Disney's Rapunzel???

[goofystitch]

I read a rumor a few years ago claiming that Disney had purchased the rights to a classic fairy tale to be turned into an animated movie. The story rumored to be purchased was either The Princess and the Pea (wich I can't see as a good hour and a half of entertainment) or Rapunzel. I had completely forgotten about this rumor until the other day when I was shopping at Kay Bee Toys and ventured down the doll aisle looking for a gift. As I looked through the Disney dolls, a starnge collection caught my eye. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the collection, but it had the Disney princesses in their normal elegant clothes (no "princesses" like Pocahontas or Mulan) and a princess I didn't recognize caught my eye. It wasn't the Barbie as Rapunzel doll. It was in this same set with the Disney princesses and was shown on the back of all the boxes. Disney wouldn't have bought the rights to Rapunzel just for a doll, would they? That makes no sense to me. Does anybody know if Disney has plans to turn this into a CG movie? And if anyone knows about the doll, please let me know. I couldn't find any info avout it online.

[Jack]

It's true that they're doing a take on Rapunzel. It's a CG movie, reportedly called "Rapunzel Unbraided" - a comedy take on the tale. Sounds like its in the same vein as "Shrek".

[Uncle Remus]

Disney needs to stop competing with Dreamworks. just because Shrek won the Best Animated Feature oscar for the first year doesnt mean that Disney needs to compete with Dreamworks.

[Prince Adam]

Yeah, in this new movie, Rapunzel is apparently going to "let her hair down". They've decided that since the animated heroines usually just resort to sarcasm for laughs, Rapunzel will be the first princess to be a full-fledged comedian.
But the movie won't be coming out for a few years. I can't believe they've already made a doll...


I think they should make Rapunzel a more traditional fairy tale. You know-beautiful heroine, evil witch, handsome prince, animal friends, and fantastic songs.
If you look at all the Golden Eras, they were all brought on by the red-hot fairy tales-Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid.
Rapunzel could finally start the Fourth Golden Age. Filmmakers at Disney say that you can't tell a story with the traditional princess anymore. I think you can-Little Mermaid and Cinderella and Snow White are a heck of a lot more successful than Lilo or Treasure Planet.

[Jack]

I think they should make Rapunzel a more traditional fairy tale. You know-beautiful heroine, evil witch, handsome prince, animal friends, and fantastic songs.
If you look at all the Golden Eras, they were all brought on by the - fairy tales-Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid.
Rapunzel could finally start the Fourth Golden Age. Filmmakers at Disney say that you can't tell a story with the traditional princess anymore. I think you can-Little Mermaid and Cinderella and Snow White are a heck of a lot more successful than Lilo or Treasure Planet.

I agree. This was truly a missed oppertunity. Not only would it be refreshing to see the return of a classic Disney princess tale, but I think it would be the perfect intro to CG for the company - taking a tale that resonates of those in the golden age of 2D, and rendering it in CG.

[Prince Phillip]

Does anybody know if Disney has plans to turn this into a CG movie? And if anyone knows about the doll, please let me know. I couldn't find any info avout it online.

Well they all told you about the movie, no sense in restating all that...

About the doll, I myself saw the very same doll, and considered posting about it a little while ago. It is not Disney, but is in a collection with other dolls, that look very disneyesc, and it is in the disney section, so more than likely, the model of the Rapunzel doll, could very well be a preview of what's to come...

The name of the doll collection is "Once Upoun a Dream", also very disneyesc...

[Joe Carioca]

When I first heard about "Rapunzel", I thought it could be the new "Sleeping Beauty". Unfortunately, it seems it will be a deception... As you all said, a missed oportunity to restore the glory of Disney animation.

Well, Glen Keane is directing it, so I still have hopes.

[Kram Nebuer]

Here's some Rapunzel art I found from animator Kevin Gollaher: (sorry, it's a little big)

EDIT: (Changed to link to take up less bandwith)
Click here for potential Rapunzel Art

If you go to the site for the Swan Animation company you may see character development pictures of Rapunzel. I found this site a long time ago and it was run by Animators (founded by Mark Swan) who used to work for Disney and other companies and started their own company. They already made features of The Velveteen Rabbit and the Princess and the Pea (which has a pig character sidekick ). If you click on the part about the animators, you can peek at their portfolios. When I first came across the site, there was art of the different artists work on numerous Animated Features. Kevin Gollaher's portfolio includes art from Disney features (mainly the sequels like Pocahontas II). There are three pictures of Rapunzel, but now that I think about it, they could be for another company since the above picture is dated 1992.

http://www.swananimation.com

[Prince Adam]

I think they should make Rapunzel a more traditional fairy tale. You know-beautiful heroine, evil witch, handsome prince, animal friends, and fantastic songs.
If you look at all the Golden Eras, they were all brought on by the - fairy tales-Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid.
Rapunzel could finally start the Fourth Golden Age. Filmmakers at Disney say that you can't tell a story with the traditional princess anymore. I think you can-Little Mermaid and Cinderella and Snow White are a heck of a lot more successful than Lilo or Treasure Planet.

I agree. This was truly a missed oppertunity. Not only would it be refreshing to see the return of a classic Disney princess tale, but I think it would be the perfect intro to CG for the company - taking a tale that resonates of those in the golden age of 2D, and rendering it in CG.

That's not what I meant at all! I want Rapunzel in 2-D!

[Jack]

That's not what I meant at all! I want Rapunzel in 2-D!

I would rather have it in 2-D too. But if Disney is dead-set on going the CG route, I'm saying it would've been a perfect intro to the format if they made Rapunzel a traditional fairy tale movie.

