Disney Puts Tangled Live-Action Remake on Hold
After losing what will be hundreds of millions of dollars on the live-action remake of the movie, Snow White, Disney is holding off on the live-action remake of Tangled. A problem with Snow White, was the decision to make several changes to the movie late in the production. Re-shoots drove up the cost and made the plot less coherent.
Disney may be rethinking their approach to live-action remakes.
Several of Disney’s live-action remakes have done poorly in theaters because they were unnecessarily controversial. Along with losing money, there is growing doubt that Disney even has the ability to make good movies and they are damaging the audience affection for the animated versions.
Disney has generated controversy by their casting and their writing. There are other problems, but those are two areas they should be able to fix.
In Snow White, an actress was cast who was militant about not having “skin as white as snow”. They also messed up the dwarfs. The actress can sing, which is nice.
In Peter Pan & Wendy, which did not have a theatrical release, the lost boys, had girls. Why?
When live-action remakes significantly deviate from the plot of the original, the movie suffers. Production costs for these remakes are in the $200 million range, so Disney should be able to hire competent and experienced writers.
The screenplay for the live-action Tangled movie was written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Here is her background pulled from IMDB.
Do Revenge (2022) [Dark Comedy, Romance] IMDB: 6.3
Drea and Eleanor agree to go after each other’s bullies.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) [Action, Comedy, Romance] IMDB: 6.2
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.
Unpregnant (2020) [Comedy, Drama] IMDB: 6.5
A 17-year old Missouri teen named Veronica discovers she has gotten pregnant, a development that threatens to end her dreams of matriculating at an Ivy League college…
Someone Great (2019) [Comedy, Romance] IMDB: 6.2
After a devastating break up on the eve of her cross-country move, Jenny enjoys one last NYC adventure with her two best pals. Someone Great is a romantic comedy about love, loss, growth and the everlasting bond of female friendship.
Sweet/Vicious (2016-2017) [Action, Comedy] IMDB: 7.8
Hell-bent on bringing justice to those who get away with abuse on their college campus, Jules and Ophelia take on double lives as wannabe vigilantes.
That is her entire body of work as a screenwriter.
Except for Thor: Love and Thunder, they are all girl-power themed. There is no indication that Robinson can write a heroic story that appeals to boys as well as girls.
This article from 2010, when the animated Tangled came out, is interesting.
LA Times (2010): Disney restyles ‘Rapunzel’ to appeal to boys
The studio renamed its next animated film with the girl-centric name “Rapunzel” to the less gender-specific “Tangled.”
The makeover of “Rapunzel” is more than cosmetic. Disney can ill afford a moniker that alienates half the potential audience, young boys, who are needed to make an expensive family film a success.
The LA Times was interviewing Ed Catmull, who was president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios at that time. Catmull retired from Pixar and Disney Animation in 2018.
In the article, Catmull says,
We make movies to be appreciated and loved by everybody.
It’s difficult to imagine anyone at Disney saying that now, and if they did, no one would believe them.
Boys and girls are not the same. Robinson may be able to write a story that appeals to girls, but there is no reason to think she can write for boys.
Again, except for Thor: Love and Thunder, everything she has written is for an adult audience. She may be able to write comedy for adults, but that doesn’t translate to children. It isn’t even established that she can write comedy for adults. Except for Sweet/Vicious, she hasn’t produced anything that has gotten above a 6.5 on IMDB. The writer is only one component of the production, but that’s not a great sign.
Thor: Love and Thunder is the anomaly for Robinson because it was her big break. It is her only movie to get a theatrical release, rather than go straight to streaming. It was a risk to hire her for a big budget MCU movie, and the results are mixed.
Thor: Love and Thunder is criticized by many and with an IMDB rating of 6.2, is the lowest ranked of the Thor movies. Thor (2011) has a 7.0, Thor: The Dark World (2013) has a 6.7 and Thor: Ragnarok (2017) has a 7.9. It also has the lowest critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes. It did have the highest box office gross, but do to the cost to produce, only did a little better than breaking even.
Disney doesn’t say why they are suspending work on the live-action Tangled movie. They have produced successful live-action movies based upon a prior animated work. They would be smart to examine all of their decisions and figure out how to appeal to a wide audience before starting production.
In the recent live action movies, even the more successful attempts degrade the original work by moving into the boring world of politically correct action. Compare baboon shaman Rafiki laying out several hyenas doing an impression of Bruce Li in the original animation, with the live action Rafiki who was only allowed to slap his stick on the ground so he didn’t hit them.