The movies and TV shows produced by Disney have helped to shape all of our childhoods. It seems like they will continue to influence the lives of children across the world, seeing as they are buying up every major media franchise they can get their hands on.
The Disney animated movies have developed massive fanbases that span the entire globe. The aesthetic that we now call anime was directly inspired by the early features created by Walt Disney, while other companies have attempted to copy the Disney style since they first became popular.
The Internet has given Disney fans a chance to share their love of the films. This has also extended into the realm of fan theories, which have managed to link every single franchise into one setting and have connected every character through romance. There have been a few occasions when the creators of Disney properties have confirmed the deepest desires of their fanbase; either through official comments or through extras added on to the home releases of the movies/TV shows.
We are here today to look at the fan theories concerning Disney movies/TV shows that have been confirmed by their creators. From Elsa's magical solitude, to the secret origins of the creatures from Monsters, Inc.
Here are Fifteen Mind-Blowing Disney Fan Theories (That Actually Got Confirmed)
15 Elsa's Magic Comes From The Alignment Of The Planets
The source of Elsa's powers in Frozen has been a hotly debated topic among the fans of the film. Frozen never explains why Elsa possesses Cryokinesis, as it seems that none of the characters within the story are aware, save for a single line about a curse. The only person who has any insight into Elsa's magic is Pabbie and his role in the story was greatly diminished during production.
Frozen was originally going to feature Pabbie as the narrator.
He would speak with a Brooklyn accent. Pabbie was originally going to explain that Elsa's magic comes from the fact that she was the thousandth child born after the Earth aligned with Saturn. This explanation was removed from the story for raising too many questions, with the source of Elsa's magic being attributed to a curse with no other explanation as to what that means.
14 The Peddler's True Identity
One of the most prominent Disney fan theories involved the Peddler from Aladdin. The story of the movie is told by him, as he is describing the history of the magical lamp to the audience. The fans noticed that he was also voiced by Robin Williams, which suggested that he might be the human form of the Genie. This would also explain why he knows the history of the lamp.
The director of Aladdin confirmed the theory that the Peddler is the Genie during an interview in 2015. The film was originally going to end with this revelation, with the Peddler transforming into the Genie during the final scene, but this moment was never finished. The later Aladdin movies and the animated series would also retcon this fact.
13 Pixar: Infinity War
Pixar is one of the most critically and financially successful subsidiaries of Disney. It took a while for an agreement to be made that would officially bring Pixar into the fold. This was partly due to concerns over giving Disney full creative control, which was further inflamed by disagreements over Toy Story 2.
Pixar has always been keen to include references to their other movies as fanservice.
Fans have speculated that all of their movies take place within the same world, though not always at the same time (with films like Brave being set so far in the past). It seems that Disney has supported this theory with a video that was released on the official Toy Story Facebook page.
12 The Boys Next Door
The live-action version of Beauty and the Beast featured what was supposed to be Disney's first openly gay character in the form of LeFou. The reaction to this revelation was mixed, with some places refusing to show the movie, while others condemned the film for barely addressing LeFou's preferences and keeping it too vague.
There are limits to how far Disney is willing to go in order to reveal which characters are gay. This was the case with Bucky & Pronk in Zootopia, who are Judy's argumentative next door neighbors. Fans had speculated that these were a bickering couple, rather than being too male friends. Jared Bush confirmed on Twitter that Bucky & Pronk are indeed a gay married couple.
11 The Fate Of Aladdin's Mother
The question of Aladdin's parentage was a popular one among fans of Aladdin. The third film in the series confirmed that his father was Cassim, who had abandoned his family in order to search for an escape from poverty. This led to him becoming the leader of the Forty Thieves. Aladdin and the King of Thieves confirmed that Aladdin's mother passes away at a young age, which is why he became a thief. This wasn't always meant to be the case.
Aladdin's mother was originally meant to be part of the story of the first film.
There was originally going to be a musical number called "Proud Of Your Boy" which involved Aladdin singing to his mother. This song had to be scrapped, which is also why Aladdin's mother was removed from the film.
10 The Original Owner Of C-3PO's Arm
When C-3PO returned in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, he was sporting a brand new red arm. It was never explained anywhere in the film where he acquired this new limb.
We have seen C-3PO broken into pieces in The Empire Strikes Back. He was later reassembled as if nothing had ever happened to him, which suggests that swapping limbs is not a problem for an android. This opened up numerous possibilities as to how he acquired his new arm.
The answer was revealed in one of the Star Wars comic books. An Imperial Droid saved C-3PO's life after it sacrificed its own. C-3PO took the fallen droid's arm and wore it as a symbol of gratitude and rememberance. This was partly out of objection to all of the mind-wipes that droids are known to receive.
9 Dreaming Of Hannah Montana
The most common fan theory of them all is the idea that the entire story took place within the mind of one of the main characters. The most prominent targets of this theory are Harry Potter and Pokémon. There are those who believe that Harry Potter never left the cupboard below the stairs and just made the magical stuff up to make his life more bearable, while there are others who think that Ash was put into a coma when struck by Pikachu's electricity for the first time, which is why he never ages.
Hannah Montana was often accused of being a dream.
