Painting lines and Critiques

Art tutorials, animation insights, and critiques of all kinds. Black Woman, Feminist and proud of it. This blog is super Anti-Tangled and Anti-Frozen, and animation criticism is abundant! :P

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I hope you're doing alright

I'm ok! I haven't been very active on this blog, so I'm sorry about that. Nothing bad has happened, I guess I just got super burnt out talking about disney princesses.

It's nice though that the discussion is still going.

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So having watched the trailer for Wish, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I love that we finally have another black Disney Princess, and-- by the looks of it-- an actual villain instead of a twist villain or a "generational trauma" plot. But on the other hand, I can't help but have a strange feeling of deja vu from it, like someone fed Encanto, Moana, and Frozen to an AI and told it to make a movie trailer.

I kind of got the same feeling!

I think one of the things that makes Wish look a little awkward in the trailers is that it mostly takes place at night so we don't get a full scope of the diversity of the backgrounds. And while some shots look pretty great, it mostly comes off as being a bit bland and a little undercooked at times.

I know that having it take place at night makes sense given the subject, but it doesn't have to look one way, and we can see from the shots that they can add a lot of color to it. It's just that without the color, it's mostly blue hues.

Then again, it might not be completely representative of the movie as a while.

The watercolor style is very pretty, but in some shots(particularly ones that take place in the daytime) it also kind of looks like a background Disenchantment.

Disenchantment to compare is below

And don't get me wrong, Disenchantment's backgrounds are beautiful, but this is a movie by Disney so I kind of expected it to be a few more notches higher.

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while i cant say i agree with all of your tangled takes, i do find them very interesting to read. and also, its funny bc a lot of your critques about rapunzel are the same ones i have about jasmine. specifically, her being a walking plot device, and her movie having her prince as the main character instead of herself (i mean the movie is titled aladdin after all, not jasmine). its why i say aladdin is technically the worst disney princess movie lol

Warning: I talk about infantilization and sexualization

Very interesting, I was recently actually thinking a lot about how T//angled took cues and arcs from Aladdin in it's character setups. For example, Aladdin is about, well like you said, Aladdin! It makes sense the story would start with him and focus on him.

The tale of Aladdin has him as the main character, while Jasmine is secondary (or, if you think about it, Genie takes more prominence after Aladdin, so maybe third?). The reason the whole "disney princess not as the main character in her movie" kinda works for Aladdin is because it's about him.

Ta//ngled is a fairytale derived from the story of Rapunzel. It's not "Eugene/Flynn Rider." And the fact that Flynn Rider is treated as a main character nearly the same way Aladdin is, doesn't work as well and it relegates the actual main character to a plot device. And I can't deny that while Jasmine has a strong conviction, and values, she is subject to being a damsel in distress for a lot of the movie and it can be very off putting.

I do like Jasmine as a character, and I do I appreciate that she was there for me as one the three princesses of color I had when there just weren't any black princesses growing up.

But there's definitely a lot to criticize about Jasmine's role, and how this plays into the racist stereotypes of the movie and how it uses it's setting.

Like Rapunzel, Jasmine is subject to uncomfortable framing. Her sexualization is creepy and exploitative. Rapunzel's infantilization is also creepy and weird. But I wouldn't necessarily call them identical, they're different due to being a result of portraying stereotypes about girls of color and cultural idealization of white women/girls as more innocent and purer than them.

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Frozen 3 is officially in development 🙃 girl we are doomed

Yeah, I heard too. It's just like, the second movie was screaming "This is it people, it's all over!" "Pack your bags, we're done with Frozen".

Elsa and Anna no longer live together (though Elsa visits), Anna is getting married to Kristoff, and Elsa find out where her powers come from and how their parents died.

Frozen 2 was actually quite strict about tying up their loose ends so they didn't have to make a third movie now that I think about it.

People with other elemental powers to add to the lore? Nope, Elsa's just special and the only one I guess. No more movies please.

