10 Animated Disney Films That Made Big Changes To The Source Material

6. Tangled

Based Upon: 'Rapunzel' by The Brothers Grimm The liberties are massive but that was part of the design of Tangled. However because it is still based upon the Rapunzel tale (and was originally to be titled as such) it keeps many of the same features, but in a very different fashion. The meeting between Rapunzel and her prince is very, very different. For a start, in Tangled, he is a thief named Flynn and not a prince. When he enters Rapunzel's tower she knocks him unconscious and steals from him. She then uses him to get out of the tower to search for the cause of the annual lantern display. In the original tale, the prince deliberately gains access to meet Rapunzel after hearing her sing. There he proposes to her. She is impregnated during the meeting and cast out of the castle by an infuriated Gothel. Disney also added a healing factor to Rapunzel's long golden locks, creating an importance to her losing them. In the Grimm tale, Gothel cuts them off when she casts her out. She then uses them to gloat that the prince will never see Rapunzel again. He leaps from the tower in despair and blinds himself in thorns below. In Tangled, Rapunzel agrees to be Gothel's prisoner once more if she can use her hair to save Flynn's life. Instead, he cuts her hair to save her and sacrifices himself. In both versions it is her tears that heal him.