This document is a student's compare and contrast essay on the films Tangled and Anastasia. It summarizes the key personalities of the heroines Rapunzel and Anastasia. It describes the main villains in each film - Mother Gothel in Tangled and Rasputin in Anastasia. It also outlines the adventure journeys undertaken by each heroine, including those who assisted them and the obstacles they faced. The essay then analyzes the similarities and differences between the two films in these areas before concluding that musical films can be inspiring despite following some clichéd genres.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: CHAN PEI SHAN
STUDENT ID NO: 0318350
FILMS SELECTED: TANGLED (2010) & ANASTASIA (1997) - MUSICAL
WORD COUNT: 990 WORDS
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

2. PRE-WRITING: TANGLED AND ANASTASIA (MUSICAL)
TOPIC/MOVIE TANGLED ANASTASIA
HEROINE’S
PERSONALITY
 Creative. She draws, sings,
knits, cooks, etc. (Before
leaving)
 Curious. Wanted to know
how the outside world is
and also the floating lights
in the night sky every year
during her birthday.
 Active and bubbly. When
she got out of the tower she
wanted to explore every
inch of grass and trees
around her tower. Curious
of how the town looks like
when she arrived town.
 Smart. Making use of
minimal clue to look for
her family, and thinking of
ways to get out of the
death train (the explosion)
 Determined. To find her
lost family even with
minimal clue, her necklace
that says “together in
Paris”.
 Brave. Dare to take an
unknown path after
coming out of the
orphanage, nonetheless
where it will lead her to.
MAIN VILLIAN
 Mother Gothel
 Who is she? She is the one
who abduct Rapunzel and
lock her up in the tower,
not letting Rapunzel get out
 Why does she do that? So
that she can keep making
use of Rapunzel’s hair that
possessed healing ability
and youth regain.
 What did she do to get
Rapunzel back? Team up
with Flynn’s later rival, the
Stabbington Brothers, and
make Flynn seem like a bad
guy.
 Rasputin
 Who is he? Nicholas’ (the
king) confidant who
betrayed the Romanov
family and then was
kicked out of the palace.
He got angry and swear to
kill all the Romanov
members. To get more
power he sold his soul for
dark powers.
 Why does he do that? He
lost the trust of the king
and was harshly kicked by
the king. He doesn’t want
to sell his soul for nothing.
 What he does to kill
Anastasia? He tried killing
her many ways during her
journey to Paris, like on
the train, ship and on a
cliff.

3. ADVENTURE
JOURNEY
 Why go on an adventure?
To find out about the
floating lights in the night
sky on her birthday every
year.
 Assistances? Flynn Rider
(Eugene Fitzherbert),
Maximus the royal horse,
Pascal the pet chameleon,
the workers of Snuggly
Duckling Inn.
 Obstacles? The stabbington
brothers, the armies who
tries to catch Flynn, Mother
Gothel.
 Why go on an
adventure? To find her
family after a memory
lost.
 Assistances? Dimitri and
Vlad, Pooka
 Obstacles? Rasputin and
Bartok

4. COMPARE ESSAY: TANGLED AND ANASTASIA (MUSICAL)
Musical movies are one of the greatest genre of movies ever founded. These movies
are mostly portraying feminism and heroines. Through music, the power of female are more
easily expressed than fighting physically. Tangled and Anastasia both shows very strong
heroines who would fight for what they are longing for through curiosity and determination.
Despite that, those two movies are in fact differently told, including the character’s
personality, the villains in the story, and also the journey along the movie.
First of all, the characters in a musical movie is a very big influence to how the story
goes. The first main character is Rapunzel from Tangled, the girl with a hair length 70 feet
and of golden blonde color. Rapunzel had hair that possessed different abilities and that was
the reason she being the princess was kidnapped by Mother Gothel, who portrayed her
stepmother. Rapunzel, in fact, was a creative and smart girl who sings, draws, knits, cooks
and developed a lot more skills during her time locked in the tower. Through a small window
of the tower, Rapunzel would take her time to watch the “floating lights” in the night sky
during her birthday every year. This picked on her curiosity to find out what were the floating
lights and also making her painted the scenery on the walls in the tower. Meanwhile, her
curious personality also made her a bubbly and active person, especially the moment when
she first stepped out of the tower, exploring the nature around the area. Though she felt
slightly guilty for disobeying her stepmother’s order to not leave the tower, but she was a
strong girl who would stand up for herself and get herself what she wanted.
On the other hand, Anastasia, from the movie Anastasia, the princess of the Imperial
Russia, had lived her first eight years of her live under the services of the palace servants and
need no work at all. But then Rasputin entered, who was the traitor who killed most of
Anastasia’s family members and breaking them apart. The only clue she had to find her

