Walt Disney Animation Studios has strung together an impressive list of hits over the past 15 years, many of which received sequels. In that timeframe, audiences have been treated to multiple films in the Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Moana, and Zootopia franchises (with Zootopia 2 becoming Disney’s highest-grossing animated film ever). However, not every success has spawned a follow-up. Despite grossing $607.5 million at the worldwide box office and earning positive reviews (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Tangled has remained a standalone since it premiered in 2010. Now, co-director Nathan Greno has revealed why a Tangled 2 never made it to the big screen.
Speaking with The Direct, Greno explained that Disney could never crack the right narrative for Tangled 2. “It’s a tricky place, because I’ll put it this way: once Pinocchio becomes a real boy, what else is there to say?” he said. “Once the Beast becomes a human, what else is there to say? We actually did an off-site at Disney, and we got the original team together, and we really all talked about it for hours, and we kind of walked away saying, ‘We couldn’t find a story worth telling.’”
Disney Found Other Ways to Continue the Tangled Franchise
Courtesy of Disney
Like many classic Disney animated movies, Tangled is based on a popular fairy tale. It’s inspired by Rapunzel, and an official follow-up to the original story was never published. So, it’s not as if Disney had source material it could have pulled from while developing Tangled 2. If the studio had moved forward with a sequel, it would have been understandable. Tangled was a great commercial and critical success, earning praise for its beautiful animation and entertaining story. However, that reception would have put a great deal of pressure on the filmmakers to get the sequel right. It would have been very disappointing if Tangled 2 underwhelmed, so it’s safe to say Disney made the right call here.
Knowing how popular Tangled was, the Mouse House still found ways to continue the franchise and flesh out the world. The short film Tangled Ever After, released in 2012, depicted the wedding between Rapunzel and Eugene. There was also a TV series that ran for three seasons. Greno did not get into specifics of what the proposed Tangled 2 would have been about, so it’s possible some of those story ideas were implemented into these other projects. In all likelihood, a Tangled 2 would have picked up from Rapunzel’s wedding and explored the challenges she faced adjusting to her new reality. While these concepts may not have been enough to support a feature film, they were well-suited for different mediums, allowing Disney to continue the story in some capacity for interested fans.
There’s also a live-action remake of Tangled coming through the pipeline. No release date has been set yet, but the cast has rounded into shape, with the likes of Teagan Croft, Milo Manheim, and Kathryn Hahn onboard to star. Disney is looking to build on the record-breaking success of last year’s Lilo & Stitch, which similarly brought one of the studio’s most popular 21st century titles to live-action. In lieu of a sequel, this is arguably the next best thing, as Disney can keep the brand in the spotlight while introducing the story to a new generation of audiences.
Disney is no stranger to producing sequels to its hit live-action remakes; Lilo & Stitch 2 is in the works, for example. It’ll be interesting to see if the topic of Tangled 2 is revisited considering the new version is able to replicate its predecessor’s success. Greno and Co. were unable to come up with a strong enough idea for a feature-length sequel, but perhaps a different creative team approaching things from another perspective will have better luck on that front. Disney executives surely wouldn’t turn it down if they had the right pitch.
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