More information about the parents, the secrets they kept and what extremes they were willing to go to to keep Elsa's powers a under control? Sure, but only in a way where they were actually perfect parents and didn't need to be confronted, no need to look further (totally all Elsa's fault for being "different"🙄 btw).

I'm just not sure what more they can do with the story. They certainly can't ignore the previous movie or act like it never happened.

And this is just a weird conspiracy theory, but at the very least I think we're going to get another Elsa transformation dress because her new outfit...maybe it's not being received too well and they want to market a new outfit for her too?

At first I saw her dress/design all the time on merchandise and cosplays when the movie came out, but in the long run it's not very merchandisable or recognizable from a distance for products. Elsa's character design really demands a splash of color to make her stand out.

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I found a gif of giselle from enchanted and just realised she is literally like Rapunzel but much more fleshed out? Crazy how tangled said "here is rapunzel" but we already had a maiden trapped in a tower! I know that Giselle becomes real and finds herself in the real world, so she isn't really rapunzel from tangled, but still, it's wild!

I never really thought of it that way, that's pretty interesting! I think that it's not too out there to say that Giselle may have influenced Rapunzel, in a sort of way that the other disney princesses did. She most likely laid down the foundation of what kind of rincess they wanted to do next.

Ironically, Giselle was meant to be a parody with a little bit more sincerity mixed in so she could develop, while Rapunzel basically played all the disney princess tropes straight while making is seem like she was defying them on a surface level. The parody princess is more developed than the actual factual one.

Interesting note, the visual style of Giselle was influenced by art nouveau and Mucha, which is pretty distinctive. I kinda wish Rapunzel had a distinct style like that, or had a heavy inspiration from some art style that was more recognizable like Giselle.

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I still love Rapunzel but I'm not sure if I love her Disney movie anymore? It's got lots of issues and deserves plenty of critiques. I do not trust any Disney fans who think this movie should be untouchable by critics.

Sorry it took so long to answer!

I get what you mean, sometimes we can love characters but fall out of love with the story they're in. T//angled is over a decade old, and I think a reevaluation is necessary. Even the best films have elements people don't like in them.

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Why you think that Disney is promoting The princess and the frog more nowadays? I see more merchandise for it, more things based on it being made in parks like Tiana’s place and Tiana’s even in Disney 100 celebrations merchandise.

The reason could be that they're no longer able to get away with excluding her like they did in the 2010s.

During that time I would come across merchandise of disney princess merch that included all the white princesses, (plus Rapunzel of course) with maybe only one non white princess thrown in.

It was really difficult finding Tiana merch at all for a long time, even though her movie came out before Rapunzel, Elsa, Anna (before their indigenous heritage was revealed, they are white passing) and to a lesser extent Merida. But you'd see all of those princesses on merchandise first before you'd find Tiana for the longest time.

I definitely see Tiana more nowadays, which is good, but I also think it's because people are more likely to side eye disney over it.

I also have a theory (and this is just speculation) that the recent resurgence of Tiana has to do with Disney's next black princess movie, "Wish", which will have our first 3D black (Afro-Latina to be specific, edit 10/2/2023: It has come to my attention that Asha is Northern African and southern European, her voice actress is Afro-Latina) princess movie, with a princess named Asha is coming out this year.

Disney only has one black disney princess so far and they ignored her character for many years in favor of white princesses . To continue excluding Tiana now the way they've been doing it for years would be a huge deal not only for the future of Tiana's character, but would also spark fears for how disney will treat Asha's character too.

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I was on twitter the other day and I saw this tweet that goes viral every 6 months about how Flynn shouldn’t have cut her hair so short at the end. I just realized how messed up it was that he basically cut her hair without her consent or blessing. Cutting your hair is a very personal decision and this should be the case for rapunzel as her hair is basically her 3rd arm. It kind of reminds of Snow White and sleeping beauty, where the they kissed them without they’re consent in order to save them. Like Disney already changed it from the witch cutting it to Flynn cutting it, they could have just changed it to rapunzel cutting it herself.