5. family was a necklace that said “Together in Paris”. That was the first sight of Anastasia
being a determined girl in the movie. At the same time, Anastasia also possessed bravery that
she would take the risk of following an unknown footstep, in hope that it would lead her to
finding her family. Other than that, her journey in the movie also showed that her bravery had
helped her in many ways. Well, being on an adventure isn’t all about physically fit only, but
also the appropriate usage of one’s brain, and Anastasia was a good example of a smart girl
who would use her brain wisely during challenging circumstances. There were even times
where her smartness had saved not only time, but also energy of her team during their
journey.
Second of all, a villain would always make a musical movie more dramatic and
contain more conflict, so are the two movies. Tangled had a villain who had developed a
more close relationship with the main character, unlike Anastasia, who both the main
character and the villain were pure enemies. The villain in Tangled is Mother Gothel. The
reason why Mother Gothel kept Rapunzel up the tower was because of the healing abilities
contained in Rapunzel’s golden blonde hair. If Rapunzel had left the tower, it means that
Mother Gothel would never returned to her young age anymore, therefore she would do
anything to make Rapunzel stay, even if it meant breaking her emotions and trying to
convince her that Flynn Rider was a bad guy. On the other side, Rasputin was the confidant
of Nicholas, the King of the Imperial Russia. It was then when Rasputin did something to
betray the country, making them building hatred on each other and therefore triggering
Rasputin to get revenge to the Romanov members by killing all of them. In order to gain
more power to get the lives of the Romanovs, Rasputin had sold his soul to gain dark powers,
which created side effect like having his body part unassembled randomly.
Last of all, is the main idea of the story, which is the journey the main characters went
on along the movie. For Rapunzel, being her curious self she had been locked up in her tower

6. and anxious to know what the floating lights during her birthday means. Along her journey
she got assistances from Flynn Rider, a thief who tried to hide in her tower, her pet
chameleon Pascal, the royal horse Maximum who doesn’t get along with Flynn, and a bunch
of tall and big workers from the Snuggly Duckling Inn. Of course, there were obstacles that
slowed her down on her journey, like two other thieves who wanted to get back at Flynn,
Rapunzel’s own stepmother, and also situations like them almost getting drowned under
water. Anastasia’s journey on the other hand was more dangerous. She wanted to find out
who her family were, and then she met Dmitri and Vlad, who were two conman who wanted
to find girls to replace the lost princess to get rewards from the queen, and also a puppy
Pooka where she met outside of her orphanage. What in her journey that almost killed her,
twice yet, was the main villain in her story, Rasputin and his pet bat, Bartok.
In musical movies, it often symbolizes the strength of female characters, and at the
same time are actually inspiring movies. Like Tangled and Anastasia, both the movies shows
how the main characters would work for something for themselves. Though it was cliché, it
still shows how these movies have their very own storyline, like the main character’s
personality, the villains and the journey along the movie. In conclusion, despite the vague
sounding genre of movies, musical movies are actually really inspiring movies that brings
messages to encourage people in their lives.

7. REFERENCES
1. TIMEOFTHEDAY. (2012, June 25). Movie: Tangled Summary + Review. Retrieved from
http://dramaticreviews.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/review-tangled/
2. Ginirio T. (2010, February 7). Synopsis for Tangled. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398286/synopsis
3. Ebert R. (1997, November 21). Anastasia. Retrieved from
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/anastasia-1997
4. gromit82. (2001, May 27). Synopsis for Anastasia. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118617/synopsis?ref_=tt_stry_pl