Today In Disney History ~ November 24th
11 Things You Didn’t Know About Tangled from Oh My Disney
1. Tangled was Disney’s first full-length computer-animated fairy-tale adventure.
2. The director of Tangled, Nathan Greno, began his Disney career as an inbetween artist for Mushu in Mulan. Before directing Tangled he also worked on Brother Bear, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt. He even voiced Lefty in Meet the Robinsons. Surprising, isn’t it?
3. Artists were inspired by the real world when designing Rapunzel’s world. The kingdom was inspired by Mont-Saint-Michel and the hidden valley was inspired by Rocamadour.
4. Early designs for Pascal were purple and blue. Eventually the artists settled on green because it looked best with Rapunzel’s hair and clothes.
5. Animators drew inspiration from Cinderella and Pinocchio. Much of this inspiration comes from “shape language,” which is so subtle that you might not even notice it. Even though it isn’t obvious, it gives Tangled the fairytale feeling we love from other Disney classics.
6. There’s a family resemblance between Rapunzel and her parents. Okay, this one seems pretty obvious. For the audience to instantly know that the King and Queen are Rapunzel’s mom and dad they should look alike. Unlike normal families, Rapunzel came first and her parents were designed after her. Technically it would be wrong to say she looks like her parents—her parents look like her.
7. Animators originally considered using fireworks instead of floating lanterns. Story artist John Ripa came up with the idea to have lanterns instead. The team called a meeting to show John Lasseter the idea, thinking they would show him something amazing that he had never seen before. Turns out that John and his wife lit a lantern together on their anniversary while visiting Bora Bora. So much for a surprise… but he loved it!
8. Details from the castle are duplicated in the surrounding village. Artists wanted to make sure that there wasn’t a huge disconnect between the king and his people. They used shapes and architectural detail to do this. However, they did want the castle to stand out in terms of scale, so all the buildings in the village are three stories or less.
9. One particular meeting was instrumental to the smoldering success of Tangled. During this meeting, women from the studio brought in pictures of male actors and celebrities they found attractive. A very serious discussion followed as to what made these men… ahem… hot. From that day forth the meeting was referred to as the “Hot Guy Meeting.” Thanks to their tireless efforts and discussions, we can all gaze into the beautifully crafted face of Flynn Rider.
10. Tangled was almost a satire. Glen Keane (character animator of Ariel, Beast, Pocahontas, and Tarzan), who had originally pitched the idea, wanted it to be a sincere fairy tale. When there was talk of taking a satirical approach to “Rapunzel” and titling it “Rapunzel Unbraided” Glen said, “I can’t do this kind of movie. This has to switch back, or else I can’t do it.” It switched back. He did it. Joy resulted.
11. The development of Tangled took forever. Foooorrrreeevverrr! Well, since about 1937. “Rapunzel” was originally one of the stories that was considered and then rejected during a frenzy of post-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs concept development. Other stories that were explored were Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast.
TMSM Today in Graphic by Sherry Rinaldi DeHart
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