On "Tangled", Which Is Awesome and Frustrating
Saw Tangled last night. It was a lot better than I had expected! Most of it was actually really, really awesome!...But, oh, there were some frustrating aspects.
Detailed and spoiler-filled thoughts behind the cut.
There are always different levels of how to look at a movie. There's the execution of the narrative on a technical level. There's the level where you look at the characters as dimensional people, an emotional level of endearment. (Animators mostly think about these first two things.) There's the levels of sociological description and prescription. There's the level of the film's external context - the circumstances in which a film is created, which inform its contents and vice-verse. It's all sort of a spectrum of existence, ranging from what is to what is wanted to what is said to what implications exist, and there are competing degrees of intention and existence, depending on the skill of the filmmaker. A good storyteller is going to have their intended meanings and emotions line up with the meanings and emotions that the audience receives. (A disconnect between the intention and reception results in "cheesiness" - a failed attempt at producing strong emotions, resulting in mockery. Or in feelings of disgust or horror, like in the Twilight hubub, where the intent was positive (if dramatic and angsty) romance, but the results are pretty darned creepy!)
Stories are the way that we understand the world. We mostly do not learn about things from personal experience; rather, we learn from the experiences - the stories - that others tell us, and show us. This is why I'm so frustrated whenever anyone says "It's just a movie, it's no big deal, don't get upset, don't get excited." This is just an embarrassed cover-up for strong emotions, or a way to avoid strong emotions that conscience would dictate by confronting a situation that is important. Lazy in the brain, callous in the heart.
[Concept drawing by Glen Keane, an animation master. He was initially gonna direct this film, and it was gonna be one of those lush hand-drawn masterpieces that make cartoonists like me go all weak in the knees. He was demoted to Executive Producer, among other changes that happened.]
But getting to Tangled. The title is part of the illustration of how that external-context level generally produces a lot of ickyness. The film tells the story of Rapunzel (Well, not the original story. Not even close, actually.) and was originally called "Rapunzel", until the Powers That Be decided that the film needed to be marketed in a masculine way, assuming that boys would not want to see a movie that is explicitly about a woman, and assuming that all films must appeal to boys. (I hope you can see why these assumptions are problematic. If you can't, it is because this tells us that boys' opinions are more important than those of girls', and that boys are incapable of empathy with girls (and thus, why should they even bother trying?) because girls are worth less.) In addition to this sexist asshattery, "Tangled" is also a stupid title because the plot is not really convoluted at all, and because Rapunzel's hair is very, very straight at all times, even after action scenes full of running and jumping and what-have-you. So there's really no level on which this word works to describe this film. It is dumb.
[See how this trailer is all about Flynn? Some of this footage, like all this Flynn-fighting-hair, I don't remember actually being in the movie. In the movie, Rapunzel and Flynn very much deal with each other face-to-face. And see how these, like, three brief moments of Rapunzel make her look like a ditz? She's not a ditz.]
The trailer and marketing for this film also made it seem that it was going to be a guys' buddy-movie about Flynn Rider and the horse Maximilian, with Rapunzel existing as a sort of annoying, naive object-key figure. I was so pleased that this was not the case! It is very much Rapunzel's story, and she is not a naive doofus, but is actually very intelligent, brave, confident, and talented. She was so likable! And this movie was so pretty! (I saw it in 2D, as I always will when given a choice.) Such a lovely pastel color palette with so much purple and gold! Such a soft, pleasing picture treatment, free of that harsh, plasticky look that so many CG animated films are plagued with! Such expressive, cartoony characters that get nice extreme reactions and funny slapstick motions! You guys, it was really nice looking and funny and appealing!
And I was delighted to discover, as the story unfolded, that - aside from the general lack of actual female characters - I found myself seeing an allegory or morality play extolling the virtues of feminism! (Surprised? I was very surprised! I am not suggesting that the creators of this film did this on purpose. I'm just saying that this is what I saw.)
I shall explain:
[The Patriarchy infantalizes Women.]
