Untangling "Tangled's" Domestic and International Trailers

Copyright 2014 by Gary Pullman

In this post, we will look at how two movie trailers can be contrasted to identify, analyze, and explain how one trailer appeals to the cultural interests of potential U. S. audiences, while the other trailer, developed to promote the same film to a foreign market, appeals to the cultural interests of potential audiences in The Netherlands.

First, the prewriting process will be considered, from a process-analysis, or "how-to," perspective, bold red font providing step-by-step instructions as to how to proceed.

Then, the final draft of the essay, in blue font, is presented.

So that the other three drafts can be reviewed, they are also supplied, the third draft following the final draft, the second draft following the third draft, and the first draft following the second draft, with indications of the revisions made and the reasons for making them. Each draft is identified as "Final Draft," "Third Draft," "Second Draft," or "First Draft."

Occasionally, to clarify issues, brief notes are included wherever appropriate, beginning with the word"Note," in bold purple, underlined.

Tangled Trailer for U. S. Audiences

Video clip URL = http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ip_0CFKTO9E#t=40

To analyze the U. S. trailer, watch it, pausing frequently to describe each incident of the action; the appearance of the text on the screen can be used to divide the trailer into parts:

1. Shown from behind, a young man, in manacles, is escorted by armored guards, one on either side of him, into a dungeon.
2. The young man's face and upper body, and that of the helmeted guards, are shown; the guards' hands hold the young man's upper arms.
3. As they continue to walk forward, the young man glances sideways, at first one guard and then the other.
4. The young man attempts to flee, and a fight ensues between him and the guards.
5. The young man butts one of the guards with his head before leaping over his manacles, which he brings up and under his feet as he leaps.

Text: He's Fearless

6. The young man rides a galloping, saddled white horse.
7. Mounted soldiers pursue him through a forest.
8. The young man passes a wanted poster bearing his likeness. The poster is shot full of arrows; its caption reads, “WANTED. DEAD OR ALIVE.”
9. The young man removes the wanted poster and reads it; another is tacked to the same tree; presumably, this other poster was under the one of himself that he has removed.
10. The young man holds the poster up: it shows a seemingly different, but similar-looking, fugitive, and, in addition to the words “DEAD OR ALIVE,” which appear below the word “WANTED,” the fugitive's name, “Flynn Rider,” appears. The young man, Flynn," looks shocked. He mutters about the artist never managing to get his nose "right."

Text: He's Dangerous

11. Two large men open a saddlebag. Finding it empty, they look up.
12. In a branch, overhead, Flynn, grinning, twirls a tiara on his fingertip.
13. One of the large men stands upon the other man's shoulders.
14. On foot, Flynn flees through the forest.
15. Flynn leaps from a rock, back onto the trail he follows.

Text: But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief

16. A fist jams an arrow into the side of a tower.
17. Flynn climbs the side of the tower; he is already quite high. The house atop the tower is round.

Text: Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide

16. Flynn stands before heavy double wood doors braced with wrought-iron, flowers on either side of him.
17. Flynn pushes the doors open.
18. The towering tower with the house on its top is shown from a distance.
19. Flynn opens his saddlebag.
20. A frying pan swings behind Flynn, striking him in the back of his head; he falls.
21. Lying on the floor, Flynn opens his eyes.
22. A tendril of hair ascends into the air.
23. Flynn rises from the floor.
24. Shown from high above, Flynn picks up a candlestick from a table.
25. Flynn holds the candlestick aloft; Rapunzel (not shown) snares it with a strand of her hair and yanks it from Flynn's grasp; he stares at his empty left hand, as her hair snakes first around the wrist of his right hand and then around his left wrist; another strand of her hair wraps his neck; he pushes her hair aside.
26. Rapunzel (still not shown) pulls Flynn, upside-down, toward the ceiling, her hair wrapped around his lower leg.
27. Flynn's boot is pulled off, and he falls.
28. Flynn seizes Rapunzel's hair.
29. Flynn's boot, held by a strand of Rapunzel's hair—she herself still has not been shown—kicks him in the back of his head.
30. Flynn is dragged backward by a strand of Rapunzel's hair.
31. Flynn stares, eyes wide.
32. Flynn is shocked to find himself bound, by the princess' hair, to a sturdy chair.
33. Flynn gazes down at a length of hair on the floor, following it with his eyes, to a woman's feet.
34. The princess, Rapunzel, seen for the first time, at a distance, stands across the room, in profile, facing her captive.
35. Rapunzel approaches Flynn.
36. Flynn flirts with Rapunzel.
37. Rapunzel acts as if she may strike Flynn with the frying pan she holds.
38. Rapunzel seems to reconsider hitting Flynn.
39. A lizard, perched on Rapunzel's shoulder, makes a suggestion to her.
40. Flynn, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below; his chair is attached to Rapunzel's hair.

Text: He's Seen It All

43. In a tree branch, Flynn kneels besides his white horse.
44. The limb shakes, and leaves fall.
45. The branch, which grows over the edge of a sheer cliff, gives way, Flynn and his horse falling.
46. Flynn and his horse look terrified as the wind rushes past their faces.

Text: She's Been Grounded

Text: Like. . . FOREVER

47. Flynn climbs the wall of the tower.
48. Rapunzel tosses her hair out the window of her house.
49. Rapunzel swing down, past Flynn.
50. Rapunzel's foot touches the grass.
51. Flynn stands before the base of a great, wide tree.
52. Rapunzel swings around the tree, on her hair.
53. The lizard sticks its tongue into Flynn's and snaps it back, surprising him.
54. Rapunzel laughs.

Test: This Fall

Text: It Takes Two To Get. . .

47. Flynn, his horse beside him, stands at the bottom of the tower, appealing to Rapunzel to let down her hair.
    
48. Flynn is buried in an avalanche of Rapunzel's hair. His horse looks astonished, then laughs (a horse laugh).

Text: Disney's Tangled

Text: Get Tangled Up in DISNEY DIGITAL 3D – IN SELECT THEATERS

The letters of the text revolve and are transformed:

Text: Get Tangled Up in real D 3D

Text: Coming Soon – disney.com/Tangled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_0CFKTO9E

Rapunzel Trailer for The Netherlands Audiences

Video clip URL = http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ip_0CFKTO9E#t=3

Use the same approach to analyze the international trailer: watch it, pausing frequently to describe each incident of the action; the appearance of the text on the screen can be used to divide the trailer into parts:

1. A castle is shown perched atop a tall, narrow, ivy-covered tower in a valley enclosed by tall, massive mountains; trees and a waterfall are present.

