- “Hey look, I can see my house from here.”
- ―Shorty[src]
Shorty is a supporting character in Disney's 2010 animated feature film Tangled. He is the oldest and possibly craziest member of the Pub Thugs.
Background
Personality
Shorty is drunken at every moment, apparently. Sluggish, bumbling and borderline insane, Shorty is the embodiment of the "old loon" stereotype. He is unpredictable, both verbally and through his actions, as he is sometimes found having full conversations with inanimate objects, or bathing in milk. Despite his quirks, Shorty is also very friendly and warm-hearted. Furthermore, he is not totally oblivious; in the episode "One Angry Princess", Shorty was trapped in a candy store with the Snuggly Duckling's goat, Milton. When Milton began damaging the store, Shorty recognized the trouble, but was too tired and ultimately indifferent to do anything about it. Later that same episode, it was his testimony that saved Attila from banishment after the latter was wrongly accused of vandalism. In "Challenge of the Brave", Shorty managed to trick Eugene into buying an overpriced ticket for the episode's titular event, showing a cunning side.
Appearances
Tangled
Shorty was first seen without any lines during the song "I've Got a Dream". Right after the song, he spots Mother Gothel who is spying on Rapunzel with the thugs. He begins to flirt with her until she puts a knife to his nose and demands to know where the secret tunnel in which Rapunzel and Flynn escaped through leads. Later on, he and the other thugs break Flynn out of prison. After the doors shut, he opens one of the windows and asks the guards "What's the password?" and won't open the door until they get the password correct. Shorty is last seen being floated up into the sky by lanterns during the kingdom's celebration commemorating Rapunzel's return.
Tangled Ever After
In Tangled Ever After, Shorty stands next to Flynn at the beginning of the ceremony, but is playfully shoved out of the way upon his comment on Rapunzel's appearance. Later, at the end of the ceremony, he is seen yelling "Happy birthday!"
Tangled: Before Ever After
Shorty is seen in Corona Castle during Eugene's verse of "Life After Happily Ever After". He, along with most of the main thugs, appears to have become one of Eugene's closest companions outside of Rapunzel and Maximus.
Tangled: The Series
Season One
In "What the Hair?!", Shorty is the only thug that doesn't mind Big Nose's ramblings about his relationship with Assunta.
In "Fitzherbert P.I.", Shorty attends royal guard training (at first believing the trainee line-up to be the line to the restroom) but does not participate in the drills. He later joins Eugene and Cassandra in stopping a thief, which puts Eugene into the Captain's good graces (to an extent). He then becomes Eugene's teaching assistant for the latter's own training class. A running gag is that he appears in places he's not supposed to be at.
In "Great Expotations", Cassandra ditches Varian at the last minute, leaving him in need of an assistant for his science presentation. In desperation, Varian chooses Shorty, though the thug's clumsiness leads to Varian's disqualification. When Dr. Croix accidentally causes Varian and Fernanda Pizazzo's machines to malfunction, Shorty works with Rapunzel, Eugene, Big Nose, Maximus and Pascal to help Varian and Cassandra save the day.
In "One Angry Princess", Shorty helps Rapunzel in proving Attila's innocence just before the latter was shipped off to a remote prison for the crime of vandalism. Shorty explains to the Captain of the Guards that it was not Attila who vandalized Monty's shop, but Milton the Goat, who got stuck in the candy store after closing hours, and went berserk after hearing the bell of Monty's door chime—wrecking the shop in the process.
In "Pascal's Story", Shorty is loafing around in the castle, giving a motivational speech to a plant as a depressed Pascal walks by. Pascal believes Shorty to be talking to him, and has his spirits lifted as a result.
In "The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth", when Rapunzel takes shelter at the Snuggly Duckling to avoid increased scrutiny by the royal guard, only for the Captain of the Guards to walk in, he accidentally caused Ruthless Ruth's club to fall off its handle, resulting in her ghost possessing Shorty, demanding they, "Listen Up" if they hope to see the light of day. All occupants of the Snuggly Duckling soon sing Ruth's song to enable her ghost to move on.
In "Secret of the Sun Drop", Shorty is passed off as Rapunzel's decoy for the kingdom's assault on Old Corona; he tries singing, "Wind in My Hair" but is silenced by Eugene before he could finish the first verse. Unfortunately, Shorty's disguise fails to work, as Varian unleashes an army of automatons against the party.
Season Two
In "Beyond the Corona Walls", Shorty was intentionally not a squad member of Rapunzel's adventure outside Corona, but he sneaked into the food storage of the caravan before departure until Cassandra discovered him on the road to Vardaros. He, Eugene and Lance are captured by Anthony the Weasel and brought before the Baron. Shorty learns from Lance that Eugene was formerly engaged to the Baron's daughter, Stalyan. Both Shorty and Lance were threatened with death to force Eugene to marry Stalyan and imprisoned. Subsequently, when their companions did battle with the Baron's men at the wedding, Shorty accidentally bumps into the Baron just as he was about to unleash his Kai spider on Eugene, causing the Baron to be bitten instead.
In "Freebird", Shorty is transformed into a bird off-screen by the Mother and Father and thus unwittingly produced the magical eggs needed to restore himself and Rapunzel back to human form after the original supply was used up to help the villains' other victims.
In "Destinies Collide, the gang reaches The Dark Kingdom but can't find their way in. When Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra and Adira find a way in, Shorty stays with Max and Fidela, whom has to save Shorty as he starts to fall in a river of lava.
Season Three
In "Rapunzel's Return", Shorty and the others are returned to Corona.
In "The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne", Shorty ends up stuck on Pete with honey on a sticky situation.
In "Plus Est En Vous", Shorty celebrates happily ever after with the rest of the kingdom after Zhan Tiri's defeat.
Gallery
Trivia
- Shorty usually misspells Pascal's name into "Caspal".
- He can ice skate as revealed in Queen for a Day.
- He mentioned that he used to be a doctor, but it's unclear how true this statement is.
- Shorty can translate Ulf's mimes.
- Shorty, from his behavior, appears to be an alcoholic.
- Alternately, he may have auto-brewery syndrome, as his symptoms do not diminish when he has no access to alcohol even for multiple days at a time.
- He is the oldest member of the pub thugs.
- It never revealed how old Shorty is but he has been guessed to be over 60 in "You're Kidding Me!"
- Its mentioned in "Once a Handmaiden...", that Shorty once got married at the Valley of the Goffas, but it is unknown how true this statement is due to his drunken behaviour and attitude.
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