TERM PAPER: The Laws of Physics in TANGLED

Tangled is an animated film made in 2010 by Disney. It follows the tale of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. It’s about the journey of Rapunzel following her dream, to see the floating lanterns which always take place during her birthday. Rapunzel was kidnapped as a young child because her hair had special magical powers from it because her mother had drank soup made from a magical golden flower, because of this, Rapunzel is the owner to tremendously long, golden hair. Mother Gottel steals Rapunzel as a baby to use the powers to keep herself young and hides her in a tower so that no one will try to take her back. Rapunzel meets with Flynn, a thief whose real name is Eugene, who is reluctantly takes her to see the floating lanterns. During the film, there are interesting events that happen and the two eventually fall in love. However Mother Gottel ultimately will get in the way which results in Eugene killed by her and then resurrected by Rapunzel. The two are defeat Mother Gottel and return to the castle where they live happily ever after. While watching this film, you can see how the film incorporates how Rapunzel uses her hair but also how the unworldly fact of having hair that long and her usage through it is physically impossible.

In the beginning of the film, Rapunzel is playing a game of hide and seek with Pascal and uses the end of her hair like a whip to find him. The hair is able to twist itself around Pascal’s tail and lift him off the ground. To begin with, it’s not possible at all for someone to freely wrap their hair around something and lift something, normal hair is not possible of doing that. Another time she is able to throw her hair and wrap it around something was during the The Snuggly Duckling scene, where when Flynn being sought after by ruffians because he has a ransom on his head, she uses it to distract them and reason with the ruffians. Another part in the beginning of the film, Rapunzel is repeatedly shown using her hair to get around the house. In one part, she uses her hair and throws it like a loop to open a window and then proceeds to slide down her hair like a pole. She also wraps her hair around herself and grabs the end tuft of her hair between her toes to be able to reach the high walls, near the ceiling, to be able to paint on them. Though, Rapunzel’s hair is magical, that is the only excuse for these wrongdoing against physics.

Later on in the film, she is showing using her hair to lift Mother Gothel to the window of the tower, where they live. Not only, is she using her hair but she is using her own strength to lift up Mother Gothel. Now, looking at Rapunzel, she is a petite girl that lacks muscle. To incorporate the hair lift and her own seemingly nonexistent strength to lift up a grown woman seems pretty unreasonable and defying the laws of physics. Also to add to this, Mother Gothel claims that Rapunzel has done this every single day without fail. So, imagine a little Rapunzel lifting that horrible woman up and being greeted with the passive aggression that Mother Gothel so loves to throw in her face.

Other examples of this is when she is trapping Flynn Rider in a closet. It is shown that she is physically having trouble pull a grown man with her hair wrapped around him like a rope. She also uses her hair to whip him into the closet from a high place which means that she somehow carried him to the structures above her to have him fall in the closet at that angle. Then afterwards, she repeats her hair’s usage as a rope and has it tied around Flynn Rider while interrogating him in a chair and persuading him to take her to see the lanterns. She is also able to repeat this act of being able to lift people much larger than herself with her hair when they are getting chased by the guards from the castle and Maximus.

There are some questionable antics that Maximus the horse encounters as well, such as when he is chasing Flynn Rider and they have their little scene on the tree. Though, four-legged creature balance better, you have to question if hooves can be reliable to keep one steady while other creatures have claws. Also, Maximus and Flynn, supposedly, fall to their deaths and come out of it as though they hadn’t just fallen off a cliff that is a good hefty number of feet.

Another questionable antic in the defiance of physics is when Rapunzel first meets Maximus. Maximus has finally found Flynn, who had been chasing endlessly, and while the two are fighting, Rapunzel steps in to stop then. During this, Maximus is able to grab ahold of his boot which Rapunzel demands that he sits and drop the boot. When Maximus does as Rapunzel says, Rapunzel praises him to which Maximus responds with the wagging of his tail much like a dog, despite his tail having no muscle, no bone, and only hair so there would be nothing that would allow it to wag like a dog’s tail.

Now, while there are all these things that defy the laws of physics, the whole notion of a fairy tale is quite impossible which makes it work well in the film. Also, Rapunzel doesn’t do anything impossibly impossible in the film, despite the healing and turning back of time with magical powers that are in her hair, Rapunzel is my favorite 3D Disney film and it was beautifully done. From beginning the finish, the film always had my attention and there isn’t a single thing I had to complain about it. The compelling characters and that not-so-classic up-and-down journey that Rapunzel goes through grabs us at our hearts.