Disney's marketing of Rapunzel and the Snow Queen

[jade]

Am i the only one really bothered by Disney's marketing of classic fairytales right now?

Tangled was a great movie (atleast i thought so) and Frozen should be pretty good too. But why go with names like ''Frozen'' and ''Tangled'', seems like sacrilege to me. Something about it just feels wrong. I think it could hurt the longevity and overall prestige of the films.

''Rapunzel'' and ''The Snow Queen'' both sound so much more prestigious. I wouldn't mind it one bit if one day Disney decides to re-brand these films.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

[Disney Duster]

When they changed Rapunzel's titile to Tangled, almost every single member here got upset. After the film came to video and it was the last measure of the title sticking for good, I actually protested to have the title change in front of the Disney Store in New York.

I still hope one day Disney changes Tangled's and Frozen's titles back to their original names.

[DancingCrab]

Hell was raised, petitions were signed, articles were printed during the Rapunzel to Tangled name change, and Disney didn't budge. I was one of those irate back in 2010 over Tangled. Once I saw the movie and enjoyed it, I quickly got over it though, as did most people (from my perspective at least).

Honestly I don't think any of us expected anything different for The Snow Queen after Tangled's success. The main thing though is that I do not have the energy to be pissed off over it again, after having witnessed how useless all our protesting was for Tangled.

It stinks that they changed the titles, but it's not THAT big of a deal in the end. The quality of the movie itself is more important to me.

[SWillie!]

Do we really need a topic for this? I feel like this is already all we've talked about for the past three years! What more can possibly be said?

[Sky Syndrome]

I'm not thrilled some countries have "Rapunzel" in the film's opening.
Whether Disney chose "Rapunzel" or "Tangled", everyone should have the same title Disney chose in the end.

[Atlantica]

I think it is what it is; it was a shame it was changed, but then you could argue was that a factor is Tangled's cross-over success? Yes, the film would still have been critically acclaimed BUT would the box office been as huge if it was strictly the original 'Princess-like' title?

Now I am NOT saying I agree with the change, I'm just saying if you could look at it that way, do you think it was one of the contributing factors of the films success? Effectively 'gender-neutralizing' the film. Not in all markets I know, but the UK and USA at least (I don't know the full list of the changed countries).

[Marky_198]

Here in Europe the film is called "Rapunzel", on the film's opening, posters, soundrack, everything.

Simply because there is no translation for the word "tangled" other than "clitty" or "a clit mess" or something in that style. Tangles means "klitten/clits" over here.

It will always be something like "hair with tangles". Which doesn't make sense. A past participle word here always starts with "ge". So it would be "A ge-clit mess".

That would just sound dumb and silly.

"Frozen" is another title that can not be translated to a title here. A title can not be an adjective/past participle on it's own.

[Mayhem]

Adjective, not verb

I guess it depends how it translates into other languages. It was still called Tangled here in the UK, and I imagine the new film will be called Frozen as well...

[Marky_198]

Thanks! I edited it.

[Atlantica]

I didn't realise it wasn't changed in some countries as it literally didn't translate !! Maybe that does indeed show how insignificant the title really is ?! Who knows...

[Disney's Divinity]

Honestly I don't think any of us expected anything different for The Snow Queen after Tangled's success. The main thing though is that I do not have the energy to be pissed off over it again, after having witnessed how useless all our protesting was for Tangled.

Do you like Cinderella 2 because it would take too much "energy" to dislike it? Disliking something is not the same as protesting, considering I didn't even go on protests of Tangled ( Why would anybody bother?), because it's easy to know that Disney is not going to listen.

I think the title changes are awful and stupid, and of course they will always be awful and stupid. No matter how good or bad the films may be, they will always have those embarassing titles. Nothing else to add.

[russds]

I like that they changed it to Tangled actually. For selfish reasons, it's so much easier to google or twitter #tangled and get results of the movie. Where if it were just called Rapunzel, or even "Rapunzel Unbraided" I might get mixed results, or unwanted results. Simply "Tangled" makes it easier.

On the other hand, I'm a bit confused by "Frozen". That to me, almost sounds like a Tangled sequel it's so similar. They are both past tense verbs, and almost sounds like just a copy of "Tangled". We were tangled, now we are frozen! I like the one word titles (easy to google) but it would be nice if they could come up with something a little more creative.

[DancingCrab]

Honestly I don't think any of us expected anything different for The Snow Queen after Tangled's success. The main thing though is that I do not have the energy to be pissed off over it again, after having witnessed how useless all our protesting was for Tangled.

Do you like Cinderella 2 because it would take too much "energy" to dislike it?

No, because liking a good movie with a generic title is not the same thing as liking a bad movie. Your comparison doesn't float.

