Tangled (Live-Action)

[Disney's Divinity]

Levi does sound a bit crazy and Mandy Moore looks unrecognizable these days, but I do still hope they play the King and Queen here, that would be a nice send-off moment after doing the series.

[Disney Duster]

Despite what Levi has done I would still welcome him to play the King with Mandy as his Queen.

[PatchofBlue]

I've heard rumors that this one is dropping in 2028, though official confirmation is still forthcoming.

I can't recall, does Disney have a LA remake planned for next year? A two-year break between remakes would be unusual for their model.

[Disney's Divinity]

2028. So the same year as Frozen IV. I assume earlier in the year.

[Vlad]

I guess we'll know for sure when they announce it at the D23 Expo.

[PatchofBlue]

The designs are all looking darn near identical, which feels like a lost opportunity. Like, I don't want to watch this thinking that I am watching character actors at Disneyland.

But it looks like Diego Luna's character isn't replacing The Stabbingtons after all. I guess he could be a replacement for the Captain of the Guard, or he could just be someone built from the ground up.

[Disney Duster]

Damn, the Stabbington Brothers are hot! So are their costumes. I also love the new costumes and mosaic of the King and Queen. The new mosaic background is also better than the mere rays of sunlight in the mosaic of the original.

[Disney's Divinity]

Looks perfect. Love the mosaic.

Just a shame both this and Moana have turned out good, look likely to almost be better than the originals in my book (with Moana specifically--the singing sounds a bit better, the actress for Tala is more interesting than the animated character, Maui doesn't look nearly as terrible), and then they go and completely crap all over TP&TF. Reminds me of how they did all the Fab 4 on Broadway well--except for TLM. Well, I guess I could say the same with the remakes.

So of my favorites, that's Mulan, TLM, Cinderella, and TP&TF they mostly screwed up. That just leaves Hercules and Frozen they could possibly still do decent, faithful versions of that someone would actually want to see. To be fair, I did like B&tB, TLK, and also Pinocchio (for the most part), as far as my favorite animated films go. And I re-watched the Glenn Close Dalmatians the other day and it's actually really good, too, although you could cut about 20 minutes of fat out here and there. Thank God it came back in the '90s, no way they would've got that one right these days. A shame both it and Pinocchio don't have any DVD or Blu-ray release.

I suppose L&tT is another in my top 10-15 with a remake that was unwatchable levels of terrible.

[Disney Duster]

I am so glad you like the costumes and mosaic, Divinity!

I think I just realized, you mainly didn’t like Cinderella because it was so different from the animated film? Yes, I know you did not like the title character actress’ performance, the confused stepmother (I wish I knew why you call her confused), and the blue dress, but it seems the main reason you didn’t like it was it was trying to be a new take on the story that paid homage to the original, not a super faithful remake?

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, yes and no. At the time, it and Alice didn't seem marketed as remakes per se like the later films. I really didn't like it as its own adaptation. But as time has gone by, and it's sort of become included as a remake by default with the later films, I resent it even more because I would have loved a proper remake of the 1950 film (and it does include some things from that film like names, Cinderella's father's outfit, the re-created dress transformation, the end credit songs, the mice for it to be considered one--just very unfaithful to me).

The funny thing is it aired on Freeform the day after your post, so I skimmed through it. I just don't think Lily James is like the animated character. Cinderella and Ariel always felt, to me anyway, like the two princess characters that you get to see the widest personality and dimension from. Halle Bailey doesn't fully capture Ariel either, but I think she came closer than James as Cinderella. I just don't like Cinderella being turned into something so dull, more like Aurora and SW than Cinderella. I realized this watch that Lily James actually feels more like she should've been cast as Aurora really. Between the long hair, her general blandness, I could've totally seen her as that character. Which then made me think that they did copy Sleeping Beauty by having her and the prince meeting in the woods, too? They do feel much more like Aurora and Phillip than Cinderella and her Prince....but I'm not really a fan of SB aside from Maleficent, I want Cinderella in Cinderella.

