Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: Better Than The Movie!

Content Warning: This blogpost will include spoilers for the series up to the finale. I didn't think to warn for it before, but this is a recent show, and I have a lot of opinions on all its plot twists, more so than Amphibia

Polled people on twitter asking what show I should cover next and most people wanted me to cover Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (which I just finished) sooner rather than later, and as all my prerequisites are done here it is!

 

I've talked about almost every film based tv show at this moment. The only ones left are Tarzan, the Stitch franchise, and if you are oh so inclined to count it, Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I don't because I've seen Hook in enough Disney comics to know he just likes to Show Up sometimes). I don't think I've really talked much about how the shows hold up to their movies. Most of the film based shows take place either after their original series or in an alternate universe, with only Little Mermaid and Jungle Cubs taking place beforehand, and Hercules taking place during.

Of the shows that take place afterwards, the ones that I think are most comparable to what Tangled does are Aladdin, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, and The Lion Guard. Of those four, three have a very episodic plot structure, with Aladdin's being the most so, only really telling its after-happily-ever-after story in its sequels. Lilo and Stitch (and various spinoffs) have a degree of continuity, but each episode is usually its own separate thing. Tarzan seems like the sort of show you'd think would have an overarching plot, but once I sat down and watched it it really did seem episodic, save an additional bit of continuity over Lilo and Stitch.

The Lion Guard, the baby show of the bunch, seems to have the most similarities to Tangled, and it makes sense. They were released the closest of the bunch, and people were starting to realize that people loved lore in their baby shows and kids shows. It made them feel justified in their existence because this was a new story that was going on, but still attached to the old one.

Though you have to remember I wasn't a fan of Lion King. Tangled on the other hand... was fine? I guess? When I was goaded into watching the show after I finished the film for the first time I was like. Uh okay. I wasn't expecting a lot out of it, save a pretty and stylized 2D series.

9:07 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "i dont wanna assume anything about the animators of this show but uh... im getting horse girl vibes"

I was wrong.

2:04 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Tangled theme hypes me up it’s not even the music I like"

I had two of my friends watch this show with me. I watched the film Tangled and about half of season 1 with my friend Noa, and finished up season 1 with my friend Cal. Seasons 2 and 3 I watched on my own, as I didn't want to subject anyone to season 2 and I got so involved by the end of that I needed to continue on my own.

It was a pretty good show, and I really liked how much characters shined through. Rapunzel and Eugene come into their own in this series, a lot more than they are able to in the movie, especially Eugene, who spent a large chunk of the series being my favorite.

9:30 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "eugene is an absolute mess he's a big fave"
2:12 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Eugene doesn’t eat vegetables"
2:42 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Eugene king of boyhate"

Boyhate of course, being the opposite of girlhate, and girlhate, being something we will talk about once we get to the Lilo and Stitch franchise. (Specifically, when discussing Yuuna and how she acts around other girls/how other girls act around her. I don't want people to assume I'm a Myrtle Edmunds apologist.)

Anyway, I enjoyed Rapunzel too. I'm usually not one for overly positive characters unless they're done well, and Rapunzel being a literal embodiment of life made her pretty justified

8:42 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "she's so fucked up!!! she's like jigsaw"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2:51 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Rapunzel is such a silly character"

Though I guess the first downfall you get to in Tangled is that the side characters... aren't all that great.

9:06 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "tangled is one of those rare shows where i love the main characters and the more obscure the character is the more i do not give a shit."
9:13 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "actually nevermind what i said about minor characters i just met lance he's great"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lance Strongbow I am SO SORRY I called you a minor character, I've learned and I've grown and I know that you're more than that now. But Lance is Eugene's best friend and they have really good chemistry between their characters. He also takes care of Catalina and Kiera in the third season for those of you who love the found family dynamic, because Lance delivers there! Though ultimately he's not really the more dynamic characters that's introduced in their show.