[Prince Phillip]

Here's some Rapunzel art I found from animator Kevin Gollaher: (sorry, it's a little big)



If you go to the site for the Swan Animation company you may see character development pictures of Rapunzel. I found this site a long time ago and it was run by Animators (founded by Mark Swan) who used to work for Disney and other companies and started their own company. They already made features of The Velveteen Rabbit and the Princess and the Pea (which has a pig character sidekick ). If you click on the part about the animators, you can peek at their portfolios. When I first came across the site, there was art of the different artists work on numerous Animated Features. Kevin Gollaher's portfolio includes art from Disney features (mainly the sequels like Pocahontas II). There are three pictures of Rapunzel, but now that I think about it, they could be for another company since the above picture is dated 1992.

http://www.swananimation.com

WOW!!! I really like that Pic!!!! I wish that that, was the definate style for the new movie... oh well we'll see...

[poco]

If they go the comedy route I probably won't go see the movie in theaters.

can anyone answer this for me? What is the fairy tale in which someone spins hay? into gold? the character gets locked up by this troll and has to make all this gold thread... name starts with an "R" and for the longest time I thought it was Rapunzel---but I must be completely wrong because I don't think really long hair was in this fairy tale.

[Lisney34]

rumpelskielston. there's a slight chance i mispelled that.

[poco]

Don't worry about the spelling because it's close enough for me to say YES!!!!!!! Thank you for sparing me the task of having to hit my head against my computer keyboard!!!!

Now this is a tale that Disney could do a story on!

[JaYDiSNeY]

yes...disney should definitely do Rumplestiltskin...i cant spell it either...and Rapunzel...but they should be 2D regular cartoons cuz i love those and the computer stuff is awesome and fun but we cant let cartoons just die out....i think disney should also do like Little Red Riding Hood or sumthin....it should go back 2 a good old fairy tale

[MickeyMousePal]

I hope they make Rapunzel a comedy 2-D movie because it won't be great as a adventure movie.

Of couse it's a love story.
It reminds me of the red blue commerical.

[Loomis]

I think they should make Rapunzel a more traditional fairy tale. You know-beautiful heroine, evil witch, handsome prince, animal friends, and fantastic songs.
If you look at all the Golden Eras, they were all brought on by the - fairy tales-Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid.
Rapunzel could finally start the Fourth Golden Age. Filmmakers at Disney say that you can't tell a story with the traditional princess anymore. I think you can-Little Mermaid and Cinderella and Snow White are a heck of a lot more successful than Lilo or Treasure Planet.

I agree. This was truly a missed oppertunity. Not only would it be refreshing to see the return of a classic Disney princess tale, but I think it would be the perfect intro to CG for the company - taking a tale that resonates of those in the golden age of 2D, and rendering it in CG.

I tend to agree. The more traditional fairy-tales have been the perfect playground for Disney's 2D animation in the past, and some of the most beautiful animation ever produced for screen has been in these traditional takes (Sleeping Beauty especially).

But now that we seem to have to accept that the 2D division is as dead as a dead thing (a parrot perhaps?), I also agree that a fairy tale is a nice segue from the old guard to the "new" (I will leave all arguments over the relative merits of 2D v 3D aside, because that is a debate I don't want to go into I'm too scared...).

As for the comedy, I think Disney are making a wise decision in employing comedy devices. The humour in Shrek may have been a little crude, but I (and obviously many others) enjoyed it nonetheless. While Disney shouldn't necessarily resort to this crude comedy, their comedies - or hybrid comedies - have worked well for them in all ventures in the last few years (Lilo and Stitch, Bringing Down the House, Pirates of the Caribbean, and hopefully the upcoming Home on the Range). Comedy has a mass appeal that drama (and in the case of some Disney, melodrama) doesn't always have.

It should be an interesting venture eiher way. I look forward to it.

[2099net]

I have serious doubts about the upcoming Rapunzel, but then again I had serious doubts about Lilo and Stitch.

What worries me now though is... Isn't Disney's upcoming Three Little Pigs a "Shrek" like de-construction of fairy tales too? The Pigs are supposed to run from the wolf by escaping to other famous fairy tales. Then there's the live action/animation Enchanted, which again seems to have some of the fairy tale de-constuction elements in that too.

Why are the same company making 3 similar films at the same time? Why is that same company taking it's inspiration from a three year old movie in the first place? It just seems... wrong.

Still, time will tell if Rapunzel is a success for failure.

[Uncle Remus]

hey i had a crazy idea! what if Disney mix the tales of Rapunzel and Rumpelstilskin together so its like the tale about Rapunzel meeting the prince of her dreams and she decides to leave the tower and go with the prince. Once they get to the castle where the prince lives, the prince's dad, the king, wants to see if Rapunzel is a worthy wife for his son. so this is where the tale about Rumpelstilskin begins where Rapunzel is sent to a room to turn hay into gold and Rumpelstilskin decides to help her in exchange for something valuable that the princess has.

what do you think about that story?

[Prince Adam]

I have serious doubts about the upcoming Rapunzel, but then again I had serious doubts about Lilo and Stitch.

What worries me now though is... Isn't Disney's upcoming Three Little Pigs a "Shrek" like de-construction of fairy tales too? The Pigs are supposed to run from the wolf by escaping to other famous fairy tales. Then there's the live action/animation Enchanted, which again seems to have some of the fairy tale de-constuction elements in that too.

Why are the same company making 3 similar films at the same time? Why is that same company taking it's inspiration from a three year old movie in the first place? It just seems... wrong.

Still, time will tell if Rapunzel is a success for failure.

Enchanted sounds like an awesome movie, though. It does have fairy tale elements, but so far the main angle of the movie is to prove that real love is better than any fairy tale-the majority of the movie is supposedly taking place in New York.