I hate how long the prologue goes on and it's sort of cringeworthy for me like the first scenes in Maleficent and Cruella, quite unlike the gorgeous intro of the original film (referring to Gerson's voiceover). I do give them a pass for adding in one scene to show her mother since the remakes tried to expound more on the missing mothers in these stories (which makes me think it's a decision made from on high that wasn't optional much like Cinderella's dress being blue to match merchandise rather than the proper white/silver), but they could have left it at that. I hate the scenes of the father, particularly the one of the stepmother overhearing him talking to Cinderella about how "trying" they are. The original gives you a better impression of Cinderella's father even though he's offscreen just by how well the film portrays the Stepmother as a perfect role model and loving mother (to her own daughters) on the surface, that you can intuit he thought he was making a good choice for Cinderella's upbringing whereas he comes across here more of a dope like the Sultan or Maurice. The original makes you believe he honestly never saw Tremaine's true nature even once they were married--and in fact nobody really does in the film, only the viewer sees, even Cinderella only finally sees there's no possibility of a real relationship with the stepmother when she instigates her dress being torn, imo. If the father saw what she was after marrying her, he would've done what he had to do to protect Cinderella in the possibility of his death. And anyway Cinderella's relationship with Tremaine in the original begins while she was still a child, not full-grown, which adds to its abusive nature and also makes more sense out of how she fell into this servile dynamic and how she still (in the early parts of the 1950 film) looks at Tremaine to some degree as a mother figure up until the dress-ripping scene. If Cinderella isn't still a child when it begins, it makes her situation more unbelievable and also doesn't fit with the father picking someone who would hypothetically raise Cinderella well as a maternal figure since she's already fully-formed at this age not in need of a mother.

I sort of hate everything about the stepmother in this version. She isn't fullblown trashy like Bernadette Peters or Jennifer Coolidge that she can be comical and isn't refined, intelligent, and elegant like the 1950 character or Angelica Huston to be interesting or complex in her subtlety, it's a perfectly unsatisfying no-man's land for me. Cate Blanchett's star power aside, she's not fun to watch at all. Really the only moments with her in the whole film I can bear to watch are near the very end--her finding the slipper (really just particular lines sandwiched in the rest--"Given to you? Nothing is given, for everything you have to pay, pay. ... Love is not free.") and the last two moments of her having to retrieve Cinderella from the attic and then on the stairs as she leaves.

As far as her costumes, I hated the change to green, but especially the one they gave her wear the most which is more of a baby crap green. At least the emerald one is a gorgeous shade, but it all feels like they did the same thing with her that they tried to do with Ursula in that remake (and musical)--make her more like other villains. Maleficent, mostly, with the green, and also the Queen with the peacock feather designs. I guess red would have clashed with Blanchett's red-orange hair, but they could've asked her to be blonde for the film, that would've worked better with a red costume. I think Tremaine is sort of the mold for almost all the '50s villains because of how successful Cinderella was becayse they're all in red except Maleficent (and even she initially was planned to include red in her design), so it's sort of a shame Tremaine isn't in that hue. She, Hook, the Queen of Hearts, and Cruella are the villains I most connect to that color really. Then there's the color pallette for Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother seemingly being switched. I would've rather Cinderella had the FG's dress, tbh, minus the collar-thing (it works for the FG role though). The blue dress does look okay from a distance in certain shots like when she's walking down the hall, that's all I got. I don't like her work clothes or the initial pink dress either. But I still do lovelove the wedding dress, at least they got one of them. The dress transformation was good. The coach isn't terrible, I just think round and silver to some extent like the animated film would have been more pretty visually. I think they chose gold to not clash with the blue they went with for the dress though.

And I do think the film would've been better with the songs for sure. Even if they weren't turned into full-fledged musical moments, just small without backing music similar to her singing in the attic. The Sherman Bros made songs that were more hummable type music anyway.

[PatchofBlue]

My favorite thing about the mural is having the King and Queen hovering over baby Rapunzel.



I myself have always loved Lily James' Cinderella, but I'd acknowledge that she feels less like a reinterpretation of Ilene Woods' character and more just her own Cinderella built from the ground up. I've even thought that she feels more like Aurora than 1950 Cinderella. I feel like before "Beauty and the Beast" they hadn't totally figured out the purpose of the remakes and whether these were going to be just straight-up adaptations of the animated texts or just like another imagining of the original fairy-tale.

