#before ever after

Introduction

When Disney first released the pilot on DVD, they included this miniature journal replica with it as a promotional item.

To date, this is the only actual reconstruction of Rapunzel’s Journal. There are toys and the My First Year as Princess book, but none of them are a straight up reproduction like this. 

And the only way to get it, is to buy the Before Ever After DVD. I recommend buying from the Disney store directly if you want to make sure you get the journal. If you buy it secondhand or from a third party seller like Amazon, it might be missing.   

Content

The book is exactly what it says on the tin. The fist ten pages of the replica are recreations of what Rapunzel would supposedly write and draw in her journal. Then you have several blank pages after that, because it’s only the pilot and Rapunzel presumably hasn’t gotten around to filling the rest out yet.

Every other page talks about Rapunzel’s desire to see the world and how she currently feels trapped in Corona, and in-between that she has pages dedicated to the townspeople, her parents, Eugene, Max, and Cassandra.

You can tell a lot of this was early production work and notes. Nothing about the rocks or her hair is mentioned, just vague notions about how she feels her destiny is calling to her from outside the kingdom walls. She also mentions Eugene proposing to her and her not feeling ready yet.

What really informs the reader about how early in production these pages come from though, is that none of the townspeople who are named appear in the show. There’s a locksmith called Canlier, a grocer and his family named the Rollet’s, Madame Bouvier, who washes the laundry, and some kid who’s last name is Fouquet. He lost a tooth.

Also everyone is called Monsieur or Madame, which hints to that “Corona is really France” bullshit that the series kept teasing but never fully committed to, and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given that Rapunzel is a German fairy tale.

Presentation

The recreation is about a third of the size of the what the novel in the series is meant to be. It’s easily able to be held by one hand or by a child’s hands. The size is most likely reduced so as to fit in the DVD box.

The cover is a hard, but thin plastic printed to look like leather. The cord to close it is either fake leather or suede though. The tassel is a lock of fake hair and a little hard plastic bottle. 

On the inside the replicated pages are printed on glossy paper while the blank pages have a printed texture to make them look like parchment, along with the series logo printed in the bottom corners. I think Disney designed the book with the idea that little kids would write or draw in the blank pages themselves, but the glossy print seems a be counterproductive to that end. Oh well, I guess that’s why the actual toy journals exist. 

Like I said, the art work is clearly lifted straight from the per-production art and is nice to see. There’s even an early Cassandra design where she’s in her knight uniform.

If there’s one complaint, is that, while authentic looking, the messy handwriting is often too hard to read. Especially when there’s any large amount of text to decipher. Which is certainly not helped by the reduced size.

Like I just completely gave up even trying to read this page….

Even I have handwriting better than that, and I write like a doctor!

Would I Recommend It

Only if you’re a hardcore collector. With the complete series blue-ray DVD now for sell, there’s no reason to pay full price for the solo pilot. And only by buying it new from the seller are you guaranteed to get the journal. That’s $16 dollars for the product and another $10 dollars for the shipping, plus tax. Not gonna lie, it’s a neat piece of memorabilia, but I don’t think it’s worth $28 bucks though.

Next Up

It’s our first appearance of Varian in the marathon with the double episode novelization of What the Hair and Great Expotations.