Text: In een ver koninkrijk. . .

Note: Use Google Translate to translate the text, which is Dutch, the language of The Netherlands, into English:

Text (translated): In a distant realm. . .

2. A close-up is shown of a young man.
3. A fist jams an arrow into the side of the tower.
4. The young man climbs the side of the tower; he is already quite high. The house atop the tower is round.
5. The young man stands before heavy double wood doors braced with wrought-iron, flowers on either side of him.
6. The young man pushes the doors open.
7. The young man stands in the doorway of a dimly lit, large, sparsely furnished room.
8. A golden hairbrush sits atop a rough table of coarse-grained wood.
9. The young man examines the hairbrush, before placing it inside his saddlebag.
10. The young man also steals a book that is on the same table.
11. A tendril of hair ascends into the air.

Text: Leeft een Prinses. . .

Text (translated); Lives a Princess. . .

12. The young man holds a candlestick aloft; Rapunzel (not shown) snares it with a strand of her hair and yanks it from the young man;'s grasp; he stares at his empty left hand, as her hair snakes first around the wrist of his right hand and then around his left wrist; another strand of her hair wraps his neck; he pushes her hair aside.
13. Rapunzel (still not shown) pulls the young man, upside-down, toward the ceiling, her hair wrapped around his lower leg.
14. The young man's boot is pulled off, and he falls.
15. The young man seizes Rapunzel's hair.
16. His boot, held by a strand of Rapunzel's hair—she herself still has not been shown—kicks the young man in the back of his head.
17. The fallen young man is dragged backward by a strand of Rapunzel's hair.

Text: Anders dan aldie anderes. . .

Text (translated): Unlike any other. . .

18. The young man is shocked to find himself bound, by the princess' hair, to a sturdy chair.
19. The young man gazes down at a length of hair on the floor, following it with his eyes, to a woman's feet.
20. The princess, Rapunzel, seen for the first time, at a distance, stands across the room, in profile, facing her captive.
21. Rapunzel approaches the young man.
22. The young man flirts with her.
23. Rapunzel acts as if she may strike the young man with the frying pan she holds.
24. A lizard, perched on her shoulder, makes a suggestion to her.
25. The youth, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below; his chair is attached to Rapunzel's hair.

Text: Walt Disney presenteert. . .

Text (translated): Walt Disney presents. . .

26. The young man, his horse beside him, stands at the bottom of the tower, appealing to Rapunzel to let down her hair.
27. The young man is buried in an avalanche of her hair. The horse looks astonished, then laughs (a horse laugh).

Text: Disney – Rapunzel

28. The young man stands before the base of a great, wide tree.
29. Rapunzel swings around the tree, on her hair.

Text: Binnenkort in de bioscoop – Ook in Disney 3D

Text (translated: Coming soon – In Disney 3D

http://www.slashfilm.com/international-teaser-for-disneys-tangled-has-some-extended-footage/

Identify the emphasis of each trailer; both the graphics and the text are important to consider, but the text, especially, indicates the significance of the overall patterns of suggestions and themes.

Here is a consideration of the U. S. trailer:

• In the U. S., the movie was released under the title Tangled.
• The U. S. trailer begins by emphasizing the young man's character (“Fearless,” “Dangerous,” “Greatest Thief,” “Seen It All”) while the action provides a context for his appearance: he escapes prison guards, whom he flees, coming upon Rapunzel's tower in the forest's valley.
• The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery.
• The flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman.
• The text then identifies Rapunzel's plight: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.”
• The test also implies that the young man and Rapunzel will develop a relationship with one another, becoming entangled; the same text also suggests that they are likely to become lovers, since the word “tangled,” which, in the U. S. release of the film, is the movie's title, is a metaphor that suggests sexual relations, as, indeed, the shape of the strands of Rapunzel's hair, as shown in some of the promotional posters for the movie, indicates:

• Pay particular attention to any group of words that begins with “but,” because “but” indicates a contrast; often, in the synopsis of a narrative or a drama, “but” is used to introduce the major complication of the conflict. In the U. S. trailer, “but” introduces the clause, “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief/ Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.” Not only does this text characterize the young man as an accomplished thief, but it also suggests that he will encounter difficulty as the result of his having chosen the tower in which to hide from his pursuers—and, sure enough, difficulty soon appears in the person of the princess, Rapunzel, who lives in the tower. How, exactly, she will be troublesome is unknown to viewers, so the text creates suspense.

Here is a consideration of The Netherlands' version of the international trailer:

• Internationally, the movie was released under the title Rapunzel.
• The trailer begins in media res (in the middle of the action), without any preliminary exposition, so the viewer has no context in which to interpret the action.
• Again, the flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman.
• The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery.
• The young man is shown to be a thief when he steals the hairbrush and the book.
• The remainder of the international trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such differences as the omission of the such playful sequences of action as the incidents that show the young man and his horse falling with the tree limb; the explanation as to why Rapunzel is in the tower (“She's Been Grounded”); the young man's return to the tower; Rapunzel's joining him, as she escapes from the tower using her hair to swing herself to the ground; and the lizard's sticking its tongue in the young man's ear and snaps it back, surprising him and causing Rapunzel to laugh.

Now, use these insights to detect and explain the differences between the two trailers:

• Unlike the U. S. trailer, which begins by emphasizing the young man's character, the international trailer emphasizes the story's action, thrusting the viewer right into the middle of the film's story.
• The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery.
• Characterization is more implicit and more briefly suggested in the international trailer than it is in the U. S. trailer; in the latter, characterization is explicit, repeated, and almost heavy-handed.
• The remainder of the international trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such The emphasis of the international trailer is upon action and friendship, while the emphasis of the U. S. trailer is upon character and sex. In addition, much of the humor in the U. S. trailer does not appear in the international trailer, which takes a more serious tone.
• It seems that Disney executives rely upon European viewers' familiarity with the fairy tale of Rapunzel and marketed the movie with this title to appeal to their fondness of the story, whereas, it seems, the executives did not rely upon U. S. viewers' familiarity with the folktale and opted to give it a title which focuses, instead, upon the relationship, social and sexual, that is implied by the term “tangled”: to become “entangled” romantically with another person is to become involved in a relationship with him or her that has both social and sexual connotations.

