"Happiness Is..." is the thirty-fourth episode of Tangled: The Series. It premiered on August 26, 2018 and is the eleventh episode in the second season and serves as the mid-season finale of Season 2.
Plot
The group is having a party on the beach with the Lorbs. Everyone is having a good time, except Rapunzel who is in the village, admiring all her birthday Lanterns. She comes across one that includes a letter written by her father seven years after she was kidnapped. Upon reading the letter, Rapunzel begins to miss her family and friends and quickly feels homesick. The next day, Rapunzel attempts to lift her spirit by exploring the island. She comes across a magical idol and the moment Rapunzel takes possession of it, she begins having hallucinations of King Frederic. Rapunzel shows everyone the idol and soon each of them begins using it to give them each their inner most happiness. However, the idol corrupts Rapunzel, who becomes greedy and craves the idol's power. She takes it away from her friends and locks herself inside the hut. The idol's power quickly starts to corrupt everyone, who all formulate plans to get Rapunzel out of the hut and give him/her the idol. However, once everyone begins fighting over the idol, Rapunzel seems to have snapped back to her senses and offered to get rid of the idol herself since she is the one who found it.
Unfortunately, it's revealed that Rapunzel was lying. She runs off to find a private place on the island so she can keep using the idol's power for herself. Pascal leaves Rapunzel and informs the Lorbs of the situation who arrive to help. According to the Lorbs, the idol was created long ago by a Lorb warlock named Horb to stop sadness. Unfortunately, his noble act quickly backfired when the rest of the Lorb culture grew obsessive over its power. He tried to destroy it, but it became lost in the chaos. The Lorbs manage to convince Rapunzel to hand over the idol, but it then makes her hallucinate Varian threatening her father. Rapunzel tries to "stop Varian" but during the scuffle, the Lorbs fall under the idol's control. They take Rapunzel and Pascal captive and soon begin terrorizing the village. Eugene and Cassandra come to Rapunzel's rescue, but they still crave the idol's power and begin to fight the Lorbs to get it for themselves. Rapunzel finally snaps back to her sense and is determined to get the idol to the temple near the village and stop the madness she has created. Rapunzel gets the idol and reaches the top of the temple where she is about to destroy it. However, the idol in an effort to save itself, makes hallucinations of Rapunzel's parents and friends appear before her as an angry mob, and urge her not to destroy the idol. Seeing Rapunzel in distress finally snaps everyone out of the idol’s control and together with Eugene and Cassandra, Rapunzel finally destroys the idol, freeing everyone from its power for good.
Afterward, despite still feeling homesick, Rapunzel decides to send out her very own lantern with a letter to her parents, expressing how she misses them. The lantern makes it all the way to Corona and approaches the castle towards a waiting King Frederic and Queen Arianna.
Cast
- Mandy Moore as Rapunzel
- Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider
- Eden Espinosa as Cassandra
- James Monroe Iglehart as Lance Strongbow
- Jeff Ross as Hook Foot
- Paul F. Tompkins as Shorty
- Clancy Brown as King Frederic
- Jeremy Jordan as Varian (cameo only)
- M.C. Gainey as Captain of the Guard
- Flula Borg as Alfons
- Russi Taylor as Lorbs
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Lorbs
Additional Voices
- Brian T. Delaney
- Jennifer Hale
- Laura Bailey
- Keith Silverstein
- Erica Lindbeck
- Yuri Lowenthal
- Travis Willingham
- Ashly Burch
- April Winchell
- Kari Wahlgren
Gallery
Trivia
- Moral: True happiness comes from the heart.
- Varian, Captain of the Guard, Attila, Friedborg, Ulf, Big Nose, Old Lady Crowley, Seraphina, Lady Caine's thugs and the Baron's men appear as visions in this episode.
- Corona Castle and the Tower's wreckage are featured in this episode.
- The full name of the idol is called "Idol of Vershaftsbezeigungengien", which is a long word gag of German.
- Eugene is wearing his royal outfit from Tangled: Before Ever After when he holds the idol.
- This is the second time where Varian appears in a vision. The first was "The Quest for Varian".
- This is the last episode to air in 2018.
- The Episode's title is a reference to a lyric from the song "Happiness" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
- When corrupted by the Idol, several of the Richard Horvitz-voiced Lorbs' war cry almost sounds like "Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!" like Alpha 5 from Power Rangers, who he also voiced.
- Rapunzel says that one of her birthday lanterns has her name embroidered on it, and King Frederic refers to Rapunzel as "Rapunzel" in his letter to her when she was seven. However, she was stolen as a baby and it was Mother Gothel who gave her that name.
International premieres
- February 9, 2019 (Germany)
- May 13, 2019 (Poland)
