Tangled the Series is a Thing

[Music] so tangled the series is a thing and uh why is no one talking about this show first of all yes that tangled the disney princess movie with rapunzel they made a tv series out of it as a sequel and it is possibly the greatest thing that i have seen in a long time everyone was all have you seen manny moore's new tv show talking about this is us but tangled was where the real magic was happening to be fair i've not actually seen this as us so i don't know how good or bad it is but people say they cry a lot but this show was already making me cry i mean it it had heartbreak loss love adventure and betrayal so much betrayal i haven't been this excited about a show since the first time i watched stein's gate full metal alchemist or avatar the last airbender the tangled tv show is that good i've mentioned it and shown it a few times in previous episodes if this is a thing but i didn't want to talk about it until i had finished watching the whole thing well that happened last night and instead of writing whatever other episode of this is a thing i was supposed to be writing i'm writing this one because i need to talk about this show this is one of those shows that comes up once in a blue moon like those other shows that i mentioned every few years when the stars align perfectly a gem of a show is created you know the kind of show i'm talking about the kind that every episode makes your heart race and every roll of the credits leaves you wanting more the kind of show that has climaxes that leave you sweating or conflict escalations that have you screaming what the just happened but in a good way like um um okay calm down jingles you can't just say why the show makes you feel that way with no context so why is this show so spectacular everything sort of this is again one of those shows where all the parts make up the whole and each part is spectacular from the choice to shift to the small screen the new cartoon aesthetic the music and score the narrative and story structure and particularly the characterization and portrayal of characters and those are just a few of the things because there's so much to love about this show in case you haven't noticed i'm a wee bit obsessed currently and so today i want to rave about tangled the series so it's pretty obvious that the show is a sequel to the cgi disney masterpiece that is tangled the show was created and developed by chris sonnenberg and shane prigmore with disney television animation and actually began production and development in 2015 a whole two years before its release it's no surprise that the show was greenlit after the short movie tangled ever after was created due to fans demanding more tangled media it seemed even after that short there was an audience that wanted more from the world of tangled from the start the show began with a bang kicking off with a 55 minute disney channel original movie that would serve as the show's pilot and teases the return of rapunzel's blonde hair which would spark the adventure the show was clearly highly anticipated because in 2017 it was renewed for a second season before the movie pilot had even premiered the show was also rebranded as rapunzel's tangled adventure for some reason so if you're looking to watch it it's sometimes called that seems kind of strange to go through all the trouble of naming the movie tangled so that it comes across as more gender-neutral and will appeal to both boys and girls but then have the show be rebranded halfway through its run back to rapunzel anyway well the third and final season was released in 2019 and wrapped up in march of this year 2020 with a spectacular three-part finale there was also a series of animated shorts used to promote the series the show was critically acclaimed for children's animation and was nominated and won several awards for various episodes throughout its three-season run although the awards were for children's animation this show like many others has a very wide appeal although it is largely about the high jinks the characters get themselves into there is a surprisingly deep amount of storytelling and fascinating world building that will definitely appeal to older audiences unlike some other animated shows that are marketed for younger children when they probably should not have been spectacular spider-man legend of korra this show is for children but it's not just for children because there's an overarching story that is an absolute thrill ride the reason for this kind of spectrum of engagement has to do with the change of medium from movie to television moving from the big screen to the small screen or vice versa can be difficult for any franchisor story there are pros and cons to either format but knowing what those restrictions and freedoms provide and how to adapt to them is actually more important than what those limitations and advantages are in the case of tangled the fact that the story was conceived of as a television series already meant that its show runners and writers understood that they could tell a longer more in-depth story driven by character interactions and wacky harebrained schemes in an episodic format larger overarching narrative story beats and exposition can be revealed bit by bit in every episode allowing for contained and entertaining individual episodes that lead up to show stopping and sometimes world altering episodes that deal directly with the overarching story if you watch our podcast you might be familiar with what is slowly becoming my catchphrase this should have been a tv show well it's shows like this tangled sequel that have me saying this i feel so vindicated talking about this show because it really does prove that tv shows have the ability to tell these larger world and character driven stories whereas i feel as though movies excel in telling a self-contained story the only time movie sequels really work is when the whole thing is conceived of or better yet filmed at the same time if you want to make a sequel for a movie that has that many ideas you're probably better off with a tv series anyway i'm not saying that this will fix everything wrong with a movie not at all i'm just saying that if you're already trying to make something episodic with a movie sequel why not go right for a longer format where you can have the time to tell a story in that manner and the audiences will also have more time to digest that information look at frozen 2 for example with some spoilers that movie had its problems in production due to lack of timing planning or indeed any