Use the results of your analyses to write a thesis-driven essay in which you explain how and why the company—in this example, Walt Disney—uses different movie trailers to promote the same film—in this example, Tangled—to a domestic (U. S.) market and an international (The Netherlands) market.

Here is an example of such an essay:

FINAL DRAFT OF ESSAY

Untangling Tangled's Domestic and International Trailers

by Gary Pullman

      To promote its feature-length animated film, Tangled, the Walt Disney Company uses a different trailer in the United States than the trailers that it employs in overseas markets. The differences in the structure, contents, and emphases of these trailers align with the variations that the company's executives perceive concerning the backgrounds and interests of the film's domestic and foreign audiences, which the respective trailers target. These differences in anticipated audience response are attributable to the differences in the audience's respective national cultures. Two such trailers, one directed at a U. S. audience and the other at an overseas audience, illustrate the cultural differences between these audiences with respect, in particular, to their dominant dramatic interests, narrative structure, and emotional responses.

      Both Disney trailers use text to divide the action into parts, thereby creating the sense that the trailers are themselves unified stories, rather than merely images which preview the film the trailers represent. The U. S. trailer has what might be labeled a prologue, five acts, and an epilogue. The text which divides each part appears after, rather than before, the action that the text characterizes, as if the text were summarizing the gist of the action.

     The U. S. trailer exhibits several characteristics that relate to U. S. citizens' cultural values. In the U. S., the movie was released under the title Tangled. The U. S. trailer begins by emphasizing the young man's character (“Fearless,” “Dangerous,” “Greatest Thief,” “Seen It All”), while the action provides a context for his appearance: he escapes prison guards, whom he flees, coming upon Rapunzel's tower in the forest's valley. The emphasis upon character is important to the U. S. audience because, both historically and culturally, American moviegoers have long displayed an interest in the subjective experiences of fictional personages, intrigued by their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings as much as by their more overt actions. In addition, the thief's "bad boy" qualities are emphasized in the U. S. trailer because some girls and young women are attracted by aggressive, virile men of questionable integrity whom, they feel they can domesticate or change. The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery. The flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman. Although such a point of view may be considered to be sexist by some, it is grounded in the perspective that considers the beautification of one's domicile to be more of a feminine concern than a masculine one. Aware of this view, audience members are apt to expect that the thief will encounter a female, rather than a male, resident. This anticipation, on the part of adult members of the film's potential audience, suggests the possibility of a romantic relationship between the trespasser and the tower's resident. The text then identifies Rapunzel's plight: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.” The term "Grounded," obviously, is addressed to young viewers, for it is only adolescents and younger children who are "grounded" by authorities; adults would be fined or imprisoned for violating laws. The U. S. trailer appeals to both children and adults, the latter of whom are likely to be the former's parents, who would take them to see the movie.The text also implies that the young man and Rapunzel will develop a relationship with one another, becoming entangled; the same text also suggests that they are likely to become lovers, since the word “tangled” may be used as a metaphor for sexual relations. The text that begins with “but” introduces the major complication of the conflict: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief/ Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.” Not only does this text characterize the young man as an accomplished thief, but it also suggests that he will encounter difficulty as the result of his having chosen the tower in which to hide from his pursuers—and, sure enough, difficulty soon appears in the person of the princess, Rapunzel, who lives in the tower. How, exactly, she will be troublesome is unknown to viewers, so the text creates suspense.

     The differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown in The Netherlands are significant. After a long shot (called an “establishing shot” in cinematic terms) of the tower in the mountain-ringed valley, the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands begins with the action that is presented in part three of the U. S. trailer. With minor, but important differences, the sequence of incidents is otherwise nearly identical. Therefore, only these differences need to be pointed out. The establishing shot ends with a display of elliptical text, in Dutch”: “In een ver koninkrijk. . .,” which means “In a distant realm. . . .”

     Upon trespassing upon the princess' abode, the thief spies a golden hairbrush on a rough table of coarse-grained wood, and, after examining it, he places the hairbrush inside his saddlebag, before stealing a container from the same table. Text appears on the screen, supplying the predicate that completes the meaning of the previously displayed text: “Leeft een Prinses. . .” (“Lives a Princess. . .”).

     The same struggle as occurs in the U. S. trailer between the tower's resident and her trespasser now takes, in The Netherlands trailer, between Rapunzel and her intruder, after which, victorious, the princess uses her hair to drag the fallen young man backward, across the floor. As usual, text closes this segment of action, commenting, this time, upon the previously displayed captions: “Anders dan aldie anderes. . .” (“Unlike any other. . .”). Together, this text and the previous texts form a running sentence, which, combined, reads, “In a distant realm lives a princess unlike any other.”

      The action now proceeds as it does in the U. S. trailer, and the youth, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to Rapunzel's hair. More text appears on the screen: “Walt Disney presenteert. . . (“Walt Disney presents. . .”).

      The Netherlands trailer then ends with the sequence of action which shows the thief standing beside his horse, appealing to Rapunzel, who is in the house atop the tower; he is buried in an avalanche of hair, and the horse, looking astonished, laughs. Thus, The Netherlands' trailer skips all the action after the fall of the chair that the U. S. trailer includes, ending with the display of the film's title, which is not Tangled, but Rapunzel, which, further text announces, is “Binnenkort in de bioscoop – Ook in Disney 3D” (“Coming soon – In Disney 3D”).

     Some of the major differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands are the film's title (Tangled in the U. S., Rapunzel overseas); a lengthy prologue, in the U. S. trailer, preceding the thief's arrival at Rapunzel's tower, but the beginning of the action in the foreign trailer in media res (in the middle of the action), without any preliminary exposition, so that the viewer has no context by which to interpret the action; and the showing, several times, in the U. S. trailer, the fact that the young man is a criminal, before the text itself announces, explicitly, that he is a thief, but, in The Netherlands' trailer, the indication that the young man is a thief only when he steals the hairbrush and the container. The remainder of The Netherlands' trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such differences, in the former, as the omission, in the U. S. trailer, of such playful sequences of action as the incidents that show the young man and his horse falling with the tree limb; the explanation as to why Rapunzel is in the tower (“She's Been Grounded”); the young man's return to the tower; Rapunzel's joining him, as she escapes from the tower by using her hair to swing herself to the ground; and the lizard's sticking its tongue into the young man's ear and snapping it back, which surprises him and causes Rapunzel to laugh.

