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Trivia / Tangled: The Series

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  • Acclaimed Flop: Despite gaining a strong cult following, the series ended up being a massive one due to MUCH lower ratings than anticipated (with Before Ever After only scoring 2.9 million viewers compared to Descendants 2's 5.3 million that same year) and disapointing toy sales. Declining advertising and merchandising support for the remainder of the run seemed to stem from a continued lack of a strong enough audience to justify the costs, but Disney still committed to the full three season greenlight from the beginning, eventually even giving the show a six-disc Blu-Ray set exclusive to Disney Movie Club.
  • Acting for Two:
    • In "Fitzherbert P.I.", when Eugene gets some work at a shoe shop, the cobbler who he works for is also voiced by Zachary Levi.
    • Per usual, Dee Bradley Baker voices both animals Pascal and Maximus, as well as Alex the horse.
  • Adored by the Network: Notable for being the second series to have its entire run greenlit by Disney since Star Wars Rebels (not to mention a HUGE load of marketing and licensing backup leading to the show's launch). Unfortunately, due to the above, it ended up being Screwed by the Network as mentioned below.
  • Advertised Extra: Some well-known voice actors (such as Lil' Rel Howery and Khary Payton) were included in press releases despite playing minor roles, whilst actors with larger roles (such as Kelly Hu) were omitted entirely. Notably, Game of Thrones star Tara Fitzgerald was credited as the voice of Big Bad Zhan Tiri, despite the fact that she only took over the role in the last episode, with the less famous Jennifer Veal voicing Zhan Tiri for the entire season up to this point.
  • Approval of God: Chris Sonnenburg has stated he'd be up for a sequel spinoff series about Cassandra, a popular fan demand after the conclusion of the series.
  • The Cast Showoff: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, and Eden Espinosa all get to sing at some point in the series, but in particular, Jeremy Jordan gets a showstopping Alan Menken original solo in the episode "Queen for a Day".
    • Then we get James Monroe Iglehart doing a solo as Lance in "Be Very Afraid". After all, this is Genie's actor from Aladdin: The Musical.
    • We then got an incredible duet from Jeremy Jordan and Eden Espinosa in "Cassandra's Revenge."
  • Colbert Bump: The show managed to grow a larger fandom for Tangled, leading to more well-received response to the Tangled world in the Kingdom Hearts III 2018 D23 trailer that would be released shortly after the Season 1 finale.
  • Content Leak: Eden Espinosa, Cassandra's voice actress, ended up leaking the title of a two-part Season 3 episode on her Instagram, which hinted at a major plot twist in late Season 2: "Cassandra's Revenge".
  • Creator Backlash: Chris Sonnenburg liked a bunch of tweets criticizing the lack of advertising for Season 3.
    • Sonnenburg has also shown his displeasure over Varian despite his popularity amongst many fans. It all came to a head in a Discord server where he implemented a 'no Varian talk' rule and when a fan stated that Rapunzel should have the main focus, his reply was "You…the REAL fans…are who this show is for.” Part of his dislike of the character may have been due to him supplanting his favorite character Cassandra.
  • Creator's Favorite Episode: Two of Ricky Roxburgh's favorite episodes are "Pascal's Story" and "Cassandra's Revenge" .
  • Dawson Casting: Since the show was made almost ten years after the movie, but takes place months after the film, the main cast gets this a lot. Special points to 33-year-old Jeremy Jordan as 14-year-old Varian.
  • Development Gag:
    • Xavier was a scrapped character from a very early plot of Tangled. He is appearing as a blacksmith, when originally he was an ally to Bastion (Eugene's prototypical incarnation).
    • Vigor the Visionary in Season 2 was also a scrapped character, who rather famously still appeared in the movie's end credits.
  • Dueling Shows:
    • With fellow Disney series Elena of Avalor which likewise features a headstrong and adventurous princess. The fact that both Elena and Rapunzel both guest starred on Sofia the First adds to that. Though this show skews slightly older, with a TV-Y7 rating as opposed to Elena's TV-Y rating, being a Disney Junior show and all.
    • For a show within the same age range, there's Star vs. the Forces of Evil, another Disney show about a blond-haired princess. The fact that the latter show is moving to Disney Channel for Season 4, and had many episodes air from March to April adds to this.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Market-Based Title: Due to its parent movie getting this in Japan (As the movie was titled Rapunzel at the Top of the Tower there), it is now called Rapunzel: The Series, even after the next two seasons aired there, as a nod to the title change.
  • Out of Order: In Season 1, plot-relevant episodes "Queen for a Day" all the way through "Secret of the Sundrop" aired consecutively toward the end of the season. But the episodes' production codes reveal that they were originally intended to be slightly more spaced apart, with "Queen for a Day" and "Painter's Block" coming between "One Angry Princess" and "Pascal's Story", and "Not in the Mood" coming between "Big Brothers of Corona" and "The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth". The change in order worked to the show's advantage, as it created a much better and exciting sense of forward momentum during the last third of Season 1, devoid of any filler.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • Julie Bowen replaces Kari Wahlgren as Rapunzel's mother though the latter only had one line in Tangled Ever After.
