One question about the movie: whenever Rapunzel sings she makes her “mother” young again. Why did Rapunzel grow up then?
Really? I hated the horse. It was an equine dog. Couldn’t they have used a dog character if they wanted him to have doggy characteristics?
Err, that was kinda the joke. A dog doing things that dogs do isn’t really that funny.
MAGIC. Just because witch mom gets to be young again doesnt necessarily mean Rapunzel had to forgo growing up. It never said anything about that in the story. Magic, my friend.
Also, Rapunzel wasn’t growing into a state of lesser health. I’d guess that “Mom” was returned to her healthiest state, which just happened to look younger.
Or magic. I can live with magic and either a maximum age cap built into the spell or an age dispensation for those still growing.
It was Goethel’s flower first. The soldiers stole it from her, so she took Rapunzel to get her power back. She wouldn’t have kidnapped Rapunzel if it wasn’t for the power getting transferred to her. Goethel wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, hence her caution to keep Rapunzel hidden from the world. Unless you think wanting to live forever is evil, she’s no worse than the next witch, and even grew to care for Rapunzel in a strange way.
I don’t think wanting to live forever is evil. But what matters isn’t intent, what matters is actions. And kidnapping a baby because you want to live forever is not a reasonable course of action.
The theme is selfishness.
The witch is selfish. She’s not directly evil apart from the kidnapping, but excessively callous and uncaring. Manipulating the emotions of a captive “daughter” and spenind most of her time away, only at the tower enough to water her plant, so to speak.
In the exposition at the beginning, the witch could have shared the magic flower with others and prevented it from being destroyed.
Rapunzel doesn’t have a selfish bone in her body, yet spend the movie imprisoned by or on the run from characters who want her for their own selfish reasons. She’s even guided in her journey by a selfish guy. All she wnts is the answer to a burning question.
Flynn starts off selfish, probably more so than anyone else except the witch. His story arc shows him gradually turning away from this attitude under the influence of Rapunzel’s inherent generosity. In the end, he repays her in the most unselfish act one can make: [spoiler]sacrificing himself to free Rapunzel from the witch.
So we have the selfish character who stays selfish dying a horrible death, and a selfish character who learns to be unselfish resurected from death and joining a royal family to boot.[/spoiler]
Yeah, plenty of plot points weren’t thought out all the way (the opening part was bad), and adult cynicism can render the basic message underwhelming and ambiguous, but to kids, the message is clearly: don’t be selfish.
No, the alternative was growing up the beloved daughter of the king and queen in a beautiful palace. The witch didn’t have to kidnap Rapunzel, she chose to do so.
Indeed. But Rapunzel did grow up feeling loved. Selfish and manipulative love, buy love. Is that enough to have her brutally murdered by a lizard?
I like it when she equates Rapunzel’s tiara to virginity.
We must have seen different movies. Can you point me to the love? Any genuine affection at all?
The witch did not love Rapunzel. There is nothing to suggest she even liked Rapunzel. She was an assett to be manipulated. She was a means to an end. Nothing more. She kept her captive in a tower, not to protect her but to protect the source of everlasting youth, depriving her any social interaction in the bargain.
She kept telling her she loved her through the whole movie. To manipulate her? Sure. Emotions are a complex thing. But still a way better attitude than the wicked stepmother Cinderella had to live with, for instance.
I thought they depicted a bipolar mother wonderfully, for a kids’ movie. Cause there’s no doubt her mother loves her…just in a weird, freaky, overprotective way. Having been a child of such a mother, I loved-loved-loved this movie and when Rapunzel is going through her crisis at leaving home, I knew exactly how she felt.
I don’t have children, but if I did I don’t think I’d consider any punishment too severe for the woman who kidnapped my baby, even if she did raise her with love. And frankly, what I saw in the movie was not love. If your position is that the witch wasn’t as bad as she possibly could have been then sure, there are even worse things that she could have done. But so what? Is your world view so black-and-white that you really need every movie villain to be completely, irredeemably evil?
Watch it again. She’s always talking to Rapunzel’s hair when she says she loves her. She never kisses her on the cheek, only on her hair.
I have the BluRay unopened at home and I’ll have to watch for that. I was thinking she “loved” Rapunzel like an addict loves her dope. That would dovetail nicely with your observation.
Those getting killed at the end? Yeah. It’s not like the movie was particularly shaded with gray. We are told she’s evil. We are supposed to cheer her demise. I postulate they did a terrible job of it, never bothering to think about the implications of their own story.
Remember that she went on a three day trip to make her a present.* I* wouldn’t do that.
But did Rapunzel feel loved? I could argue that at the end of the day, we should judge characters for their actions.
Yeah, that scene really hit home for me. I went through something similar when I emancipated.
That woman did not love Rapunzel. Control through emotional manipulation is not love. She was passive-aggressively cutting her down all the time, too. Screw that witch.