     What can be learned from analyzing these differences between the ways in which the U. S. trailer and the foreign trailer promote the same film? Unlike the U. S. trailer, which begins by emphasizing the young man's character, the international trailer emphasizes the story's action, thrusting the viewer right into the middle of the film's story. Characterization is more implicit and more briefly suggested in the international trailer than it is in the U. S. trailer; in the latter, characterization is explicit, repeated, and almost heavy-handed. The emphasis of the international trailer is upon action and friendship, while the emphasis of the U. S. trailer is upon character and romance. In addition, much of the humor in the U. S. trailer does not appear in the international trailer, which takes a more serious tone. It seems that Disney executives, relying upon European viewers' familiarity with the fairy tale of “Rapunzel,” marketed the movie with this title to appeal to their fondness for the story, whereas, these executives did not rely upon U. S. viewers' familiarity with the folktale and opted to give it a title which focuses, instead, upon the relationship, social and romantic, between the thief and the princess that is implied by the term “tangled”: to become “entangled” romantically with another person is to become involved in a relationship with him or her that has both social and sexual connotations. In short, in The Netherlands, the film is sold as an adventure story with folkloric elements; in the U. S., it is promoted as an adventurous, but humorous, love story, or “romcom.” The different treatments, as exhibited in these two trailers, reflect the perceptions of the Disney Company's executives as to which sets of cultural values in the U. S. and abroad are likely to engage potential audiences for their animated film, Tangled—or is it Rapunzel?

THIRD DRAFT OF THE ESSAY

Note: The green text was added to explain the claims which were made immediately before the added green text.

Untangling Tangled's Domestic and International Trailers

by Gary Pullman

      To promote its feature-length animated film, Tangled, the Walt Disney Company uses a different trailer in the United States than the trailers that it employs in overseas markets. The differences in the structure, contents, and emphases of these trailers align with the variations that the company's executives perceive concerning the backgrounds and interests of the film's domestic and foreign audiences, which the respective trailers target. These differences in anticipated audience response are attributable to the differences in the audience's respective national cultures. Two such trailers, one directed at a U. S. audience and the other at an overseas audience, illustrate the cultural differences between these audiences with respect, in particular, to their dominant dramatic interests, narrative structure, and emotional responses.

      Both Disney trailers use text to divide the action into parts, thereby creating the sense that the trailers are themselves unified stories, rather than merely images which preview the film the trailers represent. The U. S. trailer has what might be labeled a prologue, five acts, and an epilogue. The text which divides each part appears after, rather than before, the action that the text characterizes, as if the text were summarizing the gist of the action.

     The U. S. trailer exhibits several characteristics that relate to U. S. citizens' cultural values. In the U. S., the movie was released under the title Tangled. The U. S. trailer begins by emphasizing the young man's character (“Fearless,” “Dangerous,” “Greatest Thief,” “Seen It All”), while the action provides a context for his appearance: he escapes prison guards, whom he flees, coming upon Rapunzel's tower in the forest's valley. The emphasis upon character is important to the U. S. audience because, both historically and culturally, American moviegoers have long displayed an interest in the subjective experiences of fictional personages, intrigued by their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings as much as by their more overt actions. In addition, the thief's "bad boy" qualities are emphasized in the U. S. trailer because some girls and young women are attracted by aggressive, virile men of questionable integrity whom, they feel they can domesticate or change. The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery. The flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman. Although such a point of view may be considered to be sexist by some, it is grounded in the perspective that considers the beautification of one's domicile to be more of a feminine concern than a masculine one. Aware of this view, audience members are apt to expect that the thief will encounter a female, rather than a male, resident. This anticipation, on the part of adult members of the film's potential audience, suggests the possibility of a romantic relationship between the trespasser and the tower's resident. The text then identifies Rapunzel's plight: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.” The term "Grounded," obviously, is addressed to young viewers, for it is only adolescents and younger children who are "grounded" by authorities; adults would be fined or imprisoned for violating laws. The U. S. trailer appeals to both children and adults, the latter of whom are likely to be the former's parents, who would take them to see the movie.The text also implies that the young man and Rapunzel will develop a relationship with one another, becoming entangled; the same text also suggests that they are likely to become lovers, since the word “tangled” may be used as a metaphor for sexual relations. The text that begins with “but” introduces the major complication of the conflict: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief/ Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.” Not only does this text characterize the young man as an accomplished thief, but it also suggests that he will encounter difficulty as the result of his having chosen the tower in which to hide from his pursuers—and, sure enough, difficulty soon appears in the person of the princess, Rapunzel, who lives in the tower. How, exactly, she will be troublesome is unknown to viewers, so the text creates suspense.

     The differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown in The Netherlands are significant. After a long shot (called an “establishing shot” in cinematic terms) of the tower in the mountain-ringed valley, the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands begins with the action that is presented in part three of the U. S. trailer. With minor, but important differences, the sequence of incidents is otherwise nearly identical. Therefore, only these differences need to be pointed out. The establishing shot ends with a display of elliptical text, in Dutch”: “In een ver koninkrijk. . .,” which means “In a distant realm. . . .”

     Upon trespassing upon the princess' abode, the thief spies a golden hairbrush on a rough table of coarse-grained wood, and, after examining it, he places the hairbrush inside his saddlebag, before stealing a container from the same table. Text appears on the screen, supplying the predicate that completes the meaning of the previously displayed text: “Leeft een Prinses. . .” (“Lives a Princess. . .”).

     The same struggle as occurs in the U. S. trailer between the tower's resident and her trespasser now takes, in The Netherlands trailer, between Rapunzel and her intruder, after which, victorious, the princess uses her hair to drag the fallen young man backward, across the floor. As usual, text closes this segment of action, commenting, this time, upon the previously displayed captions: “Anders dan aldie anderes. . .” (“Unlike any other. . .”). Together, this text and the previous texts form a running sentence, which, combined, reads, “In a distant realm lives a princess unlike any other.”

      The action now proceeds as it does in the U. S. trailer, and the youth, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to Rapunzel's hair. More text appears on the screen: “Walt Disney presenteert. . . (“Walt Disney presents. . .”).

