All tangled up

As I have mentioned in previous posts I am a big fan of animation, so I went to watch Disney's new feature "Tangled". I thought it was pretty good, maybe not quite as good as last years excellent Princess and the Frog but an enjoyable film neither the less.

The sub-plot and to all this and perhaps the most interesting thing prior to the release of this film was the name. At first it was called Rapunzel, then it was Unbraided before Disney decided that Tangled was the the best choice.

These changes were not just at script level but occurred rather late, there was even early promotion with the different titles used as you can see above.

"Tangled" was chosen in response to Princess and the Frogs relatively poor turn out at the box office. The reason for this was apparently that boys were turned off going to watch a "princess" film. So Disney, in response to this, changed Rapunzel to Tangled and made a point of feature the male lead as the predominant figure in the trailers and he also appears on all posters.

I am not so sure about the name personally, it doesn't have that timeless feel that Disney has monopolised over the years. By definition a timeless film (as Disney's greatest work is undeniably) should be relevant no matter who watches it, no matter when they are watching it. Snow White for example was made in the 1930's but was recently re-released on blu-ray and it dominated the charts for months with many children finding a film some 80 years old for the first time and they still find it engaging and relevant to them. Equally, in a totally hypothetical world, you could take Beauty and the Beast made in the 1990's and show it to a child in 1940 and I would think they'd find it just as engaging.

And this is the problem with Tangled the name feels very "now", post-Shrek, appealing to the Children of today. Time will tell if in ten years it will be the new Little Mermaid or whether it is this generations Oliver and Company.

The early indications are that the film is going to do well financially and rightly so it is a very good film. But for Disney value of film is not measured in its initial box office takings (Pinocchio flopped on its release), but if in 50 years if they still have Rapunzel dolls being sold in Disney Stores around the world.