Princess Rapunzel

Princess Rapunzel/Gallery

**Rapunzel** is the main protagonist of Disney's 2010 CG animated feature film *Tangled*. Rapunzel is loosely based on the classic German fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. She is a very beautiful princess with long magical hair who, with the aid of a handsome thief, Flynn Rider, leaves her secluded tower to explore the outside world.

She is the 10th official member of the Disney Princess Royal Court.

## Personality

Rapunzel is a spirited, smart, clever, kind, playful, and a very adventurous girl in her late teens, though a bit naive. However, she is not afraid to stand up for herself or others when the situation calls for bravery. Having spent all of her life isolated in a tower with little else to do, she is proficiently educated in literature, and talented in almost all areas such as music and baking and even more advanced subjects like astronomy, as illustrated by her completely charted astronomical patterns. Her greatest passion is art, as indicated by the pervasive amount of painting on the walls inside the tower. While she longs to see the world beyond her window, she is very obedient to Mother Gothel. Despite having ambivalent feelings after leaving her tower in excitement to finally see the world, she confronts and rebels against Mother Gothel's wish of her returning to the tower after a short journey with Flynn Rider. She is quite daring; leaping from tall cliffs and swinging great lengths with her hair. She is completely immune to Flynn's so-called charms and has little tolerance for his antics, which usually results in her utilizing the pan against Flynn. She is also very charismatic; able to influence a group of pub thugs to share their dreams and convince Maximus, the palace steed of the Captain, to postpone his pursuit of Flynn until she fulfills her dream on her birthday (which is heavily emphasized). Rapunzel is also known, particularly by Pascal, to be quite trustworthy and never ever breaks the promises she makes.

She is very determined to accomplish her dream of seeing the floating lights, even strong-arming Flynn into going along with her plan and passing any other obstacle along the way, as well as *tricking* Gothel into making her beloved mother travel for three days to get a white paint for her birthday (of course, to buy some time). Although she initially feared that the dream of seeing those lights may not meet her expectation and that there would be no other means to pursue in life after that dream has been fulfilled, Rapunzel is able to overcome those fears by having Flynn's support and belief that a new dream will emerge in place of the fulfilled one. Rapunzel is also rebellious, tough, and courageous, as seen with the thugs.

## Physical Appearance

Rapunzel is 18 years old during the film, and is considered a beauty. She has fair skin with a light tint of blush to it and is mostly known for her golden blonde hair which in length is around 70 feet, though her hair is naturally brown, like her parents'. The hair is noticeably shiny, like satin. Rapunzel also has light freckles, mostly around her nose, as well as large, bright green eyes, and a playful smile. As a kid, she was 5 years old.

Rapunzel's dress is a traditional German dress called the "Dirndl", with a longer skirt than a normal Dirndl dress would sport, and her dress also has a purple theme, with a pink accent. The dress itself consists of a corset top, lavender in color and laced with a pink ribbon. The skirt is purple and decorated with swirl designs, in pink, dark purple and white. She also wears a white petticoat underneath. The skirt's hemline is above her ankles, but well below her calves. Her sleeves, at the top, are puffed and striped, pink and lavender, and the rest, is a pale, baby pink, with white lace at the end. Rapunzel does not wear shoes, preferring to go barefoot.

Rapunzel's homecoming dress has white lacing on the neckline and the sleeves, and has a pink bodice that has swirly patterns on it and a corset lacing at the back. The skirt is purplish-pink with similar patterns that are found on her old dress.

## Powers and Abilities

**Healing Abilities:**Supposedly channeling the power of sun itself, Rapunzel's hair could reverse damages done to humans including a complete regeneration of damaged tissues and organs as well as reverse aging to a certain degree. The subject must physically be in contact with the hair in order for the magic to work when the special song begins; her hair also emits a glowing golden yellow light when the magic activates. Her tears are also revealed to have powers as well.

**Superhuman Prehensile Hair:** Rapunzel's hair also possesses a limited prehensile ability: grappling and grabbing objects that easily outweigh herself without straining or hurting in any way. She revealed that her hair would turn brown should it be cut, and such an act also warrants immediate loss of magic. However, as mentioned above, the powers remain in her tears.