      The Netherlands trailer then ends with the sequence of action which shows the thief standing beside his horse, appealing to Rapunzel, who is in the house atop the tower; he is buried in an avalanche of hair, and the horse, looking astonished, laughs. Thus, The Netherlands' trailer skips all the action after the fall of the chair that the U. S. trailer includes, ending with the display of the film's title, which is not Tangled, but Rapunzel, which, further text announces, is “Binnenkort in de bioscoop – Ook in Disney 3D” (“Coming soon – In Disney 3D”).

     Some of the major differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands are the film's title (Tangled in the U. S., Rapunzel overseas); a lengthy prologue, in the U. S. trailer, preceding the thief's arrival at Rapunzel's tower, but the beginning of the action in the foreign trailer in media res (in the middle of the action), without any preliminary exposition, so that the viewer has no context by which to interpret the action; and the showing, several times, in the U. S. trailer, the fact that the young man is a criminal, before the text itself announces, explicitly, that he is a thief, but, in The Netherlands' trailer, the indication that the young man is a thief only when he steals the hairbrush and the container. The remainder of The Netherlands' trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such differences, in the former, as the omission, in the U. S. trailer, of such playful sequences of action as the incidents that show the young man and his horse falling with the tree limb; the explanation as to why Rapunzel is in the tower (“She's Been Grounded”); the young man's return to the tower; Rapunzel's joining him, as she escapes from the tower by using her hair to swing herself to the ground; and the lizard's sticking its tongue into the young man's ear and snapping it back, which surprises him and causes Rapunzel to laugh.

     What can be learned from analyzing these differences between the ways in which the U. S. trailer and the foreign trailer promote the same film? Unlike the U. S. trailer, which begins by emphasizing the young man's character, the international trailer emphasizes the story's action, thrusting the viewer right into the middle of the film's story. Characterization is more implicit and more briefly suggested in the international trailer than it is in the U. S. trailer; in the latter, characterization is explicit, repeated, and almost heavy-handed. The emphasis of the international trailer is upon action and friendship, while the emphasis of the U. S. trailer is upon character and romance. In addition, much of the humor in the U. S. trailer does not appear in the international trailer, which takes a more serious tone. It seems that Disney executives, relying upon European viewers' familiarity with the fairy tale of “Rapunzel,” marketed the movie with this title to appeal to their fondness for the story, whereas, these executives did not rely upon U. S. viewers' familiarity with the folktale and opted to give it a title which focuses, instead, upon the relationship, social and romantic, between the thief and the princess that is implied by the term “tangled”: to become “entangled” romantically with another person is to become involved in a relationship with him or her that has both social and sexual connotations. In short, in The Netherlands, the film is sold as an adventure story with folkloric elements; in the U. S., it is promoted as an adventurous, but humorous, love story, or “romcom.” The different treatments, as exhibited in these two trailers, reflect the perceptions of the Disney Company's executives as to which sets of cultural values in the U. S. and abroad are likely to engage potential audiences for their animated film, Tangled—or is it Rapunzel?

SECOND DRAFT OF THE ESSAY

Note: The lined-out text was was deleted because it was a summarization of the trailer's action that proved both too detailed and unnecessary to the thesis' claims--that is, the lined-out was irrelevant.

Untangling Tangled's Domestic and International Trailers

by Gary Pullman

      To promote its feature-length animated film, Tangled, the Walt Disney Company uses a different trailer in the United States than the trailers that it employs in overseas markets. The differences in the structure, contents, and emphases of these trailers align with the variations that the company's executives perceive concerning the backgrounds and interests of the film's domestic and foreign audiences, which the respective trailers target. These differences in anticipated audience response are attributable to the differences in the audience's respective national cultures. Two such trailers, one directed at a U. S. audience and the other at an overseas audience, illustrate the cultural differences between these audiences with respect, in particular, to their dominant dramatic interests, narrative structure, and emotional responses.

      Both Disney trailers use text to divide the action into parts, thereby creating the sense that the trailers are themselves unified stories, rather than merely images which preview the film the trailers represent. The U. S. trailer has what might be labeled a prologue, five acts, and an epilogue. The text which divides each part appears after, rather than before, the action that the text characterizes, as if the text were summarizing the gist of the action.

      In the prologue, a young man escapes the guards who lead him into a dungeon. After his escape, the text, “He's Fearless” appears on the screen.

Next, he rides a galloping white horse through a dense forest, mounted soldiers in close pursuit of him. As he approaches a tree, he sees a wanted poster bearing his likeness. The poster is shot full of arrows, and its caption reads, “WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE.” Plucking the poster from the tree, he reads it before holding it up, toward the audience. The poster bears the likeness of a different, but similar-looking, fugitive, and, at the bottom of the poster, under the words “DEAD OR ALIVE,” appears the name “Flynn Rider.” Text appears on the screen, dividing this part of the action from that which follows: “He's Dangerous.”

      Two large men open a saddlebag. Finding it empty, they look up. In a branch, overhead, the young man, grinning, twirls a tiara on his fingertip. One of the large men stands upon the other man's shoulders, presumably in an effort to reach the young man whom they pursue. On foot, the young man flees through the forest. He leaps from a rock, back onto the trail he follows. The next text is elliptical, beginning a sentence which, the viewer anticipates, will be concluded later. In addition to identifying the young man as a thief, this text also begins with the conjunction “but,” introducing a contrast. Since the first part of the trailer shows the young man escaping his captors, “but” suggests that his escape may come to an untimely end as he is caught again: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief. . . .”

      A fist jams an arrow into the side of a tower, and the young man climbs toward the round house at its top. Text, again, transitions between the previous and the next segment of action, as the elliptical statement, begun with the previous text, “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief,” is now completed with the words, “Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.”

