Take a break from building your snowman. Because for the first time in forever we're doing a theory on Frozen! Hello Internet, welcome to Film Theory! You know the Frozen lore you thought you knew? Well prepare to 'let it go' because today's theory will change everything you thought you knew about the adorkable Anna and the incomparable Adeledazeem. Now Disney Animation has picked up a fun little habit in the last few years of dropping hidden Easter eggs throughout their movies. Making it seem like some, or maybe even all, of them take place in a larger connected universe. And with Frozen being the biggest animated money maker in, well, ever they've connected Frozen with a whole bunch of other movies. There are plenty of other theories floating around about The Little Mermaid and Tarzan; but the connection I'm most interested in today is between Frozen and Tangled. And before you run away thinking you've heard this one because of course there's stuff on the internet that connects Tangled and Frozen, hear me out. Because this is a brand new finding that I think is gonna change the way that you see these two movies. Yes, they're movies about long lost magical Princesses, but the evidence across both points to a huge secret about the relation between Anna, Elsa, and Rapunzel. Specifically, that Anna and Elsa, aren't the sisters in these movies. That's right, Anna and Elsa: not sisters! I mean is that really hard to believe? Look at the family portrait. One of these things is not like the others. Someone looks a whole lot like the milkman. Nope! it's not Anna and Elsa who are the sisters, but rather Elsa and Rapunzel. And sure! You may be shaking your head now, but the backing for this theory is real. From the movies lore, to Disney's own information. And if you stick with me, I think you're gonna agree. The first pieces of evidence we have come from Disney itself. Who've slipped bits and pieces of information about Frozen's lore since the movie came out. First, Frozen writer and director Jennifer Lee confirmed a huge point in a Reddit AMA about King and Queen... uhh... King and Queen...What are their names? Agnarr and Iduna? Really? Scandanavia we need to talk about your naming conventions here. In any case, while Agnarr and Iduna are lost at sea, they're not going off on any old 3 hour tour, they're sailing for a wedding. It was also confirmed that this isn't just any wedding they're going to: it's Rapunzel's wedding from the end of Tangled. That's huge right there! We already have a solid connection between the movies in two ways: Space and time. Looking at a map this makes total sense based on where these movies take place. It's been pretty well established that Frozen's location of Arendelle is a hybrid of Arednal and Bergen Norway It's so well known in fact that the Norway zone of Epcot was completely overrun after the movie came out and Disney had special Frozen tours set up in Norway to handle all the crazy Elsa fans storming into the country. Probably the only time in Disney's history that people actually were excited to go visit Epcot. Tangled is likely to take place around the corner just across the North Sea in modern Germany in a fictional city called Corona. This matches where the Rapunzel story was originally based since it was one of Grimm's fairy tales. So they're definitely close enough to bump into each other out on their royal yachts Or royal ice barges, I guess? I don't know what you guys do that far north. We also know when they connect in time. Based on the hints Disney has already dropped, we know these movies are three years apart. Closer than any other Disney Princess timeline. We start with extra scenes at the end of Tangled. Where Rapunzel and Flinn get married and start their happily ever after. We know at this point that Agnarr and Iduna are supposed to be on their way to a wedding, Rapunzel's wedding, but they never make it. When the main story of Frozen starts, we're specifically told that it happens three years after the shipwreck. Which means exactly three years after Tangled's wedding. What's fascinating is that this timing plays out, both in the movie and in real life at the same time. In the movies releases themselves. Tangled's release was November 24th, 2010 Frozen was released almost exactly 3 years later to the day on November 27th, 2013 and picks up exactly three years later as soon as you start the movie. The timelines follow each other both in the real world and in their own universe which is brilliant and also, not by accident. We know based on the Wikis that Rapunzel is 18 after her movie She gets married shortly after she shows up back at the castle despite the fact that Flinn says it took many years. "After years and years of asking" If you need proof for that, Rapunzel already says the he's lying in that line: "Eugene" If the wedding were to take any longer than that Rapunzel's hair would have grown out And sadly a delayed wedding would also mean that Pascal would not be in the wedding party... He'd be dead, based on the average lifespan for veiled chameleon's. Sorry man it's called the circle of life. *Blow's raspberry* So Rapunzel is 18 at the wedding And when Frozen happens 3 years later. We know Elsa to be 21 In short some simple math tells us Elsa and Rapunzel are the same age. And I mean exactly the same age They were born at the same time They're twins. Fraternal not identical