Evolution of Rapunzel
Comparing the Myths that made the Movie
As many people know, many Disney movies are based on tales and true stories; however, these stories have been altered by Disney to make them more film-worthy and family-friendly. In recent years, this idea of Disney editing its stories has become controversial amongst its viewers. Many people, however, need to learn that Disney also edited the famed story of Rapunzel.
The changes made to Tangled are not as drastic as the ones made to Pocahontas, but it is still important for people to know what the true story of Rapunzel is and where it comes from. By knowing the early stories of Rapunzel, one will be more appreciative of Tangled and better able to understand why Disney chose to make a movie about Rapunzel.
Understanding Tangled
It is crucial to understand the plot of Disney’s movie Tangled in order to recognize how Disney has edited the Grimm Brothers’ story of Rapunzel and why. Many people have seen the movie Tangled, but for those who have not, it is important to know the main plot line of the movie. According to “Review: Disney’s ‘Tangled’ updates Rapunzel” published in the Gainesville Sun, the movie starts with a pregnant mother consuming a magical flower that belongs to Mother Gothel, which gives the mother’s child, Rapunzel, magical healing hair. The same review article also notes that Mother Gothel then steals Rapunzel and locks her in a tower so she can use her hair to stay young. In an interview posted by Tribute Movies, Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, the directors of Tangled, discuss how they changed the love interest from a prince to a thief, and rather than him visiting her in the tower, he takes her outside to see the floating lanterns that she has been dreaming about for her 18th birthday.
The Gainesville Sun’s review also indicates that once out of the tower, Rapunzel and the thief, Flynn Rider, “set out on a journey that will include a tavern full of theatrical thugs, chase scenes and moments of budding romance.” The story’s climax hits when Rapunzel and Flynn Rider’s journey ends, and they are taken away from each other by Mother Gothel and the Stabbington brothers. In the end, Flynn Rider escapes prison and saves Rapunzel from the tower, where he kills Mother Gothel by cutting off Rapunzel’s hair, which is keeping Mother Gothel alive. With this understanding of Tangled, it becomes more clear why Disney chose to make a movie on Rapunzel’s story that required numerous revisions of the original tales.
The O.G. Story of Petrosinella
Understanding the first story of A Maiden in a Tower is essential because this is the story from which most writers of a Rapunzel story have retrieved their ideas from. Marina Warner, an English historian writing for Marvels & Tales, explains that the first known story of a maiden in a tower is titled Petrosinella and begins with a woman promising her child to an ogress after being caught taking parsley from the ogress’s garden. According to D. L. Ashliman’s translation of Petrosinella, the ogress did not immediately take the child but instead met with the child every day to remind the mom of her promise until she was so mad she gave up the child named Parsley. The ogress then takes Parsley and locks her up in a tower, where a prince sees her long hair and comes to rescue her and falls in love. This is what makes the first story of a maiden locked in a tower so similar to all the other versions of the story of Rapunzel.
To separate this story from the others, Laura J. Getty, in the Mosaic: a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, states that at the end of the tale, “the third [magical] bean turns into a wolf, who, seeing the ogress in the donkey skin, swallows her whole”. The story Petrosinella is what creates the original outline for future Rapunzel stories.
In order to assess the entire evolution of Rapunzel, it is necessary to compare and contrast the first story of a maiden in a tower, Petrosinella, to the most recent story of Rapunzel, Disney’s movie Tangled. Ashliman claims that at the beginning of both stories, a pregnant mother is stealing from a witch-like woman; however, in Petrosinella, the child is promised and given to the witch, and in Tangled, the child is taken. The directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, in an interview with ScreenSlam, claim that the central portion of the stories is different because in the Tangled version, Rapunzel leaves the tower, and this is not seen in any other version. Getty adds to this, sharing that the Petrosinella tale ends with the witch being eaten by a wolf that emerged from a magical bean. The movie Tangled ends with the witch dying because Flynn Rider cuts off Rapunzel’s hair because its magical powers are keeping the witch young and alive.
At first glance, these two stories’ endings may seem very different; however, Tangled’s ending is more similar to Petrosinella’s ending than any of the other versions. Kendra Magnusson in Marvels & Tales goes deeper into the movie Tangled, analyzing the magic portion of the movie. From this angle, the stories both end with the witch dying due to magical causes. It is important to compare Tangled to Petrosinella because even though the directors used the Grimms’ tale to get some ideas, in many ways, Tangled is more similar to Petrosinella.