      The “place to hide,” obviously is the house atop the tower. The young thief invades the house, gets his bearings, and, as he opens his saddlebag, is struck from behind by a frying pan and knocked unconscious. Lying on the floor, he opens his eyes. Unseen by him, a tendril of hair ascends into the air. The young man rises from the floor and seizes a candlestick from a table. As he holds it aloft; a strand of hair yanks it from his grasp. A struggle ensues during which, kicked in the head by his own boot, which is held in strands of hair, he is dragged backward by more strands of the same hair. He stares, eyes wide, shocked to find himself bound, by the hair that has attacked him, to a sturdy chair. He sees a length of the same hair lying on the floor and follows it with his eyes, to a woman's feet. His attacker, seen for the first time, at a distance, stands across the room, in profile, facing her captive. She approaches the thief, and he flirts with her. She is tempted to strike him with the frying pan she holds, but, instead, acting upon the advice of the lizard perched upon her shoulder, she seems to reconsider hitting the young man, and the thief, still tied to the chair, which she has apparently thrown from the tower, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to still more of the woman's hair. This segment shows why the tower proved the “wrong place” for him to hide. The woman is more than his match. He has escaped guards and soldiers, but he was not able to defeat her. Next, text appears on the screen, suggesting that, despite the thief's youth, he is a man of experience who has “Seen It All.”

      However, this contention seems ironic, because both the thief and his horse are terrified by what happens next. In a tree branch, the young man kneels besides his horse. The limb shakes, and leaves fall; then, the branch, which grows over the edge of a sheer cliff, gives way, the young man and his horse falling. Both look terrified as the wind rushes past their faces. Despite his past experiences, the thief has not been in as dangerous a predicament as the one into which the young woman in the tower has delivered him. The text now shifts its focus from the thief to the young woman, explaining that she is as much a prisoner of the house atop the tower as the young man was a prisoner of the guards who led him into a dungeon at the beginning of the trailer. However, her fate is worse than his: he has managed to escape his captors, while, the text informs viewers, her incarceration is lifelong: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.”

      Following the appearance of this caption, the thief climbs back up the wall of the tower, but its occupant surprises him by swinging down, past him, on her hair, and, as the young man stands before the base of a huge tree, she swings around the him, using her hair as if it were a vine or a rope. Later, in the tower, the young woman's lizard sticks its tongue into the young man's ear and then snaps it back, surprising the youth, and the woman laughs. This segment of the movie shows that the thief has joined his fate to hers and suggests that they have developed a friendship with one another. “This Fall,” a new display of text reads, “It Takes Two To Get. . . Tangled.”

The young man, his horse beside him, stands at the bottom of the tower, appealing to its occupant. He is buried in an avalanche of her hair while his horse, astonished, laughs. The thief and the princess have become entangled in a friendship that seems likely to lead to intimacy.

      The U. S. trailer exhibits several characteristics that relate to U. S. citizens' cultural values. In the U. S., the movie was released under the title Tangled. The U. S. trailer begins by emphasizing the young man's character (“Fearless,” “Dangerous,” “Greatest Thief,” “Seen It All”), while the action provides a context for his appearance: he escapes prison guards, whom he flees, coming upon Rapunzel's tower in the forest's valley. The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery. The flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman. The text then identifies Rapunzel's plight: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.” The test also implies that the young man and Rapunzel will develop a relationship with one another, becoming entangled; the same text also suggests that they are likely to become lovers, since the word “tangled” may be used as a metaphor for sexual relations. The text that begins with “but” introduces the major complication of the conflict: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief/ Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.” Not only does this text characterize the young man as an accomplished thief, but it also suggests that he will encounter difficulty as the result of his having chosen the tower in which to hide from his pursuers—and, sure enough, difficulty soon appears in the person of the princess, Rapunzel, who lives in the tower. How, exactly, she will be troublesome is unknown to viewers, so the text creates suspense.

     The differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown in The Netherlands are significant. After a long shot (called an “establishing shot” in cinematic terms) of the tower in the mountain-ringed valley, the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands begins with the action that is presented in part three of the U. S. trailer. With minor, but important differences, the sequence of incidents is otherwise nearly identical. Therefore, only these differences need to be pointed out. The establishing shot ends with a display of elliptical text, in Dutch”: “In een ver koninkrijk. . .,” which means “In a distant realm. . . .”

     Upon trespassing upon the princess' abode, the thief spies a golden hairbrush on a rough table of coarse-grained wood, and, after examining it, he places the hairbrush inside his saddlebag, before stealing a book from the same table. Text appears on the screen, supplying the predicate that completes the meaning of the previously displayed text: “Leeft een Prinses. . .” (“Lives a Princess. . .”).

     The same struggle as occurs in the U. S. trailer between the tower's resident and her trespasser now takes, in The Netherlands trailer, between Rapunzel and her intruder, after which, victorious, the princess uses her hair to drag the fallen young man backward, across the floor. As usual, text closes this segment of action, commenting, this time, upon the previously displayed captions: “Anders dan aldie anderes. . .” (“Unlike any other. . .”). Together, this text and the previous texts form a running sentence, which, combined, reads, “In a distant realm lives a princess unlike any other.”

The action now proceeds as it does in the U. S. trailer, and the youth, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to Rapunzel's hair. More text appears on the screen: “Walt Disney presenteert. . . (“Walt Disney presents. . .”).

     The Netherlands trailer then ends with the sequence of action which shows the thief standing beside his horse, appealing to Rapunzel, who is in the house atop the tower; he is buried in an avalanche of hair, and the horse, looking astonished, laughs. Thus, The Netherlands' trailer skips all the action after the fall of the chair that the U. S. trailer includes, ending with the display of the film's title, which is not Tangled, but Rapunzel, which, further text announces, is “Binnenkort in de bioscoop – Ook in Disney 3D” (“Coming soon – In Disney 3D”).

      Some of the major differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands are the film's title (Tangled in the U. S., Rapunzel overseas); a lengthy prologue, in the U. S. trailer, preceding the thief's arrival at Rapunzel's tower, but the beginning of the action in the foreign trailer in media res (in the middle of the action), without any preliminary exposition, so that the viewer has no context by which to interpret the action; and the showing, several times, in the U. S. trailer, the fact that the young man is a criminal, before the text itself announces, explicitly, that he is a thief, but, in The Netherlands' trailer, the indication that the young man is a thief only when he steals the hairbrush and the book. The remainder of The Netherlands' trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such differences, in the former, as the omission, in the U. S. trailer, of such playful sequences of action as the incidents that show the young man and his horse falling with the tree limb; the explanation as to why Rapunzel is in the tower (“She's Been Grounded”); the young man's return to the tower; Rapunzel's joining him, as she escapes from the tower by using her hair to swing herself to the ground; and the lizard's sticking its tongue into the young man's ear and snapping it back, which surprises him and causes Rapunzel to laugh.