In this situation, the Patriarchy is represented by the character of Mother Gothel, the woman who has stolen baby princess Rapunzel and raised her in secret, in order to keep exclusive access to the girl's magic hair, which heals and restores youth. (This is not a contradiction.) Gothel is continually "affectionately" demeaning Rapunzel with her teasing which asserts her own superiority, and she will not stand to have her authority compromised. Gothel is catty and obsessed with her youthful looks, tied to the idea that women must necessarily be in competition with one another (mostly sexual competition, to be the most desirable to the male gaze.) In Gothel's model, the family structure is about keeping the top person in power, with Rapunzel subservient underneath, and familial love and affection is a ruse, a mask to cover up what is really going on, and to make it difficult for Rapunzel to free herself from oppression. Rapunzel is very concerned that she not cause pain to the family that she cares about, after all!
Gothel tells Rapunzel that she may never leave the tower (tower: obvious phallic symbol) because she is weak and clumsy and naive (Rapunzel is none of these things.) and must be protected from people who would want to take her magic hair for their own selfish purposes. Rapunzel represents Women, and her hair is her Gender Performance or Socially-Constructed Standards of Beauty, Femininity, and Sexuality. Something like that. Anyway, Gothel keeping Rapunzel in the tower to use her hair to keep herself young and beautiful is the Patriarchy subjugating Women through social structures and gender-essentializing expectations, in order to ensure its own access to female Beauty and Sexuality and keep itself having social power. (I.e. Rape Culture.)
[Long, straight, golden blonde hair: its cultural fetishization makes it a curse both for those who have it, and those who do not.]
Rapunzel's magic hair is extremely long, straight, and oh-so-golden blonde - the kind of rarified features that our own real-world culture prioritizes as being the most beautiful and most feminine (to the continued heartbreak of all women whose hair is curly ("unruly") or dark, not to mention having dark eyes or - even more socially damning - dark skin. It's a system to ensure that everyone is always feeling that they are not good enough to meet some arbitrary bar of acceptable beauty. Everyone buys a lot of beauty products to "fix" their "problems", and the power structure is strengthened.)
(This makes Tangled sort of a kick in the teeth in an external-to-the-film context, coming on the heels of The Princess and the Frog. I've been getting the impression that Tangled has been doing more business and getting a stronger reaction than its predecessor, though I haven't looked at any actual numbers.)
In contrast to Rapunzel's magic golden hair, her tresses become brown when they are cut and lose their magic. Brunettes: not as special or desired. Going further, our villain, Mother Gothel, has hair that is not only black, but curly to the point of being frizzy. This is called "colorism", it applies to hair and eyes as well as skin, and it is something that we should all talk about more.
[Flynn Rider: Douchebro.]
Flynn, of course, is the Men folk. His motivation is based on a storybook about a guy with all the money and power in the world, and he tries hard to emulate what he perceives is the right kind of macho-cool-guy-emotionless masculinity. But of course, as is hilariously apparent in the movie, he has really just made himself into a douchebro. As much as his life is centered around his own desires, he doesn't actually want attention put on himself as a person--close examination reveals he actually has *gasp!* emotions, and that his macho-cool-guy-emotionless persona is actually a cultivated persona to ensure his all-important reputation among the dudes.
[Many men find it embarrassing and emotionally difficult to deal with people and situations who do not conform to a rigid gender binary that prioritizes manly macho man things and disparages things that could be associated with women, like self-expression through the art of mime.]
The thugs and ruffians at the Snuggly Duckling tavern counter this macho-cool-guy-emotionless expectation by joyfully breaking out in song, telling of their dreams and desires - dreams and desires which would typically be thought of as feminine, such as playing classical music, finding romance, and collecting miniature glass unicorns. That they are honest and embracing all facets of their personalities, instead of just their macho femur-breaking aspects, allows them to connect with our heroes in peace, friendship, and helpfulness. Later, they join together to rescue Flynn from the awful consequences of his macho-cool-guy-emotionless past. That these other men have decided together to de-stigmatize feminine interests allows them to all have happy endings, and allows Flynn - or rather, Eugene - to finally be free to fully enjoy life on his actual own terms. Hooray!