    • Dee Bradley Baker replaces Frank Welker as both Pascal and Maximus.
    • In the film, child Rapunzel was voiced by Delaney Rose Stein. The episode "Pascal's Story" has her voiced by Ivy George.
    • Steve Blum voices Attila in this series rather the movie's co-director, Byron Howard.
    • Beginning with "Rapunzeltopia" , Old Lady Crowley is voiced by Susanne Blakeslee instead of Pat Carroll.
    • Due to Richard Kiel's Death in 2014 Vladimir is now voiced by Charles Halford.
    • In the Swedish Dub, Måns Zelmerlöw did not reprise his role as Flynn Rider, and was replaced with Jonas Bane. And while Molly Sandén did return as Rapunzel, it was only for the first ten episodes of season 1. After that point onwards, Raounzel was voiced by Dominique Pålsson Wiklund.
    • Being celebrities themselves, Danna Paola, Chayanne and Irasema Terrazas naturally do not reprise their roles as Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and Mother Gothel respectively in the Latin Spanish dub, instead being replaced by Romina Marroquín Payró, José Gilberto Vilchis and Rebeca Patiño. The former two have begun dubbing them in both the film's trailers and in Tangled Ever After.
    • Other actors such as Mario Diaz Mercado as the Captain of the Guards, Carlos Cobos (due to his death a year after the film's release) as Shorty and Sebastián Llapur as Hook Hand were all replaced by Beto Castillo, Ramón Bazet and Dan Osorio.
  • The Other Marty:
    • Reg E. Cathey, who voiced Captain Quaid, died on February 9, 2018. As such, his unfinished dialogue is provided by Keith David.
    • The Griffon Of Pittsford appeared in "Not In The Mood" voiced by Jon Polito. However, he died before finishing his dialogue, prompting Dee Bradley Baker to finish the dialogue.
  • Playing Against Type:
    • Clancy Brown voices King Frederic, a tough, but loving father, which is in stark contrast to his more gruff and villainous roles. This is not the first time though.
    • Of course, Jeremy Jordan's character, Varian, is just as nerdy as his other character, Winslow Schott Jr., but their situations are completely reversed. As Winn, didn't want to be like his father and was afraid of turning evil like him, but here, Varian wants to make his father proud and then turns evil.
    • Stalyan, who's Eugene's vindictive ex-girlfriend, is voiced by Yvonne Strahovski, who, in animation, is known for more heroic roles like Batwoman. Though when she does a Heel Face Turn in "The Eye Of Pincosta", she's more in line with her usual character types.
  • Production Posse: A good chunk of the cast and crew for the series worked with Jase Ricci and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn on Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero .
  • Referenced by...: Fellow Disney cartoon Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) had a segment in "The Black Vortex, Part 1" where Gamora was transported to a dimension where she was a princess. Each segment was based on other cartoons to reflect the dimension-hopping, with the "Princess Gamora" segment specifically referencing Tangled: The Series. Mercury Filmworks was brought in to animate the segment.
  • Refitted for Sequel: The series includes or tweaks a few aspects that were cut from the original movie:
    • Eugene being a prince, which plays a major part in the Season 2 finale.
    • A Magical Romani with a fortune-telling monkey who were cut likely late in development (due to showing up in the credits for the movie) for the movie were included in the series as Madame Canardist and Vigor the Visionary.
    • Xavier shows up in the series as a recurring character.
  • Renewed Before Premiere: Its entire run was greenlit before airing.
  • Role Reprise:
    • Instead of using The Other Darrin, Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi reprised their roles as Rapunzel and Eugene.
    • A press release about the show also revealed that M. C. Gainey, Jeffrey Tambor, and Paul F. Tompkins would be reprising their respective roles as the Captain of the Guards, Big Nosed Thug, and Short Thug (known as Shorty in this series).
    • Donna Murphy also came back to voice Mother Gothel whenever she appeared.
    • In the Japanese dub, the entire cast of the film reprise their roles, including Shoko Nakagawa as Rapunzel.
  • Screwed by the Network: Despite a MASSIVE promotional and licensing campaign, the poor ratings from Before Ever After ended up sparking a domino chain of problems for the show's run overall. Here are the most notable instances:
    • After premiering, the series only aired reruns weekend mornings after Disney Junior, and weekdays at 7:30 am. Premieres moved from Friday nights at 7:30 to Sunday nights at 8:30 starting with "In Like Flynn", and then to Saturday mornings at 9:30 beginning with "Painter's Block".
    • The screwing intensified come January 2018. Thanks to various schedule changes, the show only had airtime on weekends at 8:30 am.
    • From January 28 to May 19, 2018, there were no reruns.
    • The show underwent a six month hiatus from August 26, 2018 to March 3, 2019, with no reruns in the interim. On top of that, new episodes after the hiatus aired at 7:00 a.m. Sunday mornings.
