Assignment 5-2 Formula Analysis

Analyzing the formulas of the Disney movies Tangled and Cinderella
 

Most people know the story of Cinderella, about a beautiful girl raised by her evil stepmother. She was forced to cook and clean for them. Some beliefs of the story are that a fairy godmother will save you in a time of need, that mice can talk to people, and that one day your dreams would come true. The myths of the story are the good vs. evil and the romance myth. The good vs. evil is represented by the battle of Cinderella, who is good, against her evil stepmother and her stepmother’s daughters. The romance myth is shown when Cinderella and the Prince instantly falls in love, and they get married. The formulas for the movie, Cindrellaare that good beats evil in the end, the girl lives happily ever after, and everything is black and white/ good or evil. Also despite Cinderella being raised by her stepmother, she remained gentle and kind.

For the movie Tangled, the parallels to Cinderella are very similar. Tangled follows the traditional story of Rapunzel, with some modern twists. An evil witch steals the princess, Rapunzel, in the night. The witch keeps her hidden in a tower and use’s Rapunzel’s magic hair to keep herself young. The two myths of the story are the good/evil myth and the romance myth. The formulas for the story are that good will beat the bad and the main characters live happily ever after. In addition, despite Rapunzel being raised by the evil witch, she remains good and kind. Also as Rapunzel is facing adulthood she is dealing with the struggle to rebel and live her own life, while still wanting to please her mother. 

As you can see the commonalities between Cinderella and Tangled are many. For example, the setting, myths, and some stereotypes and formulas are similar. Since these are both animated films and they both are princess fairy tales, they have the same storyline. A beautiful good girl is raised by an evil woman, but they fall in love and lives happily ever after. The formulas are similar because good trumps evil in the end. The main differences in the stories are that Cinderella was made in the 50’s and Tangled was recently made in 2010 (Cha Cha, 2010). Since the views on woman have changed, Cinderella’s character is more helpless then Rapunzel’s.  

Refrences:

Cha Cha. (2010). When was the original Cinderelaa movie made? Retrieved April 27, 2011, from Cha Cha : http://www.chacha.com/question/when-was-the-original-disney-cinderella-made