1. This is the first animated Disney "princess" film
to get a PG rating by the MPAA. All other Disney "princess" films got a G rating.
2. Tangled was the longest animated Disney film since
Fantasia (1940).
3. Gothel's dress is from the Renaissance, which is centuries before the
time period of the film (the 1780's). This is an effort to emphasize how Gothel and Rapunzel don't match up and how long Gothel had been living.
4. The character design of Flynn came from the process
which was called the 'hot man meeting' by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, during which they set up a meeting with all
of the female
employees of the studio in one room and asked them for their opinions of
what made a man
good looking in order to create Flynn's character design with features such as
eye color, hair color and style and body
type. Video footage showed concept art and photos of various male
celebrities, including Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Gene Kelly on the
walls of the room.
5. Over 45,000 lanterns are used during the 'I See the
Light' sequence.
6. For the scene in which Rapunzel enters the
marketplace, animators were inspired by entrances of Walt
Disney World and Disney Land. Rapunzel's excitement towards all the music and
people is reminiscent of children at the
parks.
7. Rapunzel is the first Disney Princess with supernatural powers.
8. Disney's previous animated feature The Princess and the Frog (2009), despite being popular with critics and audiences alike, was a box office disappointment. Disney felt that the film's princess theme discouraged young boys from seeing it. In an attempt to market the film to a broader audience, Disney changed the title of the film from Rapunzel to Tangled, and promoted it as a comedic adventure. An early trailer for the film focused less on Princess Rapunzel and more on Flynn Rider, the male lead character. It was originally believed that Disney's marketing campaign was a desperate attempt to search for a particular audience. However, Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, claimed that the title change was to emphasize that Flynn has as much of a role in the film as Rapunzel.
9. The most expensive Disney film in the animated division came in at $260 million dollars.
10. Zachary Levi auditioned for the part of Flynn Rider, and got it, with a British accent. Later this was dropped, and Levi read the role in his own American accent instead.
11. You will find Pinocchio in the Snuggly Duckling, right after the cupid is swung to the right of the screen. You will find him in the top right corner in the rafters.
12. The sword that Maximus uses to fight Flynn at the dam is a Roman gladius. This would normally be an anachronism to the time-set of the movie. However, in this case it is very fitting because the name Maximus is also a Roman name.
13. In the Kingdom Dance scene, there are over 3000 people present - the largest crowd scene out of any other Disney film.
14. The descending lantern that Rapunzel lifted back skyward was the one her parents, the king an queen launched from the palace veranda. It was the only one with the royal symbol of the sun on it.
15. Tangled was Disney's 50th animated feature.
16. Composer Alan Menken reported that he based the film's musical score on 1960's rock.
17. The teaser trailer for the movie showed the first meeting between Rapunzel and Flynn quite differently. After hitting him with the pan, Flynn comes to but Rapunzel stays out of sight, while her hair punches and grabs him, and drags him around the room in slapstick fashion. When Flynn is tied to the chair and tries his smoldering look on her, she throws him out of the tower while still tied to her hair. There is also an unused scene where Flynn waits at the foot of the tower and gets the full weight of Rapunzel's hair thrown on him, which greatly amuses Maximus the horse.
18. In the marketplace, when Rapunzel looks at the mosaic of herself, the camera cuts from her eyes to the tile eyes of the picture and - very briefly - there is a clarinet musical motif that is exactly the same as the motif in Ferris Bueller's Day Off(1986), when Cameron is looking at the pointillist painting and the camera cuts between Cameron's eyes and that of the child in the painting. The moment is just a fraction of a second; just after that, Rapunzel looks at the clarinet player walking behind her and smiles.
19. The character of Rapunzel is constantly barefoot, something she shares in common with her voice actress Mandy Moore, who loves to perform barefoot. Bare feet are also symbolic of innocence.
20. This is Disney's first CGI Fairytale film.
21. Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell both auditioned for the role of Rapunzel. Later on they would both star together in Frozen (2013) as Anna and Elsa.
22. The hero's name was originally going to be Bastian.
23. In the Snuggly Duckling tavern, the ruffian 'Greno' who leaves to get the guards is named for modeled after the film's co-director Nathan Greno, only much bigger but with the same van Dyke- style goatee and the same arm tattoos.
24. In the "When will my life begin" sequence, Rapunzel says she'll "take a climb" and climbs up hair. The way she climbs is an actual aerial silk climbing technique.
25. From the beginning, Glen Keane intended that the film looked and felt like a traditional hand- drawn film, but in 3D. He hosted a seminar called "The Best of Both Worlds," where he brought in 50 Disney animators (both CGI and traditional artists) to discuss the techniques used in each style and how to, in his words, "bring the warmth and intuitive feel of the hand-drawn to CGI."
26. The song that activates the power of the magic flower is only sung the whole way through, without breaks, twice: once when Rapunzel heals Mother Gothel (though it was very quickly) and when Rapunzel heals Eugene's hand. The rest were separated by scenes or never completed.
27. The lantern that Mother Gothel holds during the line "the plague" in the song "Mother Knows Best", and in the beginning when she is singing to the flower, is the same lantern the Stabbington brothers hold when Flynn sees them across the water.
28. Whenever Mother Goethel expresses her 'love' to Rapunzel it's always to her hair and not directly to Rapunzel. She kisses Rapunzel on the head and touches her hair whenever expressing love. She also calls her 'my little flower' in reference to the original sunflower.
29. In the opening scenes you see baby Rapunzel in her cradle staring up at a baby mobile. In a little bit of foreshadowing, you see several items hanging from the mobile that come into play later in the story, namely a chameleon (her pet Pascal), a rubber duck (The Snuggly Duckling the Flynn takes her to), a cupid (also from the Snuggly Duckling), a horse (Maximus) and a blue bird (when she first leaves the tower).
30. Mother Gothel is very similar to Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Both have no magical powers, both keep a person hostage for their own personal gain, both sing a song to their hostage to keep them from running away, both try to kill their hostage's love interest and both fall to their death.