Also, by protesting, all I meant was I wrote a letter protesting the title change to Disney and signed whatever petitions were online. I didn't picket any headquarters or anything. I think some people just take the word "protest" to always mean some sort of melodramatic action, when that's not always the case for using that word.

My point was that in the end, Tangled was a good movie, so I was able to let go of my frustration that it wasn't titled Rapunzel, for the most part. I'll wait till Frozen is released to see if the movie itself is any good, and won't hold the lackluster title for or against it.

[Disney's Divinity]

Do you like Cinderella 2 because it would take too much "energy" to dislike it?

No, because liking a good movie with a generic title is not the same thing as liking a bad movie. Your comparison doesn't float.

Disliking something (whether it's a movie or a title) is the same thing. The comparison works fine.

My point is that it doesn't take "energy" to say, "I don't like something." I would think it'd take more energy to pretend or force yourself to like something. That's all I'm saying.

[DancingCrab]

No, because liking a good movie with a generic title is not the same thing as liking a bad movie. Your comparison doesn't float.

Disliking something (whether it's a movie or a title) is the same thing. The comparison works fine.

My point is that it doesn't take "energy" to say, "I don't like something." I would think it'd take more energy to pretend or force yourself to like something. That's all I'm saying.

Are you being serious? There is a HUGE difference between sitting down and watching a 90 minute movie that is good and one that is bad, compared to a title that flashes on screen. A "meh" title does not all of a sudden deem a movie like Tangled in the same category of something like Cinderella 2. The comparison makes NO sense because the two things are not similar. That's just judging a book by it's cover.

I feel like you're taking what I said out of context. Perhaps what I should have wrote to be more clear was that what little energy/effort it takes to write a letter of disappointment to Disney doesn't seem to be worth it. Three years ago, I had a little more belief it would if enough people did. I learned it made no difference. I never said I changed my mind and liked the title Tangled better than Rapunzel after seeing the movie. But after watching Tangled, I realized that in the end, the overall movie is more important than it's lacking title, so it's not as big a deal to me as it once was.

[Disney's Divinity]

Are you being serious? There is a HUGE difference between sitting down and watching a 90 minute movie that is good and one that is bad, compared to a title that flashes on screen. A "meh" title does not all of a sudden deem a movie like Tangled in the same category of something like Cinderella 2. The comparison makes NO sense because the two things are not similar. That's just judging a book by it's cover.

You're still not following. I'm comparing things I dislike: Tangled (the title) and Cinderella 2 (the movie). I was not comparing Tangled (the movie) to Cinderella 2 (the movie). My main point was it doesn't take any more energy to dislike something that's bad, like Tangled (the title) and Cinderella 2 (the movie), than it does to like something.

I really didn't think this would end up dragging out.

[Wonderlicious]

Not in all markets I know, but the UK and USA at least (I don't know the full list of the changed countries).

You can look them up on IMDb and perhaps do a bit of Google translation if needs be. Being a saddo, I looked up some of the titles in other languages. These are some of the ones that either kept the original title or kept Rapunzel (or a translation of her name) in the title:

Rapunzel (Dutch/Flemish)
Rapuntsel (Estonian)
Raiponce (French)
Rapunzel: Neu verwöhnt (German - a somewhat idiomatic title, interestingly could be Englished as "Rapunzel: Unbraided" in the sense of it being an old tale told anew)
Rapunzel: L'intreccio della torre (Italian - I believe a translation could be "Rapunzel: The Story of the Tower", with "l'intreccio" also having meanings similar to intertwining, tangling etc)
Aranyhaj és a nagy gubanc (Hungarian - Golden Hair and the Big Tangle)
Рапунцел и разбойникът (Russian - I believe a translation would mean "Rapunzel and Flynn Rider")

Though I'm far, far less irate about the name changes than before, I will agree that the name changes for Tangled/Rapunzel and Frozen/The Snow Queen are stupid, as much as it's a result of Disney shooting themselves in the feet with their aggressive Princess merchandise. It's especially ironic now that Rapunzel is included so much in Disney Princess merchandise, and that Elsa and Anna have been practically announced already as the new Disney Princesses. To be honest, though, I don't think that the silly name of Tangled takes any of my own joy away from watching such a lovely film (in fact, I finally got round to watching it for a second time yesterday). I do informally refer to it as "Tangled, Disney's Rapunzel movie", though.

[russds]

I do informally refer to it as "Tangled, Disney's Rapunzel movie", though.

This reminds me, my son, who just turned 5, calls is "The Princess Movie". I didn't teach him this or anything, this is just kind of what he picked up on after having seen it. His simplicity kind of sums it up, however Disney marketed it, or titled it, ultimately, it's "the princess movie".