What if Finding Nemo isn’t just a touching tale about a father and son lost in the vastness of the ocean, but a story about loss? And Snow White isn’t a love story with a happy ending? We’ve collected dark fan theories about Disney cartoons. Now our favorite childhood movie will never be the same!
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
Plot: Princess Snow White’s mother died when she was still a child. Years later, the king-father married again – to a vain woman who hated Snow White for her beauty. The Queen planned to destroy the girl and ordered a servant to take her into the forest and kill her. However, the heroine manages to survive. She finds shelter in a house where seven dwarfs live. Snow White and the dwarfs quickly become friends. The peaceful flow of life is disrupted by the Queen. The envious woman learns that the girl is alive and throws a poisoned apple at her. It seems that only a miracle can save Snow White. And it appears to her in the person of a handsome Prince.
But what if the Prince is not the embodiment of romantic love, not the ideal hero who pulls her back from the dead? This is the question asked by fans of the fairy tale. In their opinion, the Prince of flesh and blood never existed. He himself is a metaphor for death. Death has already been represented in culture as a handsome young man. For example, in ancient Greek mythology, it was depicted as the god Thanatos.
The first meeting of the Prince and Snow White occurs when, having heard her singing behind the castle wall , he turns off the road and decides to get acquainted. At the moment when their eyes meet, the girl comes too close to the edge of the well. After this, the heroine runs away into the castle . Fans have suggested that she does this not because of embarrassment, but because she was too close to death, almost falling into the well. A little later, Snow White flirts with the Prince by sending him a dove. Here, viewers also see a “deadly” reference. Doves symbolize the balance between the earthly and the heavenly, and in this scene the heroine’s soul seems to be preparing to leave her body.
Accordingly, in the climax, when the Prince kisses the unconscious Snow White, he does not bring her back to life. On the contrary, it is death that takes the heroine’s soul. Having said goodbye to the dwarves, the hero takes the girl to the castle, and in the last frames, the two of them stand in front of the castle shining in the rays of the sun. The castle is literally in the clouds – that is, we are talking about the heavenly kingdom, Internet users believe . Another argument in favor of this theory: if Snow White were not dead, she would have definitely taken her faithful dwarf friends with her to a new happy life. But the Prince and the heroine ride off into the sunset together, because the dwarves are alive, which means they cannot follow them to heaven.
Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997)
Plot : Winnie the Bear and his friends live in the Hundred Acre Wood. One fine day, the hero goes to visit Eeyore to ask for honey. It turns out that he doesn’t have the treat, and the donkey’s tail has disappeared somewhere. So Winnie gets involved in an adventure and sets off to search. He is accompanied by Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga and Little Roo. At the same time, another friend of Winnie’s disappears – a boy named Christopher Robin. It seems that he has fallen into the clutches of a mysterious monster. And of course, Winnie is in a hurry to help!
It would seem that it would be difficult to find a kinder, lighter and brighter fairy tale than the adventures of Winnie and his friends. All troubles are successfully resolved, the missing tails are found, and no scary monsters, as it turns out, exist. But in 2000, a theory emerged that cast doubt on the lightness of the story. Surprisingly, it was not discussed in fan circles, but among scientists. A group of Canadian doctors from Dalhousie University published an article with the intriguing title “Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood.” It claimed that the characters in the fairy tale probably have mental disorders. The theory has not lost its popularity to this day: major film publications like to refer to it.
According to the theory, Winnie the Pooh suffers from an eating disorder: he is literally obsessed with honey. The hero indulges in it at every opportunity, “eating away” loneliness: according to the plot, Winnie often takes out a barrel of honey when his friends are not around. Due to compulsive overeating, Winnie gains weight, it is difficult for him to move, for example, play with his friends or climb trees for honey.
The authors of the article “diagnosed” Piglet with an anxiety disorder. He is a timid character who worries about everything. Piglet constantly plays out different negative scenarios in his head. For example, when he and his friends are about to hunt a Heffalump, he thinks: should he pretend to have a headache? What if the Heffalump turns out to be too cruel? At the same time, Piglet is horrified by the thought that he will then have to spend the whole day in bed, suffering from idleness. These scenarios haunt him endlessly, drive him into ever greater anxiety, make him tremble. Piglet’s usual state is an agitated, flushed face and twitching muscles. This is typical for someone who suffers from an anxiety disorder, the authors note.
