Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi in Disney's Rapunzel
Nathan Greno, Byron Howard Directing CGI Animated Film
Sep 10, 2009
Disney's Rapunzel has its two lead actors.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mandy Moore will voice the titular character of the upcoming CGI animated film, while Zachary Levi (Chuck) will voice Flynn, "a dashing bandit" who finds himself accompanying Rapunzel on her adventures.
They join David Schwimmer (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) as Father Sam, Grey DeLisle (Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender) as the villainous Madame Gothel, Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace in Wallace and Gromit) as Grandpa Franklin and legendary voice actor Jim Cummings as the Muffin Man.
The movie is loosely based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
“This Rapunzel," co-director Byron Howard (Bolt) told Disney Twenty Three (via Jim Hill), "is out of the tower and heading for adventure by the end of Act One."
Byron Howard, Nathan Greno Replaced Glen Keane as Rapunzel Director
Howard and co-director Nathan Greno (head of story for Bolt) replaced original directors Glen Keane and Dean Wellins after Keane dropped out due to health problems. Howard admitted it was tough replacing the respected animator, who is now an executive producer. Howard's admiration for Keane began when he was working for Disney's satellite animation studio in Florida in the mid-1990's.
“Every now and then, not very often, (one of Glen Keane’s scenes for Pocahontas) would come down to Florida,” Howard told Disney Twenty Three. “We wouldn’t get the best scenes; we’d get more like the connective tissue. But when a Glen scene would show up at our doorstep, we would covet it. Glen is such a celebrity in the animation world that we’d just marvel at how he’d draw stuff and kind of fight to be the one cleaning up those drawings.”
Howard and Greno went with a tried-and-true method when when designing Flynn's character.
“We had a couple of versions," Howard told Disney Twenty Three, "and John Lasseter came in and went, ‘Well, this guy is okay, but I don’t know. Is he drop-dead gorgeous? I think women will want him to be drop-dead gorgeous.’
"So he said, ‘What you guys have to do is get all the women in the studio to send you the names of their favourite hot men. Put photos of all these hunky guys in the room, take the best features of each of them, and make one amazing, dynamic character.’ So that’s the process that’s going on right now. It’s like working in the office of Tiger Beat.“
Ron Clements and John Musker (The Princess and the Frog) used a similar method when designing Aladdin's main character.
Oscar winning composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) is providing the tunes.
According to Howard, Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater wrote a stunning "lullaby that Rapunzel and Mother Gothel sing to each other that activates the magic in Rapunzel’s hair. The song’s lyrics say ‘You are my forever,’ which – depending on who sings it and when – takes on entirely different meanings. Sometimes it’s a love song between Flynn, and Rapunzel; other times it’s a terrifying, possessive theme used by Gothel. But it’s great, because it’s a very heartrending, beautiful song, and (Menken) really nailed it.”
Howard sums up the film by saying, "The moral of the story, really, is that you can’t live your life in a tower. "It’s about experiencing the world and living your life. Even though our heroine is physically out of the tower, mentally it’s difficult for her to completely leave it behind. She’s like an indoor cat that gets out of the house; it’s really hard getting the cat back in. It’s great to have a character who is so innocent and so smart. And it’s even better to see her wake up.”
Rapunzel comes out in December of 2010.
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