Tangled
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The film was originally titled and marketed as
Rapunzel until it was changed to
Tangled shortly before its release.
Tangled spent six years in production at a cost that has been estimated at $260 million
[2] which, if accurate (and adjusted for inflation), would make it the most expensive animated film ever made and the second most expensive movie of all time. The film employed a unique artistic style by blending features of both
computer-generated imagery(CGI) and
traditional animation together, while utilizing
non-photorealistic rendering to create the impression of a painting. Composer
Alan Menken, who had worked on prior Disney animated features, returned to score
Tangled.
Tangled premiered at the
El Capitan Theatre on November 14, 2010, and went into general release on November 24. Distributed by
Walt Disney Pictures,
Tangled earned
$590 million in worldwide box-office revenue,
$200 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada. The film was well received by critics and audiences alike.
Tangled was nominated for a number of awards, including
Best Original Song at the
83rd Academy Awards. The film was released on
Blu-ray and
DVD on March 29, 2011; an animated short sequel,
Tangled Ever After, was released in 2012
Plot
A drop of sunlight falls to the ground and grows into a flower. An old woman named Gothel finds it and uses it to keep herself young by singing to it. Centuries later, a kingdom has developed, ruled by a king and queen. The Queen becomes ill during pregnancy, and the couple's loving subjects search for the legendary flower. The queen is eventually fed the flower, is healed, and gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Rapunzel. Rapunzel's golden hair, it is found, has absorbed the abilities of the flower. Gothel discovers this and tries to steal a lock of Rapunzel's hair. However, she finds that, once cut, the hair turns its normal brown and loses its power. So she kidnaps Rapunzel and hides her in a tower, saving the powers of the flower for herself, and raising her as her own child. Every year, on Rapunzel's birthday, her parents and their subjects release thousands of
sky lanterns, in the hope that the lost princess will return. Rapunzel has seen these over the years from her high tower. Nearing her 18th birthday, she asks Gothel to take her outside to see the source of the annual floating lights as her present, but Gothel refuses.
Meanwhile, the charismatic Flynn Rider and accomplices steal the tiara of the lost princess. During the ensuing chase, Maximus, horse of the Captain of the Guards, is separated from his rider and continues the search for Flynn alone. Flynn outwits his accomplices, takes the tiara, and stumbles upon Rapunzel's tower. He climbs up it and in but is knocked unconscious by a frightened Rapunzel, who hides him in a wardrobe. When Gothel returns, Rapunzel tries to show her the captive but is fiercely barked down by Gothel. Gothel tells her she is never leaving the tower. But the forlorn but sharp Rapunzel instead asks for Gothel a special paint for her birthday found three days journey away. Gothel leaves and Rapunzel takes Flynn out of her closet and ties him to a chair. When revived, she tells him that she will give him the tiara if he takes her to see the lights. Flynn takes her to the Snuggly Duckling Inn, which is full of Gaul thugs, in hopes of scaring her into giving up her quest, but the thugs are charmed by Rapunzel, who encourages them to follow their dreams.
Mother Gothel sees Maximus riderless and worries someone will find Rapunzel. She returns to the tower to find Rapunzel gone. Meanwhile, the guards invade the tavern, but Rapunzel and Flynn Rider have escaped. The pursuit ends at a dam, which Maximus causes to collapse; Flynn and Rapunzel are trapped in a flooding cave. Believing he's about to die, Flynn admits his true name: Eugene Fitzherbert. Rapunzel admits she has hair that glows when she sings. Using her hairlight, they find a way out. Later, when Flynn goes to gather firewood, Gothel meets Rapunzel insisting that Flynn does not care for her and merely wants the tiara. Gothel gives Rapunzel the tiara, suggesting that she test Flynn by giving it to him.
The next morning, Maximus confronts Flynn but Rapunzel befriends the horse and convinces him to help them instead. They arrive at the kingdom and Flynn takes Rapunzel to see the lanterns. There, Rapunzel gives Flynn back the tiara. Flynn spies his old accomplices and leaves Rapunzel waiting as he gives them the tiara back, realizing that he no longer cares about its monetary value. However, the brothers tie him up on a boat and sail him across the lake. They reveal Flynn's betrayal to Rapunzel as they attempt to kidnap her for her hair's power, but Gothel rescues her and they return to the tower. Later, Flynn is arrested and sentenced to death. Maximus brings the inn thugs to rescue Flynn, and Maximus and Flynn race back to the tower. From various clues she found during her adventure, Rapunzel realizes she is the lost princess and attempts to flee the tower. Flynn escapes and returns to the tower, climbing up Rapunzel's hair only to find her chained to the wall and gagged. Gothel stabs him from behind and prepares to take a struggling Rapunzel to a new hiding place. Rapunzel tells Gothel that she will not stop resisting unless she can heal Flynn. Knowing that Rapunzel keeps her word, Gothel agrees, but before Rapunzel heals him, Flynn uses a shard of broken mirror to cut her hair which subsequently turns brown and loses its power. Because of this, Gothel rapidly begins to age. Rapunzel's pet chameleon Pascal, uses the hair to make Gothel fall off the tower and she turns into dust before landing on the ground.