Agreed, and honestly? The story is framed in a way where it is understandable that this decision was made hastily, and I understand the intention was to free Rapunzel from an abusive environment and as a sacrifice on Flynn Rider's part.

However, on a storytelling aspect, this is just another action that Flynn Rider's character just had to take from Rapunzel because the emphasis on his character was based on the fear executives had about making a "girly" story. He just had to be the center of attention.

Flynn Rider had a majority of the story's conflict centered around his actions and their consequences, he had all the cool fight scenes, he had a prison break, he had conflicts with many characters and rivalries with even the sidekicks.

It's like Rapunzel wasn't allowed to have her own story without Flynn Rider being somehow in the center of it.

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I was thinking about your post regarding passivity and naivety in specifically white princesses and tbh it's one of the reasons why I was so confused by frozen 2 (I haven't watched it but I do know the plot). I know Elsa and Anna are Sámi, so they're not white, but it felt like the second movie could've been used to give Elsa and Anna stronger characterisations. I think the chosen one narrative doesn't fit Elsa at all bc it did make her passive. Which sucks - first Sámi queen and they didn't even allow her to seek out Ahtohallan by herself? They literally used a magic voice to force her to leave the castle, when she could have just had an uneasy feeling and acted on that instead. Also I read up on her character and apparently she likes academic subjects like geometry as well as being artistic but the movie didn't make use of this?? I have a lot of thoughts on this movie but I just wanted to share this tidbit lol.

Frozen 2 is such a strange movie to me. The Chosen One narrative is so out of left field, especially since it feels like it’s a holdover from the earlier “prophecy” version of Frozen when Elsa was prophesied to cause an eternal winter.  It later scrapped and we got the current version of the movie, which is a more bare bones version of the story they clearly wanted to tell.

In my personal opinion (and this is purely speculation), the characterization mistakes are due to the frankly huge amount of discarded drafts of the original Frozen movie that were scrapped and then put back in for the second movie without much thought about how it would mesh with the “final” draft of the original Frozen. They didn’t take into account the changes they made to these characters, settings, and world building. And they most likely thought that they could sneak it back in when it no longer fit.

It’s clear to me that there is a version of Frozen out there that the production team really, really loved but they couldn’t make because audiences weren’t connecting with it. And with the subsequent changes, some even being major shifts in the story (like taking Elsa from a villain to a hero), I can sort of see what the thought process was, because Frozen 2 makes so much more sense when you piece it together with the older versions of Frozen.

In the original, Elsa was prophesied to make an eternal winter, so she was hated. But when you take Frozen 2 as a continuation of this story that no longer exists, this “prophecy of doom,” becomes a “chosen one” story. It’s a reversal of expectations and turns her from villain to heroine. But that already happened in the first movie, so it doesn’t apply.

However, the Frozen that was released into the mainstream has a different theme that it lends itself to. It explores the idea of loneliness and finding who really loves and supports you, and building something from that. This is why a “chosen one” story doesn’t work. People were aching for Elsa to find other people who are like her, who have powers like her. Not a simple power fantasy.

And the introduction of her mother’s Sami community has the making of being such a great addition because it would offer a different perspective on her powers, which has been said to being coded as indigenous. What if they embraced the very powers that she was told were dangerous? How would that look? How would people in this community use their own powers? Why weren’t there people in there that also had ice magic? How would it be used, and what would their place be within their community? What if there are other communities in other places that are just like her?

The Chosen One strips the audience of that sense of community, it’s actually isolating because it makes her “special,” and “one of a kind” when finding the people who truly love you to build a new life with was one of the major themes of Frozen.

Elsa doesn’t delve too deep into the Northuldra perspective on how they view magic and their personal relationship with it. The story feels like it is distant from their perspective at times, with focusing too much on how her father, who’s view is very biased, viewed them.