(Their song in the Snuggly Duckling is also just excellently fun and awesome. Most of the songs in this film sadly feel very forced, rather than coming organically from characters who are so full of emotion and exposition that they can only fully express themselves in song. But this one is just fantastic. Reminded me a bit in structure and humor of "Professional Pirate", in a positive way.)
[The frying pan represents the traditionally-overlooked strength held by those who work in domestic settings. The chameleon represents cuteness.]
The frying pan is an object of Domesticity - wielded first by Rapunzel, then others - as a heroic weapon that works without fail. A happy ending is found by characters who recognize the Domestic's importance, and are unafraid to embrace it as being part of their own sphere.
Pascal the chameleon and Maximilian the horse are just there to be cute and funny. Either of them would have been a nice opportunity to have another female character. They both act entirely in pantomime, and don't act in any gendered way, so really all it would have taken would have been a name change. Alas for a missed opportunity. Female characters are so limited in fiction both in number and role, so every chance to stretch that out is good. We unshackle ourselves from the rigid social gender binary when we expand our concepts of what women and men are - when we stop relying on such a limited repertoire of stock characters in our stories.
But, alas, this movie did end up letting me down. It was the same kind of situation as The Little Mermaid, which is a film that I just love and adore...until the last two minutes, when the story is totally subverted by the fact that Ariel never has to acknowledge and apologize for almost destroying the world and killing everyone she loves by making a deal with the devil. Her character arc is truncated, and the point of the story (a need for mutual compromise and understanding in a father-daughter relationship strained by teen angst) gets muddled and lost.
The same kind of thing happens in Tangled. Big ol' spoilers here.
Flynn Eugene has chosen to forsake his macho-guy criminal ways, and has been saved from the strangling noose of the Narrow Definition of Culturally Acceptable Masculinity and he rushes off to lend his aid in freeing Rapunzel from the wily and wicked Mother Patriarchy. Rapunzel is in trouble, because she has recognized that she is actually the long-lost princess! The socio-family structure she's been living in all this time is not how things are supposed to be! It becomes increasingly obvious that Mother Gothel does not have Rapunzel's best interests at heart! And when Eugene arrives, Gothel mortally wounds him, stabbing him with a knife. (Knife: phallic symbol.) Oh, no!
Here's where our wonderful narrative gets, erm...tangled. Rapunzel strikes a deal with Gothel, saying that she will go with her without complaint or struggle if she can first heal Eugene. Gothel agrees.
Here's what happens: Eugene doesn't want her to sacrifice her freedom for his life, and though she insists on it, he slices all her hair off, which makes her hair lose all its magic and turn brunette. Gothel is horrified at the lack of magic, and gets wrapped up in the hair as she tries to grasp for its last bit of power, and Pascal trips her out the window to her death. Eugene dies, but there is a last bit of power in a single tear (It is unprecedented that anything but her hair has magic.) that Rapunzel weeps onto him, and he is restored to life. Like in Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Eugene tells her that he totally prefers brunettes. Wrap up to a happy ending, a tearful, hugging reunion with Rapunzel's long-lost true family, a national holiday, and the promise of an eventual marriage.
[We are suddenly sucked back into sexism! Noooooooo! (I made this face in the theater.)]
I see why they did this. They wanted to show that Flynn has changed and now cares about someone else's happiness instead of himself. However, his character change already happened earlier when he (Refreshingly, without hesitation!) gave up the stolen crown to the Stabbington brothers (Both played by Ron Perlman. Swoon!) preferring to live a less monetarily-powerful but more truly rewarding life like-and/or-with Rapunzel. So this was unnecessary. It results in truncating Rapunzel's character arc--hitherto about her achieving the ability to live her life on her own terms - by taking the ultimate movie climax decision out of her control, and making this an instance of a man making a woman's decision for her because he knows best. The movie has forgotten that it is Rapunzel's story. Also, Mother Gothel doesn't feel quite at the point where her death - unmourned by the girl who has known her as her mother for eighteen years - is really justified.