obviously. But now I know you're saying that that's just ridiculous. Yes, the movies are connected and yes, they overlap and stuff but it's impossible that the two are twins, right? Wrong! In fact it's completely possible! to prove it i'll start out with some good, old fashioned biology. Loyal theorists know that some of my favourite theories here, and on Game Theory, are backed by genetics and this one is no exception. One of the reasons people usually assume that Elsa HAS to be the daughter of Agnarr and Iduna is that her eyes are blue just like her mothers. Now the genetics around eye colour are slightly more complicated than we were taught in eighth grade science class but to roughly simplify, to prove the point, both blue eyes and green eyes are recessive so you must have two light eye alleles to get a blue eyed kid. When one parent has green eyes and the other has blue like you see in Frozen. The odds of Anna or Elsa individually having blue eyes is 50%. Yay for the recessive Scandinavian gene pool. but it's just as genetically likely for Elsa to belong to the King and Queen in Tangled. Who, for the life of me, i couldn't find their names turns out Agnarr and Iduna aren't the only ones with blue and green eyes King and Queen Tangled are yet another blue and green eyed royal couple. Weird coincidence, right? Maybe.. Maybe not.. At the very least this means that genetically they have the same probability as the Frozen royal couple of ending up with a blue eyed baby like Elsa. But that's not all! Beyond eyes, we can also tell they're twins based on the fact that they're both left-handed. 22% of twins are left-handed which is more than double the world average. For Elsa, we see her doing the important things in the movies as a lefty. Her primary ice-shooting hand is left. She creates Olaf with her left hand. Touches her face left. Unties her braid left. and even tries to save Anna with a crucial, left-handed ice attack. It's a pretty similar story over on the Tangled side. Rapunzel is definitely more ambidextrous than Elsa is and she does things with both hands. However she shows a preference for her left hand in crucial activities. Especially ones where she has to act on instinct. She paints and brushes her hair both with left and right hands but in an emergency, she brandishes her frying pan with her left hand, or bats lefty with it. She naturally reaches out for her parents lantern with her left hand. Holds candles with her left. Holds Pascal left and throws left. And just so you don't think i'm playing favourites other characters are distinctly right-handed. In Frozen, Anna always knocks right-handed and reaches out with her right hand. In Tangled, Eugene swings his sword right points right, and touches Rapunzels face right-handed. But all this left-handedness has to come from somewhere, right? or left? one of the two *ba-dum tiss* Luckily it happens that Mummy Tangled happens to be likely left-handed. We don't get a lot of camera time with the Kings and Queens in general but Rapunzel's mother is shown with a left-handed preference in most scenes she's in. Holding Rapunzel left-handed. Gesturing left-handed and reaching out to touch Rapunzel left-handed after seeing her for the first time in 18 years. There isn't enough evidence on the Frozen side to say whether Agnarr and Iduna are left-handed or not. But we know the genetics line up for Tangled. And finally we have hair. Honestly, none of these parents are likely to produce children with bright blonde hair like either Rapunzel or Elsa. But, as we learn in Tangled, Rapunzel's blonde hair comes from the magic her mother absorbed from a bright yellow flower. If in fact these two are twins it would also explain Elsa's unusually vibrant blonde hair. Which is surprisingly, more plausible than the slim genetic chance Iduna and Agnarr have of producing a toe-headed ice Princess. So at this point, the location of the movie, timing of the movie, and biology of the movie all support Rapunzel and Elsa being Disney's true first magical Princess sisters. But what about the really exciting stuff? What about their actual magic? If these two are indeed twins like I'm saying they are they should have the same powers, right? I don't know if you've seen these movies lately but ice blasting? Definitely not the same as ole healing hair over here. Well hang onto your anthropomorphic reindeer! Because there's even more evidence to this theory. First of all, it's really important to reiterate the fact that Elsa and Rapunzel are the only two Princesses to EVER have magical powers in a Disney movie. Seriously, the only two Princesses in the 80 year history of Disney films who can use magic! That's pretty incredible if you think about it. And it's not an accident. This doesn't happen just because they're cool Northern Europeans who share the same magical universe. It's because they share the same magical mum. Like I said before, Rapunzel absorbs magic from a healing potion her mum drinks before she's born. This is how we explain Rapunzel's magic for the rest of the movie and for better or worst it kinda makes sense. The writers clearly took the time to build in a backstory that justifies her magic instead of it having to come out of nowhere. So, where's the backstory in Frozen? Where's our magical history lesson? Is it laziness? Well, no. This is an animation team who bothered to draw in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in to Rapunzel's book collection. If they left something out it's because there's another explanation. No one in the Frozen royal family has magic or was ever exposed to it. These are the muggley-ist Disney characters out there. Even when the royal family takes Elsa to the rock trolls Agnarr can't answer right away whether Elsa was born with magic or cursed with it. "Born with the powers, or cursed?" "-uh.. Born." What an oddly specific detail you've included there Disney. But THIS is the reason. When Agnarr stutters in front of the rock trolls, he's showing a natural reaction. 