Elsa has a friend in Honeymaren and she lives with the Northuldra, which is interesting, but we don’t see her really communicating on a community level with the people who have the greatest connection to her mother. Personally, I wanted more characterization from them too.

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You mentioned before that rapunzel was a walking plot device and I was wondering which scenes were you referring to. I was going to see the movie again to see if it’s as bad as I remembered and I wanted to know which scenes to look out for.

Hi, sorry for the late response, holidays were really busy.

I think when it comes to “Rapunzel is a walking plot device,” I think of it as not always a culmination of scenes, but the story itself and what it chooses to focus on:

Rapunzel’s story is centered around Eugene/Flynn Rider. The main plot kicks off on him stealing her crown, he is the one being chased by guards, he chooses to double cross his teammates, which leads to trouble down the line and his arc of change is the driving force of the plot. It’s what gets it moving. Many of the most important plot scenes have a certain formula.

“Flynn drives the plot, Rapunzel either gets a certain consequence of it, or turns it around by just being likeable”, examples below:

He steals the crown, which leads to Rapunzel finding it. She uses it against him as blackmail, but he figures her out pretty quickly.

He backstabs the Stabbington brothers, which puts Rapunzel in trouble later on.

He takes Rapunzel to the bar to try and talk her out of going to the lights. Rapunzel is the one who made friends with them

Maximus is after Flynn Rider, Rapunzel bargains with him and calms him down

Flynn Rider goes to prison and is sentenced to be executed. He is broken out by people from the bar that he insisted on going to. Rapunzel’s ability to make friends by being childlike and enthusiatic is what creates those bonds.

All of this could’ve worked, as long as Rapunzel also moved the plot forward due to her own actions.

It was her idea to go to see the lanterns, that is good! Mother gothel is a major villain, so the consequences of her defying her are paramount.

She needed Flynn Rider to take her there and to get her out of the tower, even though she probably could’ve memorized where the lanterns came from direction wise. That’s fine, I suppose. Would’ve been better if she left on her own and at least tried to find them herself since she is proven to be smart.

Flynn Rider’s actions drive most of the problems in the plot, he is wanted for stealing the crown, thus having not only the entire Imperial Guards after him but multiple major conflicts come back to him as a result of his action. Not so good. Who’s fairy tale is this again?

But despite blackmailing Flynn Rider, in another point of view it comes off as him being more or less just going along with Rapunzel out of the goodness of his heart. He clearly is the more experienced of the two, and he could’ve figured out the location since she’s just carrying a single bag with her.

The problem with Rapunzel is that she is reactive. Rapunzel is simply reacting instead of acting. She is taken out of heavy action scenes (example, the guards chasing them and the pan fight with Maximus, Rapunzel swings offscreen and watches. She later gets him out of trouble when she’s safely out of danger.) and her inability to fend for herself is often highlighted, mostly due to the conditioning of mother gothel and her own insecurities.

But still, sometimes the movie portrays these sort of insecurities as “cute” or endearing, even though it causes her emotional turmoil. The juxtaposition of her emotional highs and lows when she is finally out of the tower is played for laughs.

Her naivete and “having a dream”, is vague and childlike. Her mannerisms when singing also highlight this.

This is what would be referred to as a positive feminine trait that increases her likability by playing into the idealized stereotypes imposed upon women and girls. Not to say that having such traits makes you bad, but it does seem like she is embodying these traits as a way to convey that they are the feminine ideal.

The movie is very good at making it seem like Rapunzel is assertive because her actions are very energetic visually. She is swinging, jumping around, and carrys a frying pan.

But there is a problem: A lot of the story hinges on her status, and what her hair can do.

Rapunzel is often reduced to what she is. Her status as a princess inherently makes her valuable, her hair is magic and can give healing powers that mother Gothel seeks. And in turn, her very existence is due to the influence of the magic flower that her parents took. All things that were decided before she was born and the ones she does control, she has been conditioned to think she has very little control over.