[Sotiris]

What is it with these remakes and costuming? 9 times out of 10 the costumes suck.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tangled/commen ... _rapunzel/

[Patricier21]

What is it with these remakes and costuming? 9 times out of 10 the costumes suck.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tangled/commen ... _rapunzel/

Really? Because I think this looks quite good, and very loyal to the original movie, same with Flynn‘s. Guess there’s just no pleasing people, or maybe we do have a real life Heartless investation….

[Disney Duster]

Thank you for your response, Divinity!

Hm, you know, it strikes me as weird I don’t have a closer opinion to yours for Cinderella (2015). I would have adored a more faithful remake, really close to the 1950’s original and mostly superior designs. Maybe I just loved getting to see something more new and different with the direction they went? Maybe I would have loved a super faithful remake as much as getting to see something different, but that I also found beautiful, like what we did get?

Lily James is indeed not like the soft but sassy and sarcastic original Ilene Woods Cinderella, like you and PatchofBlue said, but like Patches I do like her as her own nice version of the Cinderella archetype. You really think Ariel and Cinderella have the widest personality and dimension?! Then why is Cinderella not your second favorite princess?Haha I really wanna know. Ariel definitely is the princess with the most personality and to this day she is the gold standard that I believe Rapunzel was based off of. It helped make Rapunzel a great character.

I always thought the meeting of Ella and Kit in the forest in Cinderella (2015) was like Briar Rose and Phillip’s meeting in Sleeping Beauty.

I, too, think the prologue goes on a bit too long, but it does help build the happy ending payoff to me (like how Ella looks in the mirror and she hears her mother’s words). Also, the mother being expanded on was probably Chris Weitz the screenwriter’s decision since this was before the studio wanted remakes to be a certain way. I mean this movie was before the remakes were remakes. Chris spoke about how he wanted to deepen the characters and he tried to do that with Ella with her mother. Plus, Cinderella’s dying mother telling her to be kind is in the Grimm’s version, which this film also referenced (also with the tree branch her father gives Ella). And the costume designer, Sandy Powell, considered nanny different dress colors and landed on blue as the best one. She said Disney “left her alone” on the costumes with such candor she was probably telling the truth, but she admitted if she had not decided blue on her own they probably would have told her “it has to be blue” lol.

I must admit what you said about Lady Tremaine and Cinderella’s father in the 2015 film vs. the 1950 makes sense and…I never realized those smart observations before. I guess you are right, there.

So the way you thought 2015’s Lady Tremaine was “confused”, like you said once, was she was sometimes trashy and other times elegant? I am sorry you don’t like watching Cate’s stepmother until the end. At least you like her lines in the attic, like I do.

The “baby crap” green comment was funny haha. But green really connects to the green and envy of the character and looks good with the red hair. Hey, did they do peacock feather designs on the 2025 Snow White Queen? Where were the peacock designs, I must have missed them. Anyway, I liked all the costumes except the pink dress, so we still differ in opinion, except liking a few of the same costumes like the Fairy Godmother’s and Ella’s wedding dress. And the original pumpkin coach, first appearing in the Perrault fairy tale, was gold, so that may be why the 2015 one was, aside from it looking good with the blue dress. I like that coach, too. But we do agree, the original 1950 costume and coach designs were mostly prettier.

As you know I am not big on the original’s songs, so I liked the decision to do a rare straight film adaptation. But you know, the small, less musical versions done of those songs, may have worked and been nice, I don’t know. Oh, and Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman did the songs for Cinderella (1950), not the Sherman Brothers.

Sotiris, I agree with Patricier21, I think, even though I would have preferred more like the shorter, paned Cranach gown sleeve rolls for the slashed sleeves, Rapunzel’s live-action costume looks great. Way better than Snow White’s. Thank God.

[PatchofBlue]

I would have preferred some more creative license in the costume department, but as far as recreations go, it's a lot more organic than the "Snow White" clown outfits. The colors look much more natural while still possessing that fairy-tale vibrance.

Croft herself looks really at home in the full getup. We should probably wait for some actual footage, but I could believe that this girl is a lost princess.

[Disney Duster]

i agree, Bluey (can I call you Bluey instead of Patches, PatchofBlue? It's cuter!).

