Influenced by the Brothers Grimm’s German fairy tale ‘Rapunzel’, Tangled is an amazing animation movie. Dan Fogelman turned the story into a screenplay for Walt Disney. Walt Disney Animation Studios produced the animation movie as the fiftieth piece in the Walt Disney Animated Classics Series. The shooting production of the movie began in 2007. The film was released on 24 November 2010 at the El Captain Theatre. The initial directors of the movie were Dean Wellins and Dean Keane. However, they stepped down as the directors in 2008. Nathan Greno and Bryon Howard took over the directing role since then. Keane changed his role in the production of the film to become an executive producer. Roy Conli, John Lassester and Glen Keane produced the movie. The main characters in the movie were Mandy Moore, Zachery Levi and Donna Murphy (Nusair, D.2013). The story runs for approximately a hundred minutes. The cost of producing the movie was approximately 260 million dollars.
The main genre of the movie is animation. The fact that the movie has cartoon characters makes it an animation movie. The movie also contains aspect that make it fit into other genres. The movie can be a comedy movie. The movie has scenes full of jokes within it. Comedy lovers find many incidents of humor in the animated film. The story contains scenes and conversations full of humor that any comedy lover would not resist laughing. The movie also contains incidents of romance. The development of the relationship between the two main characters Rapunzel and the Flying Rider exhibits aspects of romance in the movie. The movie also contains scenes of action. The flying rider fights many people in the movie. Action lovers would be compelled to enjoy his fights with various people in the movie. He chooses the frying pan as his preferred weapon to fight his enemies. This animation film combines many genres and captures the attention of movie lovers from all disciplines. (Beiman, Nancy 2010)
The choice of using animation to tell the story of Rapunzel was great. Animations allow producers to create the characters the way they wanted them to be. The choice of using animation as the preferred medium of passing the Rapunzel tale allows it to attract viewers from various age brackets. The producers of the movie had a hard time since they had to ensure that the movie was in 3D (Bendix 2012). Animating the movie was a challenging task for the producers. However, the decision to animate the story paid off with the enormous reception the movie received.
The movie tangled derives its story line from the fairy tale Rapunzel. The movie is a classic and gives the story of the healing stream. Just like in the fairy tale, the story begins with the magic flower. After Gothel discovers the power of the magic flower, she hides it from the people to have immortality. At that time, the queen fall sick, and they get the flower to make a concoction for her. The concoction not only heals her but also gives her child magic powers. Gothel discovers the powers of the magic flower and decides to kidnap the young child to ensure he has all powers to herself. She keeps her in a forsaken tower and forbids her from moving out. She restrains her from leaving in fear that people might recognize her. Flynn Rider steals the princess’ tiara with the help of the Stabington brothers. As he escapes, he stumbles into Rapunzel’s tower, and they meet. He helps her escape the tower to days full of adventure and fun. Their adventure is short when Gothel and Flynn capture Rapunzel by the king. Flynn is to die, and Rapunzel held hostage again by Gothel. Flynn escapes prison to go rescue Rapunzel. Gothel stabs Rapunzel. In his dying breath, he manages to cut all of Rapunzel’s hair. The magic spell is, and Gothel vanishes. Rapunzel’s tear revives dying Flynn and they live happily ever after. (Greno (Director) 2011)
The main characters in the movie tangled main characters include, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and Mother Gothel. Rapunzel is a kindhearted girl. She is primitive and knows very little of the world outside the tower. She believes that her mother Gothel tells her. She is kind in nature and easily believes Flynn was sent to him by fate to help her escape. Flynn Rider is an adventurous young man. He steals the princess’ tiara and escapes with it. He is mischievous and funny he evokes laughter in many of his interactions other characters. He is also strong and energetic. He fights many people in the movie and succeeds in beating them. After his adventure with Rapunzel, he discovers his affection and love for Rapunzel and tries all he can to save her. Mother Gothel is a manipulative, selfish, and evil woman. She successfully manages to make Rapunzel believe her love for her. (Greno (Director) 2011). She keeps her for her own gain and does not care for her good and happiness.
The movie tangled breaks the normal stereotypes of most animated movies. Like in other movies, the princess begins as a timid and naïve woman. She is weak and obeys every word her ‘mother’ says. However, she breaks this stereotype and becomes independent in search of adventures. She disobeys her mother by leaving the tower in search of an adventure. The woman character as displayed in the animation movie is independent and adventurous. She is courageous and strong. She successfully captures Flynn Rider in her house. Women can also be evil and wicked. This stereotype is through mother Gothel. Her greed and need for superiority leads her to enslaving little Rapunzel. The male stereotype in the movie is through Flynn Rider as a strong character. Despite his strong character, Flynn is easily beaten by Rapunzel when he breaks into a house. She successfully beats him and ties him with her hair. (Sito, Tom 2011). She later brings him from the dead with her tear. This movie breaks the normal stereotypes of fairy tales where the men are powerful and save the world.