**Superhuman Strength:** Rapunzel also has superhuman strength to a lesser degree; swinging from one cliff to another and suspending herself in the air using leverage of her hair as well as hoisting Gothel up into the tower day after day, to her amazement. Additionally, her hair appeared almost weightless whenever she carried it; needless to say, a normal person cannot, by any means, perform any of the stunts done by Rapunzel with this much hair. Considering the extraordinary amount of hair, she had shown a great deal of agility and dexterity with her hair, such as climbing to high altitudes, jumping off such without much effort, and running just as fast as Flynn, who was a professional thief and does not possess the same amount of hair as Rapunzel did.

**Superhuman Adaption:** Like Ariel, Rapunzel has shown high adaptability; she took roughly two seconds to adjust to the environment of the world. Additionally, she was once trapped in an underwater cave and seemingly was able to swim, which is humanly impossible because she was never taught to. It is observed that her power could still be channeled through her tears even after her hair has seemingly completely lost the magic. It may be that the actual source of energy is in her heart, and as such will only activate and supply when love is involved. However, another interpretation is that channeling her power through her tears was actually releasing the drop of sunlight that created the magical flower which gave Rapunzel her astounding abilities of healing and life. Viewed in this light, such an effort was a once-off ability.

## Live Appearances

Rapunzel is a face character in various Disney parks around the world. Retaining long blonde hair as opposed to the short brown cut at the end of the film, the official explanation for her park appearance is remnants of the magic within her after healing Flynn gradually allowed her to grow some hair back (down to her ankles it seems). She is barefoot in the film, but she is seen wearing lavender flat shoes in the Disney parks. She appears with her husband Flynn sometimes.

She, along with Flynn Rider, made appearances ahead of the movie's release at all Disney theme parks worldwide. At Disneyland, both Rapunzel and Flynn had been in the Fantasyland section in their own little chalet with a facade incorporating Rapunzel's Tower. In 2013, she became part of the new Fantasy Faire meet-and-greet at the former Carnation Gardens Plaza site, working in an interactive version of her story with Flynn and Messers. Smythe and Jones at the Royal Theatre along with Belle from *Beauty and the Beast*. Rapunzel also appears in "Mickey's Soundsational Parade" with Snow White, Cinderella, Princess Aurora and Belle on The Princess Float, and is part of the "Mickey and the Magical Map" show at Fantasyland Theater, as well as being in World of Color during the So Close sequence.

At Walt Disney World, she can be found in the Magic Kingdom at the Princess Fairytale Hall, which replaced Snow White's Scary Adventures and at Epcot in the Germany section. Flynn left in July 2011 as a permanent character, however he does make appearances in the "Festival of Fantasy Parade " as well as the park's Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day events. Rapunzel has her own spell card known as "Rapunzel's Hair Whip" in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

At the Disneyland Resort in Paris, Rapunzel and Flynn make appearances at the Disneyland park. Rapunzel and Flynn also made a special entrance near the finale of Mickey's Magical Celebration. Rapunzel and Flynn are seen in the nighttime show Disney Dreams!.

As of January 2011, Rapunzel have made appearances at Hong Kong Disneyland, as part of the festivities celebrating the park's 5th anniversary.

As of August 2012, Rapunzel and Flyn

n have made appearances at Tokyo Disneyland.

Aboard the Disney Cruise Line ships, Rapunzel and Flynn have been added to the long-running show "The Golden Mickeys" and are featured on the Disney Fantasycruise show "Wishes". She is also set to star in a stage adaptation of *Tangled* in 2015.

### Disney On Ice

Rapunzel appears in several Disney On Ice shows, including *Dare to Dream*, *Treasure Trove* and *Princess Wishes* along with many other characters from the film, as well as many other Disney Princesses.

## Disney Princess

Upon the release of *Tangled*, Rapunzel instantly became one of the most popular Disney characters of all time, especially amongst fans of the *Disney Princess*franchise.

On October 2, 2011, an official coronation ceremony for Rapunzel's induction into the line-up was held in London at the Kensington Palace. Among the other guests included thousands of fans, the other (then nine) official members of the Disney Princess Royal Court, and Flynn Rider, who had the honor of crowning Rapunzel.

### Redesign

Rapunzel received very little changes for the "deluxe princess" redesign. Her dress simply had glittery floral designs added onto the them. The dress is also a little longer, extending to floor length and the colors seem to be a brightened. Rapunzel's hair is long and blonde, reaching floor length despite the fact that it was cut in the film.

