Live-Action Tangled, Sparks Racist Controversy

Naomi Tamene -- May 12

The Disney live-action remake of Tangled will now feature Rapunzel with 20 feet long armpit hair! Sorry, it’s actually going to be featuring a mole-rat since they don’t get enough representation on the big screen! No, wait, Rapunzel is actually going to be played by Avantika Vandanapu from the “Mean Girls” remake???

As much fun as a naked mole-rat with a long blonde wig playing Rapunzel sounds, these are sadly all false claims. However, one in particular sparked massive controversy: the rumors that dark-haired, South Asian woman Avantika was set to play the fan-favorite, golden-haired princess Rapunzel in Disney’s live action remake of the movie Tangled. Comments on TikTok of the casting ranged from, “rapunzel should be played by a blonde, white girl” to “Rapunzel is a GERMAN folk story. Indians are not and will never be German” (Venkatraman). 

I personally couldn’t care less about the casting as long as they can sing “When Will My Life Begin?” with perfect pipes, but the real plot twist is that Disney never has (and maybe never even will) announced they are making a live-action version of Tangled. So, were we all clowned more than swifties thinking Taylor Swift is going to announce Reputation: Taylor’s Version for the ten millionth time? Yes, yes we were. 

But the millions of videos and comments don’t have to go completely to waste. We can learn (drumroll please…) employing tact on social media! A good google search or two can do wonders for not spreading misinformation and thousands of hate comments unnecessarily. So when Terry Cruz is inevitably cast as Rapunzel, maybe we’ll all be able to just accept it and move on.

Venkatraman, Sakshi. “Rumors of Avantika playing a live-action Rapunzel spark racist backlash online.” NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/avantika-rapunzel-racist-backlash-rcna147039.