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Rapunzel is the eighth episode of the first season of Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, and the eighth in total. It aired on April 30, 1995.

Summary[]

Once there was a village in the Louisiana Bayou, where there’d be a time once a year everyone in town would have a big party with music and costumes. Everybody appreciated it throughout the years. However, there was one person who did not enjoy that kind of stuff, her name was Zenobia, the evil hoodoo diva. At her house, she needed some peace to work on her hoodoo, as the name signifies. It didn't help, however, that she also had a next-door neighbor, a woodcutter and his wife. At their house, the woodcutter dances with his pregnant wife inside but she needs to finish her jambalaya for the festival. However, she tries it and thinks something is missing. The woodcutter lists some things that are already in the jambalaya. That is until she looks out the window and sees what she needs: Rapunzel herbs which are in Zenobia's yard. She requests her husband to get some but he worries that if he's caught, Zenobia will turn him into fish bait. Still, he has no option but to creep into her garden. He eventually gets caught by Zenobia. The Woodcutter explains that it was his wife’s idea. After some talk about the baby, she decides to let him go but saying that if his newborn kid is a girl, she'll take her. The woodcutter cries no, however changes his mind when Zenobia transforms into a green monster. The Woodcutter then rushes back to his house with the herbs, which his wife takes. He then passes out shortly afterward.

Time went by and the woodcutter and his wife are now blessed with their new baby girl. The woodcutter's memory of his deal with Zenobia is nearly forgotten, as he is now recalling it as just one bad dream, but she comes to the house on a blazing cloud, confronting and shocking the woodcutter, and his wife, too. She slides over to the baby's crib and collects her, deciding to call her Rapunzel in tribute of meeting the woodcutter, and telling her parents that they can never see or even hold their child again. They are depressed and can only see glimpses of her in their kitchen window when she swings outside. Rapunzel grows to be a lovely girl with very long hair, and also a beautiful singing voice that can be heard from a long place away. Zenobia comes out and scolds her for singing songs and understanding little knowledge of sorcery, then sings her the right way with her fly rock band.

But Rapunzel is upset, informing her blue jay bird friend that Zenobia just doesn't understand her, as she doesn't want to live by herself and have everyone be afraid of her grotesque appearance. Suddenly, the man who had heard Rapunzel's singing earlier along with his two pals, comes by the wall and being held up by his friends, who alert them about Zenobia. The man speaks to Rapunzel and admires her singing voice. Zenobia appears, and the three men storm off. Zenobia is really upset with Rapunzel for not being able to be trusted with too many times, so that night, she yanks Rapunzel into the forest and to a very high tower with no doors or stairs, with a rope ladder that Zenobia throws down. She tells Rapunzel that she will be stuck up there with no other person to see besides Zenobia herself, then uses her hair to get down the tower. The next day, the prince darts on his horse to Zenobia's yard, where she is no longer to be found, The bluebird guides him to the tower. Zenobia is there and climbs up Rapunzel's hair, so the prince stays out of sight until she leaves, then he climbs up and gives her a flower. Rapunzel concerns about Zenobia, but the prince says she just left and they shouldn't worry.

They spend the entire day together until the night rolls in, and they glance at the stars together. The prince informs her that she can go to his castle to see the stars over there, but Rapunzel is very reluctant to leave the tower due to Zenobia's wickedness. Nevertheless, the prince will be there for her the next day as she belongs in the world, not in an isolated tower. Zenobia comes and sees something up, seeing the prince leave with his horse. She gets up the tower and reprimands her once more, now choosing to take her even farther away. But first, she gets out scissors and cuts Rapunzel's fabulous long hair. Zenobia takes her to a river with a rope bridge that breaks apart, and now she is dangling above the river. Zenobia drops the rope, and she lands in the raging waters below. Luckily she gets up a branch. Meanwhile the prince returns with a bouquet of flowers at the tower plus a ladder, but instead he meets Zenobia up there instead who takes them. She had put a spell on him which made him blind, but he finds Rapunzel with her singing voice. Rapunzel gives him a kiss which restores his vision. Now free, the prince shows Rapunzel around the kingdom and also takes her to meet her true parents. With Zenobia moving far far away from this kingdom, Rapunzel and her prince get married and live happily ever after.

Cast[]

  • Tisha Campbell as Rapunzel
  • Whoopi Goldberg as Zenobia the Hoodoo Diva
  • Meshach Taylor as the Woodcutter
  • Hazelle Goodman as the Woodcutter's Wife
  • Duane Martin as the Prince
  • Donald Fullilove as Friend #1
  • Tico Wells as Friend #2

Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • Tisha Campbell (Martin) voices the titular character.
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