'Was she born with these powers?' 'Uh... y- yes?' He doesn't know because he wasn't there when Elsa was born with magic. Ever wonder why Agnarr and Iduna never show any surprise about Elsa's magical powers? Like, wouldn't you just find it a little bit starting? Worth a trip to the paediatrician at least. We never see them doing normal things you'd expect parents to do in this situation. They don't try to cure Elsa they don't even seem to look for answers about where her powers came from. Don't you think thats a little bit strange? Well it's not if you consider that they already know where her powers come from. Her real mother. The same that gave Rapunzel her powers. But okay, enough beating around the bush let's actually talk about that magic. One of Frozen's biggest criticisms, leveled at it from Honest Trailers to Cinema Sins is that Elsa's power set has always seemed a bit weird. "Meet Elsa, a manic depressive princess" "with a confusing set of powers" "like - creating life?" "you're alive? / Uhm.. I think so?" "they kind of gloss over that one" Yeah she freezes stuff causes major destruction and blizzards builds ice castles, all that. But then she also brings things to life creating sentient creatures like Olaf and Marshmellow. Literally, it's all over the place! At first it actually seems like Elsa and Rapunzel have opposite powers. With Elsa stopping everything from growing and Rapunzel making everything young and new again. A Yin and Yang sort of situation. But if you look closer their powers are actually more similar than you think. Let's go through it: In the ending to both movies the Princesses save someone they love. In Frozen, it's Anna In Tangled its Flynn, or Eugene or whatever his name is. To start both scenes the true love character saves the Princess. Eugene saves Rapunzel from Mother Gothel and Anna saves Elsa from Prince Hans. In doing so they both die in the process: Anna by freezing and Eugene with a stab wound. Anna exhales her last breath Eugene falls limp. These guys are gone. At this point each of our Power Princesses literally hugs the true love for an awkwardly long minute of sobbing and then suddenly discover a new power they never thought they had. The exact same power. Reviving the dead. Giving things life. In Tangled it's giving Mother Gothel and Eugene life. In Frozen it's giving snowmen and Anna life. Coincidence? Not a chance! It's the exact same power executed the exact same way! Their powers aren't opposite! In fact, they're twins! Just like the Princesses themselves Elsa did inherit the power to revive things just like Rapunzel. She just, also ends up with some nice ice upgrades. In short, everything in these movies from the setting, the background the lore,
the genetics the magical powers even the structure of their own stories are direct parallels. So now I ask you, look at the evidence and look at the story one more time through a new lens. Once upon a time in Corona, a Kingdom in Northern Germany a sick Queen drinks a magical healing potion, made from a magical yellow flower right before giving birth. She has twin daughters. The girls are blonde, as both are infused with the magic of the flower. One daughter immediately demonstrates magical healing powers as you sing and the other one... doesn't really seem to do all that much. Mother Gothel discovers that Baby 1 will keep her young forever, but she can't just snip some hair so she has to take the whole baby. Which she does by kidnapping her and locking her up in a tower. King and Queen Tangled are heartbroken that Baby 1 is stolen and they realise that they can't risk losing Baby 2 if she's ever discovered to have magical powers. They know Corona isn't safe and send Baby 2 on a trip across the North Sea to the neighbouring kingdom of Arendelle to live with Agnarr and Iduna far away from Mother Gothel. In Arendelle, the King and Queen eventually realise that Elsa does indeed have magical powers too. Unprepared to raise a magical child, they try to hide Elsa's powers to protect her from being kidnapped like her sister, Rapunzel. Closing up the castle Limiting the staff Hiding Elsa indoors It's to keep the word from getting out to Corona that there was another Princess born with magic. And to protect their own daughter Anna from accidentally spilling Elsa's secret or becoming the target of a kidnapping herself they have her memory wiped. The bad rep Agnarr and Iduna get is all in the name of helping to keep Elsa safe until her sister Rapunzel reappears. And eventually the two find each other when Rapunzel ends up in Arendelle at the end of Frozen. So is that the TRUE origin story of Anna, Elsa and Rapunzel? I guess we'll have to see what happens in Frozen 2. But Hey.. That's just a theory.. A FILM THEORY aaannd.. CUT!
