Tangled is a 3-D animated film created by Disney and released in the year 2010. It follows the story of Rapunzel and a bandit she meets named Flynn Rider. The animators of this film pushed and took liberties with the laws of physics in order to enhance its smooth and comedic style. Three elements of Tangled that stood out were the strength and weight of Rapunzel’s hair, the exaggerated take offs and landings of characters, and the lack of reaction on certain harsh impacts.
Some of the most obvious unrealistic aspects of this film revolve around Rapunzel’s luscious blonde locks. The weight and strength of Rapunzel’s hair had to be exaggerated and downplayed in order to make certain scenes in the film work. Two main examples of the lack of authenticity around her hair include how easy it is to for Rapunzel to throw and whip all 70 feet of it, and how tight it holds when another human being is swinging from it. According to Steve Goldberg, Tangled’s visual effects supervisor, Disney “calculated that a foot of hair would weigh approximately one pound and so Rapunzel’s hair, at around 70 feet would have weighed about 70 pounds.”
There are several scenes in which Rapunzel throws the majority of her hair into the air and wraps it around objects or simply gathers it up and runs with it. The animators made her hair lighter than its actual estimated weight in order for the slender Rapunzel to handle its mass with ease. Actually throwing and wrapping her hair around various overhangs, hooks, and people, would have proven to be much more strenuous. Another example is when Rapunzel or Flynn uses her hair as a rope from which to swing. In order to manage the weight of said object, Rapunzel wraps part of her hair around an overhang to create friction. In theory this allows her to carry the weight without force pulling directly from her scalp. In reality, her hair wouldn’t break from the weight of a human being, but it would simply unravel and slip from the overhang.
The exaggerated take offs and landings in Tangled help enhance the film’s smooth style, but are not always consistent with the character’s movement in each scene. Momentum of an object, or in this case Flynn, depends on its velocity and its weight. While running from the Stabbington Brothers, Flynn jumps from a rock onto the side of a tree, pushes off, and swings around it to knock a guard off his horse. The speed at which he pushes off the tree doesn’t allow Flynn to build up enough momentum to accelerate upwards so quickly and swing in such a large circular motion. Another example is towards the end of the canyon scene. Rapunzel swings down to the ground and slides across a puddle to a smooth stop.
The last element in the film which developed its own sense of realism, is one that is quite common in animation and cartoons. This includes a large momentum being stopped suddenly with a large force being applied quickly. The unrealistic quality of this, is that the characters often react to the assumedly traumatic stop in momentum with pained expressions, but always walk away unscathed. The first example of this is towards the beginning of the film when Flynn is knocked out several times by Rapunzel’s frying pan. In this case, Flynn is the force stopping the momentum of the pan. But, as in most animated universes, he walks away without a mark on him. The other two examples both include Flynn moving at a very quick speed and being stopped abruptly. The first occurs in the canyon scene when he flies into a beam at full speed while swinging from Rapunzel’s hair in the canyon but walks away unscathed. The second occurs towards the end of the film when Flynn is catapulted high into the air and onto the horse, Maximus, without showing any sign of pain.
The biggest logistical problem surrounding the animation of Tangled was of course Rapunzel’s hair. But like most animated films, the crew was able to use the audience’s suspension of disbelief to their advantage. Rapunzel’s hair became lighter and stronger, characters were able to gain and lose velocity without much effort, and normally sudden and fatal stops in momentum left characters unharmed. All of these elements contributed to the film’s overall comical and lighthearted style.
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