I will freely admit, I am obsessed with anything and everything Disney. Whenever a commercial comes on advertising Disney World, my heart skips a beat. I start bouncing up and down whenever someone suggests watching The Little Mermaid. And my cheeks hurt from smiling so much at the end of every “Disney Radio” Pandora song. The thought of Disney is just so magical, and I love the opportunity they give every adult; to be a kid again. My favorite thing about Disney, however, is their tendency to put “Easter eggs” in every movie, little props or even characters that connect it to another movie somehow. I have spent a lot of time researching these supposed “Easter Eggs”- I even gave a speech on it last semester. The one that has most recently caught my attention, and the attention of Disney fanatics everywhere, consists of characters and storylines from the new hit, Frozen, the remake of an old fairytale, Tangled, and an old classic, The Little Mermaid. This theory was discovered by an anonymous fan, and it goes like this:
The King and Queen of Arendelle tell their daughters that they are going on a trip, and will be back in two weeks. We never learn if they ever get to where they were going or not, because their ship sinks to the bottom of the ocean in a storm. We then fast forward three years to the coronation day of Princess (soon to be queen) Elsa. If you have seen the movie, you know her sister, Princess Anna, has been waiting for this day, as the gates will finally be opened again (they have not been since her parent’s died). As she rushes out of the gates singing (it is Disney of course), in the left hand corner we catch a quick glimpse of who looks like Rapunzel with short, brown hair, and her prince, Eugene. Perhaps simply another Easter egg- or something more? This fan proposed that Rapunzel and Eugene attend the coronation of Elsa out of guilt, since Elsa’s parents died attempting to attend their wedding. The timing makes sense as well. Tangled came out in 2010, and Frozen in 2013. After Anna and Elsa’s parents die, the timeframe jumps forward three years. That means, if basing by present time, their parents sailed in 2010- the same year Tangled came out, the same year as the wedding of Rapunzel and Eugene. Now, how does Princess Ariel come into play? Remember the ship? Doesn’t that adventurous little mermaid swim around a ship looking for human artifacts? I know this may be a stretch, but where these three stories take place make this theory more believable. According to Disney Wikia: By looking at five things: architecture, nature, landscape, politics, and the styles of dress in Tangled, the best fit for a real-world Kingdom of Corona (home of Rapunzel) would be along the Baltic Sea coast of Germany and Poland at some point between 16th to the 18th century. For Frozen: The name “Arendelle” is based on the Norwegian town of Arendal, located southwest of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. In Norwegian, “Aren” means “eagle”, and “delle” is most likely derived from “dal” which means “valley.” To top it all off, The Little Mermaid takes place off the Coast of Denmark.
So, there you have it. Is it true, or just another crazy conspiracy from an over enthusiastic fan? Personally, I believe it is a bit of an over exaggeration, a bit of a stretch. However, it is fun to believe they are all somehow connected.
Ashley Cantasano is a second-year student majoring in marketing. She can be reached at AC784683@wcupa.edu.