These are some weak arguments MatPat. 1: Corona should be in Italy or Spain, as it's "Crown" in either place's language. This makes sense for naming a capital city where the king and queen would reside. Their powers are "sort of the same". Rapunzel has no elemental powers, which aren't explained under the theory at all. If they were the same, why doesn't Rapunzel have any control over her powers, why aren't Elsa's powers triggered by song? Better question, why would the king and queen from frozen allow Elsa to assume the throne, literally giving their kingdom over to Corona's royal family? Why would Corona's royal family hand Elsa over to them for protection? Mother Gothel isn't shown to be especially powerful, there's no reason they couldn't just beef up security to prevent Elsa from being taken.
To the genetics question - Elsa doesn't have blonde hair - look at her eyebrows. Her eyebrows are dark brown, like her parents' her hair is white because of a combination of her ice powers, stress, and a lack of exposure to sunlight.
As for the source of her magic - how did Elsa's dad know where to go to fix Anna? He's got a library full of books, some of which have extensive information about magical beings - and he instantly knew who could help and where to pull the map to find the trolls. The king knows where to go, what to say, etc. The trolls recognize the king without any introduction. The troll leader is aware of the nature of Elsa's powers without any explanation being offered. Sooooo, the king has been here before.
The trolls know about all of this, meaning that the king has likely been toying with magic for some time - resulting in both of his daughters being born with magical powers. That's right BOTH. Perhaps you missed the subtlety in the Troll leader's line. "I recommend that we remove all magic, even memories of magic". Shouldn't memories of magic be all that Anna has? No, because Anna has powers to, they're just not manifesting yet. Consider - why would the king ask the trolls to fix Anna by removing magic and not ask them to remove Elsa's magic - hence removing her powers. Simple answer - Elsa didn't get her powers by accident, she was given them by her father, and for a reason. In a country where ice and snow are everywhere someone with ice elemental powers would be little less than a god. He wanted his heir, his firstborn, the crowned princess, to be a weapon as much as a ruler.
Oh, and additional evidence to back this theory. Anna's hair is red, not brown. Why? Because the king/sorcerer gave Elsa ice powers and Anna fire powers. Just as Elsa's hair is turned white by her elemental magic, so was Anna's hair turned red by hers. Why fire? The same reason ice was important, they live in a country surrounded by ice. Elsa would be a god of creation, and Anna one of destruction. They would be invincible unquestioned rulers. This plan was never put into action because their parents died too early in their lives, but the pieces all fit.
Rapunzel's powers should make her immortal. If she can stop aging, then she can live forever. If the king from Frozen is aware of her existence, and her powers, don't you think it would behoove him to start researching magic that would give their kingdom an edge in a conflict . . . perhaps elemental powers like fire and ice? Wouldn't it make sense for him to give his children such powers in order to stop their kingdom from being overtaken by Corona, now ruled by Empress Rapunzel The Undying.
Another drop of evidence . . . the king describes the mishap with Anna's head being frozen as "getting out of hand". This implies that he once had control of Elsa's powers . . . that they are just now getting too powerful for him to deal with. He asks the trolls to do what they have to do to save Anna, and the troll leader says that they will "remove all magic" - the king agrees . . . expecting to restore her powers later on . . . .
. . . . Cue the title card for Frozen 2: Anna's Inferno.
But hey, that's just a theory . . . a Reposted from the Comments Section Theory . . . aaaaand POST.
Aside from the various other issues with this theory, the "evidence" for Rapunzel still being 18 when she gets married is complete BS. Rapunzel didn't say Eugene was lying about it taking years of asking, she calls him out for trying to make it sound like Rapunzel had asked him for years when the reality was that Eugene had asked her for years. As for her hair, it's shown in the movie that, once cut, her magic hair stays brown and doesn't grow back. Finally, Pascal still being alive for the wedding is nothing more than Disney not wanting to kill him off just for the sake of following real-world lifespans.
[EDIT: For a better explanation of Pascal being alive years later, how about Rapunzel's magic healing powers? We already see at the end of Tangled that her tears can bring the dead back to life, so if Pascal were to die she could just revive him anyway.]
