A Look at Disney Gets Tangled: Guarding Against Adventure (Tangled: The Series Issue # 1)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our look at Tangled: The Series. However, before we get to the review, I do have a couple of announcements to make.  First off,  I will continue on with my look at this show's second season but except for the season premiere, those reviews will not come out until after the second season.  That is the minor announcement regarding my plans for Tangled but I do have a bigger plan in mind.  If you've noticed, most of my reviews for A Look at Disney have been Tangled related and I have been neglecting a lot of other things that I've wanted to do for this blog and that why I've decided after my review of the season finale, that I will be moving the Tangled reviews to a new blog.  So, when season two comes along, Iyou will be introduced to my new Tangled blog, Tower of Corona.   Depending on when season 2 starts,  you might see the first Tower of Corona post around Halloween.  With that outta the way, let's begin. 

Cover

I really like this cover as highlights two things that are important to Rapunzel, her loved ones and her love of art.   Granted, it doesn't tie much into the story that we are looking at but it is such a fun cover that really grabs the reader's attention to let one know what Rapunzel is all about.




The Plot


The plot is a fairly simple plot about Rapunzel wanting to prove herself after she finds out that there are thieves running about in Corona and one of the things that this comic gets right about the characters is the tense relationship between Rapunzel and her father as he orders all of Corona to not leave the kingdom after sunset and needless,  to say his daughter doesn't take well to this.  to stay in Frederic, Frederic, Frederic.  This is your answer to so many things involving danger and your daughter is right that you are punishing the kingdom and not the thieves.  Granted, you also did this to your daughter in the show.  As annoying as that is, at least that trait is consistent with your characterization in the show.

This is something that I'll just upon a bit more as I go throughout this review but man, the panels in this comic are really creative.  They aren't just flat pictures such as how this one here are diamonds that appear to be on a drapery that you would see in the palace of Corona.  That is such a neat idea as it allows the artists working on this comic to show their creativity and artistry, instead of just having a stagnant page. If we also take this a step further, like the comic's cover,  doing the panels in this style is a great idea as while this may not be intentional,  it reflects upon Rapunzel's love of art.




Rapunzel being who she decides to disobey her father's wishes and sneaks out the castle to find the thieves and go after them herself.    While that's going on, Eugene is out with Stan  (one of the guards)  on patrol and he spots,  Rapunzel and Cass out in the open and attempts to hide them.  And once again, the panels are gorgeous as they tie into the setting.

The panels are tree branches on this page.  That is such a clever way to make use of the surroundings of the characters and make the setting feel lived in.  The tree branch panels continue on to the next page as Eugene continually knocks the guard out until he meets up with blondie and they have a discussion about why she shouldn't be out here.  This is when we get the coolest panels in this comic.   

All of the panels on this page are silhouettes are Rapunzel and Eugene and just as the characters on the page are talking about what is best for the kingdom and Rapunzel and just as they are arguing and showing how headstrong, Rapunzel is,   the silhouettes are also  having a conservation reflecting the way the characters are represented on the page.  The silhouettes did a great job of capturing the body language of Eugene and Rapunzel.   Eugene's silhouette has his hand out showing concern for the most important person in her life and doesn't want to get hurt and is trying to explain that to her.   Whereas Rapunzel's silhouette has her arms crossed,  showing that she has already made up her mind and will not budge from her stance.  Not only does this do a great job of capturing the moment on the page but it also captures who Rapunzel is in the show as time and again, Rapunzel has shown to be a headstrong princess that tends to think on emotions.  And that what this story seems to be highlighting, this is perhaps both Rapunzel's great attribute and perhaps her biggest flaw.  It's noble to do want to the right thing and put your heart into all protecting your people and that is what we are seeing with Rapunzel  here but at the same time, with Rapunzel thinking on emotion,  she is putting herself in harm's way and that is what the others around her want to understand.   But I would probably side with Rapunzel more on this one well, she is Best Princess but really,  she is showing how brave and caring she is by disobeying the orders of her father and going out to stop these thieves and nothing or no-one will get in her way.  (Ooh awkward Varian reference) 





Afer the talk between Eugene and Rapunzel,  Rapunzel catches up with Cass and had overheard the conversation and we see our two groups go their separate ways with Stan, none the wiser that Rapunzel had snuck out.  Soon, however, Stan and Eugene come across a young girl that seems to be looking for help but it turns out that she was tricking them as she works with thieves that had been stealing from the citizens of Corona and takes Stan and Eugene hostage. 

Okay,  this is perhaps something that bugged me as I think that I may have been overthinking it here but if I am misremembering things, I thought that it had been shown that Flynn Rider was a well-known figure amongst thieves.  So,  I was expecting the characters here to maybe know who Flynn was.  Obviously,   Corona doesn't have things such as Twitter or Facebook.  So, there's not a way to track the popularity of people like that and he may have reformed before these thieves knew who he was.  Again, I am willing to give the comic the benefit of the doubt and assume that is more the fault of the reader than the creator. 


Through the shadow of the moon,  Rapunzel comes and saves the day and rescues Eugene and while Eugene is appreciative of the rescue, he warns her that she may not have much freedom left if her father catches outside the palace walls. 

This comic does a great job of telling a story that feels like an episode of the show with a lot of great action.  The only thing missing is Pascal but other than that,  I really liked this comic. 



