Genre essay

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: TAN WEI ZHEN
STUDENT ID NO: 0318560
FILMS SELECTED: FROZEN & TANGLED (MUSICAL)
WORD COUNT: 805
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

2. Prewriting
Introduction
The two English language musical movies chosen is “Frozen” and “Tangled”. This essay is about the
contrast of differences between the two chosen movies. The aspects that contrast the two movies are
theme, plot, setting and characters.
Thesis statement
There are several differences that could be contrast between the two chosen English language movies
such as theme, plot, setting and characters.
Body paragraph
Paragraph 1: Contrast of themes
Point 1: The movie “Tangled” contains a beautifully dazzling, charming and heart felt re-telling of a
beloved fairytale where the movie “Frozen” creates a break of stereotypical mold by an adaptation of a
fairy tale that has a different storyline and characters from past productions from Walt Disney Pictures.
Point 2: The movie “Tangled” is about a young girl, Rapunzel who was kidnapped as a baby by a greedy
woman. On the other hand, the movie “Frozen” is about a queen who rules over a mythical kingdom.
Paragraph 2: Contrast of plot
Point 1: The movie “Tangled” started from a drop of the sun fallen on earth and grows a magic golden
flower but the movie “Frozen” started off in a kingdom and one of the princesses has the power of
freezing and creating ice.
Point 2: The long haired Rapunzel from the movie “Tangled” ended up reunion with her royal family
members and get married. On the other hand, the princess with the power of creating ice from the
movie “Frozen” ended up saving her own sister and got clarified that her power is a blessing but not a
curse.
Paragraph 3: Contrast of setting
Point 1: The movie “Tangled” is a German fairytale and the architecture of it is based off that of the
movie “Snow White” where the inspiration of the movie “Frozen” is the nature and culture of Norway.
Paragraph 4: Contrast of characters
Point 1: Rapunzel from the movie “Tangled” is a single child and does not has any siblings but Elsa from
the movie “Frozen” has a younger sister.
Point 2: Rapunzel from the movie “Tangled” has found a partner and get married at the end but Elsa
from the movie “Frozen” stay single all the way.
Conclusion
The differences between the theme, plot, setting and characters of both the movies cause contrast
between both of them.

3. In this modernized era, more films and movies with various types of genres are being produced
compared to the past decades. The question is what makes similarities and differences between the
films and movies? Eventually, the theme, plot, setting and characters of the movies do play their own
roles which causes comparison and contrast between the films and movies. The two English language
musical movies that I have chosen to complete the task given are “Frozen” and “Tangled”, both are
produced by Walt Disney Pictures. This essay is about the contrast of differences between the two
movies chosen as mentioned above. There are several differences that could be contrast between the
two chosen English language movies such as theme, plot, setting and characters.
First of all, the environment of the both movies are different. If noticed, the movie “Frozen” is
having a winter landscape and the movie “Tangled” is having a summer landscape (Carvalho, 2014).
Moving on to the theme, the movie “Tangled” contains a beautifully dazzling, charming and heart felt
re-telling of a beloved fairytale (Paluso, 2011). The movie generally traces the traditional Rapunzel
storyline, but this time with a few twists (Paluso, 2011). It is all about Rapunzel, a young girl kidnapped
as a baby by a greedy woman who demands to look younger named Gothel (Paluso, 2011). On the other
way round, the movie “Frozen” creates a break of stereotypical mold by an adaptation of a fairy tale
that has a different storyline and characters from past productions from Walt Disney Pictures (Devlin,
2014). One of a very good example is that Elsa, the queen from the movie “Frozen” had never expresses
an interest in marriage although she is a queen unlike the past movies produced by Walt Disney
Production that marriage is one of the main concern for all the queens and princesses (Devlin, 2014).
The movie is all about a queen named Elsa who rules over a mythical kingdom called Arendelle with her
magical ability to create snow and ice (Devlin, 2014).
Moreover, the plot of a movie does determine the movie’s genre. The movie “Tangled” is
started from a drop of the sun fallen on earth and grows a magic golden flower with the ability to heal
the sicknesses and injuries was found by an old woman named Gothel (Young, 2012). Gothel then
kidnapped a young girl which is a princess named Rapunzel as a baby due to the eager to retrieved the
flower after the king uses it to heal his wife which fall sick (Carvalho, 2014). At the end of the movie, the
long haired Rapunzel reunion with her royal family members and get married (Young, 2012). On the
other hand, the movie “Frozen” started off in a kingdom named Arendelle and one of the princesses has
the power of freezing and creating ice (Wilson, 2014). Towards the end of the movie, the queen’s sister,
Anna finally found her in the icy castle after her fled (Carvalho, 2014). The queen with the power of
creating ice from the movie “Frozen” ended up saving her own sister from an accident with true love
and got clarified that her power is a blessing but not a curse (Carvalho, 2014).
Besides, setting of a film or movie is also one of the key points of causing similarities and
differences between movies. The movie “Tangled” is a German influenced fairytale and the architecture
of it is based off that of the movie “Snow White” (McCarthy, 2013). On the other hand, the inspiration of
the movie “Frozen” is the nature and culture of Norway (McCarthy, 2013). The Norwegian influence is
reflected not only in the wintery landscape but also in characteristics Norwegian elements such as
ancient stave churches, traditional Norwegian folk costume and even the typi cal hairstyle (McCarthy,
2013).

4. Last but not least, the characters in a movie is also very important to determine the movie’s
genre. In the movie “Tangled”, Rapunzel, which is the princess is a single child with parents, which is the
king and the queen and does not has any siblings but at the very beginning she was kidnapped by a
stranger name Gothel but the Gothel treat Rapunzel like a daughter (Paluso, 2011). Furthermore,
Rapunzel has found a partner and get married to the guy that saved her, Flynn Rider at the end (Paluso,
2011). In the movie “Frozen”, the queen Elsa has a sister named Anna and parents but they had lose
their parents due to a storm at a sea (Wilson, 2014). Anna has a husband named Hans and Elsa has a
snowman and an ice creature named Olaf and Marshmallow respectively (Wilson, 2014).
In conclusion, the differences between the theme, plot, setting and characters of both the
movies cause contrast between both of them. It is very obvious that the movies are having similarities or
differences by referring to the theme, plot, setting and characters. Besides, the theme, plot, setting and
characters of a film or movie could determine which type of genres the movie are.

5. References
Claudio Carvalho. (2014). Plot Summary. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/plotsummary
Conor Devlin. (2014). Disney’s Frozen break the ice with progressive themes and characters. Retrieved
September 18, 2014, from
http://manitoumessenger.com/opinions/2014/03/09/disneys-frozen-breaks-the-ice-with-progressive-
themes-and-characters/
DeAlan Wilson. (2014). Plot Summary. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/plotsummary
Douglas Young. (2012). Plot Summary. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/plotsummary
Marianne Paluso. (2011). Spiritual themes to be found in Disney’s ‘Tangled’. Retrieved September 19,
2014, from
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=1449
Todd McCarthy. (2013). Frozen: Film Review. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/frozen/review/652699