Review: Tangled: the Series “The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth”

Things get spooky at the Snuggly Duckling.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

You know this episode means business when it opens on a creepy closeup of a crow. That’s right! Though it’s barely October, the Tangled crew is giving us an episode filled with Halloween spooks.

When King Frederic snoops through Rapunzel’s diary, he decides his newly-rediscovered daughter could use further secret supervision from the royal guards. (This leads to some funny moments, as the guards are not cut out for spy work.) Raps and Pascal quickly ditch their unwelcome surveillance, hitching a ride to the Snuggly Duckling.

Arriving just in time for ghost- er, date?– stories, Rapunzel and the Captain of the Guard (who just ‘happened’ to show up at the Snuggly Duckling soon after her) learn about the original owner of the tavern when the Captain disturbs an ancient club hanging from the wall. Awakened from her lifeless slumber, the ghost of Ruthless Ruth locks everyone inside the pub, trapping them until morning. Standard-issue ghostly hijinks ensue, including floating objects, villainous laughter, and a possession. (Though Shorty is just as frightening when he isn’t possessed, to be fair.)

Eventually, Rapunzel uncovers the real reason for their entrapment. Ruth, despite being a rabble-rouser, wasn’t all that bad. Her frequent absences weren’t to rampage through town, but to retreat to the hidden songwriting room! Raps help Ruth achieve her shanty-singing dream, despite some unwanted ‘help’ from the Captain.

Our climax comes in musical form with a new song written for the series by Disney legends Alan Menken and Glenn Slator. ‘Listen Up’ is a catchy number, especially once the whole gang joins in. With the song sang, Ruth’s dream is realized and the prisoners are free to go. As morning comes, Rapunzel’s belief in having to work to achieve her own dreams is reaffirmed. However, once she sees how worried the King was, the episode ends with Rapunzel unable to confront her father about how his overprotective actions make her feel.

Our Take:

The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth gives us a ghost story with an unexpected musical twist. Since Rapunzel is our main character, it’s no surprise that the show usually prefers to stay on the sunny side, so getting to venture into horror-lite territory was a fun change of pace. There were a couple of genuinely eerie moments, such as Shorty’s possession and Rapunzel’s discovery of the hidden room. (Of course, there was plenty of humor to lighten the mood for the Disney channel audience. Shorty’s observation that one man’s floor is another man’s plate was particularly amusing.) I appreciated how Ruth’s motives for the haunting led straight to the climactic song. Too often in the animated musical TV genre, songs are shoehorned in without a direct connection to the plot.

My issues with the episode stem from feelings that the ‘overprotective parent’ plotline didn’t mesh well with everything else going on. (Was the Captain meant to be a stand-in for King Frederic so that Rapunzel could take out her annoyances on him?) Ending the episode without Rapunzel talking honestly with her father left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s completely in-character for Rapunzel to avoid conflict with someone she loves, but it feels like she didn’t learn anything from the events of the episode.

I think The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth works well as a one-off Halloween special, but by trying to juggle messages about working towards one’s dreams with Rapunzel’s father issues, the episode’s moral became muddled.