Here's what I think should have happened: Eugene doesn't want Rapunzel to sacrifice her freedom for his life, but she insists on it, and he allows the choice to be hers. (He doesn't have the strength to resist her, anyway. He's dying. :P) She heals his wound, saving his life (no real call for that old stand-by, the fakeout-death) and then she turns to Mother Gothel, saying that she will go with her now. But, oh snap! Rapunzel then cuts her own hair off! She's kept her promise, remaining honorable, but she has outsmarted the system! (In our allegory, this means that our Woman hero has forsaken the powers and privileges of remaining within the Patriarchy's acceptable standards of beauty, and has gone gender-nonconformist!) Mother Gothel cannot handle this, yo! She goes berserk, seeing the magical treasure disappear, and she rushes at Rapunzel to kill her with the knife! (She is now totally beyond redemption, you see.) But Rapunzel dodges the attack, and Gothel plunges out the window to her doom! (Trying to revenge itself on Feminism, Patriarchy has been its own undoing, a victim of its own devices, the phallocentricism of the tower and knife.) Rapunzel and Eugene are free of the Patriarchy! And Eugene does not miss her hair, because that was not why he'd grown to like her so much. Wrap-up to happy ending. Men and women are now free to truly be themselves, and live together in harmony, a marriage of equals! Yay!
Wouldn't that just be the awesomest?! Aaaaauuuuugggghhhhhh, so frustrating! I love it up until the last four minutes!
[Mama Gothel says, "Blah, blah, blah, it's just a movie."]
All right. I'm done blathering now.
In conclusion: This movie is wicked-awesome, but then it pulls the rug out from under ya at the last minute, and that is very disappointing.
[Trailer: Totally misrepresents that this is a movie about Rapunzel, and she has thoughts and does things. Flynn is a douchebro like that, though.]
I shall watch the rhythmic bouncing of these tavern rats forever. EDIT: I have written an appendix to this post, going a little bit more into detail on one issue that I very briefly touched on here.
Detailed and spoiler-filled thoughts behind the cut.
There are always different levels of how to look at a movie. There's the execution of the narrative on a technical level. There's the level where you look at the characters as dimensional people, an emotional level of endearment. (Animators mostly think about these first two things.) There's the levels of sociological description and prescription. There's the level of the film's external context - the circumstances in which a film is created, which inform its contents and vice-verse. It's all sort of a spectrum of existence, ranging from what is to what is wanted to what is said to what implications exist, and there are competing degrees of intention and existence, depending on the skill of the filmmaker. A good storyteller is going to have their intended meanings and emotions line up with the meanings and emotions that the audience receives. (A disconnect between the intention and reception results in "cheesiness" - a failed attempt at producing strong emotions, resulting in mockery. Or in feelings of disgust or horror, like in the Twilight hubub, where the intent was positive (if dramatic and angsty) romance, but the results are pretty darned creepy!)
Stories are the way that we understand the world. We mostly do not learn about things from personal experience; rather, we learn from the experiences - the stories - that others tell us, and show us. This is why I'm so frustrated whenever anyone says "It's just a movie, it's no big deal, don't get upset, don't get excited." This is just an embarrassed cover-up for strong emotions, or a way to avoid strong emotions that conscience would dictate by confronting a situation that is important. Lazy in the brain, callous in the heart.
[Concept drawing by Glen Keane, an animation master. He was initially gonna direct this film, and it was gonna be one of those lush hand-drawn masterpieces that make cartoonists like me go all weak in the knees. He was demoted to Executive Producer, among other changes that happened.]
