Barbie as Rapunzel

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Barbie as Rapunzel is a direct-to-video Barbie movie that is an adaptation of the Grimm's fairy tale "Rapunzel". It was the first such movie to air on television in the United States.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Kelly, Barbie's sister, does not have confidence in her painting. To cheer her up, Barbie tells her the story of Rapunzel.

Rapunzel lives in an isolated castle deep in the woods as a servant of the witch, Gothel. Despite her dreary settings, she is bright and optimistic and found friends in Penelope, a brave but not fierce dragon, and Hobie the hare. She spends her time painting.

When she sneaks out the castle one day, she rescues a small girl and ends up meeting her brother, the Prince Stefan. Stefan is the heir to his kingdom's throne, which has been feuding with a nearby kingdom, ruled by King Wilhelm, for several years. His father, King Frederick, expects Stefan to carry on this feud, though like Rapunzel, would rather not and wishes to find a way to resolve this conflict. Enchanted with Rapunzel, he asks to meet her again, and she agrees, though she rushes off to return to the castle before Gothel realizes she is missing.

Unfortunately, Gothel not only discovers Rapunzel's little excursion, but Rapunzel has met Stefan. Determined to keep Rapunzel locked up, Gothel enchants castle so Rapunzel is confined to a room high up in the tower without any means of leaving. She is left alone with Hobie and Penelope, who cheer her up with new painting supplies to replace the ones taken away from Gothel. The gifts, because they were made by her friends, end up having magical properties and what Rapunzel paints comes to life. She paints her way out of the tower by creating a secret passageway into the palace gardens and continues to secretly meet with Stefan.

Once again, Gothel discovers the truth and destroys Rapunzel's magic paintbrush. She enchants the tower so that an untruthful woman will be unable to leave, even through Rapunzel's enchanted painting. When Gothel intends to destroy King Frederick and Stefan and storms to their castle. Meanwhile, she has also chained up Penelope's father, Hugo, for Penelope acting out to help Rapunzel. Rapunzel dreams of Stefan appear at the foot of the tower, asking to climb up using her long beautiful hair. Meanwhile, Hugo finds a loophole in Gothel's imprisonment spell and encourages Penelope to fly higher than she ever has before in order to aid Rapunzel. Rapunzel is able to escape through the window and she and Penelope rush to save Stefan.

Wilhelm appears before Frederick with Gothel by his side, hoping to end the feud by force. Wilhelm reveals the source of the feud was because he believes Frederick kidnapped his daughter, who has been missing since she was only a child. Frederick replies that he planned nothing of the sort and he has no idea where Wilhelm's daughter is. Rapunzel arrives just in time to stop them from fighting and Wilhelm recognizes Rapunzel as his missing daughter.

Gothel confesses that she loved Wilhelm and believed he had the same feelings for her. When she realized that he only considered her a friend, she became jealous and angry and left the palace. She took Rapunzel with her and arranged for the blame for Rapunzel's disappearence to fall to Frederick. Gothel turns her attention to Rapunzel and attempts to turn her to stone for her intervention in Gothel's revenge.

Rapunzel escapes and runs through the palace garden to a passage way with a door. She opens the door and closes it behind her; Gothel runs through the door, not knowing that it is the same enchanted passage Rapunzel originally used to escape the tower. She is now trapped in the tower forever by her own enchantment while Hugo is freed from his because Gothel is now unable to use her magic. Rapunzel and Stefan marry and their fathers reconcile to unite their kingdoms.

Kelly, after hearing the story, becomes confident in her abilities and once again takes up her brush to paint again.