A Look at Disney Gets Tangled for Halloween: The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Earlier this year, I did one of my most emotionally draining retrospectives as I looked at the first season of Tangled: The Series.   I had originally planned to spin this off into its own blog because of that but the more I thought about this, I decided to keep A Look at Disney Gets Tangled as a segment here for A Look at Disney as this is a Disney series.   Having said that,  A Look at Disney Gets Tangled will have one rule and that'll make more sense when we get to the Halloween review I have planned for the 31st.   A Look at Disney Gets Tangled will only look at episodes and material that relates to Tangled: The Series or Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure as that show has been retitled in it's currently airing second season.   With that out of the way, we are looking at an episode from the show's first season that aired last October as we look at The Wrath of  Ruthless Ruth.  This is an episode that I did not look at, originally because during the first season retrospective, I was mainly focusing on episodes that I felt were key to the overarching story that season one was telling.  And this episode didn't tie into that story as it seemed to take place before the story really was hit into high gear.   With that outta the way, let's go ahead and look at this ghost of an episode.


The Plot





The plot is admittedly a bit simple and this episode is one of the first times that the audience really gets a sense of how Frederic (Rapunzel's father for those of you, that may not have read the original reviews)  can go a bit overboard in trying to protect his daughter.   As he orders the guards to discreetly follow his daughter after seeing all of the events that she had endured as Rapunzel had written about them in her journal. This is only the thirteenth episode of the entire series and well, Rapunzel has been put through worse than what happened in the first 12 episodes including the most horrifying episode of the entire series that was most definitely inspired by the Pleasure Island sequence from Pinnochio.  When Rapunzel and Cassandra are turned into birds and are slowly losing their humanity.

That's something I should touch upon with this episode, it's not scary, even though this show has shown that can do that as with the image I used above.   However, this episode does have quite the right atmosphere for this time of year as Corona is crowded in fog and thunder.

This is a great way to set the mood and make this episode perfect for October.  Rapunzel notices the guards, and she and Pascal decide to shake them off by heading to the Snugly Duckling and that is where the rest of the episode will take place.  Soon after, Rapunzel arrives at the pub, the Captain shows up to take Rapunzel back to the castle but no-one is going anywhere as all the roads are flooded.  So instead, Captain decides to build a fire by throwing a club on the wall of the pub into the fire or rather attempts to but the pub thugs stop him as they tell the story of the club's owner, Ruthless Ruth.  And to quote the Disney Wiki.

It once belonged to the original owner of the Snuggly Duckling, Ruthless Ruth, who was considered the meanest pub thug to have ever lived. The club she owned was called the "Listen Up" club, which she used to intimidate her customers. Legend has it that anyone who disturbs it will encore the wrath of the Ruthless Ruth's wraith

The captain doesn't believe any of this as he seems to scoff at the idea of ghosts, even with everything going on around the pub.  And this is shown when the ghost of Ruthless Ruth possesses Shorty (the most annoying character in this franchise)  and warns them that they will be trapped inside the pub unless they figure out what she wants.

The captain isn't having any of this and would rather take his chance in the storm as Rapunzel learns more about Ruth from the thugs about how she'd use her Listen Up Club to terrorize the kingdom and after each rampage would carve a marking into her club for a job well done.  Around this time, instruments in the pub start playing by themselves and other ghostly happenings start to take place.

  And we learn that the only way for our characters to be free is for everyone to Listen Up.   It is getting close to the next day as Rapunzel still hasn't figured out what Ruth but discovers that Ruth's club is held in a display by a tuning fork.  While on the stage,  Rapunzel discovers a secret music room, while Ruth keeps sending the thugs and the Captain through various portals while they attempt to escape.  Rapunzel learns the truth that Listen Up means that Ruth wants them to listen to her song and that the markings on the club are actually musical notes for Ruth's song.

But the Captain isn't having any of this and really shows himself to be an antagonistic force in the episode and breaks the club. Ruth is less than pleased by this and starts attacking the pub and takes control of the thugs to attack the Captain.  Until Rapunzel pleas with her to stop and that her song may be gone but her dream still lives on within her and that convinces Ruth to go ahead and sing and we get a rousing number but even then, it takes some nudging to get the Captain to sing along.   After going through this number, Ruth is freed as morning rises and she is able to move onto the afterlife.   And this is something interesting that I'm gonna quote from the DisneyWiki as it foreshadows something that would happen in a future episode of the series. 

Rapunzel prepares to confront her father on his actions. Before she can, however, she witnesses just how traumatized and broken her father truly is, and comes to understand that his actions are genuinely out of love. Because of this, Rapunzel makes the decision to hold off on any confrontation.

Rapunzel would finally confront her father about his actions in an episode close to the end of the season in The Alchemist Returns.  Which is important as this episode shows that while Frederic loves his daughter, he can go a bit too far in trying to protect her.  That's perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of this episode character-wise for me.   

In all, this is a decent episode that is fun for this time of year but not my favorite.

Characters

Main Characters

Rapunzel voiced by Mandy Moore 

This was a decent episode for Rapunzel as it really showed her being the helpful woman that she has always been and willing to listen.  And putting others' needs before her own to ensure that they get to live out their dreams and I appreciate how this episode ends with Ruth telling Rapunzel to take her own advice. 

Ruthless Ruth voiced by Danielle Brooks

Ruth is a likable character and sure, it's nothing new to have a ghost that isn't actually evil but the idea here is that she just wants people to listen to her as alluded to her by the name of her song.  She may not be evil but she does have a bit of a mean streak and was willing to do whatever it takes to get people to listen to her.   

Supporting Characters

Pub Thugs voiced by Jeff Ross,  Jeffery Tambor,  Steve Blum, Charles Hartford, & Paul F. Tompkins 

Admittedly, after setting up the story of Ruthless Ruth, the Pub Thugs didn't get a whole lot to do in this episode but they were still entertaining in the episode.

Captain of the Guards voiced by M.C. Gainey

Captain was the antagonistic force of this episode as he at first didn't believe that there actually was a ghost.  Which is something that you have to take a bit with a grain of salt considering the fantastical world that this show takes place in.  I'm willing to overlook that somewhat but it does get a little grating at times.  Still, it is nice to see work past that.

Music

Listen Up

A decent number that is just about having fun and a good time.  No emotional beats in this number but this episode doesn't really need that as it was going for that kind of number.  It's fun and does a decent job of explaining why Ruth stuck around for so long.  

My Final Thoughts

A fun episode all around, not my favorite episode of the series but still a good one and it shows that this series can  be fun and not just the emotiojnal roller coaster that it was throughout the first season.  And it i a god episode for this time of year.  Peace!