Rapunzel - Film Adaptations

Film Adaptations

Don Bluth originally planned an animated film adaptation entitled Rapunzel, but due to the failure of The Pebble and the Penguin, the film was shelved.

An adaptation featuring Barbie, entitled Barbie as Rapunzel, was released in 2002. In this version, Rapunzel is not trapped inside her tower until she explores the outside world. Gothel also keeps Rapunzel in a tower not because of a vegetable but because she wants revenge on an old boyfriend. The main concept of hair in this version is also not extremely important. Rather, it focuses more on a magic paintbrush.

Disney released a 2010 version of the tale, Tangled, originally titled Rapunzel. In this version, Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore), while still innocent, is far more assertive in character and has magical hair, 70 feet (21 m) in length, that can be used to heal or restore youth in others (notably Mother Gothel, which is why she locked Rapunzel in the tower in the first place). To activate her golden hair's healing properties, Rapunzel must sing an incantation. As with many variations of the fairy tale, Rapunzel's tears are also shown to possess healing powers. One difference in this film is that Gothel is depicted as an old lady using Rapunzel's hair to restore her youth instead of her being an enchantress.

There was also an earlier animated film adaptation with Olivia Newton-John narrating the story. The major difference between the film and the Grimm tale is that instead of making the prince blind, the witch transforms him into a bird, possibly a reference to The Blue Bird, a French variant of the story.

A live action version was filmed for television as part of Shelley Duvall's series Faerie Tale Theatre, airing on Showtime. It aired on February 5, 1983. In it, the main character (played by Shelley Duvall) is taken from her parents by a witch (Gena Rowlands), and is brought up in an isolated tower that can only be accessed by climbing her unnaturally long hair. Jeff Bridges played the prince, and Roddy McDowall narrated.

A 1988 German film adaption, Rapunzel Oder der Zauber der Tränen (meaning "Rapunzel and the Magic of Tears"), combines the story with the lesser known Grimm fairy tale Maid Maleen. After escaping the witch's tower, Rapunzel finds work as a kitchen maid in the prince's court, where she must contend with an evil princess who aims to marry her prince.

In Shrek the Third, Rapunzel is shown to be the true love of the evil Prince Charming and helps to fool Princess Fiona and her group when they try to escape from Charming's wrath.