedom but as he puts it, he is having a hard time separating the father from the king. While this is going on, many other criminals including one that I swear was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson commit crimes throughout the kingdom in order to get locked up, so they can have an easier time taking out their revenge on the king.  Again, this is my least favorite part.  This story really didn't need a villain as the conflict was interesting enough on it's own and the villains add nothing to the overall story.  

A Little while later,  Rapunzel's coronation is about to begin and everything seems to being going smoothly until the criminals attack as they broke out of the dungeon and disguised themselves as guards and go to attack and the king orders his daughter to stand down, even as he and her mother are taken. But Rapunzel will not stand for this and takes off the wig and reveals her hair and uses it to fight alongside Cassandra and Eugene, who I might add uses a frying pan to take out one of the bad guys.   

That night, after proving herself and saving the day, Rapunzel's father feels more insecure about her safety and now tells her that she isn't to leave the kingdom of Corona without her consent.  This drives Rapunzel to tears.  Okay, I gotta take umbrage with something that the Disney Wiki says about this.  They say that King Frederic is acting like Mother Gothel and this is the same as before.  Well, I can see that but....

  

Mother Gothel kept Rapunzel in the tower for selfish reasons and while Rapunzel may have thought that Gothel loved her, that was a lie.  This goes back to my Triton comparison, what both of these fathers did for or rather to their daughters comes from a place of love and protection. Albeit, misguided love and protection.  The king in this even says that if the fates were so kind as to return her to him and her mother, he would do anything to protect her.  

This sends Rapunzel crying to her room but she sees a quote from her mother that inspires to live her life to the fullest despite the obstacles that she'll face.  

All in all, this was sooo good.  You might say that I'm biased because of how much I love Tangled and yeah, that's true but at the same time, it did a good job of fleshing out the characters and making you feel for them and want to see them succeed. 

Characters

Main Characters

Rapunzel voiced by Mandy Moore 

This was definitely Rapunzel.  I know that probably sounds dumb to say but nothing of her character felt lost and rather it felt like they expanded upon her character and you could feel for her with everything that she was going through.  And that made it all the more reason, you wanted to root for her.

Eugene Fitzherbert voiced by Zachary Levi 

I gotta say that I really like how they showed that while Eugene has matured, he still has his dufus moments that come with who he is but it's clear that he loves Rapunzel and will do anything for her.  Oh, and one small thing that I loved about this, they never called him Flynn Rider in this. They only ever referred to him as Eugene. Even Eugene called himself that in a song.  Granted, my hopes of him just being referred to as Eugene were dashed with a promo where as kid voiced by Jeremy Jordan says that Flynn Rider was his hero.  

Supporting Characters

Cassandra voiced by Eden Espinosa 

Cassandra is alright, though she doesn't like Eugene that much.  She is a tough as nails cookie, which makes sense considering that her dad is the captain of the guard and you do get to see her be a close friend to Rapunzel but I hope that the show gives her more to do because say that I was all that impressed with her.

Pascal/Maximus both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker

I just putting these two together because they're voiced by the same person and sadly, they don't get a lot to do.  Now, Pascal does get to do more than Max as he's always there with Rapunzel and Max is there to help save the day and we even see the guards are fearful of Max a bit and treat him like the second-in-command of the guards.  

Queen Arianna voiced by Julie Bowen 

Alas, Rapunzel's mom didn't get as much to do as her dad but from what I saw, I liked Rapunzel's mom.  She is very supportive of her daughter and wants to see the best for her daughter in any way and even she can see when her husband is acting a bit absurd.  

King Frederic voiced by Clancy Brown 

  

While it may appear as though that I've come across a bit hard on this character, I want to stress that I do like him and that comes from Clancy Brown's excellent portrayal of the character as he gives the king so much gravitas and respect that you buy him as a king.  While I don't agree with his decisions and think that they are poorly thought out, I do understand where he is coming from.  

Music

Life After Happily Ever After 

Thankfully, this show got Alan Menken and Glenn Slater back to write new songs and they line up perfectly with the songs from the movie.  I've already listened to the two songs (I was a bit disappointed that there was only 2 songs) multiple times each day since I've watched this and this one does an excellent job of setting up the characters and what to expect from each of them as the story goes on.  Eugene probably has my favorite part of this number as it's just so fun.  Yeah, Rapunzel's portion is more emotional and has more weight to it but Eugene's part just puts a big old smile on my face.

Wind In My Hair 

While Life After Happily Ever After is good, I actually like this song a bit more. Granted, it was previewed a month before this aired, so I had a lot of time to listen to it.  I'll admit that first, I was turned off by the name of the song but I got over that real fast. This song reminds me a lot of When Will My Life Begin and that's a good thing.  I say in the sense that you hear that yearning for adventure in Rapunzel's voice as she goes on this brand new adventure.

Villains

Pocket voiced by Jess Harnell 

I cannot find any pictures of his guy online and that's a bit of a bummer as I liked his design as he was really creepy looking. He mostly served as the henchmen to our main villain and Jess Harnell did a good job with the creep factor with him.  I liked him more than the main villain of this piece for sure but I still think that this didn't need a villain.

Lady Caine voiced by  Laura Benanti 

I'll say this much for Lady Caine, she has a cool design and her personality is fun. She's snarky and takes no crap from anyone and you can understand her anger about her dad being locked up but she feels pointless in this story. There was enough of an interesting conflict going on with the return of the hair, that she just felt outta place in the story.

My Final Thoughts

Other than my one small complaint about the villains, I really liked this and look forward to seeing what lies ahead with Tangled: The Series. This was a great way to kick it off and I was just so happy to see these characters return once again as I was grinning from ear to ear, while I watching this.  Definitely, check this out. Peace!