Comedian and mom Amy Schumer isn’t shy about telling it like it is, and that goes double when it comes to movies her son watches. Schumer recently sat down with Seth Meyers on his late-night show and had a few words for Disney’s Tangled, among others.
Schumer talked red wine, COVID, the story behind her son, Gene’s, name, and then got into it about some of the issues she found introducing him to Disney movies, noting that most of them are “real problematic.” After talking a bit about the likes of Peter Pan and The Jungle Book, Schumer took on Tangled, and it was hard not to laugh.
“I’m sure you’ve seen they have all the warnings now,” Schumer explained to Meyers, referring to the disclaimers now shown ahead of certain films on Disney+. “Just like, ‘We’re sorry!’ You know, ‘We’re still going to show it to you!’” she joked. This includes films like Jungle Book, Dumbo, The Aristocats, Aladdin, and The Lady and the Tramp. But she had another angle altogether for Tangled.
It's disheartening to realize that this disclaimer attached to old Disney movies made during a less enlightened era, should be included at the top of all new laws and Supreme Court Decisions written by conservatives today!! pic.twitter.com/FxFLjzd0bY
— Rinkytone (@Rinkytone) May 8, 2022
After moving past some of the older films, Schumer thought the Rapunzel-based film would be more forward-thinking. Unfortunately, she said, she was wrong. “In Tangled, if she cuts her hair, it turns BROWN!” she said. “Yeah. That happens in the movie, okay? And then she has short, BROWN hair and even though she’s hideous, the prince still finds a way to love her. Isn’t that a beautiful message???”
Schumer isn’t wrong. It does send a message that blonde is good and brown is bad. Short and brown—forget it. There is no more magic in short and brown—the magic, in the film, is literally gone. Lest we not forget that she’d also been locked in a tower for 18 years and probably doesn’t have the emotional maturity to bring to a relationship with Flynn (or need to jump into a relationship for that matter), but hey, as Schumer points out, at least he’ll have her even though she has “the deformity of brown hair.”
Schumer always has a way of making us see things that we didn’t see before. Her advice for moviemakers and society in general? “Everybody’s got to do better.” Amen to that.