Varian is the show's first villain, and as I have called him multiple times in the past week, "The Joker for trans men with gifted kid burnout." And the thing is, he's pretty justified in most of the shit he does. Because. You know. His dad just died.

 

 

Granted, Varian's dad doesn't stay dead, but it's not like I knew he was alive in there way back in season 1. In fact, one of my first scalding Tangled takes was that they should have killed off Pascal because even though he was the funny animal mascot, it would have made it feel like the shows have more stakes. Needless to say I was very angry when they didn't let him die. (But not too much so, he is my favorite of the animal sidekicks.)

 

Seriously though. The show ended with like what? Six funny animal sidekicks? When do we decide that enough is enough. 

Anyway back to Varian. The thing is that he really does turn evil because so many different people let him down. 

2:55 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "the kingdom of corona would never commit crimes against humanity"

Aw shit. But yeah. Rapunzel breaks her promise to help him, not to mention Cass back in season 1 when she got the opportunity to work as a guard. And even when he starts to regret it he keeps going down that path until Rapunzel tells him to stop in season three. Then he has a song about how evil is not the path and it's a downward spiral with Cass...

Oh lord, Cass.

If you have been reading my blog much, you may have noticed that I have a lot of problems. Here's the thing though. If you put me next to Cassandra, I seem normal. Like, I don't think any fictional character has made me realize how emotionally stable I actually am like that since Charlie Brown. And it isn't like most of the stuff she does is some sort of mystery either. She's just full of resentment and doesn't really want to communicate, be it talking or listening. And I get that, I really do. But man of all the people to have beef with, you really picked the one full of near-unconditional acceptance.

2:16 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "I wasn’t gonna say anything but Cass and Dijonay....."

During the first season I actually compared Cassandra to Dijonay from the Proud Family (the original series) as both had a tendency toward self-serving over keeping friends, and season 3 Cassandra was all about that explicitly, but I think it's really interesting that she was like that before too. This isn't all that new for Cassandra, she's just doing it guilt free now.

I guess in terms of the seasons, season 1 was the best. It had the greatest dynamics and character moments for me and it didn't really need all the story beats. 

Season 2 was disappointing. Even ignoring the anti-romani caricature, episodes just did not have that proper character dynamic. The caravan especially felt simultaneously crowded and empty. Like of course Lance, Raps, Cass, and Eugene are there, and so are... Shorty... and Hook Foot. Hook Foot, I hardly remembered from season 1, and Shorty of course would be there as the comic relief. Also it's just kind of wild that Tangled has a comic relief character who is very explicitly a drunk old man. It made me yearn for the first stoner Disney character, but we already had that and I'll discuss them once we get to Clerks. (I know I skipped it but it will be after Fillmore.) 

I tried thinking of characters who would have been fun to have on the season trek with my Noa, and we ultimately decided on Monty and Xavier. It would have been fun to have a sort of comical character development with Monty, and Xavier could have brought in the lore dump, which I really loved

Season 3 was definitely good storywise and character wise, but the humor kind of faltered a bit here. I was told season 3 was a response to how season 2 sucked, and yeah there's a lot of jokes that are just Eugene complaining about how shitty season 2 is. He does it when visiting Calliope, The Lorbs, and really it gets old. It's still crazy good story and music wise though.

9:08 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "8 years ago eugene looked EXACTLY THE SAME" 

Season 3 also fixed 15 year old Eugene, which I appreciate greatly.

The thing about Tangled though is that at its worst it's boring, cringy, and nasty, and usually that would lead to Tangled getting a lower rating, but at its best it is an amazing breathtaking show. As lousy as season 2 was, there were some genuinely moving moments in it. I got chills listening to Waiting in the Wings. Honestly a lot of the songs are better than the movie. It's one of those shows that would be in S Tier if not for the fact that the middle season was so lousy. Though as it stands, it's still a top ten show.

Overall Rating for Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: A Tier