Frozen’s co-director Chris Buck supposedly confirmed the theory that Anna and Elsa’s parents did not actually die on the ship. He told co-director Jennifer Lee that he did not believe that Anna and Elsa’s parents died when they left on a ship and that their mother was pregnant with a son whom she gave birth to before the shipwreck. When he added that they shipwrecked, had a baby boy and were killed by a leopard, nearly every Disney fan thought “Wow, that sounds identical to Tarzan.” Buck also worked on Tarzan before its release in 1999, making people really believe this idea that Anna, Elsa and Tarzan are siblings is true due to his involvement on both films. He also throws the movie Surfs Up into his crazy little theory, saying that movie takes place on the other side of Africa. Seeing as no one remembers that movie, that part of the theory is irrelevant and doesn’t make a difference in the original theory I’m talking about.
Now the full Disney fan theory involves four Disney movies: Frozen, Tarzan, Tangled and The Little Mermaid. The theory is that Anna and Elsa’s parents shipwrecked on their way to Rapunzel and Eugene/Flynn Rider’s wedding and their parents tried to create a new life with their new baby where they landed after their ship was destroyed. Where does The Little Mermaid come in? That shipwreck that Ariel explores early in the movie was theorized to be Anna and Elsa’s parents’ ship. The ties to Rapunzel and Ariel have not been commented on by Disney or their affiliates.
Here’s my problem with this theory – geographically it doesn’t make sense. Frozen, Tangled and The Little Mermaid are all in the North Sea and Baltic Sea areas whereas Tarzan is definitely in Africa, so how can Ariel explore a shipwreck near the coast of Africa if she’s on the northern side of Europe? There’s also the theory that Anna, Elsa and Rapunzel are cousins so Anna and Elsa’s parents are shipwrecked on their way to Rapunzel’s wedding. That’s far more plausible than Tarzan being their brother.
Besides the geographical problem, there are several other problems with this theory. Tarzan’s parents don’t look like the parents in Frozen. Obviously animation has changed in the decade between the movies, but their hair colors are completely different. Look at this picture below. If someone randomly handed this to you and asked “Are these the same people?” you’d say “absolutely not.”
Another difference is the time period. Remember how Tarzan had a picture of him as a baby with his parents that survived the shipwreck? Anna and Elsa definitely do not have cameras at any point in their movie and surely there would have been someone photographing Coronation Day if they had the technology for cameras. This also disproves the idea that their brother was born on the ship because his parents wouldn’t have had that photograph.
Until the CEO of the Walt Disney Company himself agrees to this theory, I refuse to believe it. There are far too many holes and problems with this theory to be reasonable. Although that theory is basically disproved, Disney posted two videos on Facebook very recently that non-verbally confirmed the Pixar theory – the theory that all Pixar movies are connected in the “Pixar universe.” Using “Easter eggs” (hidden images from one movie inserted into another) these two videos showed various objects or characters from other Pixar movies hidden within Pixar’s Toy Story and Up. Riley, a main character in Inside Out, can be spotted in Finding Dory. The purple bear from Toy Story 3 can be seen in a little girl’s bedroom in Up. The restaurant from Ratatouille can be seen in one of the Cars movies. Doc from Cars can be seen in The Incredibles. A comic book about Mr. Incredible can be seen in the doctor’s office in Finding Nemo. Boo is seen holding a Nemo stuffed animal in Monsters Inc. Jessie from Toy Story 2 is also seen in that same scene with Boo. The Pizza Planet delivery car from Toy Story can be seen in Bugs Life. The list goes on and on.
Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for over $7 billion from Pixar CEO Steve Jobs (yes, the guy from Apple). Even before Disney acquired the company, every single movie has had some connection to another one. Their first movie was Toy Story in 1995 and their most recent was Finding Dory. Cars 3 is set to come out this June so be on the lookout for an Easter egg or two in that movie.
