This week’s playlist is whimsical and, like Mulan playlist, is great to listen to from top to bottom for a full musical story or on shuffle for a smattering of great Rapunzel inspired tunes!

1. Fairytale – Harry Gregson-Williams
2. Once Upon a December – Liz Callaway
3. Castle – Halsey
4. Fairytales – Alex Preston
5. Nolita Fairytale – Vanessa Carlton
6. Hair – New Broadway Cast Recording “Hair”
7. When Will My Life Begin – Mandy Moore
8. Lights – Jef Miles
9. Lights – Ellie Goulding
10. Shooting Star – Owl City
11. Almost There – Anika Noni Rose
12. When Will My Life Begin (Reprise 2) – Mandy Moore
13. Take on the World – Rowan Blanchard, Sabrina Carpenter
14. Try Everything – Shakira
15. Wildside – Sofia Carson, Sabrina Carpenter
16. Whip My Hair – Willow
17. I’ve Got a Dream – Tangled Soundtrack
18. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
19. Dream On – Aerosmith
20. Dreaming – Smallpools
21. Healing Incantation – Mandy Moore
22. The Glow – Shannon Saunders
23. Kingdom Dance – Alan Menken
24. Flowers in Your Hair – The Lumineers
25. Fireflies – Owl City
26. Bubbly – Colbie Caillat
27. At the Beginning – Film Score Orchestra
28. I Can See the Light – Hamilton Cast
29. I’m Beginning to See the Light – Michael Bublé
30. Long As I Can See the Light – Creedence Clearwater Revival
31. I See the Light – Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi
32. Terrified – Katharine McPhee
33. See the Light – Matrimony
34. Lanterns – Birds of Tokyo
35. A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
36. Counting Star – OneRepublic
37. When the Stars Go Blue – Tyler Hilton & Bethany Joy Lenz
38. Lost Stars – Adam Levine
39. Starlight – Empire Cast
40. Starlight – Neverest
41. Seeing Stars – BORNS
42. Journey to the Past – Liz Callaway
43. Wind in My Hair – Mandy Moore
44. Tangled – Thomas Rhett
45. Hair – Lady Gaga
46. Castle on the Hill – Ed Sheeran
47. Something That I Want – Grace Potter
48. It’s Not Just Make Believe – Kari Kimmel
49. The Frying Pan – John Prine

Here’s your movie watch list for this week. A mix of Rapunzel inspired fairytales, musicals and random other selections that I added to the list for fun! (My list, my rules!)

Tangled

As usual, we start with the inspiration for the week. Tangled burst onto the screens in 2010, though at times it feels like she’s been part of the Princess line up for far longer.

Anastasia

Speaking of princesses who don’t know they are princesses…Anastasia is the story of a young orphaned girl, Anya, who has no memory of her past. After meeting a couple of con artists who want to use her to trick the Grand Duchess into believing that she is the long lost Princess Anastasia, little orphan Anya starts to recall things long forgotten. And in the course of remembering who she is, Dimitri, the boy who once saved her from certain death, starts remembering her as well. With voice casting from Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammar, Christopher Llyod, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, Hank Azaria and the one and only Angela Lansbury as the Grand Duchess. If you didn’t grow up watching this movie, then I’m not sure it’s one you’ll love in this age of Disney animation. Nostalgia really has to be on your side!! It’s the Disney movie that isn’t Disney. And it shows.

Sleeping Beauty

And yet another princess who is not aware of her royal roots…the Princess Aurora is whisked away in the night by her 3 fairy godmothers, after the evil fairy Maleficent places a curse on the baby Princess. And all because she wasn’t invited to the party…beware using that red pen on evil fairy godmothers. Trust me, it’s safer just to invite them.

So Flora, Fauna and Merryweather secret the infant girl out of the castle and into the woods where she is raised as a young peasant girl who had to have questions about her parentage! Come on, 3 maiden aunts raising you in the woods? Questions are bound to pop up. But no, Aurora lives her quiet life and unlike Rapunzel, we don’t get the sense that she wonders too much about the world outside of her little forest. The only thing Aurora dreams of is her dreamy prince. Spoiler alert…she meets him…in the woods! And guess who he happens to be…the Prince. It’s a Disney fairytale, these things write themselves!

Into the Woods

Into the Woods could easily have been put on Cinderella’s Watch List, but that list was pretty full, so I saved it for this week. Into the Woods is a musical by Stephen Sondheim. And while I really enjoy this movie adaptation, it’s the stage production starring Bernadette Peters and Joanna Gleeson that I love most.

This musical takes a whole slew of fairytale stories and throws them into the same woods. What if Rapunzel’s Prince and Cinderella’s Prince were brothers? What if Jack from the Beanstalk met Little Red Riding Hood? And so on. What this story boils down to is the general theme of “careful what you wish for.” It’s not the bright, fluffy Disney story that you’re used to. Sondheim often poses questions about good and evil in his musicals. What if the villain has redeeming qualities? What if the hero is flawed? It’s a unique take on these fairytales and my second favorite musical of all time!

Barbershop

Ok, Barber Shop has little in common with Rapunzel, other than the over arching theme of…hair. But I’m putting it on the list, so deal! Barbershop is the story of a man, Ice Cube, who has had enough of running his father’s barbershop and decides to sell it to a man who wants to turn it into a strip club. Without telling anyone of his plans, Ice Cube sells it and sells out.

Ice Cube soon comes to realize the error he has made and how truly important the barbershop is, not only to the surrounding community, to his employees and patrons, but also to himself. And he goes about trying to get it back. Solid movie…go watch it! And if you get hooked on the franchise, give Barbershop 2: Back in Business a try as well as…

Beauty Shop

Beauty Shop spins out of Barbershop 2, where we are introduced to Queen Latifah’s Gina. Gina is sick and tired of her boss and his criticism and decides it’s time to open her own beauty shop. But things aren’t as easy as they seem. She finds herself up against clients who are set in their ways, prejudice, vandalism and the day to day struggle of raising a daughter and being a business owner. This movie, like Barbershop, is the story of community, of friendship and of overcoming struggles.

Hairspray

Another movie with little in common with our Disney heroine, but is full of magical hair! Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad, a young girl in 1960’s Baltimore. All Tracy wants is to be on The Corny Collins’ Show and to have mile high hair, is that too much to ask? As fun as this musical is, it also takes time to challenge race relations in the 60’s. They explore integration, not only on the dance floor, but in the budding relationship between Penny and Seaweed. I saw this show 4 times on Broadway and love the movie adaptation starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley, James Marsden, Allison Janney and new comer at the time, Nikki Blonsky as Tracy.

Chasing Liberty

Mandy Moore (voice of Rapunzel in Tangled) stars in this frothy teen flick about the First Daughter running away to experience the world outside of the White House walls. She, like Rapunzel, feels that there’s more to life than what she has experienced. And she, like Rapunzel, takes the first chance to run away with a handsome dark haired stranger when it comes along. (Ok, it’s a stretch to say that this movie and Tangled have anything other than Mandy Moore in common, but that’s enough for me!) Also see First Daughter starring Katie Holmes which came out at the same time. Same movie, different cast!