English essay

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE,BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Michelle Wong Sook Yin
STUDENT ID NO: 0322362
FILMS SELECTED: Beauty and the Beast, Tangled
WORD COUNT: 1020
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSIONDATE: 28TH
SEPTEMBER2015

2. Compare- Contrast Essay: Animated Films
Since 1937, Disney has made a huge revolution by bringing in princess fairy tales into
the animated world. This new evolution of animated films has brought upon a new fluttery
feeling and is to be enjoyed by viewers of all age. It is well known by everyone that there is a
drastic difference between princess’s mentality and thinking of the past era and modern era.
These days, we notice that most viewer’s comments about Disney princesses relate to their
change of plotline and approach towards life situations. However, some of the past Disney
animated princess films share similar plotlines with today’s modern Disney princess films.
By comparing Beauty and the Beast with Tangled, there are noticeable similarities between
the two Disney films such as the female lead character’s character position, love line between
the main characters, the role of supporting characters in assisting the main character and the
tragic near death of the male lead character at the end of the fairy tale.
First and foremost, one of the similarities between Beauty and the Beast and Tangled
is the character position of the female lead character. They both start of as ordinary people
before becoming a princess in the end. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle, the female lead
character, is brought up as a villager who does ordinary activities such as reading and
roaming the village. However, in a twist of events, her father is captured by Beast, the male
lead character, and was held captivated in his castle. Belle offered to take his place as a
prisoner and that was when she had her first encounter with Beast. As the storyline continues,
eventful events occurred and they fell for each other. They had their happily ever after where
Belle married Beast after he transformed back into his human self and she became princess.
In Tangled, the female lead character, Rapunzel, was a teenaged girl who lived in a tower
with her wicked stepmother, Gothel. Her days were occupied with ordinary indoor activities
such as cleaning and baking. After her encounter with Flynn Rider, the male lead character,

3. they both set off to see the floating lights on her birthday. After spending time together, they
slowly open up to each other and a romance blooms between them. Rapunzel was rightfully
crowned princess while Flynn became prince in the sequel, Tangled Ever After.
Next, these two films share a similar love line where they had a rocky start before
having their romance bloom rather than the usual cliché love at first sight romance. In Beauty
and the Beast, Belle initially feared him because of his almighty and fearful side. After a
situation where Beast had saved Belle from being attacked by wolves, she was touched and
moved by his actions as he had gotten himself injured while saving her life. Beast started
treating her nicely and Belle started to open up to him. After spending more time with each
other, both of them started to fully accept each other for who they are and that was when they
started to fall for each other. As for Tangled, during Rapunzel’s first encounter with Flynn,
she had an eerie and unsure feeling of him because she had no other human interaction before
meeting him. After they managed to survive a near death situation where they almost
drowned to death, Rapunzel had shared her secret with Flynn whereas Flynn had opened up
to her. Their romance started to bloom since then in their adventure together to see the
floating lights.
Other than that, the role of supporting characters in assisting the main character are
also similar in both Disney cartoons. In Beauty and the Beast, the supporting characters were
Beast’s servants who were transformed into houseware. Previously, his servants had to
endure his bad temper but they never gave up on him. They also believed that he would be
able to find true love one day and turn them back to their human selves. After realizing
Beast’s feelings towards Belle, they prepared a romantic dinner for them along with the
ballroom dance for them to enjoy and allow their love to blossom. In Tangled, the Snuggly
Ducklings, a group of thugs, and Maximus, a palace horse, were the supporting characters of
the cartoon. Maximus and the Snuggly Ducklings thugs had helped him to escape prison

4. before he was going to be executed. They helped him escape prison because he was framed
by Gothel who was preparing to kidnap Rapunzel and escape with her to a faraway place. In
both cartoons, without the assistance of the supporting characters, the main characters would
not have been able to have their happily ever after ending.
The final similarity between both cartoons is the tragic near death of the male lead
character at the ending of the fairy tale. In Beauty and the Beast, the antagonist, Gaston had
attacked Beast’s castle and tried to kill him out of hatred. Gaston stabbed Beast to death from
the back when he was climbing towards Belle. As Beast lied dead on the ground, Belle was
devastated but before the last rose petal fell, Belle whispered that she loved him and she
managed to witness him revive and turned back into human. In tangled, after escaping from
prison, when Flynn came to Rapunzel’s rescue, Gothel had tried to kill Flynn by stabbing him
in the stomach. Rapunzel made a deal with Gothel to follow her orders and leave with her if
she was allowed to heal him. However, before Rapunzel was able to heal Flynn, he had cut
her hair off and her hair has lost its magical healing power. Flynn lied dead on the ground but
as Rapunzel’s tear lands on his cheeks the golden magical power does its magic and restores
his life.
In a nutshell, there are many similarities between both animated cartoon films such as
the female lead character’s character position, love line between the main characters, the role
of supporting characters and the tragic near death of the male lead character. Both animated
films are Disney’s finest productions which sparks interests in people of all ages.

5. References
1. Beauty and the Beast. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2015, from
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_1991/
2. Tangled. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2015, from
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tangled/