For the Inner Fanboys

So lately I’ve gotten into this sudden craze of listening to classic Disney songs (Hakuna Matata, Colours of the Wind, Be Our Guest etc) and I was just lamenting on the decreasing quality of Disney movies and songs these days in comparison to those when I was a kid.

However, one of the better ones (in my humble opinion) to have been produced recently was the Princess and the Frog, which I loved and (I thought) was a great tribute to the good ol’ days. Imagine my surprise to run across an article later that talks of Disney’s newer animation, Tangled, formerly known as Rapunzel, and how Princess and the Frog helped the studio decide on the name change.

Now how does a 2D old school movie have anything to do with the 3D counterpart? Well, turns out that though PatF was a great movie, it didn’t gross in as much as the executives thought it would in the box office. And they think they know why: not as many boys saw it due to the word “princess” in the title.

Hence this time, the great Disney has learned its lesson. The studio has renamed the upcoming movie from girly “Rapunzel” to a bit more ambiguous “Tangled”. Not the mention that there will be more of a bad-boy image thrown in for our prince (who actually is a bandit), and a bit of a backbone for our golden princess. Oh, and the film will revolve more around the male character as well. All this so as to draw in more of the younger boys to watch, who also make up roughly half of Disney’s potential audience for their family films.

According to the president of the Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, Ed Catmull, “some people might assume it’s a fairy tale for girls when it’s not. We make movies to be appreciated and loved by everybody.” As well, the studio hopes that the bad-boy character can help them reach the broadest possible audience for the film.

And of course, with changes such as this one, there are bound to be some related to it. Floyd Norman, a retired Disney and Pixar animator who worked on films such as “Mulan” and “Monsters Inc.” considers the name change to be "beyond stupid" and created a cartoon in response to the name change.

So, what do YOU think about this? Yay or nay to the change?