Characters



There isn't too much to say about the characters here as the comic is more or less meant as a way to welcome fans of the show into the comic and the comic does a great job of capturing who they are represented on the show.  I'd be curious to know if anyone that only saw Tangled or Tangled: Before Ever After would be able to follow the story with the characters here.  Granted,  it's not hard to follow but I'd be curious to see if they'd be thrown by any of the new characters such as Cass or Stan.  I doubt it but I have to imagine that there might be some readers that picked up this comic that have not see an episode of the show.   Perhaps, I'm the wrong person to speculate on this being a superfan of the show. 


My Final Thoughts



This comic highlights why I love IDW so much, the comics that they put out based on licensed properties as they take such great care to make sure that these comics evoke the spirit and feeling of the characters that they are adapting for their comics.   This has been very evident with their MLP comics and they further prove that they have a great understanding of how to transfer from characters from a medium such as a TV show or movie and make them work in a comic book.   Peace! 

A Look at Disney Gets Tangled: Rapunzel and The Lost Lagoon

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney as we continue our look at Tangled: The Series.   The next review proper of the show was supposed to be Secret of the Sundrop but that episode is very taxing and emotionally draining but I didn't want to leave this retrospective hanging, so I've decided to look at the tie-in novel, Rapunzel And The Lost Lagoon.  

Author

Leila Howland 

Image found on Howland's About Page. 

I will admit that I am not overly familiar with Howland's work as I am not the target demographic that her books are meant for but while reading this book,   I have to say that Howland did a fantastic job of capturing the characters of Rapunzel and Cassandra as this book focuses on them and also doing great worldbuilding for the seven kingdoms that are mentioned throughout Tangled: The Series.  (I may go into more detail regarding that in the future).    As I was reading this I felt as though Howland had a great understanding of who the characters were and that made this feel like an extra one-hour special that was part of the series.  Granted because of things popping up in my life, it took me a month to finish what should have been a relatively easy read.  

Cover

Image found on the DisneyWiki 

I love this cover,   this cover perfectly invokes Rapunzel's love of art as it looks like one of her paintings and considering a big plot in the book is Rapunzel wanting to make a painting for Cass, it makes perfect sense that the cover should reflect that.   

Narration

One of the biggest things that makes this book work is its use of first-person narration as that puts the reader more in the mindset of our two main characters.   That is the one area, where the title is perhaps a bit misleading as the book is about both Rapunzel and Cassandra and we get both of their perspectives as the chapter alternates between Rapunzel and Cassandra.   Where a Rapunzel chapter would end, a Cass chapter would start.   That really helped to build the relationship and hardships that these two went through in the book.   

The Plot

You can click this link here from Disney Books and that'll give you the standard press release synopsis 

Now, my book reviews work differently than that of my episode reviews as I don't want to give away everything in the book as reading is a more intimate experience but I will say that while The Lost Lagoon is a huge driving factor in bringing in elements from the show such as characters namely Xavier and that is important as this book uses Corona's history and that is also where the villain of the book is found (though that was rather underwhelming).   The book starts simply enough before the events of Tangled: Before Ever After and then takes place during it and that is how we find out how Cass became Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting as she was handpicked by Raps.   And the girls start to hang out and get to know each other and warm up to one another and they discover an old Saporian (this kingdom is very important to Corona's history) book  in the library with a love poem written in it that references the titular Lost Lagoon and the girls find it and it becomes their secret.  

Which, this is important as the book highlights that Rapunzel told Eugene about sneaking off with Cassandra during What The Hair and that one small moment from the first episode is important because when Cass learns this truth, it breaks her because she trusted Rapunzel and felt as though Rapunzel broke that trust.   I'll most likely discuss this more in the character section but one of the most important themes of this book is friendship and trust.   

Characters

I need to do a preface here.  Normally, I would look at the villain in a review like this but considering that the villain of the piece is a twist reveal, I don't want to spoil that and more importantly, the villain doesn't really matter in this book.  And that is perhaps my one complaint with this book.  It didn't need a bad guy as the friendship between Rapunzel and Cassandra and their journey to discover the Lost Lagoon was interesting enough without a bad guy.

Rapunzel and Cassandra

I am looking at both characters together as they are both equally important to the story as the driving force of the book is their friendship.   While reading this book, I was able to see how Rapunzel and Cassandra helped each other to grow as Rapunzel made herself more aware of her surroundings and Rapunzel helped Cass to break out of her shell.   And towards the latter part of the book,  Cass makes a rash decision because of the feeling that her trust had been betrayed and that makes her feel that she doesn't belong in Corona and that she doesn't have any friends. I will give a slight spoiler here as there is a running element in the book, where Rapunzel is attempting to have the painting made by a young lady named Dhalia but Cass doesn't trust her and thinks that she is trying to steal something from the princess and gets annoyed, whenever she is seen with Rapunzel.  Which happens multiple times throughout the book.   And yes,  this can be chalked up to being a misunderstanding and while that is a common trope, it actually works and makes sense considering how Cass felt ever finding out that Rapunzel told Eugene about them sneaking out together.   

My Final Thoughts

I do apologize for how short this review was but again, do keep in mind that I will go more in-depth with my review of the season one finale.  This is just meant more as something to keep the retrospective going.   If you are a fan of Tangled: The Series,  you will love this book as it perfectly captures what is so great about these characters and it provides a really great look into the friendship between Rapunzel and Cassandra.   I cannot suggest this book enough. Peace!