general direction but at the risk of bleeding into our podcast i'll make a quick pitch imagine breaking that movie down into episodes everyone is happy except for elsa who sings into the unknown and ends up awakening the spirits that's a two-part premiere right there then finding each of the spirits can be an episode or maybe two as they go on their adventure this also means that splitting up the characters gives them more time to have their own side stories and then there can be a greater mystery over the arc of the season as to what is otto holland or who or what the fifth spirit is there i fixed frozen two by making it a show and that doesn't include all the extra time you have to flesh out side plots someone call disney and tell them to pay me in a movie you have roughly two hours but in a 12 episode season of 22 minute episodes you have almost four and a half hours if we're talking strictly about time i don't see why the choice isn't clear now obviously television budget is smaller and the idea of television conceptually is smaller and carries less prestige but we are seeing a change in that i'll come back to this idea in another episode of this is a thing actually the episode i was supposed to be writing today in fact either way making tangled into a series was the best decision for the story [Music] with the shift to the small screen there were the obvious aforementioned budget limitations but tangled handles this with grace the show shifted art styles cgi is expensive and although computer animation has come a long way it's still costly as balls if the reports of the tangled movie are true regarding their production budget an estimated 260 million dollars was spent on that movie and that would make it one of the most expensive movies of all time i'm not surprised they would decide to change their art style but rather than a limitation i think the art style is excellent the sharp colored line art is reminiscent of my little pony but the colorization is evocative of the painting style that rapunzel uses throughout the original movie the movie's art style was inspired by a painting called the swings so it's like the whole thing has come full circle even within the show we often see rapunzel painting in her journal and the art style is like a simplification of what the characters look like in the show besides a more cartoony style is not a bad thing it allows more expressive stretchy and squishy animation and it's less jarring than the use of abnormal physics would be in a more realistic cgi animation style in my opinion the colors are more vibrant than the original movie or short and i think it makes the show look more charming more colorful more dynamic and more playful a lot of the visual gags in the show become more apparent and if you're observant enough you can even see nods in the show to sequences from the original movie on top of that just look at how cute pascal looks now or even baby pascal and little rapunzel don't be afraid mr frog you're safe now here it's yours it's a gift [Music] so cute so structural and visual components were changed significantly in the transition to the small screen but those were the only drastic changes since one of the most important parts of tangle's identity the music was not changed you can't have a tangled show without some musical numbers of course the clean strumming of acoustic guitars with a hint of distorted electric guitar supported by a full orchestra and occasionally a backbeat on a drum set are the same musical aesthetics that were used in the movie and why wouldn't they be all the songs and orchestration in the show are done by alan menken you know the man behind aladdin the little mermaid beauty and the beast yeah they got him and then they paired him up with glenn slater as a lyricist and songwriter which brings back the original duo behind all the songs from the original tangled movie and holy does this pay off the songs range from catchy and upbeat to full-on theatrical power ballads menkin and slater won an emmy award for their work on this show and i think the songs might be better than the original movies pieces the song win in my hair was composed for the movie pilot and it serves as the opening theme song for the show it has that same upbeat feeling as when will my life begin but it's a little bit more theatrical i never get sick of hearing that song and it was often stuck in my head if you can believe it it's not even close to the best song though not by a long shot the song that won menken and slater their emmy is called waiting in the wings and it is so powerful with this song menkin is one of only 16 people to have an egot or to have won an emmy grammy oscar and tony award and he deserves it this song is otherworldly eat your heart out let it go everyone knows that into the unknown was a better song anyway but waiting in the wings beats both of them out glenn slater's lyrics are as powerful and as poignant as ever and they're paired great with menkin's scoring but slater's lyrics do have a lot of source material to draw on which brings us to the story and narrative obviously the structure of the show's narrative is episodic as i have mentioned but the plot itself is where the show really shines except maybe the music menkin won an emmy guys to be honest i have been putting off writing this part because i really think you ought to go into the show blind don't look up anything on the internet don't even look up the songs because you will spoil things for yourself that ought not to be spoiled experiencing them firsthand is so much better take it from me i watch the show without spoilers and if you can't tell by my exuberance and enthusiasm by now i don't know what to tell you that being said in order to talk more about why the show excels at its storytelling and characterization i'm going to have to spoil a little bit of the show but i promise it's only the events of the movie pilot and the first two episodes rapunzel is reveling in the excitement and festivities leading up to her coronation while getting to know her parents the king and queen and spending time with eugene formerly known as flynn rider and her handmaid and new friend the dry humored and snarky cassandra cassandra shows rapunzel a way out of the castle and a strange-looking geological formation that she found upon touching these black rocks rapunzel's blonde hair suddenly returns she tries to hide the hair from her friends and family during the coronation with cassandra's help eventually everyone finds out about her hair and then more of these