Tangled (2010) - 14 questions

Question: How did Maximus become captain of the guards, and what happened to the previous captain (after he was knocked out by one of the thugs)?

Question: When the Stabbington Brothers climb out of the tunnel from the "Snuckling Duckling" Pub in the woods, one of them devises part of their plan of their revenge on Flynn by cutting himself off at the kingdom. How did they know Flynn was head to the kingdom with Rapunzel, even after fleeing from there when stealing the tiara? Since there's no explanation, this part of their quest would make no sense.

Answer: I noticed that inconsistency too. I suppose that they would assume he will eventually go home, especially if there are no other kingdoms around and nowhere else to go.

Question: Since Maximus was the only one who went to gather the pub thugs in order to save Flynn from being hanged, I've got to ask two questions. 1) How were the thugs able to trust him? After all, when Maximus bursts into their pub after one of them helps Rapunzel and Flynn escape into the tunnel, they know he's the Captain's horse who was hunting them down. 2) How was Maximus able to communicate with the thugs so they would know what kind of situation Flynn was in?

Answer: Maximus has a very expressive face, and is adept at some hand (hoof?) gestures. When he showed up he must have had such an insistent and desperate expression that they agreed to help. Perhaps the mime thug helped them to decode Maximus' pantomimed communications.

Question: Why does a section of her hair not die forever after the witch cut it as a child while at the end of the movie all her hair is brown and short from being cut?

Answer: That section that was cut when she was a baby is brown and shorter than the rest. She shows it to Flynn.

Question: After Gothel discovers that Rapunzel has left the tower, how did she know to find her at the pub?

Answer: I doubt she knew to look there specifically. She probably ended up there the same way they found it too. Just walking along the way to get to town, and there it was. Can't remember exactly what happened, but even if she said something along the lines of "I thought I would find you here" that doesn't mean she DID think that, just that she wanted to imply to Rapunzel that she was always one step ahead even if she wasn't.

Question: One of the thugs helps Rapunzel and Flynn escape by showing them the passage that starts from their pub. The Stabbington Brothers - who escape the clutches of the guards - follow them in. Later when the red-headed theives meet Mother Gothel in the forest, they exit through a secret door in a tree trunk with the same "Subbling Ducking" symbol on the secret door at the pub; that's where Mothel Gothel waited and expected to meet Rapunzel and Flynn after threatening one of the thugs to tell her where it was. Strangely, however, Rapunzel and Flynn end up at the dam that appears to be the dead of the tunnel, while the Stabbington Brothers brust out of another tunnel below them. If the forest was where the other end of the tunnel was located, then why didn't Rapunzel and Flynn end up there? How come the Stabbington Brothers came out from another tunnel, and how on earth did they find their way to the other end of the tunnel where Gothel was waiting?

Answer: When the dam breaks, Rapunzel and Flynn run for cover and subsequently get trapped in a cave that was not originally part of the secret tunnel. The Stabbington Brothers get washed away by the water, and are implied to have found the real exit of the tunnel once the tide died down. Gothel went to the same exit because that is the legitimate exit of the tunnel, and the only one the drunk viking would've known about, especially since Rapunzel and Flynn only escaped the cave out of pure luck.

Question: Tangled is promoted at Disney's 50th Animated Motion Picture. There is even a countdown of the 50 films on the blu-ray. But, they seem to be missing some movies from the list. I did not see Duck Tales the Movie (1990), A Goofy Movie (1995), An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000), Return to Neverland (2002), The Jungle Book 2 (2003), The Tigger Movie (2000), Piglet's Big Movie (2003), or Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). Now I know these weren't blockbusters, or timeless classics, but they were Disney, animated, and theatrical motion pictures. Why were they not on the list?

Answer: I've actually found the answer to my own question. It seems that it is a mater of which Disney sub company actualy produced the film. There are films promoted as "Disney" which are from "Disney Toon Studios". Since these are not "Walt Disney Animation Studios" they are not on the list. A complete list of everything Disney can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_theatrical_animated_features.

Question: It's clear that when Rapunzel's hair is cut it turns brown, hence the incident when Flynn cuts it off. It's also clear that when Rapunzel is a baby only the piece of her hair, which Gothel cuts off, turns brown while the rest remains golden since its only a small piece. But what if Flynn didn't cut it off near her head? What would have happened if anyone only cut portions of her hair - including the tip or half of it?

Answer: Once an individual strand is cut, at any point along its entire length, it turns brown completely and loses its power. The proximity to her head is not what caused her hair to turn all brown, it's the fact that Flynn cut *every* strand.

Question: While Rapunzel realizes she is the lost princess and figures Mother Gothel's lies, how did she even know Flynn never betrayed her?

Answer: She figured it out when he showed up to save her.

Question: If there are a couple of scenes where Pascal, the chameleon, changed colors not to blend with objects but only due to his emotions. Is it possible for a real chameleon to do, or is it something only Pascal can do? In other words, is it something a chameleon can do only in a cartoon?

Answer: The ability of a number of chameleon species to change colours is generally used a form of social signalling - it's a common misconception that they shift colour in order to blend in with their surroundings. Although some species of chameleon have displayed the ability to use their colour changes as a primitive form of camouflage, most only change in response to social situations or changes in their physical or emotional state. So, yes, it's very possible that Pascal could change colour due to his emotions, in fact, it's really the norm.

Question: Rapunzel's hair is usually 70 feet long, but it was shorter when she was a child. So how long does her hair grow each year?

Answer: If you divide the total length of hair by the age of Rapunzel, you get an average of about 4 feet of hair per year.

Question: I can't figure out how Rapunzel had the tiara to give back to Flynn in the boat scene, yet Mother Gothel found it in its hiding place after Rapunzel left the tower and gave it to the Stabbington brothers. Did I miss something important that explained this?

Answer: After tempting the brothers with the tiara, she got them to join up with her and she had access to the tiara again. Then, when she met up with Rapunzel in the forest, she gave it to her and told her to see if Flynn would still stick around if she gave it back to him.

Question: If Mothel Gothel - for a witch - could fly at the beginning of the film, even if her age was alternating, then why doesn't she use that magic ability of hers throughout the rest of film? It's obvious why she couldn't reveal her powers to Rapunzel, but why didn't she even fly at other times when Rapunzel wasn't in her presence, including the scene when she realizes Rapunzel is no longer in the tower? Since the lack of Rapunzel's answer indicated to Gothel she was gone, couldn't she have flown up to the top of the tower to check through the window, instead of having to climb the stairs?

Answer: She didn't know for a fact that Rapunzel wasn't in the tower until she investigated for herself, hence why she went to the trouble of pulling the rubble from the hidden doorway and entering through the floor. What if Rapunzel was simply asleep or injured, if she flew up to the window and Rapunzel saw her, she'd have lots of awkward questions to answer, and she has jealously guarded Rapunzel to stay young for nearly 20 years, she's not going to risk a mistake.

Question: Is it possible the king and queen could recognize Rapunzel as their long lost daughter, despite her short brown hair, when they knew she was born with long golden hair? If so, then how?

Answer: It's entirely possible. Rapunzel had almost exactly the same facial features as her mother, and you could also count the family bond of simply knowing.