But getting to Tangled. The title is part of the illustration of how that external-context level generally produces a lot of ickyness. The film tells the story of Rapunzel (Well, not the original story. Not even close, actually.) and was originally called "Rapunzel", until the Powers That Be decided that the film needed to be marketed in a masculine way, assuming that boys would not want to see a movie that is explicitly about a woman, and assuming that all films must appeal to boys. (I hope you can see why these assumptions are problematic. If you can't, it is because this tells us that boys' opinions are more important than those of girls', and that boys are incapable of empathy with girls (and thus, why should they even bother trying?) because girls are worth less.) In addition to this sexist asshattery, "Tangled" is also a stupid title because the plot is not really convoluted at all, and because Rapunzel's hair is very, very straight at all times, even after action scenes full of running and jumping and what-have-you. So there's really no level on which this word works to describe this film. It is dumb.
Click to view[See how this trailer is all about Flynn? Some of this footage, like all this Flynn-fighting-hair, I don't remember actually being in the movie. In the movie, Rapunzel and Flynn very much deal with each other face-to-face. And see how these, like, three brief moments of Rapunzel make her look like a ditz? She's not a ditz.]
The trailer and marketing for this film also made it seem that it was going to be a guys' buddy-movie about Flynn Rider and the horse Maximilian, with Rapunzel existing as a sort of annoying, naive object-key figure. I was so pleased that this was not the case! It is very much Rapunzel's story, and she is not a naive doofus, but is actually very intelligent, brave, confident, and talented. She was so likable! And this movie was so pretty! (I saw it in 2D, as I always will when given a choice.) Such a lovely pastel color palette with so much purple and gold! Such a soft, pleasing picture treatment, free of that harsh, plasticky look that so many CG animated films are plagued with! Such expressive, cartoony characters that get nice extreme reactions and funny slapstick motions! You guys, it was really nice looking and funny and appealing!
And I was delighted to discover, as the story unfolded, that - aside from the general lack of actual female characters - I found myself seeing an allegory or morality play extolling the virtues of feminism! (Surprised? I was very surprised! I am not suggesting that the creators of this film did this on purpose. I'm just saying that this is what I saw.)
I shall explain:
[The Patriarchy infantalizes Women.]
In this situation, the Patriarchy is represented by the character of Mother Gothel, the woman who has stolen baby princess Rapunzel and raised her in secret, in order to keep exclusive access to the girl's magic hair, which heals and restores youth. (This is not a contradiction.) Gothel is continually "affectionately" demeaning Rapunzel with her teasing which asserts her own superiority, and she will not stand to have her authority compromised. Gothel is catty and obsessed with her youthful looks, tied to the idea that women must necessarily be in competition with one another (mostly sexual competition, to be the most desirable to the male gaze.) In Gothel's model, the family structure is about keeping the top person in power, with Rapunzel subservient underneath, and familial love and affection is a ruse, a mask to cover up what is really going on, and to make it difficult for Rapunzel to free herself from oppression. Rapunzel is very concerned that she not cause pain to the family that she cares about, after all!
Gothel tells Rapunzel that she may never leave the tower (tower: obvious phallic symbol) because she is weak and clumsy and naive (Rapunzel is none of these things.) and must be protected from people who would want to take her magic hair for their own selfish purposes. Rapunzel represents Women, and her hair is her Gender Performance or Socially-Constructed Standards of Beauty, Femininity, and Sexuality. Something like that. Anyway, Gothel keeping Rapunzel in the tower to use her hair to keep herself young and beautiful is the Patriarchy subjugating Women through social structures and gender-essentializing expectations, in order to ensure its own access to female Beauty and Sexuality and keep itself having social power. (I.e. Rape Culture.)
[Long, straight, golden blonde hair: its cultural fetishization makes it a curse both for those who have it, and those who do not.]
Rapunzel's magic hair is extremely long, straight, and oh-so-golden blonde - the kind of rarified features that our own real-world culture prioritizes as being the most beautiful and most feminine (to the continued heartbreak of all women whose hair is curly ("unruly") or dark, not to mention having dark eyes or - even more socially damning - dark skin. It's a system to ensure that everyone is always feeling that they are not good enough to meet some arbitrary bar of acceptable beauty. Everyone buys a lot of beauty products to "fix" their "problems", and the power structure is strengthened.)
