Tangled Discussion Part VI: Let the Drama continue...

[Kyle]

I don't buy that they didn't hit the duplicate button, (or mirrored as its called) it just wastes time. yes its true no one's face is symmetrical, its important to add imperfections, but in CG is far easier to simply go in and tweak each side how you see fit. The topology of the face still needs to remain symmetrical, even if the scale and angles of the features is different. otherwise it would cause problems animating.

[Sotiris]

QUESTION: How did it come about that "Rapunzel" was the basis for this film?

NATHAN GRENO: The idea of turning Rapunzel into an animated film has been around the Disney Studios since the 1930's! We saw a list Walt had made and "Rapunzel" was listed along with "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." It's a great feeling to know Walt Disney wanted to do this film!

QUESTION: Since John Lasseter took over as Disney Animation's creative director, all your films have been "princess" films. Why is this?

BYRON HOWARD: Actually, there have been a few that weren't, like Meet the Robinsons and Bolt. That said, there was a period where we had three fairy tales lined up in a row, Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Snow Queen. That kind of release slate felt too crowded with those types of stories and the decision was made to postpone Snow Queen to break it up a bit. It's important that the audience know that Disney Animation is diverse. Disney should be able to release an animated action movie one year, a sci-fi film the next, and a musical fairy tale the year after that. Ultimately, the quality of the films is what matters.

QUESTION: What does the "chameleon babies" credit mean in the very end of the titles?

BYRON HOWARD: I love that people stick around until the end of the credits and see the "Chameleon Babies" credit. Pascal, our chameleon hero in Tangled, is actually based on a real, live chameleon named Pascal. The real lizard is owned and cared for by Kellie Lewis, an animation artist here at the studio. It just so happened that when we were putting together our traditional "Production Babies" credits, Pascal became a father! His chameleon life-partner laid six eggs which hatched into tiny baby chameleons. My favorite is "Nathan Jr."

QUESTION: In the trailer you used several sequences that didn't end up in the movie. Why leave them in if they weren't part of the finished product?

BYRON HOWARD: Very observant! That's very true: in the initial teaser trailer we created an "alternate reality" version of how Flynn and Rapunzel first meet. This was because many of those scenes were experimental scenes to test the hair and animation technology that we were developing. We liked the tone of the pieces and thought they would be a great first look for the public.

QUESTION: What was your reaction when Tangled got a PG rating instead of the G rating most Disney princess films get?

NATHAN GRENO: We feel like the film sits on the shelf next to Beauty and the Beast. We aren't sure why it got the PG rating -- but we went with it. We didn't feel like there was anything to "fix".

QUESTION: What's the one thing that the other person does that drives you crazy, and what's the one thing they do that you really admire or wish you could improve on yourself?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan keeps telling me how handsome I am, which drives me crazy. Although I really admire what a good judge of handsomeness he is.

QUESTION: You have Bolt, which is an action movie, and Tangled, which is a fairy tale. What would you like for your next movie?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan and I started work on our next project about six months before we finished Tangled. It's got action movie elements, definitely, but most importantly it's got a strong emotional core. That's really the first thing we go after when creating these stories. The actual subject of the film is top secret, but believe me when I tell you that if you liked what you saw in Tangled, you will love our next film.

Source: http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/3 ... than-greno

[Sotiris]

More Tangled Artwork by Bill Schwab (character designer & visual development artist at WDAS):
http://billschwabdesign.blogspot.com/20 ... ngled.html

[Miss Jo]

QUESTION: What's the one thing that the other person does that drives you crazy, and what's the one thing they do that you really admire or wish you could improve on yourself?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan keeps telling me how handsome I am, which drives me crazy. Although I really admire what a good judge of handsomeness he is.

Haha, I love this reply!

