Review: Tangled: The Series “Pascal’s Story”
This episode is about possibly Tangled: The Series’ strongest character, Pascal, so it’s going to be good. Let’s all believe it’s going to be good.
Spoilers Below
Right away, a helpless, tiny baby Pascal is hunted down and poisoned by an evil cobra. He manages to crawl his way up a tower into safety before losing all his color and shriveling up. An adolescent Rapunzel picks him up. Her hair starts to glow as she sings her song of regeneration and brings back Pascal. On my end, there may have been a tear.
Rapunel’s childhood has never really been explored, probably because it’s too depressing to imagine her stuck in the same room for decades. Pascal becomes her friend, and things aren’t quite so bad. Rapunzel tells him that he’ll always be her best friend.
In the present day, it seems like Eugene, Cassandra, and even Maximus may be edging him out of his spot. Pascal even waits for her at dinner with a three-tiered cake and an empty wine cup, but she never shows. She has too many responsibilities – it’s a big difference from the old days.
My heart breaks for Pascal as he weeps with a purple button and then climbs out the window. He doesn’t have any reason to stay without a best friend in the castle. Rapunzel knows it’s all her fault, and she goes off with Eugene to find him.
Even Maximus tries to help sniff down the castle, but Pascal is far away. He’s out in the forest being trailed by that very same cobra who tried nearly killed him! Cassandra tries to get Rapunzel to call off the search and get back to her princess duties. Rapunzel won’t have any of it – and she also gains a shred of personality while she declares her priorities.
Rapunzel realizes that Pascal must have gone back to the tower to reminisce about the good times. The evil cobra has the same idea. This is also the first time Rapunzel has been back to the tower since escaping. That’s a pretty big deal, returning to the site of years of abuse and entrapment.
Pascal does a brilliant job of defending himself, with a final frying pan assist from Rapunzel. She doesn’t quite apologize, but Rapunzel tells Pascal he will always be her best friend.
It wasn’t too climactic, but there were several good things about this episode: It didn’t follow the same monotonous formula that almost every episode of Tangled does. Rapunzel actually pulled out a new character trait other than naively charming and perfect. And most importantly, more Pascal. Maybe it’s because Pascal can’t speak so he’s unable to resolve conflict with openly heartfelt talks, but he brings a welcome change of pace. Here is the official ranking of core characters on Tangled: The Series:
- Pascal
- Eugene
- Maximus
- Cassandra
- Rapunzel
Actually, if this show were just about Pascal and Eugene I think it would be great. Usually, sidekicks can’t carry their own, but Pascal and proved that’s not true several times. And Eugene’s been carrying this series since the beginning. So even though “Pascal’s Story” wasn’t much to speak of, it’s also nothing to complain about.
SCORE
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