    • In the second half of 2019, the show went through another long hiatus after the Season 2 finale. Reruns were once again taken off the air. Season 3 premiered at 1:00 PM, when the target audience would be at school (unless they had fall break), with Invisible Advertising.
    • New episodes then returned on January 12, 2020, but back at 7:00 am, which carried over for the rest of the season. That the ratings through the second half of Season 2 all the way to the series finale remained steady is nothing short of amazing given this level of network-induced screwing.
  • Short Run in Peru: The episodes airing in the US in March 2019 have already aired in Germany in February 2019.
  • Spoiled by the Merchandise: The announcement of Season 2's premiere date came with a poster that revealed the appearance of the Mysterious Figure, particularly the fact that she is indeed a woman and that her facepaint is not a mask.
  • Throw It In!: Diedrich Bader and Sean Hayes improvised much of their dialogue for Stan and Pete.
  • Timeshifted Actor: The show has three examples:
    • Much like the film it's based on, this series sees Rapunzel voiced by Mandy Moore as an adult, and Ivy George as a child, much like Delanie Rose Stein.
    • Cassandra and Lance are voiced by Eden Espinosa and James Monroe Iglehart, but their younger selves in "You're Kidding Me" are voiced by Cassie Glow and Blake Moore. Toddler Cassandra is also voiced by Hudson D'Andrea.
    • "No Time Like The Past" , which has teenage versions of Eugene and Lance, has them respectively voiced by Sean Giambrone and Vargus Mason.
  • Voices in One Room: Whenever possible, but for the most part, the lines are voiced separately unless schedules align.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Overlapping with The Other Marty, the early press releases for the series said Ashley Judd would be voicing Arianna instead of Julie Bowen.
    • Before Ever After was going to be a standard 44-minute TV movie, but the crew felt the story was too big for the runtime. Thus, they were granted ten extra minutes by the studio after working with the director and editor, giving the feature its unusual 55-minute runtime. This was most likely why the special was marketed as a "Disney Channel Original Movie", while the other hour-long episodes (Queen for a Day and Secret of the Sun Drop) were only advertised as "special events".
    • According to Tom Caulfield , Quirin being freed from the amber in the season 3 premiere was going to happen after the last song, but was changed to happen before it so Rapunzel and Eugene could talk.
      • The storyboards for the final song in this ordering of events were different than the final version, as they showcased Varian sulking by himself during the number.
    • This deleted scene for the beginning of "Be Very Afraid" originally made it more obvious that Varian being seen as a criminal and his father being reimprisoned in the amber was just a nightmare. The final version of the scene is more ambiguous before he wakes up.
    • According to Ricky Roxburgh, an idea was considered for an episode that would've involved Rapunzel celebrating her first Christmas back home in Corona and receiving 18 years worth of unopened gifts.
      • He also revealed on Twitter that Big Bad Zhan Tiri was initially going to be named Dar Kiri (After the two protagonists of The Beastmaster) but the creative team were unable to get the rights for this name. As scenes mentioning this name had already been animated, she was renamed Zhan Tiri because it sounded similar enough to ensure that the animation of the lip movements did not have to be altered...
    • After the series was finished, Word of God revealed that in the original pitch of the show, Cassandra was going to be Evil All Along and the story's Big Bad, having always known she was Gothel's daughter and playing a long game against Rapunzel from the start. But when they began developing her, she ended up being too likable and her friendship with Rapunzel too genuine, and so Zhan Tiri was invented to be the real Big Bad who manipulates Cassandra, who no longer remembers that Gothel was her mother, into betraying Rapunzel.
    • According to this interview with Wotso Videos, a Varian spinoff called "Varian And The Seven Kingdoms" was being developed by storyboard artists Anna Lenciono and Kaitlyn Ritter, but Disney thought it wouldn't be popular enough.
    • Glenn Slater revealed on Twitter that he and Alan Menken had written two songs which did not make it into the series - an "I Want" song for Cassandra called "Lady in Waiting" (which was replaced by "Waiting In the Wings") and an 80s rock-inspired song for Varian called "Let Me Show You" (which was replaced by "Let Me Make You Proud")
  • Word of God: The creator brought in Jeremy Jordan thanks to influence from his daughters, who are fans of Jeremy Jordan.
  • Word of Saint Paul: In response to a fan thanking her for Cassandra's Les Yay vibes, story revisionist Amber Leigh stated that this was deliberate and Cassandra was based off of her own tastes of what attracts her to other woman. Additionally, a number of queer women storyboarded scenes involving Cassandra.
    Amber Leigh: Queer representation doesn’t happen enough for my liking, and I know personally the way I draw Cassandra is heavily influences on my own liking of women. There were a ton of queer women who boarded scenes Cassandra, so even if it isn’t explicitly said, I personally cranked the WLW up to 100000000 whenever I could draw her ❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )
  • Written by Cast Member: A few of the Short Cuts shorts were written by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, the voices behind Rapunzel and Eugene.

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