[Miss Jo]

QUESTION: You have Bolt, which is an action movie, and Tangled, which is a fairy tale. What would you like for your next movie?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan and I started work on our next project about six months before we finished Tangled. It's got action movie elements, definitely, but most importantly it's got a strong emotional core. That's really the first thing we go after when creating these stories. The actual subject of the film is top secret, but believe me when I tell you that if you liked what you saw in Tangled, you will love our next film.

I'm intrigued! Do we know what film it is that they're referring to?

[LySs]

QUESTION: You have Bolt, which is an action movie, and Tangled, which is a fairy tale. What would you like for your next movie?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan and I started work on our next project about six months before we finished Tangled. It's got action movie elements, definitely, but most importantly it's got a strong emotional core. That's really the first thing we go after when creating these stories. The actual subject of the film is top secret, but believe me when I tell you that if you liked what you saw in Tangled, you will love our next film.

I'm intrigued! Do we know what film it is that they're referring to?

Maybe Reboot Ralph? Although I don't know if it's really "top secret" anymore.

[SWillie!]

I'm intrigued! Do we know what film it is that they're referring to?

Maybe Reboot Ralph? Although I don't know if it's really "top secret" anymore.

No, Reboot Ralph is not being directed by Nathan and Byron. I'm not sure if it's been announced who is, but it's definitely not them. It would be much to fast of a turnaround to come off Tangled and jump right into full on development and production of Reboot.

This quote does make it sound very intriguing though. I'm excited for the next slate announcement. Even though I'm sure they won't be as bold as they were back in 2008 and announce everything for the next four years.

[Kyle]

Yeah, that didn't really turn out well for anyone. neither Pixar nor Disney's schedule turned out to go as planned.

[Fairytales]

whoops.

[Sotiris]

A Virtual Roundtable with "Tangled" Animation Supervisor Glen Keane
http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/3 ... glen-keane

QUESTION: Tangled was first titled Rapunzel Unbraided. It was changed because the story focuses on Rapunzel and Flynn equally. It remained unchanged in parts of Europe however. Do you think Rapunzel isn’t just about Rapunzel? And the hair…

GLEN KEANE: Back in the early stages of Rapunzel, there was a desire to portray the fairy tale in a very modern twist, thus the title Rapunzel Unbraided. Ultimately, I wanted to embrace the classic fairy tale and set that title aside, as well as that story.

QUESTION: This might be a tough question for you to answer, given not just Disney’s push but all the studios’ collective push for 3D, but if there were no outside pressures or preferences, would your preference have been to make a 2D or 3D film? Can you explain?

GLEN KEANE: On John Lasseter's first day at Disney Animation as president, he came down to my office and gave me the choice to animate Rapunzel in 2D or CG. I told John if he had asked me three years ago I would have said 2D for sure but for the last three years I had been building a team around me with the idea that there was a better synthesis of the best of 2D and the best of CG possible. We had a new vision of what animation could be and I really wanted to pursue that goal. So I told John, "Let’s do it in CG."

QUESTION: How did you reach the amazing "organic quality" in terms of the character animation? Did you have any special tools/techniques to improve that effect, or is it in the end just the hard work of the artists?

GLEN KEANE: For me it was very important to find what I call "bridge people." These are people who understand computer and hand-drawn animation. They are translators in a sense. John Kahrs and Clay Kaytis where my partners as supervising animators. I call us "the triumvirate." They found ways to pull me in so I could do what comes naturally to me: draw. We installed a Cintiq tablet in our dailies screening room and I would watch the animators’ recent animation. I could draw over the top of every frame if necessary and the animators would see it large on the screen and those drawings would then appear on each animator’s computer back in their offices. That way it was a constant natural mentorship throughout the making of this film bringing the appeal of hand-drawn into CG.

QUESTION: How developed were the main characters of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider before you went looking for the right voice talents? Can you talk about how the casting of Zachary and Mandy influenced your drawings, if they did at all?