Rapunzel tries to heal the dying Flynn, who with his last breath declares his love for her. Rapunzel cries. One teardrop, filled with her power lands on his cheek and revives him. Back at the kingdom, the royal family has a tearful reunion and the King and Queen welcome Flynn into the family. The Gaul thugs each fulfill their individual dreams, and Maximus becomes a respected official on the Royal Guard. Flynn then closes the film, telling the audience that he and Rapunzel eventually get engaged and married.
[edit]Cast and characters
Non-speaking animal characters include Pascal, Rapunzel's pet chameleon, and Maximus, the horse of the head of the palace guard who are voiced by Frank Welker. Also featured in non-speaking roles are Rapunzel's parents, the King and Queen, and Ulf, the Mime Thug.
[edit]Production
Tangled was in development for six years and cost more than $260 million to produce.
[2] It had originally been announced in April 2007 that
Annie-nominated animator and story artist Dean Wellins would be co-directing the film alongside Glen Keane.
[5] On October 9, 2008, it was reported that Keane and Wellins had stepped down as directors, and were replaced by the team of
Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, director and storyboard director, respectively, of Disney's 2008 animated feature
Bolt. Keane stayed on as an executive producer and animation supervisor, while Wellins moved on to developing other short and feature films.
[6]
[edit]Title change
When first put into production, the film was promoted as having the title Rapunzel Unbraided, which was later changed to Rapunzel.[7] Disney's previous animated feature The Princess and the Frog in 2009, while being well-received by various critics[8] and taking in nearly $270 million worldwide, was not as successful as Disney had hoped.[9] Disney expressed the belief that the film's emphasis on princesses may have discouraged young boys from seeing the film.[9]In order to market the film to both sexes, Disney changed the film's name from Rapunzel to Tangled while also emphasizing Flynn Rider, the film's prominent male character.[9] Disney was criticized for altering the classic title as amarketing strategy. Floyd Norman, a former Disney and Pixar animator and story artist, said, "The idea of changing the title of a classic like Rapunzel to Tangled is beyond stupid. I'm convinced they'll gain nothing from this except the public seeing Disney as desperately trying to find an audience."[10] Justin Chang of Variety compared it to changing the title of The Little Mermaid to Beached.[11] On November 24, 2010, the day of the film's release, directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard disputed reports that the title change was a marketing decision. They said they changed the title from Rapunzel to Tangled because Rapunzel is not the only main character in the film. They went on to say that you can't call Toy Story "Buzz Lightyear," and they really needed a title that represented what the film is, and that it’s a duo, and it stars Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.[12]
Animation
Glen Keane wanted the film to look and feel like a traditional hand-drawn Disney film in 3D, and held a seminar called "The Best of Both Worlds", where he, with 50 Disney CGI artists and traditional artists, focused on the pros and cons of each style.
[14] Due to limitations in computer technology, many basic principles of animation used in traditionally animated movies had been absent from earlier CGI films; but technological advancements have made it easier to blend the two, combining the strengths of each style. Keane stated repeatedly he was trying to make the computer "bend its knee to the artist" instead of having the computer dictate the artistic style and look of the film. By making the computer become as "pliable as the pencil," Keane's vision of a "three dimensional drawing" seemed within reach, with the artist controlling the technology. Many of the techniques and tools that were required to give the film the quality Keane demanded did not exist when the project was started, and Disney Animation Studios had to create them on their own.
[13] Keane said, "There’s no photoreal hair. I want luscious hair, and we are inventing new ways of doing that. I want to bring the warmth and intuitive feel of hand-drawn to CGI."
[15]
One of the main goals of the animators was to create movement that mimicked the soft fluidity of the hand-drawn art found in older Disney animated films. Keane credited Disney 3D animator Kyle Strawitz with helping to combine CGI with the traditional hand-drawn style. "He took the house from
Snow White and built it and painted it so it looked like a flat painting that suddenly started to move, and it had dimension and kept all of the soft, round curves of the brushstrokes of watercolor. Kyle helped us get that
Fragonard look of that girl on the swing… We are using
subsurface scattering and global illumination and all of the latest techniques to pull off convincing human characters and rich environments."
[13]
Existing CGI technology continued to present difficulties: in particular, animating hair turned out to be a challenge. Senior software engineer Kelly Ward spent six years writing programs to make it move the way they wanted.
[16] As late as January 2010, the directors were still not sure if the Rapunzel character's length of hair was going to work. These problems were finally solved in March:
[17] An improved version of a hair simulation program named Dynamic Wires, originally developed for
Bolt, was eventually used. To make hair float believably in water, and to surmount other similar challenges,
discrete differential geometry was used to produce the desired effects, freeing the animators from executing these specific tasks directly, which would have taken days instead of minutes.
[18]
Rather than focusing on realism, the 3D team used an aesthetic approach. Robert Newman, the film’s stereoscopic supervisor said that "We’re using depth more artistically than ever before, and we’re not as concerned with the literal transcription of depth between camera and projector as we are the interpretation of it." To do this, they used a new technique called multi-rigging, which is made up by multiple pairs of
virtual cameras. Each pair is used individually on each separate element that adds depth to a scene, like background, foreground and characters, without adjusting for the relation with the other pairs. When sandwiched together later in production, the result was something that would be visually impossible in the real world, but which created an appealing look to the movie.
[19]
