"Producer Roy Conli just made the official announcement on Walt Disney Animation Studios' Facebook page that Rapunzel has been renamed Tangled:
'Hey everyone, I'm Roy Conli, producer of Disney's next animated film. I have some exciting news to share, and it was important to me that YOU guys – the Disney fans – hear it first. I want to tell you about Walt Disney Animation Studio's 2010 release, Tangled. It's a really fresh, smart take on the Rapunzel story. In our film, the infamous bandit Flynn Rider meets his match in the girl with the 70 feet of magical golden hair. We're having a lot of fun pairing Flynn, who's seen it all, with Rapunzel, who's been locked away in a tower for 18 years. I’m so proud of the crew working on this film – they’re doing a fantastic job creating an awesome story with great characters and a stunning world – and it's all going to look amazing in 3D. All of us here at the studio are incredibly excited for you to see Tangled when it comes out in theaters this November.'
Tangled, voiced by Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy, is scheduled to hit theaters on November 24th."
Heck, this piece of concept art sold me (as sad as that sounds):
Think about this - she's never seen a man before. How many jokes can come from that?
UPDATE:
From Jim Hill Media:
"As for the reason that Disney opted to change Rapunzel's title to Tangled … According to the Mouse’s market research, it would seem that – outside of the United States & Germany – the story of Rapunzel itself has very little name recognition. More to the point, even those among surveyed who actually recognized Rapunzel’s name, these people had little or no knowledge of what her fairy tale was actually about. They knew that this story featured a princess with long hair who was trapped in a tower. But beyond that … zippo.
So here was Disney’s marketing department trying to trade on Rapunzel’s name recognition only to then discover – outside of the U.S. & Germany – this fairy tale didn’t really have any name recognition. Which then forced the Studio to rethink how it was going to sell this particular animated feature.
As I understand it, in an effort to win over young men, to convince them that this Holiday 2011 release is far more male friendly that The Princess & the Frog, the posters, trailers and TV ads for this upcoming WDFA production will place a pretty heavy emphasis on Rapunzel’s love interest, the infamous bandit Flynn Rider."