## Trivia

* Her name means "rutabaga" in German.
* Two official sources set the timeframe in two mutually incompatible times:
	+ According to the makers of *Tangled*, the film takes place in the 1780s, although the presence of books such as *The Little Mermaid*, and other evidence seen on-screen, implies a date closer to the 1830-40s.
	+ Rapunzel's cameo with Flynn in *Frozen*, which is set in the 1840s (confirmed in *The Art of Frozen*), places *Tangled* in or around the same era. Fashion historians point that the style of clothing worn by men and women is more compatible with an early-to mid 19th century than the late 18th century.
* Rapunzel was originally going to be voiced by Broadway actress and singer, Kristin Chenoweth, but she was later replaced by pop singer-songwriter and former teen idol Mandy Moore.
* Reese Witherspoon, was at one point, considered for the role of Rapunzel.
* It is never made clear in the film whether Rapunzel was the name given by her parents or Gothel.
* Rapunzel is similar to Quasimodo from *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* in the sense that neither are allowed to leave their homes (towers in both cases) under the strict orders of their guardians (both villains) who took them in as infants. Also they both later sneak out of their homes without their guardians knowing, meet someone who is in trouble with the law (Rapunzel meeting Flynn and Quasimodo meetingEsmeralda), had a form of emotional turmoil upon their first exposure to the outside world and they also have artistic talents (Rapunzel: drawing and painting, Quasimodo: wood carving and model making). They also dream of getting out into the real world to see and interact with society. After asking to go outside of the tower, both of their gardians break out into song about how dangerous the world is. Then after their musical number, both tell (either Rapunzel, or Quasimodo) to never ask them again to leave the tower. Finally, they confront their guardians by calling them the very thing they called evil.
* As Aurora was also an inspiration for Rapunzel, she shares similarities with her, they both wanted to be free and meet new people, they dreamed on adventure outside their homes and they were unaware of their identities as princesses for almost all of their lives, both celebrate their birthday in their film, both are shown as infants and both are blondes and they are both seen barefoot. Yet, the ones who kept their true identity are different: Aurora's identity was kept by supporting characters while Rapunzel's identity was kept by the antagonist.
* Contrary to popular belief, Rapunzel is actually the *second* Disney character to hit someone with a frying pan. Chicha, from the *Emperor's New Groove* is actually the first, as she at one point, hit Kuzco on the head with a frying pan, but that still makes Rapunzel the first Disney Princess and protagonist to do so and the first character to use it for a majority of the film.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to be computer-animated. In fact she is the first Disney Princess to make her debut as a computer-animated character. Special software was used specifically to animate Rapunzel's hair because no one ever animated that much hair before.
* Animators have said that Rapunzel's hair is approximately 70 feet long and holds about 100,000 strands.
* Despite having her hair cut and turn brown in the movie, Rapunzel's hair is kept long and blonde in many of the promotional images and in the Disney parks. This also makes her the first Disney Princess to have her hair change color, the second is Anna from *Frozen*.
* Arguably, after her hair gets cut, Rapunzel became the first Disney Princess with the shortest hair, the second is Snow White.
* The color purple is often said to be the color of royalty. During the film, Rapunzel only wears purple, which can be a reference to Rapunzel's true royal identity.
* Rapunzel is the only Princess whose hair was not cut herself.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to have magic powers, the source of them initially being hair. When her hair is cut, her powers remain in her tears. She is also the first to be born with her powers especially from non-magical parents.The second Disney Princess to have magic powers is Elsa, with her control over ice and snow.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to have a reptile (a chameleon) for an animal companion.
* At the Disney Princess Fairytale Hall, Rapunzel will claim to have painted all of the portraits of the other Disney Princesses that guests see when they first enter the hall. This is due to her talent as an artist.
* Rapunzel is the fifth Disney Princess to have a female as the main villain of the film, the first being Snow White, the second being Cinderella, the third being Aurora, the fourth being Ariel. She is also the first Disney Princess since Ariel to have a female as the main villain.
* Rapunzel was "officially welcomed into the Disney Princess Royal Court" during a promotional event at Kensington Palace in London on October 2, 2011.
