Tangled The Series : Adventure Is Calling Review
At the start of the year, IDW announced they had acquired the rights to publish comic books based on two television series from Walt Disney Television Animation. The first of these was Duck Tales which launched last summer and now after a few delays, the first volume of Tangled the Series has hit stores ahead of the start of a 5 issue mini series in January of 2018.
These stories mirror the look of the animated series to a tea except for Eugene’s nose, they still can’t get that right unless its on purpose. The volume consists of several stories featuring the Coronian princess and her friends including an adaptation of Tangled Before Ever After, you can see my review of that on DISKingdom.
TANGLED BEFORE EVER AFTER
WRITTEN BY Alessandro Ferrari ART BY IVAN SHAVRIN
In this adaptation of the first episode of the television series, the story goes over how Rapunzel regained her famous golden locks from sneaking out of the castle with maiden in waiting Cassandra after a disastrous marriage proposal from Eugene. She yearns to explore her kingdom, not stay in the castle as he prefers.
While out of the kingdom, they return to where the golden flower was picked, strange black pointy rocks now reside at its position as Rapunzel receives new magical hair that cant be cut as she tries to cover it from her parents and Eugene. Unknown to them, the kingdom would become the target of a wave of criminals seeking to imprison Corona royalty in an act of vengeance after strict rules from the King imprisons most of the criminal presence of the kingdom in the 18 years that Rapunzel has been lost.
HAIR TODAY
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Diogo Saito
Rapunzel prepares for her usual duties but forgets to brush her hair so she enlists all the maids along with Eugene and Cassandra to help brush her hair to be ready in time.
PRINCESS CASSANDRA
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Diogo Saito
Rapunzel is eager to be a judge of a talents show at the Snuggly Duckling but she also has commitments to showing up for a dedication of an art piece at the castle. She convinces Cassandra to take her place while she snuck off to the Duckling.
GREETINGS
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Diogo Saito
Rapunzel starts off her day as usual in this story as she began telling EVERY detail of her day to anyone she would greet. Eugene observes this and tells her she is going about it the wrong way and tells her to just say shorter phrases. She does well at first but in the end she resumes her old mannerisms at the suggestion of one of her maids.
THE PERFECT JOKE
WRITTEN BY Alessandro Ferrari ART BY Roberto DiSalvo
Eugene and Cassandra teach Rapunzel how to tell a joke. They teach her the best way to tell a joke is through a punchline. After some messing-up, Rapunzel manages to tell her very first joke to her friends from the Snuggly Duckling.
A HERO’S REPUTATION
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Ivan Shavrin
Eugene takes Rapunzel out to her first royal jousting tournament as they visit the stables to check out the competition, she suggests entering Maximus in the tournament as a lance suddenly falls off the roof nearly impaling Eugene if it wasn’t for Rapunzel’s quick thinking and long hair.
Eugene feels a little embarrassed being saved by a princess as they soon head to their seats as Cassandra mocks Eugene for being saved by Rapunzel. A venomous snake soon slithers through the grounds scaring one of the horses heading towards Eugene as the princess saves him once again in front of everyone as the King checks up on him.
Eugene blurts out that being saved by Rapunzel was humiliating within ear range as she storms off in anger. Eugene later talks with Maximus over what he should do while eating apples from a nearby tree. He recruits Shorty to try and make it seem he saved someone in distress as he gets into danger once again. When will he ever learn ?
CAUTION : WET HAIR
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Diogo Saito
Rapunzel finishes washing her hair an hour before meeting some delegates, she decides to go talk a walk outside despite Cassandra’s suggestions to stay inside to keep her hair presentable.
Rapunzel spots a rabbit getting chased by a fox as she goes off after them while keeping her hair out of the water and terrain. Sometimes there’s no helping it, your hair will get messy.
LOST
WRITTEN BY Scott Peterson ART BY Diogo Saito
Rapunzel shows off that she uses her hair to make her way around the castle in this short tale on her quest to find a cup of water.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Tangled The Series : Adventure Is Calling is the perfect companion book for any fan of the Tangled film or Tangled The Series. Along with a comic book version of the pilot, Disney Italia also offers us numerous stories in a small package for anyone craving more adventures featuring the spunking princess, Eugene, Cassandra and the thugs from the Snuggly Duckling.
The stories featured can range from humorous, adventurous to emotional with some hit and misses depending on what you crave from your Disney content. The art is visually stunning and attempts to capture the look of the animated series although some panels tend to draw Eugene a little off model thanks to his ridiculously large nose.
A perfect start for Rapunzel’s stay at IDW Publishing with their upcoming mini series starting in January.
RATING 8 out of 10