Comparing the Characters Petrosinella and Rapunzel
Petrosinella and Rapunzel may both be two maidens locked in a tower waiting for a man to save them but that doesn’t mean that they are the same; in fact they are quite different. Ashliman states the very obvious difference between them is that Rapunzel in a princes and Petrosinella is just a fair maiden. Rapunzel's hair is also a big part of the movie Tangled and is hardly mentioned in Petrosinella’s story. Magnusson discusses the topic of Rapunzel’s hair and how it is used throughout the movie. Magnusson goes on to say that Rapunzel’s hair was used as “an instrument of self-defense (used by the heroine as a lasso, a swing, a rope, and finally as the trip wire that disposes of the villain) but also as a burden.” In the Petrosinella story, it hardly even mentions her hair.
Another key difference is the two maidens’ appearances. As pictured above, the two girls, although they both have long hair, look very different. The girls have somewhat different styles of hair; Rapunzel’s is more blonde and straight, Petrosinella’s hair is a bit more curly and in some art she even has long brown hair. The girls are also both wearing different color dresses; Rapunzel’s is purple and Petrosinella’s is blue. They both have different expressions too as Petrosinella has a softer vibe and Rapunzel gives off more confidence as an independent woman.
The Grimm’s Rapunzel Tale
Being knowledgeable of the Grimm Brothers’ story of Rapunzel is an important part of understanding the movie Tangled because it has been noted as being the primary source used when writing the movie. The story begins similar to the first story of a maiden in a tower, Petrosinella. Karen Seago, in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, describes that the story begins with a husband promising a witch his unborn child after he is caught picking Rapion to fulfill his pregnant wife’s cravings. Seago then continues with the witch locking Rapunzel in a tower where a prince stumbles upon her, and they fall in love like many other Rapunzel stories.
In the first version of this story, the witch found out about the prince and Rapunzel’s relationship because Rapunzel got pregnant and her clothes stopped fitting. Dr. Oliver Tearle’s Rapunzel analysis article published by Interesting Literature discusses how this was changed in the second version because it brought up the topic of premarital sex, which Tearle believes should not be used in a kid’s tale. Continuing with Seago’s plot summary, after the witch finds out about the prince, she sends Rapunzel to a desert to be punished and lures the prince up the tower to push him off and blind him.
Seago shares that the story ends with the blind prince finding Rapunzel and her twin children many years later and living happily ever after. This story set the baseline for Disney’s movie Tangled and potentially others, so it is important to give the Grimm Brothers some credit for their story Rapunzel’s contributions.
The differences between Tangled and the Grimm Brothers’ story of Rapunzel are important to recognize since most of Disney’s ideas for Tangled came from the Grimm’s tale. The leading difference between Disney’s Tangled and the Grimm Brothers’ story of Rapunzel is the fact that she leaves the tower. In an interview published by Screen Slam, Byron Howard, one of the directors of Tangled, shares, “when we first got the movie we said well we have to get her out of that room.”
Big Changes and Strides
The filmmakers made this big change to the Grimm Brothers’ story because they believed no one would want to watch a movie about a girl locked in a room. Hanna Barbera, however, in 1990, released the Hallmark movie Timeless Tales about Rapunzel that almost followed the Grimms’ version to a tee, showing that Disney could have made a more similar movie. One of the other major differences between the two versions is the endings. Getty contrasts the endings of these stories as the Disney version ends with Mother Gothel dying and Rapunzel and Flynn Rider living happily ever after in a kingdom, and the Grimms’ version ends with the blind prince finding Rapunzel and their twin children in a desert after the witch casts them all out. Just based on these two differences, the Disney version and Grimm’s version are very different; however, the Grimms’ version is what sparked the idea for the movie Tangled.
Understanding Rapunzel’s Significance
Being knowledgeable of early versions of Rapunzel will give the viewer a better understanding of the movie Tangled and how it relates to the history of Rapunzel and other fairy tales. The future of other Rapunzel stories also falls into the hands of people who love this tale and understand enough about it and its history to make new versions of it, whether they are similar or different to Rapunzel’s original story. That is what makes this story’s past, present, and future so intriguing.
Additional Sources Used in this Article
Seago, Karen. “Rapunzel.” The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. 2015. Found on Credo Reference.
Warner, Marina. “After “Rapunzel”.” Marvels & Tales. 2010. Found on ProQuest.
“Review: Disney’s ‘Tangled’ updates Rapunzel.” Gainesville Sun. 2010. Found on ProQuest.
Magnusson, Kendra. “Tangled.” Marvels & Tales. 2012. Found on Academic OneFile.
Getty, Laura J. “Maidens and their guardians: Reinterpreting the “Rapunzel” tale.” Mosaic : a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 1997. Found on ProQuest.
