Is Disney's Tangled a Barbie Rip Off?

[@RosieVisionTV]

What do you think? Is it a stretch or did Tangled borrow some things from Barbie's Rapunzel movie? If so, are there some other similarities I missed?

[@MissMoontree]

Not a stretch. Both give Rapunzel more autonomy and painting as a big hobby (especially on walls), that always stood out. Together with them suddenly being of royal birth and removing the origin for her name. They both paint the place they want to go on an important part of their wall. Dragon or other reptile as animal companion? Why did a German princess get an exotic pet? Both have their hair unbraided as the signature look, as opposed to the traditional braided depictions. Neither versions had the prince falling out of the tower and going blind, nor Rapunzel being cast out lost in the wilderness. Rather Gothel captures her again, in the same tower. I do like both films, but I do think the Disney one was conscious or unconscious influenced by the Barbie one.

[@Duinduhanesia_dadeka_2024]

​@@MissMoontree yes,however with your opinion..I always declared that tangled is actually copying barbie a little bit as inspiration

[@Duinduhanesia_dadeka_2024]

​@@MissMoontree how smart and good are your opinion but open your eyes..they are many similar between barbie and tangled..barbie is release 2002..If said that tangled is never copying barbie is a joke..like what

[@Duinduhanesia_dadeka_2024]

The gothel are upset of the King is similar as maleficent movies

[@Duinduhanesia_dadeka_2024]

You missed the three little girls

[@samiwinxtitanix5707]

Disney's Rapunzel had green dress in her concept design and had wavy hair, just letting you know...

[@RosieVisionTV]

I didn't know that, thank you for the info. I just looked it up. I kind of prefer the original design. Concepts do tend to change a lot from my understanding. I personally don't think the two Rapunzel dresses are that big a deal, but it is a little weird.

[@nuotatorre8741]

Now I do see the similarities but I think thwy are more superficial than anything else. For example the fact they are both discovered at the end to be a princes it's kinda a no brainer for marketing. Same for the dress than shade of pink/purple it's very marketable. I think the fact they both paint it's the bigest one, the movie dose make a point in saying than Rapunzel has taken evry hobby under the sun because unlike Barbie, whose animal friendes could speek, Rapunzel can speek to nobody but Gothel but the fact than painting seems to be her favorite it's a bit odd at least. But otherwise the movies are supriseingly diffrent, after all Rapunzel was a 7 page fairy tale originaly, there are just so many ways it can be adapted in a 90 minuts markatable film for the moder audience.

[@RosieVisionTV]

I agree most of the similarities between the two are pretty superficial. And I didn't think about the color palette for Rapunzel being easy to market. That does kind of make sense. Honestly the whole situation just feels weird. Not quite an example of stealing in my opinion, but still eerily familiar at the same time.

[@deepfriedjellybean]

I thought in the original story the dress was purple, or at least thats what I was told, but I could be wrong

[@Zyra19]

It's important to remember that artist are always influenced by the art they've experienced. In my opinion the films are overall very different. But it is very possible that someone at Disney had seen the Barbie movie and was influenced by it consciously or even unconsciously.

[@felicity1877]

I aboslutely agree that these similarities are very intriguing, as I've been also reading on this somewhere else. In my opinion, the problem is that these could be also similarities by chance or just because it was the most satisfying way for a narration. And taking inspiration from other works and fairy tales is not so unusual, especially if it's not always aware, but just because someone remembered it as own idea.... And one could also compare Barbie Rapunzel with Disney Sleeping Beauty and this could be an intriguing discussion (speaking from sleeping in the tower, the enchantress, the dragons and the belcony scene (; )

[@RosieVisionTV]

I guess it could be possible that Barbie's Rapunzel was inspired by Sleeping Beauty when it came to the dragons. It was a weird choice to add dragons now that I think about it. And Sleeping Beauty and Shrek are the only two fairy tale adaptations I can think of that heavily feature a princess and a dragon.

[@felicity1877]

@@RosieVisionTV Yeah, that's really special, though, there are a lot of tales featuring princess and dragon, but mostly, the dragon is evil; and both Shrek and Barbie Rapunzel are doing a special, especially the Barbie movie including dragons as a princess' best friend (a female, talking baby dragon and her father) is really unique. In the PC game also a dragon was featured and this fairy tale element was kept in the movie.

[@ivanacurna6577]

@@RosieVisionTV Fun fact the second barbie movie adaptation was originally suppossed to a ballet version of Sleeping Beauty, but because the music was already put in Disney Sleeping Beauty, they decided to use Rapunzel with music czech composer named Dvořák.