This was due to how unrealistic it was that Miley could maintain her double-life. The final episode of the TV show was going to make this canon, with the last scene showing a child version of Miley playing with her dolls. The ending was changed as it was deemed too confusing for kids, though it was included on the DVD.
8 A/S/L? L = TRON
It's not unusual for Disney movies to be dark or to feature violence that might not be appropriate for a feature aimed at kids. What you will almost never see is adult content related to different material.
The closest a Disney movie has ever come to showing hanky-panky in one of their movies was in TRON. Fans had long speculated about the biological functions of the avatars within the computer and this deleted scene answered them. The scene in question involves Tron staying with Yuri in her apartment and the morning after when they wake up. The scene was about as tame as they come, but it was still determined to be too much for audiences. It wasn't seen until the home releases of TRON.
7 The Real Mandarin
Iron Man 3 featured one of the most surprising twists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the Mandarin wasn't actually a real villain. The movie version of the Mandarin was actually a British actor (played by Ben Kingsley) who was playing the role of a terrorist. The true villain of the movie was actually Killian instead. The fan reaction to the Mandarin being some knock-off version of Russell Brand wasn't positive. There was also the case of the new Mandarin's existence not gelling with some of the references made in the first Iron Man film.
It was theorized that the real Mandarin still hadn't revealed himself.
A short film called All Hail the King was part of the Thor: The Dark World home release. This shows the fake Mandarin being freed from jail by agents of the real one, who is apparently annoyed that someone has been using his name.
6 The Scorned Enchantress
One of the most unusual aspects of Beauty and the Beast is the curse that was placed upon the Prince and his castle. It seems like he paid a steep price for being an arrogant jerk. This is to say nothing of the staff of the castle, who were seemingly subjected to a horrific existence for the crime of working for the Prince when he was cursed.
The true nature of the Enchantress' beef with the Prince was revealed in a novel called The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince. This is an official tie-in to the movie, which explained that the Prince was due to marry the Enchantress, whose true name is Circe. The Prince broke off the engagement when he discovered that Circe was a farmer. Her curse was as much a case of being a lover scorned than it was for punishing the Prince's behavior.
5 The Royal Tarzan
The fate of King Agnarr and Queen Iduna in Frozen was fairly ambiguous. It is said that they drowned at sea during a monstrous storm, but their bodies were never found. We do know that they never returned home, so it is likely that they passed away. Fans had theorized that King Agnarr and Queen Iduna were actually the parents of Tarzan. This was confirmed by the co-director of Frozen, who confirmed that Tarzan is the younger brother of Elsa.
The King and Queen still perished, though it was due to a leopard instead of drowning.
There are a lot of problems with this confirmation, the most prominent of which is the fact that Frozen and Tarzan likely took place over a century from each other. Regardless, this theory is still technically confirmed.
4 Terminator Cars
The cars in the Cars movies have the same mysterious background as the toys in Toy Story. We never learn exactly who the creators of these items were or why they have sentience. This is to say nothing of the rules that all of the toys follow in order to prevent humanity from learning their secret.
The creative director of Cars actually gave an answer as to why the cars are alone in their world and why there are no people around. According to Ward, the cars wiped out the humans when they became intelligent enough to realize that they no longer needed them. This was also due to the fact that humans were weighing them down.
So there you have it: the story of Cars is basically just Terminator if the robots won.
3 The Exile Of Nala
The Lion King has an unusual quirk in its story that many fans answered with a theory. This theory was proven to be correct when the deleted scenes from the film were finally revealed.The fans of The Lion King often wondered why Nala was so far away from The Pride Lands when she ran into Simba once again.
The reason for this was explained in a song that was cut from the movie for being too creepy.
"The Madness of King Scar" was a song that showed Scar's poor rulership of The Pride Lands. He attempted to force Nala into marrying him and becoming his queen. Nala refused and was banished for her insolence. This explains why she was able to stumble upon Simba later on in the film. The song has since been restored in The Lion King musical.
2 The Love Of Lexington
There have been several characters on kids shows that were gay, but the creators weren't allowed to directly say it in the story. This is due to the fact that certain countries won't broadcast the cartoon if it features explicitly gay characters. Olivia Olsen confirmed this when she explained the reason why the creators of Adventure Time couldn't directly state that Marceline had dated Princess Bubblegum.
Lexington from Gargoyles was also not allowed to be true to himself on the show. Greg Weisman (the creator of Gargoyles) confirmed that Lexington was gay during a convention appearance after the show had ended. This wasn't allowed to change until the Gargoyles comic book series. There, Lexington was shown developing feelings for a new character called Staghart.
1 The Origins Of The Monsters
The premise of Monsters, Inc. is so manufactured that you would be forgiven for thinking that no thought had been put into the backstory of the world. How would a setting where monsters live in a secret city and sneak into the bedrooms of children in order to scare them as a power source actually come about? It turns out that there is an explanation for the backstory of the monsters and their vendetta against humanity.
It's because they were once human.
The Monsters, Inc. home release has an extra feature that explains the history of the monsters. They were once an ancient tribe of humans who were chased away from society due to their disgusting appearance. They found an island with strange fruit that transformed them into monsters. The idea of scaring humanity came from a revenge plot for their previous treatment.