Tangled: The Intersection of Commerce, Gender, and Genre Essay

In the 2010 film Tangled, a modern retelling of the Grimm Brothers story Rapunzel, Rapunzel pursues her dream of seeing the floating lights away from her hidden tower and escaping from her diabolical mother Gothel with the help of a young thief named Flynn Ryder. The film manages to navigate the tension between the traditional fairy-tale storytelling archetypes of the early Disney princess movie-musicals and a modern reinvention of these stereotypes in drift to create a harmonious blend between the two. However, both When Will my Life Begin? and I Have a Dream, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater, employ diverse musical references and techniques that nevertheless starkly challenge the construction of the typical Disney animated musical genre, and that mold musical conventions to be more merchant adapted to a far-reaching audience. Does this movie actually mock the imperfections of its Disney princess predecessors, and if so, how does it commoditize this musical af fectionate parody by appealing to the younger, hipper and even male crowd? I argue that When will my life begin? and Ive got a Dream serve as examples of how Disney made Tangled into a hybrid of the earlier princess movie-musicals of the Golden Age of elan vital(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, Sleeping Beauty 1959), the Disney Renaissance (The Little Mermaid 1989, Beauty and the Beast 1991), and what it hoped to be a spic-and-span, modern spin on the genre with its new leadership, its music, and its treatment of gender in order to be commercially successful. One thing that Tangled did demonstrate was the need for a modern reboot not only for Disney animated films, but to the musical genre as well. Some argue that as Disney enters into a ... ...table to boys, it still relied on its commonalities to other films to secure its put down within the Disney legacy. Whether or not in Disneys quest to be commercially successful, if the film was really able to be a storytelling an d musical success. able to satirize the shortcomings of the princess movie-musical genre sound abandon Broadway style for tween-age pop song. Both songs establish roots in the formula derived from the earlier Walt Disney films and later Alan Menken musicals, yet uncomplete are without their surprises, their own definitive appeal to a larger, updated audience. Works Cited1. http//insidemovies.ew.com/2010/11/24/alan-menken-tangled/2. http//www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/movies/21tangled.html?pagewanted=all3. http//earnthis.net/2010/07/golden-age-1/4. http//screencrave.com/2010-02-12/disneys-rapunzel-is-renamed-tangled/