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Disney Gets Tangled 魔法不再，迪斯尼与童话电影缘尽情了

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Aiming for wider appeal, Disney Animation is closing the book on fairy tales  为求吸引更多观众，迪斯尼动画公司考虑不再拍童话故事

Once upon a time, there was a studio in Burbank, California, that spun classic fairy tales into silver-screen gold.

很久很久以前，加州柏班克有一家电影制片厂，能够将经典童话故事改编成银幕卖座巨片。

But now the curtain is falling on “princess movies,” which have been a part of Disney Animation’s heritage since the 1937 debut of its first feature film, Snow White. The studio’s release of Tangled, a contemporary retelling of the Rapunzel story, will be the last fairy tale produced by Disney’s animation group for the foreseeable future.

从1937年迪斯尼推出首部电影长片《白雪公主》以来，公主系列电影要落幕了。迪斯尼推出的长发公主故事现代版《魔发情缘》，将是可预见的未来中，迪斯尼动画团队所制作的最后一部童话故事。

“Films and genres do run a course,” said Pixar Animation Studios chief Ed Catmull. “They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it …. but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lines up.” Catmull and director John Lasseter have killed two other fairytale movies that were in development, The Snow Queen and Jack and the Beanstalk.

「影片和类型的确有其生命周期，」皮克斯动画公司总裁艾德．凯特摩表示，「过了一段时间，如果有人采用创新手法，他们可能又会卷土重来……但是目前我们没有拍其他音乐片或是童话故事的打算。」凯特摩和导演约翰．拉赛特停拍两部在研拟阶段的童话电影，《雪后》（直译）及《杰克与豌豆》（直译）。

Animation overhaul  动画大变革

To appreciate what a sea change this is for the company, consider that a fairytale castle is a landmark at Disney theme parks around the world and is embedded in the Walt Disney Pictures logo. Fairytale characters drive sales of merchandise and serve as the inspiration for Broadway musicals.

只要想想，童话城堡是全球迪斯尼乐园的地标，也是迪斯尼电影公司的标志，就知道这个改变对迪斯尼来说多么重大。童话人物带动商品的买气，也为百老汇音乐剧带来灵感。

Over the decades, Disney has benefited from the ticket sales and licensing revenue generated by princess-driven properties. The studio’s most recent offering, however, was a clear disappointment. Although critically acclaimed, 2009’s The Princess and the Frog was the most poorly performing of Disney’s recent fairy tales.

几十年来，迪斯尼从公主系列电影资产的票房及授权收益获利甚丰，然而最近的新作品令人相当失望，2009年《公主与青蛙》虽获影评赞赏，却是迪斯尼近年来票房表现最差的童话电影。

Broadening the audience  扩大观众群

In the age of mega-franchises when movies need to appeal to a broad audience to justify a sizable investment, Disney discovered too late that Princess and the Frog appealed to too narrow an audience: little girls. This prompted the studio to change the name of its Rapunzel movie to the gender-neutral Tangled and shift the lens of its marketing to the film’s swashbuckling male costar, Flynn Rider.

在授权金收益令人咋舌的年代，电影必须能吸引广大观众群才能证明庞大投资值回票价。等迪斯尼发现《公主与青蛙》观众群太少、只吸引到小女孩时，已经太迟了。这使得迪斯尼立即将长发公主电影改名为中性的《魔发情缘》，并将营销重点放在片中英勇打斗的男性角色费林．雷德身上。

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tangled [ˋtæŋg!d] adj. 纠结的; 缠绕在一起的

close the books on someone or something 对...停止(结束)  to declare that a matter concerning someone or something is finished

spin [spɪn] v. 编造，虚构（故事等）to make or produce by or as if by drawing out and twisting

course [kors] n. 过程 a connected series of events, actions, etc.

take [tek] n. 看法; 一次拍摄的电影（电视）镜头 Slang an attempt or a try

line up 安排〔某事〕to collect and arrange in readiness

sea change 重大变化；惊人变化

justify [ˋdʒʌstə͵faɪ] v. 证明……是正当的 to demonstrate or prove to be just, right, or valid

gender-neutral 不分性别的 relating to people and not especially to men or to women

swash-buckling [ˋswɑʃ͵bʌklɪŋ] adj. 喜欢冒险[斗剑]的; 神气活现的 full of adventure and excitement

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Disney hopes Tangled will draw boys, teenagers and adults to the theater. But it’s taking no such chances in the future. Its current animation roster includes Winnie the Pooh, a return to the Hundred Acre Wood, and Reboot Ralph, about an outdated video game character who’s been left behind by the march of technology.

迪斯尼希望《魔发情缘》能让男孩、青少年、成人都走进电影院。但是以后迪斯尼不再冒这种风险了，目前的动画片名单包括《小熊维尼》（直译）与《Reboot Ralph》，前者带领观众回到百亩森林，后者是有关一个因跟不上科技进步而遭弃的旧式电动游戏角色的故事。

Fairytales ending  童话故事的结局

So why has the clock struck midnight for Disney’s fairy tales?