GLEN KEANE: We had the characters very clearly defined before we found the voices. So Mandy and Zac were the perfect match for what we envisioned. However, when you are about to animate a character, the voice has a huge impact on the look of that character. For example, if you are speaking to someone on the phone who you have never met, that voice immediately conjures up images of what that person looks like. Maybe when you meet them they don't look like that but that voice carries the visual DNA in it.

I had been listening to a lot of different actresses and Mandy Moore has that irrepressible quality in her voice. And that was the specific word we were using to describe Rapunzel, irrepressible. Zac has a very carefree irreverence in his personality and voice which affected the way the character moved and also the design. For Rapunzel that irrepressible quality came out in the large eyes that are so expressive and for Zac, this wry smile, the expression that we put into the character really came from listening to Zac's voice.

QUESTION: Bringing Rapunzel to life had to be a big challenge, because she moves in one way but her hair, as another character, has its own life. Could you explain to us the process to animate her? Did you animate Rapunzel first and then her hair? Which steps did you follow?

GLEN KEANE: The first step in animating Rapunzel was to design the character with all the bells and whistles necessary to animate incredibly subtle emotion. That meant working closely with modelers and riggers, the people that create the entire nervous system under the skin of a CG character. Then the directors issue the scene to the animator. Byron and Nathan would act the scene out so the animator could watch their expression and body attitude. Sometimes I would do drawings at that moment as I would interpret Byron as Rapunzel doing that same action. The animator then would do a rough first pass of the animation and I would do drawing corrections over the top in our dailies sessions. The directors would then make comments about what they wanted to take out or add or push.

Once we had the basic movement down we would animate the hair. Sometimes the animator would control the 14 tubes of hair, each with 10,000 hairs in each tube, or we would have the simulation team animate the hair based on the movement the animator had created with the body. The simulation follows the laws of physics with some extra Pixie dust ingredients that our team of hair animators created.

QUESTION: How much video reference was done for Tangled and how did you use it?

GLEN KEANE: The animators had the habit of filming themselves. Sometimes in dailies we would critique the live action that they showed of themselves acting out the scenes. You could select key frames and build a very simplified version of their acting suitable for animation and then build on those poses, exaggerating. We would do that by drawing and pushing the curves of the CG figure, enhancing expressions. But the final effect still held its roots in that original performance that the animator filmed in his or her office. Some of the most amazing animators on the film were a team of female animators who really poured themselves into the character of Rapunzel.

QUESTION: When did you decide to give Rapunzel brown hair in the end? Was that part of the story from day one, or something that came up later in the making of the movie?

GLEN KEANE: The brown hair developed in the process of telling the story. We needed to show that the hair died or lost its power. Color is the clearest way of doing that. It was difficult at first to imagine Rapunzel as a brunette, but ultimately it reinforced the theme that outward appearances don't define who we really are.

QUESTION: If the loss of her hair symbolized the loss of her power to heal, then how did her tears heal Flynn? Is it an inherent power within her that works even without singing or her hair?

GLEN KEANE: The healing tear was an important element in the original fairy tale. It always symbolized for me that the true nature of Rapunzel's gift came from her heart, not her hair. This dramatic ending allows us to revisit a similar moment from Dumbo. When he loses his magic feather and can still fly, he can fly because that's who he was, a flying elephant. Rapunzel finds that the healing power never left her and is actually released by love. Does she keep healing every time she sheds a tear? I believe that was the last of that power.

QUESTION: Would you call Tangled a feminist movie? Your female characters, regardless of who they are, good or bad, are strong and persevering.

GLEN KEANE: I don't think of Tangled as a feminist or non-feminist movie. I think of Rapunzel as an example of the highest qualities of human nature, male or female. I see her as an illustration of every human being who is born with a divine spark, a potential to become something unique. And the walls that surround her, and hold her back, are symbolic of walls in anyone's life, those things that hold us back from being who we really long to be. Yes, that is feminist and masculinist and humanist.

QUESTION: Which one from your many, many past projects was most defining for your career, and why?