When she does put her foot down with Mother Gothel, and tries to take back control of her magic hair, she is put in chains.

Here comes the reverse order of “Flynn Rider does something, Rapunzel reacts to it and tries to fix it.” Rapunzel uses her people skills to convince Mother Gothel to let her go temporarily so she can heal Flynn Rider.

Then, he cuts her hair to free her. Without Flynn, she would’ve kept her promise and stayed with Mother Gothel in exchange for healing him. It took Flynn Rider’s actions to free her.

There are people who say that Rapunzel could’ve left the tower on her own, that she wouldn’t have needed Flynn Rider. That she could’ve fought in the action scenes, that she could’ve even cut her own hair and freed herself.

But despite this being her story, she doesn’t. It’s all given to Flynn Rider.

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Bad news: I learned from Jewish bloggers on Tumblr that the story of Rapunzel is an inherently antisemitic story based in the dark history of blood libel. The Brothers Grimm were violently antisemitic towards the Jews in Germany during their lifetime

Oh wow, that's very disturbing and honestly makes sense. Antisemitism runs very deep in European literature. Thanks for letting me know. After all, it's best for me not place the original source material like Rapunzel on a pedestal when comparing it to it's adaptations.

I'll be sure to include this information when assessing the original Rapunzel tale in the future, especially when comparing it to material adapted from it.

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I’ve realized that when John Lasseter took over Disney Animation in 2006, he turned it entirely into a Pixar clone. And when Pixar started focus on sequels, everything felt the same. Everyone started looking like Rapunzel/Elsa because he and the higher ups want something marketable. Nearly every film from Disney Animation became a buddy/road trip comedy, there’s a mid-act break up, low brow humor, and a twist villain repeated 4 times in a row. (Hans for example). Lasseter is gone and we’ve seen Jennifer Lee and Pete Docter taking both studios in a different direction, and I’m proud of that after watching Encanto and Turning Red.

It really does seem that way. The Pixar formula, while successful, was honestly getting stale as time went on. And it wasn't evolving naturally because of something that happens too often in the animation industry: a resistance to change or meaningful conversations about storytelling and which stories are told behind the scenes.

Personally, I'm happy that Pixar is changing and out of John Lasseter's influence, there seems to be some new blood gaining traction. They're telling better stories and are getting out the Pixar rut. Hopefully in the future disney animation in general retires the elsa/rapunzel model, and tries taking bigger risks.

I just wish that Lasseter had been booted sooner, and that he didn't land himself a new gig at skydance animation. It's honestly disgusting, and he's only going to endanger the people who are forced to work with him at a company that doesn't care about the safety of their employees.

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I wish that certain Disney fans understood that criticizing popular media does not necessarily mean that you hate it. Problematic media is unavoidable. Nothing is unproblematic. Critical thinking skills can be gained for those who wish to have them.

That's true, every form of media has problems. Even ones we like have issues and exploring them is part of the viewer experience.

Media criticism means that people are engaged and are paying attention to what they consume.

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On the subject of Mother Gothel, it would have been more interesting if she kidnapped Rapunzel because she desired a child of her own due to being childless or infertile, as opposed to wanting to use her to be young forever because she was vain, selfish, and afraid of growing old. Beauty stereotypes are anything but rare in Disney Princess movies.

I agree that the whole weird "I wanna be young forever" motivation doesn't really make too much sense and is rooted in beauty stereotypes. I wish they would at least make it more plausible by having Mother Gothel do things she can't do unless she is young to justify her taking Rapunzel.

I think that taking a child in order to raise would be an interesting motivation for Mother gothel in the original Rapunzel story as opposed to T//angled. But because T//angled insisted on her being royalty without putting much thought into it, the infertility motivation might have some complications.

A lot of the original elements of the Rapunzel fairytale, like her class, influenced how she is treated by Mother Gothel. The fact that no one came after her since she and by extension her parents were poor and could do nothing against someone more powerful than them, a witch. It's a story about the debt children inherit from their parents in many ways, something royals would have no issues with.

