This weekend Disney Channel aired an original movie "Tangled Before Ever After," a more-or-less pilot episode to their new show "Tangled: The Series." The official first episode will premier on March 24.
First and foremost we have to pretend like the adorable short of Eugene and Rapunzel getting married never happened.
Or at least won't be happening for a while. I do think we're dealing with a different timeline of events for the show, however. It brings up a question: is there going to be a plotline in this new series? Could there be an episode where Rapunzel and Eugene get married, and things are forever different on the other side of it? Or will the episodes be full of Tom-and-Jerry chases where nothing is going to permanently change by the end? I'm hoping for the former, though it's not as likely.
Six months have past since the film "Tangled" left us (minus Eugene's epilogue of course), but thank goodness not enough time has past for Rapunzel to stop being Rapunzel. She's just not having it with her new princess schedule, and new responsibilities. It's a bit of a cliché, but I'd rather have Rapunzel as the hesitant, stumbling, uses-the-wrong-fork princess over being too enthusiastic and less real.
But dear God, what did they do to Eugene? His fast and honest reaction rants worked really well in the film.
Yet, this was way overdone in the short movie. It was just the remnants of his past character in the world where "Flynn Rider" now lives stably in a castle. I can see how this happened, because he's reacting to much different things now. For a more successful series Eugene is just going to have to tone it down a little... and maybe get more of his charm back without being obnoxiously sweet with Rapunzel.
A plus though is that we still have Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi voicing their characters. This seems rare for stars to do with an animated television series, so I'm going to appreciate this.
Overall establishing the storyline and reestablishing the characters and setting felt a tad forced, and like something to get through. That turns around however about twenty minutes in when Rapunzel defies her original storyline in a major way. I was quite proud of her choice, and the remainder of the story went much better.
We also get two new fantastic female characters. The first of which is Cassandra, Rapunzel's Lady In Waiting and daughter to the Captain of the Guards.
She's one of the characters that really raise the quality of the show. The dynamic aspects of her are endearing, and she brings a phenomenal clash to Eugene's role. She's hilarious, snarky, and somewhat abrasive, yet endlessly supportive and loyal to Rapunzel. Their close friendship reminds me of another duo on a current Disney show:
Princess Elena of "Elena of Avalor" is also best friends with an important member in her kingdom. Soon after meeting and befriending Naomi, Elena appointed her as a member of her Royal Council. Both pairs get in and out of trouble in a similarly supportive way.
Another important female character in "Tangled: Before Ever After" is Lady Caine. I can't get into why she's so amazing without giving too much away so spoiler alert for the the next paragraph and picture afterward. Actually, if you don't want any spoilers just skip to my last paragraph.
One of few fantastic female villains out there, Lady Caine's backstory has nothing to do with envying the beauty or youth of our princess protagonist, or some sort of vengeance involving a love interest. Nope, she's fighting because her father was thrown into prison, and she's had years to become bitter and a badass from it. Also she has a backstory! I'm really hoping Lady Caine will have some continuous role in the Tangled series, further character development, and more badassery. Plus, check out her awesome tat. Her character design totally reminds me of Megara.
The ending note is that even though Rapunzel broke out of her tower, she's still stuck in the castle all the same. This time? It's her own father that she was finally reunited with that's doing the trapping. It's heartbreaking. I'm not a fan of the king's character, and can't decided if it's supposed to be this way, or if it's from underdeveloped writing.
Perhaps it's because at the end of "Tangled" there's a high expectations that Rapunzel's parents are going to be fantastic to her. As with most Disney kings, at least he just thinks he's doing the right thing.
Overall, based on this pilot, this show has a lot of potential.The ingredients are there: a princess we like, other strong female characters, a variety of personalities, and an adventure genre where Rapunzel will probably fight with frying pans and not wear shoes. The concept that this could be a money maker for Disney means they could really invest in it as well. Also in seeing that there have been great "Elena of Avalor" episodes, there is a chance for an authentically good series. Let's hope Disney handles this potential correctly.