* Rapunzel is the second Disney heroine to have visually artistic abilities, with the first being Jane Porter.
* Rapunzel is the seventh Disney Princess to have her voice actress also provide her singing voice.
* Rapunzel is similar to fellow Disney Princess Jasmine, as both feel "trapped" by being cooped up in their homes, and they also dream of being free to get out and see the real world.
* Rapunzel's veil of her wedding dress is the longest out of the other featured married Disney Princesses/Heroines. It could have also represented the long hair she once had.
* Rapunzel bears many similarities to Mattel's 2002 film version of Rapunzel (based on the Barbie doll franchise). They both have blonde hair, a purple dress, a reptilian friend, sneak out of their tower to go on a journey to another kingdom, have artistic talents, and are long-lost princesses who use a childhood belonging to figure out their secret.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney character whose bare feet receive a significant amount of attention throughout the movie, getting their own direct shots several times as the film progresses. The second Disney character that shares this trait with her is Wreck-It Ralph. Also despite her not being barefoot at all in her movie Elsa's feet also receive their own direct shots as well.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to be seen vividly as an infant. (Technically Aurora is the first to be depicted as one but her face and body is hidden from view by her blanket). Also unlike Aurora who appears motionless in all of her baby scenes, Rapunzel is vividly animated to do gestures, probably making her the first in the line-up to be animated this much as a baby.
* Rapunzel is the last protagonist that animator Glen Keane created before his resignation from Disney. Keane was famous for animating other protagonists over the years as well, such as Ariel, Beast,Aladdin, Pocahontas and Tarzan.
* Rapunzel is the sixth Disney Princess to perform a duet with her love interest. The first is Snow White, the second is Cinderella, the third; Aurora, the fourth; Jasmine, and the fifth; Pocahontas. She's the second though, that the duet is performed offscreen, Cinderella was the first. However both sing onscreen a few times.
* Rapunzel not only happens to have an interest in art, but also in astronomy as well, probably as a result of her trying to keep track of how long she remained in Gothel's tower since she was kidnapped by observing the nights the lanterns are released from her kingdom to signal her to come back. Backing this fact is not only the fact that her kingdom's emblem is a Sun, but also the fact that some of her paintings in her room include an accurate star map and one of the Sun emblems she painted appears to represent a diagram of our Solar System, though shown being orbited incorrectly by eight planets and five dwarf planets (which is the current line-up, around the time the film took place, the outermost planet was Uranus after Saturn was considered to be the farthest planet for so long, Pluto (the first plutoid to be discovered, was also once considered to be the ninth planet upon discovery) wouldn't be known until the 1930s, and the three other plutoids (Haumea, Makemake and Eris) wouldn't be discovered until the late 2000s), and one of her books appears to be an atlas (probably so she can figure out where her home kingdom is).
* In the original trailer, it was planned that Rapunzel's hair, in addition to healing, to be able to move on its own and act like another appendage similar to The Marvel Comics' character Medusa which Disney also owns, which they bought as *Tangled* film was nearing it final stages.
* Although we never see her feet in the short, several promotional artwork made for *Tangled Ever After* reveal that Rapunzel is actually indeed barefoot underneath her wedding dress.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to have her film rated PG, despite the earlier films *The Black Cauldron* and *Atlantis: The Lost Empire* also being rated PG as well.
* Rapunzel has the biggest eyes (relative to the size of her face) among the other Disney Princesses. Ariel has the second biggest.
* Rapunzel is the second Disney Princess to have a pet of her own. The first being Cinderella (Pascal the Chameleon for Rapunzel and Bruno the Bloodhound for Cinderella).
* Rapunzel is the fifth Princess to have a distinctive meaning to her name, "Rapunzel" is a kind of German lettuce as in the original German fairy tale Rapunzel's peasant father is stealing rampion for her mother from a witch.
* Rapunzel and Snow White both share very similar dress styles as both stories are set in the German region of Bavaria.
* Rapunzel is the first female protagonist to be featured in a CGI movie that is included in the Disney animated feature film canon.
* Rapunzel and Cinderella's motherly figures both prohibited them from leaving home.
* Rapunzel is the second German princess, with the first being Snow White. Also, they both are the princesses which based from Brother Grimms fairy tales.
