Mother Knows Best (song) songs. While the majority of "Tangled"'s music was inspired by the work of Canadian musician Joni Mitchell, Menken envisioned Gothel's song as "classic" Broadway. Before writing "Mother Knows Best", Menken and Slater researched appropriate moments in the film during which its main characters could potentially perform, ultimately determining that "Mother Knows Best" "flows directly out of the conflict between" Mother Gothel and Rapunzel. Menken observed similarities between Gothel and Claude Frollo, another Disney villain for whom he had written songs while working as a composer on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996). Menken described Gothel as "a scary piece of
Mother Gothel Gothel of her access to what is essentially the only thing that is keeping her alive. Meanwhile, the King and Queen's newborn daughter Rapunzel is gifted with the flower's abilities, which manifest via her long, golden hair when a special song is sung so long as it remains uncut. Desperate to stay alive, Gothel steals the baby from the palace and she imprisoned her in a secluded tower for eighteen years, raising the child as her own and prohibiting her from leaving solely in order to use her hair to stay young. As her eighteenth birthday approaches, Rapunzel continues to