Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our look at Tangled: The Series as we look at what is easily, one of my favorite episodes from the show's first season. Now, I've made mention before that the show's first season can be divided into halves. The first half being light slice of life fare with the overarching narrative in the background and the back half bringing the narrative to the forefront and propelling the story on emotionally driven storytelling. This episode is from the first half but it falls more into the camp of emotionally driven storytelling. I consider it a morsel of what was to come with the rest of the season.
This episode also highlights something else that I greatly appreciate about Tangled: The Series. Being that, this show is willing to give the spotlight to all of it's core characters.
The Plot
We open on a flashback of a baby Pascal with his mom running from a snake that is trying to eat them. Pascal's mother makes the ultimate sacrifice by placing her son on lilypad to go down the river to give his son, the chance to survive. But she does not.
Now, this is a small hint of how dark and mature the show was willing to get. Yes, in many ways, Pascal's mother being dead is par the course for the Dead Disney Parent trope but from the short amount of time that we got to know Pascal's mother, we come to understand that she is very caring and will do whatever it takes to protect her child. Now, it's interesting, this opening sequence brought two animated movies to mind. The snake reminded me of Sabor from Tarzan in how the snake attacked the main character of the story at a young age and would return later in the character's life. The other one that comes to mind is The Prince of Egypt and by extension, the story of Moses but really, whenever I see a parent place a child on something to send them down a stream/river will always make me think of that.
Pascal makes it as far as he can and he makes it to the tower but the snake has followed him and the snake had bitten baby Pascal. A young girl saves Pascal by knocking the snake out with a frying pan and using the healing incantation to heal Pascal. And there, the friendship between Pascal and Rapunzel is formed.
After this, we get a montage of Pascal and Rapunzel growing up in the tower together and enjoying one another. There are two things that I really want to bring up here regarding this montage. The first one that I find fascinating is that throughout this entire montage, Mother Gothel does not appear at all. I tie this into the idea that show wanted the audience to be aware that Pascal and Rapunzel made a lot of happy memories in the tower. Which, if you've read my article on the moral quandary of the Tower, you'll understand that Rapunzel has a complicated relationship with the tower. The other thing that I want to bring up is the lighting. As we will have to touch on this again, later in the episode. The lighting in this montage is very bright and inviting. And once again, I take that to highlight all the good memories that Pascal and Rapunzel made growing up.
This montage does take up a good bit of time of the episode's opening but I find that to be important as the show is establishing how much Rapunzel and Pascal care for one another. Now, you could make the argument that Tangled already showed us how much the two care for one another and in that regard, it is just re-establishing this relationship. Which is true to an extent and as much I love Tangled, one could argue that the relationship between Rapunzel and Pascal was not exactly of major importance to the movie. We were made aware that it existed but the movie was more curious in exploring the relationship between Rapunzel and Eugene and more importantly to the movie, the abusive relationship between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel.
I know that I spent a lot of time on the opening montage but I felt that it was important to highlight everything that montage showed as it helps to set up what comes next. The best way to describe what we see comes next regarding how Pascal starts to feel neglected. This is not a montage but rather a series of extended sequences highlighting how Pascal has started to feel replaced in various activities that he used to do with Rapunzel from cooking as Eugene brushes him aside, playing chess and Cass takes over as she can't stand to see Raps (her nickname for Rapunzel) congratulating her opponent and tries to teach Rapunzel how to have a gameface.
This'll come back later but I really love this as Rapunzel just cannot make a gameface here. Then we also get other things that keep Pascal from enjoying Rapunzel's company. The next day, Pascal tries to plan a whole day for just the two of them but Rapunzel is swamped with princess duties. However, Rapunzel does promise that they'll spend dinner together. Just the two of them. Which, we actually see that Pascal prepared a whole meal for the two of them. So, I guess he has the same cooking abilities as Remy. Or at least, close to.
Unfortunately, Rapunzel is held up by Shorty with a really dumb request and never makes it to the dinner. And Pascal finds himself trapped by one of the new characters, Lance (we will go into more detail about him in the overview of season 1 but suffice to say, that he and Flynn used to be partners. And I purposefully used Flynn here). Pascal is starting to feel stood up, which is only reinforced by inane ramblings from Shorty. And Pascal returns to Rapunzel's room and starts to notice that the drawings in her journal feature more of her new friends. I take this as a case, where Rapunzel probably didn't mean anything by something like this but Pascal looks at these drawings as Rapunzel forgetting about him.
If I am to look at this from Rapunzel's point of view, I take it more as Rapunzel is a very loving person and wants to write down her feelings about all of her relationships. But considering, where Pascal's mind was during this episode, it is not hard to see how he could feel hurt. This coupled with Pascal seeing a button that Rapunzel gave to him as kids that was meant to symbolize their friendship makes Pascal decide to run away.
Rapunzel makes her way to find him but he is nowhere in the palace , so she wakes Eugene to help her find him. The search goes into the morning and Cassandra tries to have Rapunzel put off the search in a way that kinda reminds me of when a parent tries to comfort a child, when a pet runs away. Rapunzel does not take to this kindly and has all her events cancelled until Pascal is found. And this is where, we get to see Rapunzel's gameface.