GLEN KEANE: I would have to say The Little Mermaid because I discovered I love characters who have this burning desire inside that they believe the impossible is possible. Since then I have followed that path, now with Tangled. This character of Rapunzel has brought me to a new crossroads. How far can hand-drawn affect, or be integrated into, computer animation? I now try to see animation not as CG or hand-drawn but simply as filmmaking.

QUESTION: What´s your opinion about the Disney Animation evolution?

GLEN KEANE: Disney animation needs to continue to evolve, embracing both its hand-drawn heritage and the newest inventions of CG. It's funny but hand-drawn animation at Disney has a look that was created out of technical limitations, i.e. painting on cells. CG can liberate us from this restrictive form. It's a future I am anxious to be a part of.

QUESTION: Which is your favorite Disney character hairstyle of all time?

GLEN KEANE: The hairstyle is very important because it is like someone’s signature. Rapunzel and Ariel vie for that special honor of having the favorite hairstyle for me. They both have the distinctive swoop that I emphasize for the doll makers and the merchandise books to follow. Both hairstyles have rhythm and volume. There is a sensuality to hair that I am fascinated with, it's movement, it's feel and this softening effect it can have on the audience's attraction to that character.

[Goliath]

I watched Rapunzel again, this time on dvd, and while I first 'only' liked it very much, I now totally love it! I was also struck by how "Disney" it is, because it has loads of Disney Essence in it! I'm not kidding, like I've said before, I *do* believe there's "something" to all Disney films that distinguishes them from other companies' outlets. I just wouldn't call it "Disney Essence". Nor would I limit it to only Walt's works and movies I've seen in my childhood.

Obviously, all movies that have the name 'Disney' on them, are "Disney". But it's true that there are a few movies from the company that don't have that certain quality that defines what a Disney movie is all about. I think movies like The Sword in the Stone, The Aristocats and The Black Cauldron fall into this category. (Two of which I like very much.) Again, I'm not saying they're "not Disney-like", yet they seem to miss something that's hard to name. But I would never pin that on superficial aspects like a modern setting, a twist on an old fairytale, alien characters, cartoon violence etc. That has nothing to do with it. It's a certain kind of storytelling --and it *is* there in Rapunzel!

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing it again. Rapunzel is now definitly one of my favorite Disney princesses and Flynn one of my favorite heroes. I enjoyed the great chemistry between them; the believable, authentic development of their relationship; the humoristic contrast between their personalities (world-wise vs. naive) etc. I have also come to appreciate the songs a lot better and I now think a lot more of 'I See the Light'.

Edit: I want to thank everybody who has uploaded and/or posted the deleted scenes on here! I watched them right after watching the movie, and they were all amazing! So sad they didn't end up on the dvd.

Edit 2: Thank you to whoever screwed up the page.

[disneyprincess11]

QUESTION: How did it come about that "Rapunzel" was the basis for this film?

NATHAN GRENO: The idea of turning Rapunzel into an animated film has been around the Disney Studios since the 1930's! We saw a list Walt had made and "Rapunzel" was listed along with "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." It's a great feeling to know Walt Disney wanted to do this film!

Haha that's so awesome! I wonder why Walt never did it. I hope a Disney historian finds concept art.

The one that struck my eye the most is....

QUESTION: Since John Lasseter took over as Disney Animation's creative director, all your films have been "princess" films. Why is this?

BYRON HOWARD: Actually, there have been a few that weren't, like Meet the Robinsons and Bolt. That said, there was a period where we had three fairy tales lined up in a row, Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Snow Queen. That kind of release slate felt too crowded with those types of stories and the decision was made to postpone Snow Queen to break it up a bit. It's important that the audience know that Disney Animation is diverse. Disney should be able to release an animated action movie one year, a sci-fi film the next, and a musical fairy tale the year after that. Ultimately, the quality of the films is what matters.