[@midoriya-shonen]

Ehhh..... maybe Disney got some inspiration from Barbie, but the movies are different enough that I wouldn't call it a ripoff. The similarities are noticeable enough that it's hard to deny, but they're trivial enough that I'm not mad at Disney for it.

[@RosieVisionTV]

My thoughts exactly. I just wanted to have more of an open discussion about it since there some noticeable similarities.

[@midoriya-shonen]

@@RosieVisionTV Exactly!

[@OpticalSorcerer]

While Tangled is overall superior, I do prefer the plot twist with Gothel, the magical painting, and Prince Stefan in Barbie's Rapunzel.

[@AnimaVox_]

I preferred Stefan as well. I just don't see Eugene as husband material, nor do I find him physically attractive; I think he's really overrated.

[@OpticalSorcerer]

@@AnimaVox_ I wasn't really a fan of Flynn because he came off as kind of annoying when he was supposed to be cool and suave.

[@AnimaVox_]

@@OpticalSorcerer Yes, I had the same problem with him! That's part of what I mean by not being husband material, he comes off as too immature; that, and he's a thief, which is an enormous turn-off-I personally detest how thieves are romanticized in fiction so much. Although I may be biased because I've had stuff stolen from me before, don't know for sure. And I get that he's supposed to be funny, but his brand of humor isn't particularly amusing to me. The issue with making your male love interest into the story's main source of comic relief is that it makes it harder for me to take him seriously as a romantic lead. I really wish modern folktale-based stories would stop pushing their audiences to settle for less than the metaphorical prince/princess.

[@OpticalSorcerer]

@@AnimaVox_ I think Aladdin is one of the few "good thieves" because he isn't as selfish or egotistical; he actually has low self-esteem. I do wish we'd gotten Bastion as Rapunzel's love interest instead, given his big, loveable persona--though it does make me wonder what would've happened to Kristoff in Frozen since his appearence was derived from Bastion.

[@AnimaVox_]

@@OpticalSorcerer I actually didn't like Aladdin either, but that's also to do with the fact that I just find him boring. That being said, at least he only seems to be stealing food, which is a basic necessity. Still bad, but more understandable. I think an arguably better example of the 'reformed thief' trope was Sinbad in the DreamWorks movie; he's explicitly portrayed in a near-villainous light until he becomes less self-interested. I found Kristoff mildly unlikable; he's too abrasive and disrespectful toward Anna, they have no romantic chemistry and their relationship ends up contradicting the movie's "message." They barely even interact in the sequel, which makes me double-down. If he was meant to be Rapunzel's OG love interest, then I'm glad that didn't pan out because that sort of personailty is the exact opposite of what I want to see in a romance story; but I do like his design way better than Eugene's. I also loathe the "we fell in love even though all we've done is act like jerks toward each other" trope; this doesn't make for a compelling romance. Anna vibed better with Hans, who the writers ended up vilifying for no reason, resulting in one of the worst-written shock-twists I've seen in media.

[@Lyza0327]

you also forgot the fact that both Princesses hair gets cut off too. in the Barbie movie Gothel cut Rapunzel's hair and in Tangled, Flinn Ryder cut Rapunzel's hair. I mean yes it wasn't cut off by the same person but still counts as a similarity. Both of their hairs were cut off.

[@RosieVisionTV]

That's true. I did think about adding that, but Rapunzel's hair gets cut in the original fairytale as well so I decided to leave it out.

[@Lyza0327]

@@RosieVisionTV I never read or seen the Original fairytale so i didnt know, my mistake lol 😜

[@RosieVisionTV]

@@Lyza0327 No problem. I probably should have expanded on the original story more honestly. Not many people are that familiar with it.

[@carlos412]

Disney definitely took the Barbie movie as inspiration/reference, up until Tangled was released, the only full lenght animated movie based on Rapunzel was the Barbie movie, Rapunzel is not a story that has been adapted that many times into film, unlike stories like Cinderella. I mean, in the same way practically every single cinderella adaptation after the 1950 film has taken it as a reference/inspiration, yes originally it's an old fairytale, but it's pretty obvious the influence the disney adaptation has had in every single cinderella movie/iteration ever since, because disney did it first. Just like Mattel adapted Rapunzel first, of course, not with the same budget nor intention to make a blockbuster movie, but they did do the very first full lenght animated movie based on the story of Rapunzel, which obviously at the same time, is also heavily influenced by the previous Disney Princess movies