      What can be learned from analyzing these differences between the ways in which the U. S. trailer and the foreign trailer promote the same film? Unlike the U. S. trailer, which begins by emphasizing the young man's character, the international trailer emphasizes the story's action, thrusting the viewer right into the middle of the film's story. Characterization is more implicit and more briefly suggested in the international trailer than it is in the U. S. trailer; in the latter, characterization is explicit, repeated, and almost heavy-handed. The emphasis of the international trailer is upon action and friendship, while the emphasis of the U. S. trailer is upon character and romance. In addition, much of the humor in the U. S. trailer does not appear in the international trailer, which takes a more serious tone. It seems that Disney executives, relying upon European viewers' familiarity with the fairy tale of “Rapunzel,” marketed the movie with this title to appeal to their fondness of the story, whereas, these executives did not rely upon U. S. viewers' familiarity with the folktale and opted to give it a title which focuses, instead, upon the relationship, social and romantic, between the thief and the princess that is implied by the term “tangled”: to become “entangled” romantically with another person is to become involved in a relationship with him or her that has both social and sexual connotations. In short, in The Netherlands, the film is sold as an adventure story with folkloric elements; in the U. S., it is promoted as an adventurous, but humorous, love story, or “romcom.” The different treatments, as exhibited in these two trailers, reflect the perceptions of the Disney Company's executives as to which sets of cultural values in the U. S. and abroad are likely to engage potential audiences for their animated film, Tangled—or is it Rapunzel?

FIRST DRAFT OF THE ESSAY

Untangling Tangled's Domestic and International Trailers

by Gary Pullman

      To promote its feature-length animated film, Tangled, the Walt Disney Company uses a different trailer in the United States than the trailers that it employs in overseas markets. The differences in the structure, contents, and emphases of these trailers align with the variations that the company's executives perceive concerning the backgrounds and interests of the film's domestic and foreign audiences, which the respective trailers target. These differences in anticipated audience response are attributable to the differences in the audience's respective national cultures. Two such trailers, one directed at a U. S. audience and the other at an overseas audience, illustrate the cultural differences between these audiences with respect, in particular, to their dominant dramatic interests, narrative structure, and emotional responses.

      Both Disney trailers use text to divide the action into parts, thereby creating the sense that the trailers are themselves unified stories, rather than merely images which preview the film the trailers represent. The U. S. trailer has what might be labeled a prologue, five acts, and an epilogue. The text which divides each part appears after, rather than before, the action that the text characterizes, as if the text were summarizing the gist of the action.

In the prologue, a young man escapes the guards who lead him into a dungeon. After his escape, the text, “He's Fearless” appears on the screen.

      Next, he rides a galloping white horse through a dense forest, mounted soldiers in close pursuit of him. As he approaches a tree, he sees a wanted poster bearing his likeness. The poster is shot full of arrows, and its caption reads, “WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE.” Plucking the poster from the tree, he reads it before holding it up, toward the audience. The poster bears the likeness of a different, but similar-looking, fugitive, and, at the bottom of the poster, under the words “DEAD OR ALIVE,” appears the name “Flynn Rider.” Text appears on the screen, dividing this part of the action from that which follows: “He's Dangerous.”

      Two large men open a saddlebag. Finding it empty, they look up. In a branch, overhead, the young man, grinning, twirls a tiara on his fingertip. One of the large men stands upon the other man's shoulders, presumably in an effort to reach the young man whom they pursue. On foot, the young man flees through the forest. He leaps from a rock, back onto the trail he follows. The next text is elliptical, beginning a sentence which, the viewer anticipates, will be concluded later. In addition to identifying the young man as a thief, this text also begins with the conjunction “but,” introducing a contrast. Since the first part of the trailer shows the young man escaping his captors, “but” suggests that his escape may come to an untimely end as he is caught again: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief. . . .”

      A fist jams an arrow into the side of a tower, and the young man climbs toward the round house at its top. Text, again, transitions between the previous and the next segment of action, as the elliptical statement, begun with the previous text, “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief,” is now completed with the words, “Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.”

     The “place to hide,” obviously is the house atop the tower. The young thief invades the house, gets his bearings, and, as he opens his saddlebag, is struck from behind by a frying pan and knocked unconscious. Lying on the floor, he opens his eyes. Unseen by him, a tendril of hair ascends into the air. The young man rises from the floor and seizes a candlestick from a table. As he holds it aloft; a strand of hair yanks it from his grasp. A struggle ensues during which, kicked in the head by his own boot, which is held in strands of hair, he is dragged backward by more strands of the same hair. He stares, eyes wide, shocked to find himself bound, by the hair that has attacked him, to a sturdy chair. He sees a length of the same hair lying on the floor and follows it with his eyes, to a woman's feet. His attacker, seen for the first time, at a distance, stands across the room, in profile, facing her captive. She approaches the thief, and he flirts with her. She is tempted to strike him with the frying pan she holds, but, instead, acting upon the advice of the lizard perched upon her shoulder, she seems to reconsider hitting the young man, and the thief, still tied to the chair, which she has apparently thrown from the tower, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to still more of the woman's hair. This segment shows why the tower proved the “wrong place” for him to hide. The woman is more than his match. He has escaped guards and soldiers, but he was not able to defeat her. Next, text appears on the screen, suggesting that, despite the thief's youth, he is a man of experience who has “Seen It All.”

      However, this contention seems ironic, because both the thief and his horse are terrified by what happens next. In a tree branch, the young man kneels besides his horse. The limb shakes, and leaves fall; then, the branch, which grows over the edge of a sheer cliff, gives way, the young man and his horse falling. Both look terrified as the wind rushes past their faces. Despite his past experiences, the thief has not been in as dangerous a predicament as the one into which the young woman in the tower has delivered him. The text now shifts its focus from the thief to the young woman, explaining that she is as much a prisoner of the house atop the tower as the young man was a prisoner of the guards who led him into a dungeon at the beginning of the trailer. However, her fate is worse than his: he has managed to escape his captors, while, the text informs viewers, her incarceration is lifelong: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.”

     Following the appearance of this caption, the thief climbs back up the wall of the tower, but its occupant surprises him by swinging down, past him, on her hair, and, as the young man stands before the base of a huge tree, she swings around the him, using her hair as if it were a vine or a rope. Later, in the tower, the young woman's lizard sticks its tongue into the young man's ear and then snaps it back, surprising the youth, and the woman laughs. This segment of the movie shows that the thief has joined his fate to hers and suggests that they have developed a friendship with one another. “This Fall,” a new display of text reads, “It Takes Two To Get. . . Tangled.”