为什么迪斯尼童话的午夜钟声响起了呢？（译注：虽然午夜钟声响起也适用于庆祝跨年或圣诞节的来到，但此应是对于灰姑娘童话故事的暗喻，午夜钟响之后，灰姑娘失去了魔幻的美丽外貌，回复成灰姑娘的不起眼模样。此指童话故事丧失了吸引力）。

Among girls, princesses and the romanticized ideal they represent have a limited shelf life. With the advent of “tween” TV, the tiara-wearing ideal of femininity has been supplanted by new adolescent role models such as Selena Gomez and Miranda Cosgrove.

对女孩来说，公主及其代表的浪漫化理想，吸引力极为有限。「吞世代」电视的时代来临，使得头戴王冠的梦幻女性特质，已经被赛琳娜．戈梅兹与米兰达．高丝格洛等新一代青春偶像所取代。

“By the time they’re 5 or 6, they’re not interested in being princesses,” said Dafna Lemish, an expert in the role of media in children’s lives. “They’re interested in … being cool. Clearly, they see this is what society values.”

戴芙娜．雷米希是研究媒体在儿童生活中扮演角色的专家，她表示，「小女孩到了五、六岁以后，就不想当公主了。她们喜欢的是……酷，显然她们认为这是社会所重视的特质。」

Changing ideals  理想典范的改变

Other filmmakers have been grappling with this evolving sensibility.

其他电影公司也在设法解决面对这种正在演变中的新鉴赏力。

Bonnie Arnold, an animation veteran who most recently produced DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, said animated films must vie in the cineplex with effects-laden action films that a generation ago might have been considered more mature fare.

邦妮．亚诺最近制作完成梦工厂动画电影《驯龙高手》，身为资深动画人的她指出，动画电影必须在电影院与充满特效的动作片竞争，这些动作片在一个世代之前，可能还被认为比较是成年人在看的电影。

“You see elementary school kids standing in line to see Iron Man or Transformers,” Arnold said. “That’s who we’re all competing with on some level.”

「你看到小学生排队等着看《钢铁人》或是《变型金钢》，」亚诺说道，「某种程度上我们就是在和他们竞争。」

In an effort to give the Rapunzel story a more contemporary feel, Catmull and Lasseter pushed the reset button in 2008. All the prior work was scrapped and the movie was reconceived as a musical with five songs by multiple-Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken.

凯特摩和拉赛特为了要让长发公主的故事更具现代感，在2008下令重来一次，之前的成品全部作废，从音乐片的角度重新构思，由获得奥斯卡奖多次的作曲家亚伦．曼肯为五首歌操刀。

Catmull acknowledges that Disney has a lot riding on the success of Tangled. “On an emotional and morale level, we really want this to do well and really want the public to like it.”

凯特摩承认，迪斯尼非常仰赖《魔发情缘》的成功，「不管是情感上或是士气上，我们真的很希望这部片子能够有好成绩，真的很希望大家会喜欢。」

－by Dawn C. Chmielewski and Claudia Eller

单词发音

Vocabulary Focus

kill [kɪl] v. 删除, 使终止；使（发动机等）停止 to stop an activity or experience

landmark [ˋlænd͵mɑrk] n.（显而易见的）地标 a building or place that is easily recognized, especially that can be used to judge a location

advent [ˋædvɛnt] v. 出现；到来 the arrival of an event, invention or person

supplant [səˋplænt] v. 代替；取代 to replace

grapple with [ˋgræp!] v. 努力对付; 努力解决 to try to deal with or understand a difficult problem or subject

vie [vaɪ] v. 争；竞争 to compete with other people to achieve or get something

morale [məˋræl] n. 士气，斗志 the amount of confidence felt by a person or group of people, especially when in a dangerous or difficult situation

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march [mɑrtʃ] n. 行进; 进展  steady forward movement or progression

romanticize [roˋmæntə͵saɪz] v.（使）浪漫化；（使）传奇化

shelf life（罐装食品等的）货架寿命；耐储时间

tween [twin] n. 10 to 12 岁年经人 a person who is between the ages of 10 to 12 years old

tiara [taɪˋerə] n.〔妇女在正式场合佩戴的〕冕状宝石头饰

femininity [͵fɛməˋnɪnətɪ] n. 女子气质

sensibility [͵sɛnsəˋbɪlətɪ] n. 鉴赏力；识别力 an understanding of or ability to decide about what is good or valuable, especially in connection with artistic or social activities

cineplex [ˋsɪnə͵plɛks] n. 多观众厅电影院（有数厅，各上映不同影片的电影院）a multiplex (movie theater)

fare [fɛr] v. 过活

scrap [skræp] v. 废弃 to discard as worthless or sell to be reused as parts; junk

ride on something 依靠 to depend on the result of something else

'Tangled' Trailer HD