Actually, they were going to until The Princess and the Frog underperformed at the box office -- I loved it myself, but apparently they did some research which showed that boys weren't going to the movie in large enough numbers to suit them, so they renamed Rapunzel to Tangled and began cutting the trailers so that there was a lot more Flynn in them. When I first heard about the change I thought it sounded incredibly lame, but God help us, it seems to have worked, because Tangled apparently did a lot better with boys.
Fashions in princes definitely seem to change -- I think the trouble is that the princes, especially the early ones, have so little comparative screen time so that their characters have to be painted fairly unambiguously (oddly, I remember almost nothing about the prince from Cinderella -- I do remember that his father was mad for grandchildren, though, and I'm sure the prince was feeling a bit of "OK, just get off my back already, I'll find her!"). When they start getting more screen time, well, going from good to good can be dreadfully hard to make interesting. Even Luke Skywalker has to go from innately good but a little callow and whiny ("But I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!) to, well, much more overtly good and less callow and whiny, mostly due to finally stepping into his rightful role as fighter/leader for the rebellion. Stepping into your real role is something that happens to the modern princes too, I think -- for example, when Naveen arrives in N.O. he isn't really thrilled with the party lifestyle anymore (especially since his parents have cut him off!) He's an obviously bright guy who's in bad need of a real occupation and it seems like his being a prince has gotten in the way of that, if anything. It's as if he's trying to play the role of the Playboy Prince but as it's not his real bent, he's getting sick of it. Finding a role to step into which suits him makes him better, but I don't think it's a total 180 degree character turnaround.
Flynn is much more standard-issue Rogue With A Heart Of Gold, but again, like Naveen, he's trying to fit himself into an old role rather than write his own, new role. He started out in a bad situation and decided to imitate/become someone he looked up to, a bit like a young writer starting out by imitating the style and plot types of their own favourite writer. It works for a while, but eventually even your favourite writer's style is going to cramp you, because it isn't yours and you can't say everything you need to while disguised as someone else. Similarly for Flynn/Eugene -- undoubtedly he's a naturally adventurous, high-spirited guy, but you could say that by the time the movie starts, the role of Flynn, Daredevil Thief is starting to wear on him a little and he's happy to find the way out of it and into a new role as, well, himself.
I hope you had a good fourth! Ours was lovely. And I can't believe I just wrote so much about the psychology of two animated characters :).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-07-05 06:18 am (UTC)Actually, they were going to until The Princess and the Frog underperformed at the box office -- I loved it myself, but apparently they did some research which showed that boys weren't going to the movie in large enough numbers to suit them, so they renamed Rapunzel to Tangled and began cutting the trailers so that there was a lot more Flynn in them. When I first heard about the change I thought it sounded incredibly lame, but God help us, it seems to have worked, because Tangled apparently did a lot better with boys.
Fashions in princes definitely seem to change -- I think the trouble is that the princes, especially the early ones, have so little comparative screen time so that their characters have to be painted fairly unambiguously (oddly, I remember almost nothing about the prince from Cinderella -- I do remember that his father was mad for grandchildren, though, and I'm sure the prince was feeling a bit of "OK, just get off my back already, I'll find her!"). When they start getting more screen time, well, going from good to good can be dreadfully hard to make interesting. Even Luke Skywalker has to go from innately good but a little callow and whiny ("But I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!) to, well, much more overtly good and less callow and whiny, mostly due to finally stepping into his rightful role as fighter/leader for the rebellion. Stepping into your real role is something that happens to the modern princes too, I think -- for example, when Naveen arrives in N.O. he isn't really thrilled with the party lifestyle anymore (especially since his parents have cut him off!) He's an obviously bright guy who's in bad need of a real occupation and it seems like his being a prince has gotten in the way of that, if anything. It's as if he's trying to play the role of the Playboy Prince but as it's not his real bent, he's getting sick of it. Finding a role to step into which suits him makes him better, but I don't think it's a total 180 degree character turnaround.
Flynn is much more standard-issue Rogue With A Heart Of Gold, but again, like Naveen, he's trying to fit himself into an old role rather than write his own, new role. He started out in a bad situation and decided to imitate/become someone he looked up to, a bit like a young writer starting out by imitating the style and plot types of their own favourite writer. It works for a while, but eventually even your favourite writer's style is going to cramp you, because it isn't yours and you can't say everything you need to while disguised as someone else. Similarly for Flynn/Eugene -- undoubtedly he's a naturally adventurous, high-spirited guy, but you could say that by the time the movie starts, the role of Flynn, Daredevil Thief is starting to wear on him a little and he's happy to find the way out of it and into a new role as, well, himself.
I hope you had a good fourth! Ours was lovely. And I can't believe I just wrote so much about the psychology of two animated characters :).