So, Snow White's original 1937 dress was probably inspired by the early 16th century Cranach painter's dresses:


And interestingly, despite being set in 1780s Germany as the directors say, Rapunzel definitely follows this same slashed/paned sleeve type with a sketch by Holbein from 1525-26 looking like it:


Well, ok the sleeves are not slashed and paned there. They are in these 1565-67 paintings:


I wonder-do you think Disney made Rapunzel's dress slashed-sleeved like Snow White's because Tangled was a return to their fairy tale beginnings?

And I wish this live-action Tangled went more the way of those paintings, like this one cosplayer did:


I can't recall a painting where the slashed/paned sleeves were all mushroom-cap-like as Snow White and Rapunzel's kinda are, but whatever. I actually LOVE this Tangled live-action Rapunzel dress that will be in the actual, official film. If you zoom in, you notice the lacing, which I'm betting will look great fully laced up in the final film!

[Disney's Divinity]

I love that clipart you used of Rapunzel, Duster. I would've loved the dress in the original film if she looked more like that--both the shade, the face, and shoes instead of bare feet look nicer. I suppose I would have enjoyed the film in hand-drawn then, the models for her and Flynn are just rough to look at compared to the human characters in later 3D movies. Something about the corset especially looks awful in the movie.

I like these costumes. But I also liked Snow White's dress.

[Disney Duster]

Was my talking of Cinderella too much to continue? lol I understand if you just felt there wasn't much left to talk about there. I just wish you let me know.

Rapunzel (and her sleeves) definitely looked better in the hand-drawn design:


Of course I really preferred her sleeves here:

[Disney's Divinity]

Oh, sorry, I did read it yesterday, just forgot when I was posting now.

You really think Ariel and Cinderella have the widest personality and dimension?! Then why is Cinderella not your second favorite princess?

I go back and forth with her and Tiana as my #2, depending on the day. They're all around the same area though. I'm pretty sure Megara is my favorite (good) female character? But she's technically not a princess. After Ariel, Tiana, and Cinderella, I also like Pocahontas, Elsa, Anna, and Rapunzel a lot. I like Mulan (the film) much more than Pocahontas (the film) and Tangled, but Mulan (the character) is much less dynamic (maybe?) than them. I guess with the M&C characters, you tend to see both the good and bad sides of a character, which I enjoy because they feel more human, whereas a lot of characters like the Walt princesses, Belle, Moana, Pocahontas, etc. don't really have much if any bad qualities. But at least Cinderella, you do get a lot of personality and I understand why she's supposed to be a uniquely good character for that story to make sense.

Hey, did they do peacock feather designs on the 2025 Snow White Queen?

They had the peacock emblem in place of the medallion on her original design (the clasp--I guess?--at the center of the collar).

I'm not super crazy about the original's songs either, it's really just Ilene Woods' voice I liked, aside from "Nightingale," "Cinderella," and the choral ending. (Also love several deleted songs)

[Disney Duster]

Oh, oh ok thank you for giving a response now!

You know, I realize it was not fair of me to ask why Cinderella isn't your 2nd favorite just because you think she shows a lot of personality and dynamism, because I think Ariel shows the most personality, but she is only my third favorite. I like Cinderella and Aurora more, even though they show less personality, just because I like the personality they do show, with their soft voices along with their designs. And I think objectively Belle is the best princess. She seems to be the one that, though liked less than Ariel, and maybe even less than Cinderella (not sure), she is so well-done and liked by so many, still. She doesn't do some reckless and non-thinking things. 'Course, like you said its good to have flaws like Ariel shows more than any other princess in my opinion. And I'm glad you recognized Cinderella is supposed to be super good so it's hard to show flaws in her. And I like Anna and Elsa and Rapunzel, too. Yes, I realize other than Ariel and Anna I have a thing for blondes. I am not saying my favorite characters are the best, just that they are my favorite.

Oh, I found a close-up of the clasp. Seems to be a square and some other elements with peacock colors:


Yeah, yeah we pretty much agree on the songs. Even Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't create very good Cinderella songs in my opinion except for "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" being the best Cinderella song I have heard. I wrote Cinderella songs for my own version that I like better than any other Cinderella songs. 'Course I'm biased, their mine lol.