Disney’s Tangled How Rapunzel Gets Her Magical Powers, Explained

Tangled is one of the most successful princess movies in Disney history from both a critical and commercial standpoint. Telling the classic Brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel, the 2010 animation featuring Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi grossed $592.5 million at the box office and has remained a popular franchise ever since. Disney has made a short film and created a television series on the back of it, with a live-action remake currently in the works.

The magic of Tangled mainly comes from Rapunzel’s unique healing powers, which is ultimately why she ends up trapped in a tower. Her ability to help others in a time of need helped to make her a beloved character, but audiences often overlook how she gets those powers to begin with.

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Tangled Starts With A Magical Flower

When watching Tangled, people might focus on Rapunzel’s magical hair that glows and heals others when she sings. However, it all comes from the Sundrop flower, which is shown right at the start of the movie. It is a magical golden flower that possesses healing properties and can be used by people to provide health, which is exactly what happens with Mother Gothel. She attempts to hide the flower to keep the power for herself, but when Queen Arianna gets sick, all that changes.

Rapunzel’s mother falls ill during the pregnancy, which causes obvious panic for her health and that of the unborn baby. It leads to a mass search for the Sundrop flower, and when it is located, they crush it down and use it as a liquid for her to drink. That saves Arianna’s life and also allows Rapunzel to be born. As a result of her mother drinking the flower, when Rapunzel is born, she inherits the flower’s magical powers, which is why she has such golden hair, much like the flower it initially looked like.

Mother Gothel Abuses Rapunzel For This Power

The healing abilities that come from Rapunzel’s hair set up the movie’s entire premise, which is why she ends up being kidnapped by Mother Gothel. She has been using it to keep her youthful, and when the flower is gone, she realizes that it has been passed onto Rapunzel, and she steals her. It’s the focal point from the start as Rapunzel spends her life trapped in Mother Gothel’s tower while being told that she’s her legitimate mother, which isn’t the case. Mother Gothel uses that power for her own personal gain to stay youthful, all while manipulating Rapunzel to remain in the tower until she breaks out in a bid to see the lanterns that fly in the air on her birthday.

Mother Gothel is one of Disney’s most despised villains despite coming off as sickly sweet for large chunks of the film. That’s because of how manipulative she is and the gaslighting techniques she uses to keep Rapunzel under her control. It also shows how desperate the power of the flower made her, which becomes such a significant part of the story.

Rapunzel Retains Her Magic Without Her Long Hair

A lot of people relate the magical healing properties that Rapunzel has to her hair due to it being so long and the fact it glows, but that’s not the only way she can use it. During Tangled, her hair ends up being cut, which reveals a brand new look, as it turns brown and is much shorter. At the time, it appears like she will no longer be able to heal others, which is a particularly worrying situation given that Flynn Rider gets stabbed at the time and seems destined to die. However, at this point, it is when Rapunzel realizes the power goes far beyond that as the magic remains within her when her tears drop onto him and he is kept alive. Of course, it’s still the hair that audiences remember most, and whenever Disney promotes her as a character, it’s typically with longer hair, but that isn’t necessary for her to be able to help others. It showcases just how powerful the flower is originally when it gets passed down to her.

It remains to be seen whether this same story will end up being used in the upcoming Tangled live-action film. In the past, Disney has shaken things up regarding the classic plots for live-action movies, which could happen again with Tangled whenever that movie is released. However, it’s likely that Disney will stick to this as the original way Rapunzel gets her magical powers because it’s something that audiences are going to expect whenever they watch the film. The magic plays such a crucial role in Tangled, not only in developing Rapunzel as a character to make her feel special, but also in terms of why the villain is so hated, which helps to separate Tangled from many of the more stereotypical Disney princess films.