(This makes Tangled sort of a kick in the teeth in an external-to-the-film context, coming on the heels of The Princess and the Frog. I've been getting the impression that Tangled has been doing more business and getting a stronger reaction than its predecessor, though I haven't looked at any actual numbers.)
In contrast to Rapunzel's magic golden hair, her tresses become brown when they are cut and lose their magic. Brunettes: not as special or desired. Going further, our villain, Mother Gothel, has hair that is not only black, but curly to the point of being frizzy. This is called "colorism", it applies to hair and eyes as well as skin, and it is something that we should all talk about more.
[Flynn Rider: Douchebro.]
Flynn, of course, is the Men folk. His motivation is based on a storybook about a guy with all the money and power in the world, and he tries hard to emulate what he perceives is the right kind of macho-cool-guy-emotionless masculinity. But of course, as is hilariously apparent in the movie, he has really just made himself into a douchebro. As much as his life is centered around his own desires, he doesn't actually want attention put on himself as a person--close examination reveals he actually has *gasp!* emotions, and that his macho-cool-guy-emotionless persona is actually a cultivated persona to ensure his all-important reputation among the dudes.
[Many men find it embarrassing and emotionally difficult to deal with people and situations who do not conform to a rigid gender binary that prioritizes manly macho man things and disparages things that could be associated with women, like self-expression through the art of mime.]
The thugs and ruffians at the Snuggly Duckling tavern counter this macho-cool-guy-emotionless expectation by joyfully breaking out in song, telling of their dreams and desires - dreams and desires which would typically be thought of as feminine, such as playing classical music, finding romance, and collecting miniature glass unicorns. That they are honest and embracing all facets of their personalities, instead of just their macho femur-breaking aspects, allows them to connect with our heroes in peace, friendship, and helpfulness. Later, they join together to rescue Flynn from the awful consequences of his macho-cool-guy-emotionless past. That these other men have decided together to de-stigmatize feminine interests allows them to all have happy endings, and allows Flynn - or rather, Eugene - to finally be free to fully enjoy life on his actual own terms. Hooray!
(Their song in the Snuggly Duckling is also just excellently fun and awesome. Most of the songs in this film sadly feel very forced, rather than coming organically from characters who are so full of emotion and exposition that they can only fully express themselves in song. But this one is just fantastic. Reminded me a bit in structure and humor of "Professional Pirate", in a positive way.)
[The frying pan represents the traditionally-overlooked strength held by those who work in domestic settings. The chameleon represents cuteness.]
The frying pan is an object of Domesticity - wielded first by Rapunzel, then others - as a heroic weapon that works without fail. A happy ending is found by characters who recognize the Domestic's importance, and are unafraid to embrace it as being part of their own sphere.
Pascal the chameleon and Maximilian the horse are just there to be cute and funny. Either of them would have been a nice opportunity to have another female character. They both act entirely in pantomime, and don't act in any gendered way, so really all it would have taken would have been a name change. Alas for a missed opportunity. Female characters are so limited in fiction both in number and role, so every chance to stretch that out is good. We unshackle ourselves from the rigid social gender binary when we expand our concepts of what women and men are - when we stop relying on such a limited repertoire of stock characters in our stories.
But, alas, this movie did end up letting me down. It was the same kind of situation as The Little Mermaid, which is a film that I just love and adore...until the last two minutes, when the story is totally subverted by the fact that Ariel never has to acknowledge and apologize for almost destroying the world and killing everyone she loves by making a deal with the devil. Her character arc is truncated, and the point of the story (a need for mutual compromise and understanding in a father-daughter relationship strained by teen angst) gets muddled and lost.
The same kind of thing happens in Tangled. Big ol' spoilers here.
Flynn Eugene has chosen to forsake his macho-guy criminal ways, and has been saved from the strangling noose of the Narrow Definition of Culturally Acceptable Masculinity and he rushes off to lend his aid in freeing Rapunzel from the wily and wicked Mother Patriarchy. Rapunzel is in trouble, because she has recognized that she is actually the long-lost princess! The socio-family structure she's been living in all this time is not how things are supposed to be! It becomes increasingly obvious that Mother Gothel does not have Rapunzel's best interests at heart! And when Eugene arrives, Gothel mortally wounds him, stabbing him with a knife. (Knife: phallic symbol.) Oh, no!