The movie tangled uses various rhetoric devices to capture the meaning of the story. The story begins funny foreshadow of what happens in the movie. It begins with Flynn’s voice saying, “This is the story of how I died. But do not worry, this is actually a fun story and the truth is it is not even mine.” The movie has several other incidents of rhetoric devices used to create humor in the movie. In another incident, Flynn finds a poster of himself where he is wanted by the then government. He is that they drew his nose inappropriately; “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. This is bad. This is very, very bad. This is bad. [Pause] They just cannot get my nose right!” Rapunzel also exhibits some rhetoric aspects. When she escapes the tower, she makes contradicting statements worried of her mother’s reaction. For example, “what she does not know won’t kill her” [later] “this will definitely kill her!” Mother Gothel also makes some rhetoric remarks in the movie. For example, “ Rapunzel, look in that mirror. You know what I see? I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady. Oh look, you're there too!” (Sito, Tom 2011).
The perspective of the story depends on whose perspective you are viewing the story (Michael Mateas, 2005). If you viewed the story in the perspective of another character other than Flynn, the story would change its meaning. For example, if one viewed the story in the perspective of Rapunzel, the story would be about her over protective mother who did not allow her out of her house to protect her from the dangers outside. However, one day when a stranger breaks into their house and helps her escape, she realizes she was a prince enslaved by the woman pretending to be her mother. The stranger, Rapunzel helps her regain her freedom even if it costs him his life. Her tear brings him back from the dead, and they live happily ever after.
The animation movie tangled was produced in United States of America by Walt Disney animation studios in North America. Initially the producers of the movie were Glen Keane and Dean Wellings. They movie was initially Rapunzel, but they decided to chance the title to encourage young male viewers to watch the movie. The production of the movie cost over 260 million dollars. Walt Disney paid for the production cost. The movie is the second most expensive in terms of the cost of production. Unlike many other fairy tales, which target young girls as the main audience, Tangled targets a wide range of viewers. The movie has aspects that attract a wide range of viewers. The producers change the title to accommodate a wider range of viewers. The movie draws its viewers from all ages and genders. The movie includes features of all genres that help in making the movie attract a wide range of viewers.
Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures distributed the movie. Walt Disney has been producing animation movies for a long time. They have successfully marketed their products to various places worldwide. The fact that Tangled had incorporated many genres and attracted viewers from both genders made it easier in marketing the product. The reception of the movie was great. The movie’s ratings were an average of ninety percent on 183 reviews. It is arguably the greatest production by Disney. A year after its release the movie had made millions in both America and other countries (Wells et al. 2012).
The movie tangled is a safe movie. The movie’s ideas are from the fairy tale Rapunzel (Rogasky, et al. 1982). However, the movie is safe from unauthorized copywriting and viewing. Another person may reproduce another movie based on the ideas of the fairy tale. The movie producers enjoy copyright advantages on the mode of presentation. If someone else has to produce the story, he has to ensure he does it in a different way. If the producers of tangled can prove that he tried to imitate the movie then the production could be canceled.
References
Beiman, Nancy. (2010) Animated Performance: Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life. AVA Publishing. 36
Bendix, R. (2012). The Sound Of Music Zwischen Mythos Und Marketing, And: Walt Disney And Europe: European Influences On The Animated Feature Films Of Walt Disney (review). Journal of American Folklore, 116(459), 123-124.
Nusair, D. (n.d.). Behind the Scenes of 'Tangled'. About.com Hollywood Movies. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://movies.about.com/od/rapunzel/a/making-of-tangled.htm
Rogasky, B., Grimm, J., Grimm, W., & Hyman, T. S. (1982). Rapunzel. New York: Holiday House
Greno, N. (Director). (2011). Tangled[Motion picture]. America: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Jarosz, W., Nowrouzezahrai, D., Sadeghi, I., And Jensen, H. W. (2011) A comprehensive theory of volumetric radiance estimation using photon points and beams. ACM Trans. Graph. 30 (January), 5:1–5:19
Michael Mateas, (2005) "Procedural literacy: educating the new media practitioner", On the Horizon, Vol. 13 Iss: 2, pp.101 – 111
Sito, Tom. (2011) Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. University Press of Kentucky. 332
Stephen Hardy, Brian Norman, Sarah Sceery, (2012) "Toward a history of sport branding", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 4 Iss: 4, pp.482 – 509
Wells, Paul, Hardstaff, Johnny and Clifton, Darryl. (2010) Re-imagining Animation: The Changing Face of the Moving Image. AVA Pub. 30
Wikia. (n.d.). Disney Wiki. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Tangled
