Extra Credit: Tangled

Movie analysis on my favorite Disney princess film: Tangled.

Tangled was released in 2010, an era where media and film started rising. This was the start of the internet era, with Netflix and Instagram invented during this time. With the popularity of film and media rising came voices of feminism, thus the screens displaying deeper female leads. The film was directed by Nathan Greno & Byron Howard and written by Dan Fogelman. The leading actors/actress were Mandy Moore, who played Rapunzel, and Zachary Levi, who played Flynn. The film was will received when it came out with it daily domestic gross of $11 million on the day it released. One review of the film, written by Helen O'Hara, titled "Tangle Review", described the film's depiction as dreamy, but the plot was still action packed. O' Hara mentions the "title change from Rapunzel to the gender-neutral Tangled indicating an impulse away from girliness and tradition" and follows this by describing Rapunzel as a "innocent but (inevitably) feisty".

Rapunzel represents a progressive women as she demonstrates her capabilities of handling herself without a man and she possess characteristics of ambition and kindness. When Flynn Rider found safety in Rapunzel's tower, she defended herself while using her hair and a frying pan as her weapons, two very nontraditional items for weapons. This demonstrates Rapunzel's courage in the face of danger and her quick thinking that allowed her to blackmail Flynn and control him. These characteristic separates from her former Disney princess counterparts as she is able to take action on her own and defend herself, instead of just laying asleep for the entire film like Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel also becomes the one in charge during the film and even when Flynn tried to scare her by taking her to the Yellow Duck, it was Rapunzel who once again took charge and saved Flynn. By preaching the group to follow their dreams as they go into song: "Find your humanity. Haven't any of you ever had a dream?"(40:52). She becomes the heroine through non-traditional ways of persuading the enemy to be empathetic. Her kindness and dreamy-eyed personality saves the day, in contrast to the masculine men that usually do. Although a lot of her power comes from her kindness and beauty, she still demonstrates strength as she fights offs her enemies using her frying pan. The gender construction in the film is similar to the Beauty and the Beast film as Belle is the heroine because she empathetic and uses this to make the people around her good people. Modern day heroines and princesses possess physical strength, but their true strength comes from their kindness and ability to spread it.