This paper is a literary analysis of the movie Tangled, a complex adaptation of the Grimm Brothers account of the fairytale, "Rapunzel." The 2010 animated movie succeeds because it follows the outline of Maureen Murdock's The Heroine's Journey, in which the lead character begins by separating from the feminine and ends by integrating her feminine side with the masculine qualities she has come to discover throughout the story. Along the way, she deals with some significant mother issues and finds love. Most important, however, she discovers her power, the magic within her that makes her stronger at the end, despite the apparent loss of her most obvious gift, the long hair that is her means of bringing the outside world to her and overcoming its destructiveness.
One of the characters sums up the essential elements of Rapunzel's story as "overprotective mother, forbidden road trip," and this does encompass some of the highlights of her journey. The mother role is central to the story, since it provides the spine of the conflict. Rapunzel's real mother is healed with a potion made from the sun-kissed flower that sustains the youth of its original discoverer, Gothel. Gothel then steals the baby in order to retain control of the source of this power, locking her away in a tower and warning her that the world is filled with selfish people. She neglects to point out that Rapunzel's predicament is the result of Gothel's own selfishness.
Rapunzel accepts her fate until the eve of her eighteenth birthday, when her longing to find out the truth of the lights that appear every night on her birthday launches her journey. Although she is relatively content in her captivity, she begins to separate from the feminine when she captures the masculine force invading her sanctuary. It is a nice touch that she renders Flynn unconscious (repeatedly) with a frying pan, traditionally a feminine object, turned here into the weapon that gives...