Healthy Relationship?! Disney?!

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2011)

If you have experienced abuse, been taken advantage of--this movie speaks to the experience of recovery and breaking free, and provides a template that is authentic and hopeful. Surprisingly so, for a kids movie. I suppose each viewer brings their own baggage to the viewing, but I have always felt being a child is a lot darker and more painful than us adults like to believe. Very few films have room for darkness or represent themes that give children templates for coping with the darkness in a healthy way. So often the films end up telling us if you just get pretty fast (via Cinderella) and wait, someone will save you from the darkness. That power dynamic can create really unhealthy relationships, and I would suggest that many people search for that fantasy, instead of searching for a relationship that is more equal, more giving and taking.
This movie offered a surprisingly healthy model of a relationship to kids. Each person was given depth and feeling. Sometimes Rapunzel saved the day, sometimes Flynn, it didn't feel uneven. But what got me was Rapunzel's assertiveness in communicating what she wanted, her confidence in her perspective (innocent and naive as it was). When she put her innocence out there, took the risk, she was given back wonderful things. She is completely in line with her gut. I love the scene in the tavern. By naming her dream and being authentic, she inspired authenticity and emotion in all these tough guys...No game, no pretense, her realness inspired others to be real, and that realness inspired intimacy between her and Flynn. And through that intimacy they fell in love. There are very few children's movies that look at relationships that way.
Rapunzel had a lot of baggage (never having left the tower, magic hair, crazy mother). But every time she claimed it, put it out there, it didn't scare Flynn off or cause a meltdown. It added dimension to the way he knew her.
I just never see this stuff in kid's movies, and it totally impressed me. So though I have a lot of cynicism towards Disney as a company/corp. I am still able to see this movie and find really important messages in the subtext. Yay! This is NOT Ariel who had to give up her voice to find love, or Aurora who had no personality but great hair. Rapunzel has dimension.