Here's where our wonderful narrative gets, erm...tangled. Rapunzel strikes a deal with Gothel, saying that she will go with her without complaint or struggle if she can first heal Eugene. Gothel agrees.
Here's what happens: Eugene doesn't want her to sacrifice her freedom for his life, and though she insists on it, he slices all her hair off, which makes her hair lose all its magic and turn brunette. Gothel is horrified at the lack of magic, and gets wrapped up in the hair as she tries to grasp for its last bit of power, and Pascal trips her out the window to her death. Eugene dies, but there is a last bit of power in a single tear (It is unprecedented that anything but her hair has magic.) that Rapunzel weeps onto him, and he is restored to life. Like in Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Eugene tells her that he totally prefers brunettes. Wrap up to a happy ending, a tearful, hugging reunion with Rapunzel's long-lost true family, a national holiday, and the promise of an eventual marriage.
[We are suddenly sucked back into sexism! Noooooooo! (I made this face in the theater.)]
I see why they did this. They wanted to show that Flynn has changed and now cares about someone else's happiness instead of himself. However, his character change already happened earlier when he (Refreshingly, without hesitation!) gave up the stolen crown to the Stabbington brothers (Both played by Ron Perlman. Swoon!) preferring to live a less monetarily-powerful but more truly rewarding life like-and/or-with Rapunzel. So this was unnecessary. It results in truncating Rapunzel's character arc--hitherto about her achieving the ability to live her life on her own terms - by taking the ultimate movie climax decision out of her control, and making this an instance of a man making a woman's decision for her because he knows best. The movie has forgotten that it is Rapunzel's story. Also, Mother Gothel doesn't feel quite at the point where her death - unmourned by the girl who has known her as her mother for eighteen years - is really justified.
Here's what I think should have happened: Eugene doesn't want Rapunzel to sacrifice her freedom for his life, but she insists on it, and he allows the choice to be hers. (He doesn't have the strength to resist her, anyway. He's dying. :P) She heals his wound, saving his life (no real call for that old stand-by, the fakeout-death) and then she turns to Mother Gothel, saying that she will go with her now. But, oh snap! Rapunzel then cuts her own hair off! She's kept her promise, remaining honorable, but she has outsmarted the system! (In our allegory, this means that our Woman hero has forsaken the powers and privileges of remaining within the Patriarchy's acceptable standards of beauty, and has gone gender-nonconformist!) Mother Gothel cannot handle this, yo! She goes berserk, seeing the magical treasure disappear, and she rushes at Rapunzel to kill her with the knife! (She is now totally beyond redemption, you see.) But Rapunzel dodges the attack, and Gothel plunges out the window to her doom! (Trying to revenge itself on Feminism, Patriarchy has been its own undoing, a victim of its own devices, the phallocentricism of the tower and knife.) Rapunzel and Eugene are free of the Patriarchy! And Eugene does not miss her hair, because that was not why he'd grown to like her so much. Wrap-up to happy ending. Men and women are now free to truly be themselves, and live together in harmony, a marriage of equals! Yay!
Wouldn't that just be the awesomest?! Aaaaauuuuugggghhhhhh, so frustrating! I love it up until the last four minutes!
[Mama Gothel says, "Blah, blah, blah, it's just a movie."]
All right. I'm done blathering now.
In conclusion: This movie is wicked-awesome, but then it pulls the rug out from under ya at the last minute, and that is very disappointing.
[Trailer: Totally misrepresents that this is a movie about Rapunzel, and she has thoughts and does things. Flynn is a douchebro like that, though.]
I shall watch the rhythmic bouncing of these tavern rats forever. EDIT: I have written an appendix to this post, going a little bit more into detail on one issue that I very briefly touched on here.