[@CelestePrimrose]

I love your point and I do agree with your reasoning. Though there's some stuff I've been wondering on for long when it comes to Tangled.. Like, it make me wonder how reasonable it is for Rapunzel from Tangled to wear that purple dyed dress knowing in that time, it's a rare colour that only very few can obtained it and most of them are rich, at least it make sense for Barbie to have it because she painted it from the magical brush but for Tangled, did Gothel snatched it up from the town or the woods perhaps? Secondly, I'm also curious where did Rapunzel even got her art supplies, from the colour and the brush, where did she or even Gothel managed to afford all of that luxury? I bet that stuff was expensive even in that age. Well this question can also goes to Barbie too because knowing that Gothel doesn't seems to prefer her much to paint as it's a "time waster", it'll be surprising if she's indeed the one who supplied her with that or even created one because she's some sort of witch. Maybe I'm overthinking much on that tiny aspect but I'm trying to see the logical motives behind giving this character the similar aspect from each other.

[@NanakwameMensah-ct7is]

I never knew both movies had something in common until i saw someone's tweets of them having some similarities also Descendants and Ever After High have some similarities too

[@DaisyHernandez-sp5xf]

They were both locked away in a tower that was hidden behind a secret wall

[@eleonorepb4565]

The purple dresses can be explained by the fact that rapunzel flowers are purple

[@youtubewontletmetypeagoodu8128]

They’re literally completely different

[@pathetic2399]

Not completely. They have superficial similarities, such as the witches being named Gothel, which wasnt the case in the original fairytale, the Rapunzels being painters, which also wasn’t the case in the original fairytale, the “plot twist” about kidnapped princesses, and Rapunzels color schemes. It could be coincidental. Or the tangled creators were inspired by this movie, which wouldn’t be all that surprising.

[@Kittrianna]

I'm most confused about the origins of Gothel. I don't remember the witch who took Rapunzel in the original fairy tale being named that, yet both the Barbie and Disney movies about Rapunzel have a Gothel. Do you know if that's another think Disney might've taken from Barbie or is there some other origin to that name that I'm unaware of?

[@RosieVisionTV]

I only did some quick research but it looks like it wasn't an original idea for Mattel or Disney. Gothel appears to be a German word that describes a foster or god parent. And from what I saw (in the German version of the fairy tale at least), that's how the Brothers Grimm decided to describe her.

[@missmoshirosey]

I really enjoy tangle but Babrie Rapunzel will be my go to and comfort And when tangle first came out was excited but then thought hey barbie did it first 😝😂(well first in my childhood anyway 2000s)

[@bartoszraczkowski3984]

I totally was the simular things and i agree with u 100%

[@Leafyphox]

Grimm's fairy tale classics is the GOAT.

[@littlegreenfrusk]

11:26 my thoughts exactly

[@user-unknown737]

Will you rank alfea side fairies looks

[@RosieVisionTV]

That sounds like an interesting idea! Maybe? I think I'll at least do something side character related eventually.

[@projecte-niko8655]

Funniest thing about them is they do look like disney princesses

[@user-unknown737]

@@projecte-niko8655 they dont

[@projecte-niko8655]

@@user-unknown737 ? Which fairies are you referring to exactly? Because season 1 has a few that their fairy form resembles one. Like Ariel or Pocahontas.

[@user-unknown737]

@@projecte-niko8655 Alfea Minor Fairies Katy,Francine,Ortensia etc

[@Boniparteboni]

I think they stole from the barbie movie

[@Mr26muel]

Yes yes they did, Disney copies matter all the time like with descendants and ever after high.

[@cocoa_cake]

of course they’re going to be similar, they both take inspiration from the same source - the brothers grimm’s repunzel

[@pathetic2399]

A few of the blatant similarities aren’t from the original fairytale, such as the Rapunzels being painters or wearing lavender.

[@MissMoontree]

That part is what she left out. Hence why long golden hair isn't mentioned, nor the tower, Gothel, the tricking of the prince or the cutting of the hair.

[@jade4623]

They are also both blonde

[@nanoneko4511]

I cant tell if you're joking or not, but the original story stats that Rapunzel had blonde hair.

[@MissMoontree]

@@nanoneko4511 Golden, but yes, often means blonde. Though I sometimes wondered if an artist would go with golden brown :') I do like that the Disney one somewhat uses that.

[@DaisyHernandez-sp5xf]

They were both locked away in a tower that was hidden behind a secret wall