The OG Rapunzel

Let's dive right into this one. Rapunzel was a much shorter original fairytale than others such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, which surprised me. That being said, I felt the ending came too quickly, and the story didn't make very much sense. What did the witch want Rapunzel for? It doesn't seem like she knew about her magical healing tears. Did she just want a kid to lock away forever? Also, why would Rapunzel consent to marriage with literally the first man she meets? Definitely a problem.

I couldn't quite understand the moral of the story. In Tangled, the message is that you shouldn't be vain. In the original, I can't tell if it's that you shouldn't lie, or maybe it's that you shouldn't steal. It was very unclear, and in my opinion, I think this makes the story weaker than the other fairytales.

There's no sort of Flynn Rider character mentioned in the original. Flynn is a direct Disney product. In a way, he is cookie cutter Disney. He is charming, good-looking, and just dangerous enough to make him a bad boy who is able to be turned good by the princess. His role is much bigger in the movie because he is the narrator. Lester says this is a problem because Rapunzel is restricted from using her own voice to tell her own story. But then again, its not like she does so in the original. The original is mostly about the evil witch doing things with no sensible motivation.

Disney actually produced something decently entertaining from an original fairytale that was pretty lousy. I definitely give them more credit now, even though they could have done something even better.