Rapunzel in this version is royalty, people are going to actively search for her with armies. It would be too risky to take a royal baby as opposed to a poorer one with powerless parents.

It might also be more complicated since it could also be promoting the idea that fertility and child rearing as the center of a woman's life. This is a pretty old trope, where antagonistic women are infertile and want to steal babies from more fertile women.

I think that T//angled's problems are rooted very deep in complicating a simple story in order to make it about royalty. The power dynamics are all over the place, so it's difficult to add motivations to Mother Gothel without adding layers upon layers to the story in order to make her already vague motivations make more sense.

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In my honest opinion, I think that the whole "Eugene/Rapunzel" romance would be cuter if they were the same age, because in real life, an older guy like Eugene might be interested in a younger girl for all of the wrong reasons

Agreed, the age difference between them just feels so unnecessary and creepy. What is it even for? Who is it even for, who are they appealing to with such a big age difference?

And they keep messing around with his age too (because it was a bad idea in the first place) by trying and soften the blow. Before the series, most people agreed that Eugene was at least 7-8 years older than Rapunzel.

But apparently they tried to retcon it in the animated series by saying now he's 24 (with Rapunzel being probably about 19-20) and making it a point that he thought he was 23.

"Oh, he's older than he thinks he is (by one year)! He thought he was closer in age to Rapunzel! So stop saying he's 26-28."

By this new retcon's logic, since the series takes place possibly 1-2 years after the movie, they're saying that he was supposed to be 21-22 in the movie?? No, he wasn't. He was coded as and had the maturity of a mid-twenties adult.

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Hi, just found your blog, as a Tangled fan I think you have some valid criticism that makes me realize why I didn't got into the film at first and how its rewatch value wore off on me. But rewatching as an adult I've realized many things and now I love it. I think any valid point has its counterargument but I'm not here to discuss that, I just wanna ask if you have other blog where you talk about animation, writing or things you love, I'd like to see your interesting writing in a positive light

If T//angled has rewatch value for you, if you connect with emotionally it and love it, then in my opinion as a piece of art it's serving it's purpose and that is best outcome.

Movies should be enjoyed and examined. Sometimes we have a movie we used to hate and love it later when giving it a second chance. Sometimes we have movies we used to adore and now can't look at it the same because of new information about it that taints our experiences. Or maybe we love certain movies more with new, more positive insights we gained, and learned to appreciate certain details. How people interact with entertainment is super subjective.

I have many problems with T/angled as a franchise and film, and I can't rewatch it without remembering it's downsides but I do know that it has a special place in many people's hearts because it brought up subjects that aren't always discussed. I'm sure they appreciate that aspect and how it was handled.

I started criticizing T//angled with intent to dissect it's place in the disney animated canon, and it's existence affected Disney's trajectory with it's 3D animated projects. I didn't like what I was seeing or the patterns emerging from it's existence, so I took time to really dig into the movie and point out things rubbed me the wrong way. It's nice to get it off my chest and vent.

Unfortunately, I don't have another animation blog like this which dissects animation in a more positive light. Thank you for the interest though! I think it might be that I'm more focused on things that I think should change and pointing out problems that affect my experience as a movie watcher, animation lover and reader. Or maybe I just thrive when I'm bitching lol.

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what do you hope will be explored in Tiana the series? I'm hoping we get Dr Facilier's backstory + a connection between him and Mama Odie

I think it's be great to explore more of his backstory too!

There's so much that we don't know about Dr. Facilier. We can get quite a bit from his interactions with other characters, but I think an episode about his backstory would be great.

I'd like more details and expanding on the lore on transformation magic. But avoid turning Tiana and Naveen into frogs at all costs.

An episode about her parents or a flashback episode of her spending time with her dad.

And also, more black friends for Tiana! I think it would be great if she made more friends outside of Charlotte and Naveen.