Bex talks Tangled!

From what I understand, Disney approached Chris Sonnenburg and Shane Prigmore (who was promoted to VP of Creative Affairs for WDTVA before the show was fully developed, and Ben Balistreri was brought onboard) to do a series for Tangled, because they wanted one done. Shane and Chris developed the story and got as many people who worked on the film as they could on the series - the voice actors, obviously, but also Glen and Claire Keane to help with visual development, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater and Kevin Kliesch to do the songs and music, and as many other musicians, board artists, crew members, etc as they could get their hands on. They even got Roy Conli, the movie's producer, to back them up in getting Disney to let them knock down the tower! (Though he didn't actually work on the show at all.) However, Byron Howard and Nathan Greno have nothing to do with the series (other than the one comic book cover that Nathan did art for).

Byron Howard and Jin Kim, yes. And there are others. I'll show a well-know piece of each of the artists' name that I recognized.

There's Scott Watanabe

Bill Schwab

Dan Cooper

Mark Kennedy, in storyboards

and last, but certainly not least, Jenessa Warren who worked, not on Tangled the movie, but Tangled: the Series

Granted, not all these names appear in The Art of Encanto, I definitely looked some stuff up on IMdb, and I bet they share more crew, but those are the names that I knew for sure.

I got Tangled vibes from the framing of some of the shots (like Isabela running through her room with her arms spread wide and petals shooting up behind her, for example), and yeah, maybe that has something to do with Byron Howard.

I don't like to roll everything up into a blanket of "then and now" like that. Because each movie being produced has its own strengths and weaknesses. Tangled is not a perfect movie, it just speaks to me very strongly.

But there are other movies that do that, too. I am particularly fond of Encanto, Moana, Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia. (Two of which were directed by Byron Howard, who also directed Tangled, so maybe he's got a way of storytelling that I like.)

However, there's one thing that the more recent movies have that Tangled absolutely does not and should: POC. There is no excuse for every single person in Tangled to be white. None. But Disney has at least realized that error and started to be more inclusive.

Basically, there wouldn't be a series if it had been the same people.

From what I understand, they had attempted to make a Tangled 2, and they couldn't think of a plot, so they eventually scrapped the idea. While Roy Conli (the producer) gave his support to the series and even championed to Disney to let them knock the tower down, I don't think Byron Howard or Nathan Greno had any sort of say in it whatsoever.

However, as someone who has some heavy criticisms of things they changed from the movie going into the series, I have some guesses about things that might have been different.

I don't think magic would have featured quite so much. The movie made magic seem rare in the world. So rare, in fact, that the magic flower was merely a legend until found - it's even described as a miracle in the prologue - and Eugene freaked out when he saw actual, real magic in action. If there was any more magic in the series, I think it would have been rare and just as shocking.

I also think the series would have focused much more strongly on Rapunzel and Eugene's relationship, because that was the focus of the movie. Not necessarily "a problem comes in between them and must be resolved" so much as their bond really being the highlight of the story. I think Eugene would have gotten a bigger role, and his past explored more completely. I don't think Gothel would have had a child in it. I think Conli would have been one of the guards that was actually in it. I think we would have had way more Max and Pascal shenanigans.

Fun Fact: Some of the crew of the series is the crew of the movie! They got literally as many people as they could to help with the series so it would look and feel the same!

I know that Roy Conli, the movie’s producer, was on board with the series! He even advocated to let them knock the tower down, because Disney resisted letting an iconic landmark be destroyed. (I met him at the Annies in 2018! He’s super nice and also very tall. XD)

As far as I know, neither Byron Howard nor Nathan Greno have seen the series, though Nathan did do an alternate cover for one of the comics!

Tangled’s fashion and technology is literally influenced by hundreds of years’ worth of stuff. (x)

The physical form of the island is directly based off of Mont St. Michel in France, but the architecture of the town itself takes influenced from France, Bavaria, and most heavily from Fantasyland at Disneyland. (The artists literally went to Disneyland with cameras and sketch books and drew the buildings in Fantasyland for inspiration.)

When directors Byron Howard and Nathan Greno designed the kingdom, they wanted it to not look like any one specific place, but to be a kind of general fantasy location. (x)

(Regarding them never calling it Corona in the film, that’s the name that Glen Keane gave the kingdom when it was still his project, before Nathan and Byron took over.)

Heeeey! Hope you enjoy the podcast!

Yeah, they do, and it’s not surprising given that Byron Howard made both movies.

Yes, Vigor was originally going to be in the movie. There’s a deleted scene, and he also appears in the closing credits. But why tell you about it when I can show you?

They even used this visual layout exactly in the series.