I like MatPat, but he has a bad habit of twisting, misrepresenting, and/or ignoring information to fit his theories.
I really like the work MatPat does, and I'm usually amazed by the time and effort he puts into his research, but all I could think watching this theory was "Wait, what?". It seems like everything he says is utterly and completely wrong. Let's take it from the top:
On being the same age What Rapunzel meant when she said Eugene was lying was that she didn't beg him to marry her, not that it didn't take "years and years of asking". Her hair stopped growing after being cut. Even if they did get married immediately, Rapunzel and Elsa still cannot be sisters, since Rapunzel was born in the middle of summer (βItβs also my birthday, β¦ just so you know.β) and Elsa was born on Winter Solstice.
On Elsa looking like the odd one out If they really are sisters, all MatPat's arguments here are rendered moot. The flower potion changed Rapunzels hair - both hair color and eye color depend on melatonin, meaning it would probably affect eye color too? So it doesn't really matter what the parents look like.
On powers Their powers are also different. Elsa didn't loose her powers after cutting her hair (I assume she did cut them, otherwise why isn't her hair long like Rapunzels?) and she never healed Anna. Trolls established that "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart", meaning that Anna saved herself. Rapunzel cannot control any elements.
On Elsa being left-handed MatPat mentioned letting her hair down - might be a habit(she always wears it left), trying to save Anna - she was lying on her right hand.
All theories I found also seem to be that Elsa indeed is left-handed, but I think she actually is right-handed.She does most things with her right hand in both Frozen (gestures, taking off gloves...) and Frozen Fever (waking Anna,handing her the string, swinging on top of the clock tower - would you do that with your non-dominant hand?) except for the magic. I have two theories for this:
A) Anna took her left glove, so she couldn't use her right hand in the castle and later on it was just more convenient - soldiers standing on both sides etc. She also seems to be better at it with her right hand, using it for more complex stuff(right hand - complex sculptures in Frozen Fever, Anna's dress... x very crude Olaf with her left hand)
B) Her magic is something extremely hard to control (at this stage), wouldn't it make sense that in times of distress, it manifests itself on the hard to control side of her body?(left hand)
There's also a GIANT clue everybody seems to overlook - Elsa's hair. She always wears her braid on the left side. Both me and all the other long haired people I know tend to wear their hair on the non-dominant side(if it is on one side only - like the braid) so it won't interfere with our "main" hand.
PS. By writing this, i realized how much work MatPat has to put in his videos and I gained a whole new level of appreciation for his work.
But hey, that's just a theory... a Film Theory.
But Matpat information on the Internet and Wikia shows that Elsa was born on the winter solstice while it clearly shows in the movie during rapunzel birth and when the parents were lighting up the floating lantern it looks like spring or summer. Plus her birthday is during summer, it was in a song. I know way too much. The whole one universe theory for both Pixar and Disney are so interesting.ο»Ώ
OK, my only question is this: why do Anna and Elsa have similar facial structures, then? Yes, the hair is different, but in the "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" scenes, we see that they share a similar 'sloopy' forehead and nose with their mother.
most of the actual points in the theory are explained so weak , especially eye color , the birth and being left handed.
the only things that kinda makes sense are their age and source of their magic power. i'm waiting for frozen 2 how much you want to bet they're not twins but triplets.
This theory hinges on some weak evidence, the weakest of all being that Elsa isn't genetically related to any other magic users. Back when the trolls healed Anna, they implied that in removing Elsa's ice magic, they'd remove "all traces of magic" then specified that memories were separate, implying that Anna had magic of her own that had yet to manifest itself. Also, consider the shackles Elsa is put in at the end of the movie. Those are really poorly designed, any normal person could be chained by the wrists and you would save like 80% of the iron. Those were clearly designed specifically for the purpose of containing someone's hand-based summoning powers (albeit poorly). Elsa's ancestors likely had similar powers (hence why they would have a book in the first place). Consider Anna's obvious association with fire- aside from making her a thematic opposite to Elsa, is it not also likely that she originally had magic of her own, a counterpart to Elsa's ice magic? And that's just with what the movie gives us, no need for convoluted twin conspiracies.
This theory does bring up some clever parallels I hardly noticed, but after listening to disney story origins, as well as other comments, I will agree that this theory is... way too unlikely.
Just watched this one. I like it better than the idea that they're related to Tarzan.