The Frozen Theory (And The Detail It Misses)

Well, here's again another repost. I just too excited when I read this article and can't hold to share it again. :)

Recently, an imaginative redditor after my own heart proposed a theory that connected the worlds of Frozen and Tangled.
Of course the internet leapt to action and many voices joined the discussion, offering details that might prove Tangled shares a world with Frozen (or giving their dissenting opinions that the whole Frozen Theory is nonsense).
Below I have compiled what I think are the best pieces of ‘evidence’ raised in support of the theory, as well as one key detail that I believe changes everything.
But first, the theory:

The Frozen Theory

It didn’t take long after the release of Frozen for the internet to spot a certain cameo during the song ‘For The First Time In Forever’.

Princess Anna runs out to meet Flynn Rider and Rapunzel.

 In this screenshot from early on in the film, we see Flynn Rider and Rapunzel attending the rare event of Arendelle opening its gates.

Judging by Rapunzel’s hair colour and style, we can see that this is set after Tangled because that film ends with Rapunzel cutting off her golden locks.

Flynn Rider and Rapunzel as they appear at the end of Tangled.

 This is not the only proof that Frozen is set after Tangled. In fact, we know exactly how much time has passed between them.

You see, in Frozen, Anna and Elsa’s parents board an ill-fated ship that sadly never returns.

The moving scene of the King and Queen’s demise.

 We are then told that three years have passed since the ship sank. This is when the main plot of Frozen takes place. Three years later.

It is, of course, no accident that Frozen was released three years (almost to the day) after Tangled.

The shared ’7.9′ score is a conspiracy theory for another day.

Because Anna and Elsa’s parents died on their way to Rapunzel and Flynn Rider’s wedding.

How do we know this?

Well, in the Disney Theory I point out that the King and the Grand Duke appearing at the wedding in The Little Mermaid isn’t too surprising as many European dignitaries would likely be invited to a European royal wedding.

But Anna and Elsa’s parents were not just invited because they were royalty. They were invited because one of them was related to Rapunzel.

The Queen from Tangled and her brother, the King from Frozen

The family resemblance between Tangled‘s Queen and Frozen‘s King is striking, and it also makes sense given the setting of the films that a Norwegian princess (the Frozen animators have acknowledged Norway is the film’s setting) would end up married to a German king (‘Rapunzel’ was written by German authors, The Brothers Grimm).

It also explains Elsa’s magical abilities, and why her father was so adamant that she hide them. Clearly the blonde daughters of this royal family are born with magical abilities. (When Rapunzel cuts her hair it turns brown like her mother’s and she loses her magic. Unlike her sister, Elsa, Frozen‘s Anna is a redhead and never shows any magical ability.)

Having seen his magical niece kidnapped by a jealous witch, it’s obvious that Elsa’s father wouldn’t want anybody to know about his daughter’s powers.

‘Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show.’

This is why he teaches his daughter to hide her abilities, and later decides not to bring her to her cousin’s wedding for fear she might reveal them. Poor Anna was then also left so Elsa’s absence wasn’t so suspicious.

It Goes Deeper

Like all great conspiracies, the Frozen theory doesn’t stop at the easy connections. Not content to link just Frozen and Tangled, the threads stretch even further to connect to another Disney fairy tale that also shares an author with Frozen.

Because the sunken ship of Elsa’s parents has appeared in a Disney movie before.

It’s the wreck that Ariel explores in The Little Mermaid.

Different, yes, but years underwater will do that to a wreck.

OK, so cynics might point out that this could be just about any ship. So let’s bring in some geography to explain the crazy.

You see, to travel from Frozen‘s frozen Norway to Tangled‘s Germany, you have to sail past Denmark.

Denmark is of course the home of Copenhagen’s  ’Little Mermaid’ statue and is the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson, who wrote both ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘The Snow Queen’, which is the fairy tale Frozen is based on.

If the ship sank between Norway and Germany it would be lost somewhere in the North Sea that Ariel calls her home. That’s how it appears in The Little Mermaid, after years of degradation. And so ends the Frozen Theory.

Except…

In the Disney Theory I used a certain scene from Tangled to support my theory.

See that book on the right?

This scene shows three Disney films that clearly exist as fairy tale books in the world of Tangled. In the top left we see Sleeping Beauty, below that is Beauty and the Beast, and over on the right…

The iconic image of The Little Mermaid

So, the question: how can Ariel find the ship from Frozen if it exists as just a fairy tale in the connected world of Tangled?

The simple (and boring) answer would be that it doesn’t.

But What If It Does?

In the conclusion to Disney Theory I argue that the fairy tales and recurring characters of the Disneyverse are archetypes in a grand repeating narrative of ‘daughters who dream of freedom, parents who die tragically and evil relatives who seek to control them’ (written before Frozen‘s release but still fairly accurate). Like a computer trying to solve  some cosmic puzzle, the Disney universe keep taking the same pieces and combining them in different ways in an attempt to find some great answers.

So maybe Ariel doesn’t find Elsa’s parent’s ship. Maybe the ship belongs to some other ill-fated Disney parents. Maybe the ‘Little Mermaid’ book in Tangled isn’t the simply story of Ariel’s life but is one of the many pre-defined narratives that a princess’ life can follow in this repeating Disney universe.

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place for answers

Source: http://joshubuh.com/2014/03/24/thefrozentheory/