WEBVTT NOTE 48. 'Tangled' as Political Allegory 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Tangled as Political Allegory 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:11.200 The 2010 Disney animated feature Tangled tells the story of Rapunzel in a version much better 3 00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:13.520 than the original. 4 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:17.600 The original had only one gimmick – the hair of the girl in the tower that the evil 5 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:22.440 pretend mother and also the lover climb up to see her – but was otherwise not very 6 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:25.720 interesting by comparison to the re-release. 7 00:00:25.720 --> 00:00:31.520 Rapunzel, who was not a peasant as in the original, but rather a lost princess, does 8 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:36.680 a hilarious rendering of the conflicted girl who wants to cling to the mother, but also 9 00:00:36.680 --> 00:00:38.920 wants to see the world. 10 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:45.640 The boy is not a prince, but rather a bandit named Flynn Rider, and it takes him a very 11 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:51.240 long time to decide to give up his ruffian ways to finally fall in love. 12 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:56.640 And the story mercifully leaves out some very strange aspects of the original Brothers Grimm, 13 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:01.000 including the wildly implausible idea that a husband would give up child-rearing rights 14 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.840 to his wife's child in exchange for free access to the neighbor's lettuce patch. 15 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.900 Of course, the original is in the public domain by now, just as with all the great Disney 16 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:13.440 blockbusters. 17 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:17.480 Not all are improvements on the original, but this film certainly is. 18 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:24.460 Sometimes 2.0 is just much better than 1.0, and here we see the big problem with intellectual 19 00:01:24.460 --> 00:01:26.280 property protection. 20 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:31.720 It freezes the first release as the only release for up to several generations. 21 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:35.720 Improving and adapting are made against the law. 22 00:01:35.720 --> 00:01:39.740 This is not a problem if you use a story that is old enough, but why should society have 23 00:01:39.740 --> 00:01:43.640 to wait a hundred years to get a better version of the original? 24 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:49.640 Why should we have laws that artificially slow the pace of progress? 25 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:51.200 But back to the movie. 26 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:57.060 I saw it because a Facebook friend, Matt Zitzke, suggested that the entire movie might be seen 27 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:04.840 as an allegory of, quote, government oppression and tactics to hold themselves as rulers over 28 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:06.860 the people. 29 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:11.880 The idea here is that the evil witch Gothel, who is really old and decrepit, but uses magic 30 00:02:11.880 --> 00:02:16.360 to look 40-something is a stand-in for the state. 31 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.680 Let's see how this works out. 32 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:21.340 Gothel. 33 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:26.120 She sneaks into the home of the wealthy aristocrats to steal their child. 34 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:27.540 Government. 35 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:31.660 It sneaks into our bank accounts to steal money, steals purchasing power by depreciating 36 00:02:31.660 --> 00:02:36.760 the currency, and kidnaps children by bribing them and drafting them into captive military 37 00:02:36.760 --> 00:02:38.160 service. 38 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:44.880 Gothel pretends she is young, pretty and has the best interests of Rapunzel in mind, whereas 39 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:50.920 she is really old, ugly, vain, and holds Rapunzel in a tower to sustain the spell that keeps 40 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:53.360 reality at bay. 41 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:59.200 Government pretends that it is representing us to provide collective goods in our own 42 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:04.480 interests, whereas it is really serving itself and providing for special interests at our 43 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:06.600 expense. 44 00:03:06.600 --> 00:03:12.560 Gothel makes up constant lies to keep Rapunzel from finding a way out of the tower, all based 45 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:19.840 on the idea that the world outside is really full of evil people who mean to do her harm. 46 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:26.720 Government makes up constant lies to keep us whipped up in a nationalist frenzy, all 47 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:30.720 based on the idea that the world outside is really full of evil people who mean to do 48 00:03:30.720 --> 00:03:32.800 us harm. 49 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:42.320 Gothel flatters Rapunzel and makes her a much-vaunted hazelnut soup to keep her placated and less 50 00:03:42.320 --> 00:03:45.360 dissatisfied with her imprisonment. 51 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:52.240 Government flatters the population and gives us much-vaunted benefits, health care, retirement 52 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:59.400 income, roads, to keep us placated and less dissatisfied with despotism. 53 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:05.200 Gothel makes Rapunzel afraid of her freedom and unconscious of her true identity as the 54 00:04:05.200 --> 00:04:09.800 lost princess so that she won't run away. 55 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.120 Government makes the population afraid of freedom and unconscious of our true human 56 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:18.240 rights so that we won't demand them. 57 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.320 Gothel sustains herself like a parasite, so long as Rapunzel doesn't cut her hair, which 58 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:28.600 she could do at any time, Gothel will still look presentable in a size 9. 59 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:34.680 – Sustains itself like a parasite and builds monuments to itself. 60 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:39.200 So long as we don't stop obeying and paying, which we could do at any time, government 61 00:04:39.200 --> 00:04:44.080 officials and bureaucrats can have the high life. 62 00:04:44.080 --> 00:04:53.080 Gothel falls to her death once Rapunzel's hair is cut and the spell is broken. 63 00:04:53.080 --> 00:05:11.360 As a final note, this film is absolutely gorgeous in every way. 64 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:15.400 The musical score, perhaps unwittingly, is a hilarious caricature of modern Broadway 65 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:16.900 show tunes. 66 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:21.320 In both respects, the film ends up embodying the best of the new, in the context of a story 67 00:05:21.320 --> 00:05:27.320 about Enslavement, which is the perpetual and universal issue that every generation must 68 00:05:27.320 --> 00:05:28.120 fight against.