mysterious black rocks begin to appear throughout the kingdom cassandra rapunzel and eugene aka flynn are introduced to a young alchemist named varian who is researching how the rocks operate and finally they are joined by flynn's old friend lance strongbow and all the adventuring and mystery solving goes on from there the pilot and first few episodes are pretty innocuous they reveal nothing about how grand the story is and to be honest i thought the show was just gonna be about rapunzel doing princessy things with her friends i was wrong so wrong the show does not have any filler because the episodes that i thought were filler wind up having lasting importance by introducing concepts or magic there was backstory for characters you didn't think needed it until you got it and then it was exactly what you wanted there is world building in the form of myths and legends that have long lasting importance long after they're introduced there is magic science love friendship hatred and anger and all of it matters even the episodes that don't have these things are important because they usually focus on establishing characters and their relationships this is where the show excels because the characterization and interactions of those characters is how the story comes together conceptually for starters all the original voice actors returned to play their characters zachary levi as eugene frank welker and d bradley baker share the duty of pascal and maximus and of course mandy moore as rapunzel herself they even got donna murphy to come back and play mother gothel for the few necessary flashbacks that she's in but the three new characters were also welcome editions cassandra is played by eden espinoza who is the understudy for idina menzel and wicked yes that idina menzel so you know that this woman has a supernatural set of pipes and she is the one who sings waiting in the wings but varian is not to be outdone he's played by jeremy jordan who is also a powerhouse lastly is lance who is played by james monroe inglehart who is most famous for playing the genie in the original stage production of aladdin on broadway so you know he can bring the noise too but enough about the music an emmy i mean he should win like 10 one for each song the real genius behind these five characters is how they are all played compared to one another and more often contrasted with one another but are still able to remain friends lance and eugene are the most similar but whereas eugene is brave suave and charming dude rolled like a natural 20 on his charisma stat this is the story of how i died and went to heaven lance is comedic and his cowardice but always manages to be there in a pinch varian is the odd one out he is the youngest then his inexperience gets him into trouble but he is clearly the smartest and most talented of them all cassandra is the exact opposite of rapunzel she is icy dry witty and cutting she dreams of being a great warrior but despite her dreams she deeply cares for the princess who is more of a friend than her charge lastly in the middle of it all is rapunzel who is her free-spirited fun-loving and kind self just as she was in the movie despite eugene and cassandra not getting along all the time or ever she is friends with everyone and sees each of her friends new and old for exactly who they are i particularly like how cassandra has played against rapunzel the creators went all out making sure that cassandra is characterized as everything rapunzel is not and yet the two of them are the closest of friends even cassandra's design with her dark short hair and gray eyes is deliberately opposite rapunzel's blonde long hair and green eyes the two of them are competitive with each other but always friends first it's a sweet rivalry and something you might see between sisters cassandra is such an interesting and attention catching character and varian became a fan favorite but i personally am a sucker for eugene's one-liners and devil may care quips great story could've used a bit more conflict but the use of props added a nice touch but it is rapunzel that i'm most interested in because she is a total badass no really i know she seems cute and unassuming because she is but that is important there is character growth in rapunzel for sure but i won't talk about it because that would involve spoilers and i promised i wouldn't so instead i want to talk about the effects that this character growth has on rapunzel or rather the lack of change that the growth has on rapunzel in terms of her core values and why those values matter not only to rapunzel but on a broad scale in terms of character portrayal in media so a lot of bad out of this world crazy story takes place in the show and the adversity strife and darkness that the main characters face causes a few of them to waver lance is always the comedic coward but even eugene has his moments where he loses his roguish flair and wavers in his belief in himself and what is right but not rapunzel rapunzel is always the light she is always the one who believes in the good of others and the feelings of friendship that bind them all together there are a few times where various villains try to break rapunzel's spirit by making her fight but rapunzel is usually loathed to fight rapunzel chooses to solve her conflicts in other ways without too much detail in one episode rapunzel teams up with a thief to save her friends and the thief is flabbergasted by rapunzel's approach to solving problems it is unconventional non-confrontational and just as if not more effective than other ways by the end of the episode this lady thief is actually convinced of the efficacy of rapunzel's methods and by the end of the episode she finds herself swayed by rapunzel's kindness we saw this of course in the original movie too when rapunzel sings i've got a dream and that managed to get her and eugene out of the snuggly duckling without a fight that was pretty impressive i know and throughout the show this is always the case it is genuine it is inspiring and it is female but rapunzel is female wouldn't everything she do then be female in a perfect world that would be the case but unfortunately that is not so it's common knowledge that we associate certain characteristics or attributes to one gender or the other masculinity is usually associated with aggressive or at least assertive behaviors and feminine attributes have more to do with nurturing and passivity this is obvious to anyone familiar with traditional gender roles and associations in western society this philosopher named