     The young man, his horse beside him, stands at the bottom of the tower, appealing to its occupant. He is buried in an avalanche of her hair while his horse, astonished, laughs. The thief and the princess have become entangled in a friendship that seems likely to lead to intimacy.

     The U. S. trailer exhibits several characteristics that relate to U. S. citizens' cultural values. In the U. S., the movie was released under the title Tangled. The U. S. trailer begins by emphasizing the young man's character (“Fearless,” “Dangerous,” “Greatest Thief,” “Seen It All”), while the action provides a context for his appearance: he escapes prison guards, whom he flees, coming upon Rapunzel's tower in the forest's valley. The dimly lit interior of the house is somewhat disorienting and suggests mystery. The flowers outside the house atop the tower could be intended to suggest that the house's occupant is a woman. The text then identifies Rapunzel's plight: “She's Been Grounded Like. . . FOREVER.” The test also implies that the young man and Rapunzel will develop a relationship with one another, becoming entangled; the same text also suggests that they are likely to become lovers, since the word “tangled” may be used as a metaphor for sexual relations. The text that begins with “but” introduces the major complication of the conflict: “But the Kingdom's Greatest Thief/ Just Picked The Wrong Place to Hide.” Not only does this text characterize the young man as an accomplished thief, but it also suggests that he will encounter difficulty as the result of his having chosen the tower in which to hide from his pursuers—and, sure enough, difficulty soon appears in the person of the princess, Rapunzel, who lives in the tower. How, exactly, she will be troublesome is unknown to viewers, so the text creates suspense.

     The differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown in The Netherlands are significant. After a long shot (called an “establishing shot” in cinematic terms) of the tower in the mountain-ringed valley, the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands begins with the action that is presented in part three of the U. S. trailer. With minor, but important differences, the sequence of incidents is otherwise nearly identical. Therefore, only these differences need to be pointed out. The establishing shot ends with a display of elliptical text, in Dutch”: “In een ver koninkrijk. . .,” which means “In a distant realm. . . .”

     Upon trespassing upon the princess' abode, the thief spies a golden hairbrush on a rough table of coarse-grained wood, and, after examining it, he places the hairbrush inside his saddlebag, before stealing a book from the same table. Text appears on the screen, supplying the predicate that completes the meaning of the previously displayed text: “Leeft een Prinses. . .” (“Lives a Princess. . .”).

     The same struggle as occurs in the U. S. trailer between the tower's resident and her trespasser now takes, in The Netherlands trailer, between Rapunzel and her intruder, after which, victorious, the princess uses her hair to drag the fallen young man backward, across the floor. As usual, text closes this segment of action, commenting, this time, upon the previously displayed captions: “Anders dan aldie anderes. . .” (“Unlike any other. . .”). Together, this text and the previous texts form a running sentence, which, combined, reads, “In a distant realm lives a princess unlike any other.”

     The action now proceeds as it does in the U. S. trailer, and the youth, still tied to the chair by his captor's hair, hurtles toward the ground, far below, his chair attached to Rapunzel's hair. More text appears on the screen: “Walt Disney presenteert. . . (“Walt Disney presents. . .”).

     The Netherlands trailer then ends with the sequence of action which shows the thief standing beside his horse, appealing to Rapunzel, who is in the house atop the tower; he is buried in an avalanche of hair, and the horse, looking astonished, laughs. Thus, The Netherlands' trailer skips all the action after the fall of the chair that the U. S. trailer includes, ending with the display of the film's title, which is not Tangled, but Rapunzel, which, further text announces, is “Binnenkort in de bioscoop – Ook in Disney 3D” (“Coming soon – In Disney 3D”).

     Some of the major differences between the U. S. trailer and the trailer that was shown to audiences in The Netherlands are the film's title (Tangled in the U. S., Rapunzel overseas); a lengthy prologue, in the U. S. trailer, preceding the thief's arrival at Rapunzel's tower, but the beginning of the action in the foreign trailer in media res (in the middle of the action), without any preliminary exposition, so that the viewer has no context by which to interpret the action; and the showing, several times, in the U. S. trailer, the fact that the young man is a criminal, before the text itself announces, explicitly, that he is a thief, but, in The Netherlands' trailer, the indication that the young man is a thief only when he steals the hairbrush and the book. The remainder of The Netherlands' trailer is much like the U. S. trailer, with such differences, in the former, as the omission, in the U. S. trailer, of such playful sequences of action as the incidents that show the young man and his horse falling with the tree limb; the explanation as to why Rapunzel is in the tower (“She's Been Grounded”); the young man's return to the tower; Rapunzel's joining him, as she escapes from the tower by using her hair to swing herself to the ground; and the lizard's sticking its tongue into the young man's ear and snapping it back, which surprises him and causes Rapunzel to laugh.

     What can be learned from analyzing these differences between the ways in which the U. S. trailer and the foreign trailer promote the same film? Unlike the U. S. trailer, which begins by emphasizing the young man's character, the international trailer emphasizes the story's action, thrusting the viewer right into the middle of the film's story. Characterization is more implicit and more briefly suggested in the international trailer than it is in the U. S. trailer; in the latter, characterization is explicit, repeated, and almost heavy-handed. The emphasis of the international trailer is upon action and friendship, while the emphasis of the U. S. trailer is upon character and romance. In addition, much of the humor in the U. S. trailer does not appear in the international trailer, which takes a more serious tone. It seems that Disney executives, relying upon European viewers' familiarity with the fairy tale of “Rapunzel,” marketed the movie with this title to appeal to their fondness of the story, whereas, these executives did not rely upon U. S. viewers' familiarity with the folktale and opted to give it a title which focuses, instead, upon the relationship, social and romantic, between the thief and the princess that is implied by the term “tangled”: to become “entangled” romantically with another person is to become involved in a relationship with him or her that has both social and sexual connotations. In short, in The Netherlands, the film is sold as an adventure story with folkloric elements; in the U. S., it is promoted as an adventurous, but humorous, love story, or “romcom.” The different treatments, as exhibited in these two trailers, reflect the perceptions of the Disney Company's executives as to which sets of cultural values in the U. S. and abroad are likely to engage potential audiences for their animated film, Tangled—or is it Rapunzel?