Pascal’s Story

This is first episode of many animal episodes that focus on either Max or Pascal each season. As such, it’s really the only one that’s actually has a purpose other than filler. 

Summary:  A flashback shows how Pascal arrived at the Rapunzel's tower and became her friend. In the present, Pascal wants to spend time with Rapunzel as in the tower, but her princess duties and new friends keep pushing him aside. Feeling rejected, he runs away to return to the tower. But an old predator seeks revenge on the small lizard now that he's all alone again while Rapunzel desperately searches for him. 

This Episode is Shown Out of Order 

So according to the production order listed on wikipedia, this episode is suppose to take place after the episode ‘Painter’s Block’. Which makes sense. The mid-season finale ‘Queen for a Day’ was suppose to be Rapunzel’s first time holding court by herself, while here she’s being kept from keeping her promise to Pascal by having to hold court by herself. These two plot points now contradict each other because the advertising team decided to air this and a whole bunch of other episodes out of order. 

I’ll get into the reasons for why later, but it becomes an issue for the whole latter half of season one. This is nothing new though. Animators have been battling forced changes to the schedule because of syndication since the days of Jonny Quest.  

(Why hello, random new main character who suddenly appears in episode two with no explanation, and who’s introduction doesn’t air until episode seven and now has to be framed as a flashback in order to make sense, forcing the animators to hastily animate new scenes on a tight budget and deadline. How are you?)   

While this in an understandable problem, it’s still a problem and hence a flaw in the show. And while the issue isn’t as egregious as the example provided above, it still affects the overall narrative in deeper ways as important contextual information is now lost to the audience. 

The Lack of Context Diminishes Character Development 

Three things are now lost to the audience due to this change. 

First, is Rapunzel’s trauma. 

Simply saying that Pascal is her best friend is enough to make the story work, but there’s a whole other layer to the conflict we’re not getting anymore. Had this been shown after Queen for a Day as intended, you would know that Rapunzel came very close to losing Pascal quite recently. Also that her princess duties have caused her to break a promise to another friend right before this. Those things should be weighing in on both her’s and the audience’s minds right now. 

Second is Rapunzel’s hypocrisy. And this isn’t just me complaining that she’s a hypocrite, that was never the issue. This is the writers deliberately making hypocrisy one of her character flaws, something that is meant to cause conflict in the story, but now are no longer addressing that this is a flaw nor making it clear to the audience that the flaw even exists. 

If viewed in order, that means that Rapunzel has another friend missing at the moment, the same as Pascal, Varian. But she’s ignoring that problem while dropping everything to find her bestie instead. It’s understandable, as Pascal is closer to her, but it’s still not right. This will come into play later when the main conflict of season one comes to ahead. 

Last is Varian’s half of the story. Varian’s conflict is told only in context. We don’t actually see things from his side of the story. Episodes like today’s need to be shown in order to showcase what Varian is going through. 

Now one could argue that Varian’s story shouldn’t have been told off screen in the first place, and you’d be right, but the context would still matter even if they hadn’t done that. As is, the events during the last three episodes no longer have the same impact that they should. That’s why I encourage anybody who are interested in the show to view season one production order and not the aired order. 

Nothing is Learned

The plot to Pascal’s Story will be repeated ad nauseam for the next three seasons. Get use to it. 

This is Just an Opinion but...

The Friendship Song is weak. It’s arguably the worst song in the show. It adds nothing and is just thrown in at the last minute for filler. They don’t even let the whole song play out and cut it short. Plus it’s structurally written to just be a run of the mill four-cord pop song and as such it’s really bland.  The whole thing smacks of a marketing stunt and is a waste of Alan Menken’s talents. 

Conclusion

It’s not a bad episode but it’s let down by mismanagement. Which unfortunately seems to be a recurring problem in the show.