jacques lacan came up with the idea called sexuation which is the difference and disassociation of the male and female sex in a non-biological more formal logic concept lacan argues that male and female sexes as a concept were not just constructs of nature but were inherently separated by conceptual means according to lacan because we associate these things with the concept of the masculine or the feminine we also associate certain characteristics as being distinctly part of one gender or the other kinda took a left turn into philosophy town back there but stick with me not only are certain characteristics associated with gender but actions can also be associated with gender and you can bet your ass that we do this all the time as well which brings us back to rapunzel rapunzel is placed into situations that often involve fighting or conflict which would be considered male as the feminine is not considered conflict oriented often in media this is where the female character takes up her sword and fights back as this badass female character who kicks ass and doesn't take questions because she already has all the answers entangled cassandra occupies this role and there's nothing wrong with that in a perfect world anything a person who identifies as female does would be considered female but this is not the case cassandra by fighting back in this way occupies more masculine characteristics in the laconian sense she solves her problems by using things we associate with the masculine side of sexuation well what about eugene he has some very female attributes doesn't that break barriers well sort of eugene's main feminine trait is his vanity which is feminine in its association but is usually considered a negative really oops you broke my smoulder to prove my point further in literature romeo and juliet both die in the end spoilers but even the way they die can be viewed on different sides of this situation interestingly here it is reversed with romeo drinking poison as a passive death therefore feminine and juliet stabbing herself committing a more active end and therefore masculine death not to mention swords and daggers are very phallic in nature rapunzel never dies okay i lied about the spoilers but it's a disney show what did you expect but she is placed into desperate situations and always comes out showing her feminine attributes and associations as her strength to be clear i wish that we did not have these kinds of associations but we do and until we don't i think it is awesome to see that actions and traits that are commonly viewed as weaker or passive or feminine can be just as strong the actions that rapunzel implements are just as effective if not more so in some cases than the more masculine attributes that cassandra is often seen utilizing even when rapunzel is forced to defend herself or others i think it is interesting that the two objects she uses are her long hair traditionally associated with females in the west and a frying pan an object that is a kitchen utensil which was and to some extent still is known as the domain of women frying pans who knew right but these objects are repurposed by rapunzel and later others into a masculine associated task but not until after the feminine actions of friendship kindness nurturing and care have failed oh mama i have got to get me one of these fighting is always rapunzel's last resort and even then it is usually only to defend herself or others she only uses these objects with the intention of defending or knocking out her opponent never destroying or vanquishing her foes the creators of tangled go out of their way to show that rapunzel is a free spirit and that her unorthodox approach to her whole life is not non-confrontational rapunzel is not afraid to speak her mind nor is she deterred when things don't go her way but she is portrayed as always bright and sunny even when she's sad paradoxically again without spoiling too much it was a pleasure to see a show that had its main character solved even the most world-ending and potentially life-altering and devastating battles by always offering the hand of friendship and kindness first when i said the show was like avatar the last airbender i was not kidding you cannot have conflict that portrays the central core tenets of what makes your character special and rapunzel is the embodiment of the feminine side of sexuation and that makes her just as much of a badass as the sword wielding cassandra even more so when you take into account that they are friends because of rapunzel's personality the tv show structure the animation the music now he has an egot the plot so many spoilers but most of all the characterization of rapunzel and why she is my idea of a great badass female character is why tangled the series or rapunzel's tangled adventure is great okay maybe just a few more because there are so many pascal and max are always good for a laugh but there's a whole episode that hinges on pascal's backstory minor characters and villains are never dull there are some spectacular bit parts that bring in really well known voice actors clancy brown is in this and he always does a great job i have to talk about the songs one more time eugene gets the solo called everything i ever thought i knew and it was outstanding rapunzel and cassandra sing this one duet called the view from up here and it's beautiful but then later on they sing another song that just might be the most metal disney song i've ever heard but it has spoilers in it so i can't talk about it but you need to watch this show hey thanks for watching that video brush that like button and uh feel free to share and subscribe if you can and leave a comment telling me what you thought of the show or other shows that you can't stop watching even if they are for children you can always catch our podcast every week and new episodes of this is a thing right here on cinemaster's ultimate timeline you

Channel: Cinemasters: Ultimate Timeline

Views: 22,460

Keywords: CInemaster, Ultimate, timeline, media literacy, philosophy, narrative, thought provoking, discussion, movie, TV, television, Cinema, film, this is a thing, de Janglez, video essay, tangled, Rapunzel, Rapunzel's tangled adventure, tangled the series, flynn rider, Eugene fitsherbert, Cassandra, zachari levi, Alan Menkin, why tangled is so good, tangled music, Jacques Lacan, Lacan, Sexuation, female badass, feminine, masculine, analysis, pascal, maximus, is a thing, sexuation

Id: NEkB0vQqQ20

Length: 22min 29sec (1349 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020