Rapunzel to Tangled: Why the Change?

Submitted By: Niko De Jonge

Tangled is Disney’s newest feature, expected for release on November 24, 2010. However, throughout production the movie has mysteriously undergone several name changes. Before analyzing these name changes, one needs to look at the movie in more detail. To start, let’s take a look at the storyline.

The firm is based on a German fairy tale named Rapunzel. In the story, Rapunzel is a princess with magical healing powers, but is kidnapped and banished to a tower, isolated from her Kingdom. An evil witch named Gothel kidnapped Princess Rapunzel in an act of revenge and greed, in order to use the healing powers for her own endeavours. After years of seeing lights of her nearby Kingdom, Rapunzel eagerly desires to leave her tower. Unfortunately, Gothel forbids Rapunzel from doing such a thing and Rapunzel feels hopeless... until Flynn Rider arrives.

Flynn Rider, a thief with stolen crown jewels from the Kingdom, arrives at Rapunzel’s tower seeking a safe haven. After breaking into the tower, Rapunzel immediately steals Flynn’s satchel of jewels and promises to only return them if he helps her escape the tower and venture to the nearby Kingdom. The rest of the story centers on their adventure to the Kingdom.

Overall, the German fairy tale is another story focusing on a princess being saved. Disney has already produced many films with the same ideology. Rapunzel is the true name of the fairy tale. It would only make sense that it remained the title of the feature, so why would Walt Disney change the name?

Well, in 2009 Disney produced a very successful film called The Princess and the Frog. The film grossed over $270 million in the box office. Worldwide, it was critically acclaimed for its success as most movies struggle to hit $150 million. The key to answering our question is that, although successful, it was not as successfully as Disney had hope for.

When Walt Disney produces a film, they target the largest audience they can. Their main audience is, of course, children so Disney must target both boys and girls. Unfortunately, the majority of revenue from The Princess and the Frog came from female viewers, whereas Disney had hoped for a larger audience filled with many male viewers. Disney concluded that the reason their audience was too small is that the marketing of the film was geared towards girls more than boys.

After realizing this, it was clear that Disney should not focus solely on Princess Rapunzel. Therefore, Disney decided to also focus equivalently on the male hero of the film, Flynn Rider. This is evident in Disney’s marketing communication of the film. If you are going to focus on two main characters, it would only make sense that the film’s title to be representative of this. “Rapunzel” as a title would put extra emphasis on the princess and take focus off Flynn. This is the exact problem that caused lost revenues with Disney’s 2009 film. Therefore, the name Tangled was chosen to highlight both characters and how each of their roles got tangled together.

Tangled may seem like an unusual name for a Disney film, but I’m sure the box office will tell you different.

Published At: Isnare.com