Rapunzel's facial expression here is great as it conveys both anger and frustration at the same time. I want to return to the word, pet. I may have used that word to describe how Cassandra was talking to Rapunzel and people that have a base understanding of who Rapunzel is, may call Pascal, a pet. But that word is never used in this episode, whenever Rapunzel talks about Pascal, she refers to him as her best friend. The usage of that term is important as it shows how strong the bond, Rapunzel and Pascal have is.
We don't know exactly how old, Rapunzel was when she met Pascal but I think that she was still in single digits and that for the first few years of her life, the only love she knew was a lie. Pascal was the first person (so to speak) to show Rapunzel, true love. Now, Frozen established that true love doesn't always have to be romantic and it can be familial. And that is the case here as Rapunzel and Pascal are family. The family they made may have been born out of tragedy (Rapunzel being a captive and Pascal's mom dying) but they are family nonetheless.
Pascal makes his way to the tower and unbeknownst to him, the snake from all those years ago spotted him and decides to follow him. This is where the Sabor comparison comes in. Back at the palace, Rapunzel is having no luck finding Pascal until she sees the button and using a similar move as to the one in the movie, when Rapunzel discovered that she was the lost princess, she looks around her room and sees the tower on her mural and puts two and two together. And figures out that Pascal went to the tower.
Pascal is remembering all the good times that he and Rapunzel made growing up in the tower as kids. While, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Cassandra head to the tower. I have been bringing my article about the moral quandary of Rapunzel's Tower up quite a bit during this review as this episode is what inspired to speak about that and more importantly, this sequence.
We have three varying facial expression here. Cassandra is one that is trying to be understanding but she can't exactly show empathy whereas Rapunzel is frightened at seeing this place. And that makes sense considering that it is stated in this episode that this is the first time that she has returned to the tower. And Eugene is trying to be supportive for Rapunzel but one look at his face, you can understand that he's uneasy about being back here as well. Yes, we get a hint of this on the way to the tower and Eugene tries to mask his fear with his brand of humor. As Rapunzel is about to enter the tower, Eugene tells her that she doesn't have to go in alone. But Rapunzel feels that she does. And Eugene says that he's thinks that's fine as he has a rule against dying in the same place twice. Let's look at this, for a moment.
This moment is very understandably one of the most traumatic moments in Eugene's life and people tend to attach bad memories to places where bad things have happened to them. Eugene's reaction to returning to the place, where he died reminds me of years ago, when my seizures were very active and I had one of my worst seizures in Arlington National Cemetery. Being a drop seizure and I hit the ground hard and had to get a lot stitches as the ground didn't exactly break my fall but rather break part of me. For years, after I had that seizure, I was afraid to return there because I feared that I would have another seizure as bad as that one there. The key difference between Eugene and myself, I couldn't mask my fear behind humor. It's a small moment in the episode to be sure as this sequence is more invested in Rapunzel's reaction but I felt it was just as important to highlight Eugene's fear about returning to the tower. This is an interesting contrast as Pascal is inside the tower remembering all the good times that he Rapunzel made growing up, while Rapunzel is scared to be back here.
Rapunzel makes her way to enter the tower and she reassures herself that it's just a tower. This brings me to the lighting, which I had brought up earlier. And I once again need to bring it up as the lighting is very dark and cold. Which helps to heighten the fear that is meant to be felt during this sequence. Also, the tower is left in shambles after what had happened as you see the broken mirror and the strand of hair that Eugene cut off still lying on the floor.
Meanwhile, the snake makes his way into the tower. And Pascal makes the attempt to get to higher ground and as soon as Rapunzel sees the snake, things come full circle as she knocks the snake out the window like she did as a kid. And there she finds her friend and understands why Pascal returned to the tower as life was so much simpler, when it was just two of them but no one will replace him in heart or on her shoulder.
The episode then ends with a song with an artstyle that pays tribute to the end credits of the movie.
I adore this episode as it does a great job going into the relationship that Pascal and Rapunzel have. Pets running away is a common story for shows to do but again, I don't like using that word in regards to the relationship that these two have as it is so much more than that.
Characters
Main Characters
Pascal
This episode does a lot of good for Pascal as it takes him beyond just being a supporting character and develops him and his relationship with Rapunzel to be more than what it was in the movie. And it shows how touching, the relationship these two have truly is.
Rapunzel voiced by Mandy Moore
Rapunzel's emotion went through the wringer and then some in this episode but I think that helps to highlight the relationship she has with Pascal.
Supporting Characters
Eugene voiced by Zachary Levi
Eugene's role was substantially minor in the episode and that's fine as the episode was more invested in Rapunzel and Pascal's relationship. Even still, you did get that one small moment where he did get to see a small crack in the wall that Eugene as they return to the tower.
Cassandra voiced by Eden Espinosa
Cass had a much smaller role in the episode as she was just there for support and that's fine.
Song
Friendship Song
Now, this is just a short version of the song that aired at the end of the episode and in that regard, this song works as a good pick-me-up after everything the episode put the characters through and helps to reinforce how much these two care for one another.
Villain
Snake
In the grand scheme of things, the snake isn't that important to the story being told but he did help bring Rapunzel and Pascal back together after everything that they had gone through.
My Final Thoughts
I adore this episode as it does such a great job of showing how much Rapunzel and Pascal care for one another. As I said uptop, this episode is one that is propelled on emotionally driven storytelling and I love it for that as the episode makes sure that you feel all of the emotions that the characters are going through as you watch this show. Peace!
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