* Some Rapunzel wedding media incorrectly depict her with long, blonde hair instead of short brown hair.
* Rapunzel and Flynn have the widest age gap of any Disney Princess couple (8 years; she's 18, he's 26), as well as the second Disney couple to have the widest age gap, as Milo and Kida's age gap is even wider, since Kida is over 8500 years old.
* Rapunzel is the third princess seen reading books, the first being Ariel, and the second being Belle, though books are clearly seen in Briar Rose (Aurora)'s room.
* After Pocahontas, Rapunzel is the second female protagonist to be barefoot throughout her entire film.
* Since 2013, Rapunzel, along with Tiana and Merida are now placed at the center of most Disney Princess promotional photos, surpassing Cinderella, Aurora and Belle.
* Rapunzel is usually seen with Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Tiana more than the other princesses.
* Some Rapunzel crown media incorrectly depict her with a purple crown instead of the typical gold, platinum and diamond type.
* She has many girl power moments such as when she says "I will never let you use my hair again!" to Gothel and when she says "I will use this" pointing the frying pan towards Flynn.
* Rapunzel was originally planned to have a red dress, which was changed into pink. When animation started at work, the dress was then recolored into blue. When the concept was later abandoned, the dress was finalized to a purple dress, which has become the dress color of most variations of other Rapunzel characters, since the flowers of a Rampion (Rapunzel) plant have violet hues.
* Rapunzel is the third Disney Princess to be bound and gagged by the villain, the first being Jasmine (by Aziz) and the second being Megara (by Hades)
* Rapunzel has similarities to Ariel because of her style and her strong will.
* Rapunzel's favorite food is hazelnut soup, as alleged by Mother Gothel.
* Rapunzel is the fourth Disney Princess to start off at odds with the male romantic lead in the movie after Belle, Mulan and Tiana.
* While Rapunzel isn't the first Disney Princess to use a weapon, she's the first to use a cooking utensil as weapon (in her case, a cast iron skillet).
* It should be noted that a frying pan can actually make a decent weapon, especially if it's recently been used.
* Rapunzel is actually a kind of lettuce-based salad.
* She's the first Disney Princess who likes to play hide and seek (in this case, with Pascal).
* Rapunzel's personality and facial features are very similar to Anna's. They also share other similarities.
	+ Rapunzel wished to see the floating lanterns and, after learning of her identity, wished to be free, which eventually happened. Anna, as depicted in "For the First Time in Forever", sings about what she has never went through before and about finding true love.
	+ Both are princesses, and are 18 years old.
	+ Both are locked up indoors: Rapunzel in a tower, and Anna in a castle due to the gates being closed because her parents wanted to keep her sister Elsa and her ice powers hidden.
	+ Both have their hair color changed. Although Anna's hair went back to it's original color at the end.
	+ Both falling in love with commoners (Flynn and Kristoff).
* Rapunzel is the seventh Disney heroine who can sew. Snow White was the first, Cinderella was the second, Wendy Darling was the third, Eilonwy was the fourth, Esmeralda was the fifth and Giselle was the sixth.
* Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess to be an amateur ballerina, according to her line, "Paper Mache, a bit of ballet, and chess!" from "When Will My Life Begin?"
* Rapunzel has some similarities with Cinderella.
	+ Both are beautiful with blonde hair.
	+ Both have been psychologically abused by their jealous step-motherly figure (Mother Gothel, Lady Tremaine).
	+ Both have been kept for servitude by their step-motherly figure. Though, Mother Gothel didn't exactly use her as a slave, she just wanted Rapunzel to stay in the tower and use her magic hair power to restore her youth.
	+ Both sing songs about their dreams coming true ("When Will My Life Begin", "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes").
	+ Both have tiny secret animal companions (Pascal for Rapunzel, the mice for Cinderella).
	+ Both want to go to a special event against their step-motherly figures' wishes.
	+ Both make tiny outfits for their animal friend.
	+ Both are seen doing chores.
	+ Both get married and have a better life.
* Both Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, who voiced Anna and Elsa from *Frozen*, respectively, were once considered for the role of Rapunzel.
* A character model of Rapunzel without her dress revealed that the top part of her white underdress (the bottom of the underdress is clearly shown under her skirt) resembled a white version of the bodice of her pink and purple dress, right down to the pink laces, but sported lace-trimmed straps instead of sleeves. She is also the third Disney female to be shown only in her undergarments, after Esmeralda and Mulan, but before Merida (whose underdress was also seen in a behind-the-scenes character model).