So, that may be the reason why it got postponed! Hey, a wait a sec! King of Elves is in the works, which could be qualified as a musical fairytale! Then, that means that Snow Queen will be back in the works RIGHT AFTER or towards the end of production for King of the Elves! So, that means (AGAIN) we MAY get Snow Queen around 2016-2021!!!!

QUESTION: You have Bolt, which is an action movie, and Tangled, which is a fairy tale. What would you like for your next movie?

BYRON HOWARD: Nathan and I started work on our next project about six months before we finished Tangled. It's got action movie elements, definitely, but most importantly it's got a strong emotional core. That's really the first thing we go after when creating these stories. The actual subject of the film is top secret, but believe me when I tell you that if you liked what you saw in Tangled, you will love our next film.

Ooooooh, I can't wait!

[mokka456]

Chinese Tangled songs!:

Mother Knows Best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-Efnny ... ideo_title

Mother Knows Best reprise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfwzBOKO ... ideo_title

When Will My Life Begin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Va0iqy ... ideo_title

When Will My Life Begin reprise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJajVIX ... ideo_title

[SpringHeelJack]

But seriously, Person Who Posted That Screencap Whom I Don't Feel Like Scrolling Up To Identify, can you resize or post a link or something instead of stretching out the whole page?

On a semi-related note, I was reading this old New York Times article on the novel "Pollyanna" and there's a reference in it to a quote from Walt Disney from when his movie version opened and failed to perform financially as expected:

"I think the picture would have done better with a different title. Girls and women went to it, but men tended to stay away because it sounded sweet and sticky.''

So it would seem that altering a title to increase financial success is something that dear old Uncle Walt toyed with back in the day, too... thus you can make the argument that changing the name from "Rapunzel" to "Tangled" is dripping with patented Disney Essence(c)!

[Escapay]

Pollyanna is a live-action movie. It doesn't count in certain sections of Disney fandom.

Besides, Disney Essence© is only effective on specific animated films. Mainly the ones involving a princess, a form of magic, and/or a complete absence of anything after the Industrial Revolution.

And I third the motion for Fairytales to change the posted image to a link or to a smaller image.

albert

[SpringHeelJack]

WALT DISNEY SPAT, SWEATED, AND PISSED DISNEY ESSENCE (C) ALL OVER EVERY MOVIE THAT WAS MADE BY THE STUDIO WHILE HE WAS ALIVE, ALBERT, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

[MJW]

I watched Rapunzel again, this time on dvd, and while I first 'only' liked it very much, I now totally love it!

I agree, I saw it in the theater in 3D and thought it was good, however, didn't really have strong feelings about it up unil the Blu-ray/DVD release. I've already rewatched the film at home 3 times and can't get enough. Everytime I watch it I notice something new, and am in complete awe of the animation, facial expressions of the characters, etc. I also love Mother Gothel; in addition to being evil, she's so dramatic and vain I can't help but laugh.

I think Disney hit the nail right on the head with Tangled, and I hope they've got some great things coming our way in the future.

[Escapay]

WALT DISNEY SPAT, SWEATED, AND PISSED DISNEY ESSENCE (C) ALL OVER EVERY MOVIE THAT WAS MADE BY THE STUDIO WHILE HE WAS ALIVE, ALBERT, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

Whenever I visit the Disney Discussion, I'm reminded of it time and again.

albert

[KubrickFan]

WALT DISNEY SPAT, SWEATED, AND PISSED DISNEY ESSENCE (C) ALL OVER EVERY MOVIE THAT WAS MADE BY THE STUDIO WHILE HE WAS ALIVE, ALBERT, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

For some reason, your post reminded me of this:

[SpringHeelJack]

WALT DISNEY SPAT, SWEATED, AND PISSED DISNEY ESSENCE (C) ALL OVER EVERY MOVIE THAT WAS MADE BY THE STUDIO WHILE HE WAS ALIVE, ALBERT, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

For some reason, your post reminded me of this:

I can only assume he secreted Disney Essence (c) that way too.