Scientists have suggested that Christopher Robin has a condition similar to schizophrenia. The main reason was that the boy talks to animals – and they talk back to him. It is quite possible that Winnie, Piglet and all their friends existed only in Christopher’s imagination and all their dialogues and adventures were fictitious. Ushatik was “diagnosed” with depression: he is constantly in a minor mood and does not expect anything good from life. Ushatik is not happy with anything: even when his tail returned, he did not look happy at all. The authors of the article suspected that Rabbit has obsessive-compulsive disorder. The character is obsessed with cleanliness and order and gets irritated when something does not go according to his pre-planned plan. For example, if Winnie suddenly drops in on a visit and you can’t get rid of him. According to doctors, Tigger suffers from ADHD: he is extremely impulsive and cannot sit still. So, in one of the scenes, when visiting Winnie, Tigger grabs a tablecloth from the table and wraps himself in it. And then accuses the tablecloth of trying to bite him. The character is also prone to dangerous reckless behavior – once he spontaneously climbs a tree with Little Roo on his back, and then does not know how to get down from there.
Scientists have not ignored the secondary characters either. Kanga is said to be overprotective of her son Roo: out of concern for the baby, she does not let him out of her pouch and essentially makes all the decisions for him. Little Roo may have an autism spectrum disorder. He has difficulty expressing and understanding emotions, and the character’s speech is monotonous: he often repeats the same words without delving into their essence. Symptoms of dyslexia were found in Owl : he is incredibly smart, but has difficulty writing and often mixes up words when reading.
The authors of the article urge not to take the theory to heart. According to one of the scientists, Dr. Sarah Shi, they themselves did not treat the work as something very serious. She made this admission after outraged fans inundated the doctors with letters accusing them of tarnishing their favorite fairy tale.
Finding Nemo (2003)
Plot : Marlin the clownfish raises his son Nemo alone. Marlin’s wife died in the teeth of a barracuda along with their offspring, and Nemo hatched from the only surviving egg. Curious by nature, during a school excursion, his son swims into the open ocean. Marlin, who is prone to overprotection, tries to stop him, but Nemo does not listen. The hero wants to prove to his father that he is already an adult. Out of his mind with worry, Marlin sets out to find the fugitive. Meanwhile, Nemo discovers a new world full of dangers, finds loyal friends and sworn enemies.
ScreenRant writes about a fan theory that is based on a radical assumption: Nemo never existed. Marlin’s subconscious invented his son to cope with the terrible loss: in fact, he lost his entire family in that tragedy.
According to this theory, Marlin’s journey across the ocean is a metaphor for living through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. These stages are described in the famous psychological model of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. In the denial stage, an angry Marlin, shouting “no!”, chases after Nemo, who swims toward the diver’s boat. He surfaces, trying to figure out where the boat is going, and cannot believe that his son is being taken away to an unknown destination. In the next stage, Marlin takes out his anger on Dory, a fish who saw the boat but whose short memory prevents her from telling the hero where the ship went. In the bargaining stage , Marlin fights with various sea creatures, from a whale to jellyfish: he is sure that if he escapes from their clutches, he will definitely find his son. Next, Marlin sees Nemo’s body, who pretended to be dead to save himself, and decides that he really is dead – the despair stage sets in . Finally, after a happy family reunion, Marlin realizes that his overprotection was unnecessary. He tells his son that from now on he will give him more freedom, and he finds peace of mind. This is the final stage – acceptance .
“Frozen” (2013)
Plot : Princess Elsa from the kingdom of Arendelle can turn everything around her into ice. One day, during a quarrel with her sister Anna, she, without knowing it, plunges Arendelle into eternal winter. Frightened by her own power, Elsa goes to live in the mountains. To return warmth to the kingdom, Anna goes to her, enlisting the help of a kind man – ice miner Kristoff and his faithful reindeer Sven. The trinity will face trials in the form of harsh elements and steep mountain peaks. All this can be overcome thanks to courage, ingenuity and friendship, which will warm in the most severe frosts.
The warm, trusting relationship between Kristoff and Sven is considered to be almost the standard of friendship. Kristoff, who grew up among trolls, does not shine with manners and is a man of few words. But he is ready to joke and talk heart to heart with Sven. And Sven, in turn, is devoted to his master and is ready to share with him his favorite delicacy in the world – carrots. Like Kristoff, Sven does not have a blood family, and this only makes them closer. However, fans are sure that there may be a dark secret behind this friendship.
Reddit suggested that Kristoff is the reason why Sven has no family. When Kristoff was little, his fellow ice miners took the boy hunting and killed Sven’s mother. Evidence of this is Kristoff’s cape, made of skin that suspiciously resembles a deer’s. Fans of the cartoon agreed that it is most likely that (the skin is too big for a wolf or sheepskin). In their opinion, after killing Sven’s mother, the hunters gave the boy her skin and gave him a fawn as a companion. And the close connection between Sven and Kristoff is explained by the fact that the smell of the owner’s cape reminds the deer of its mother.
Moana (2016)
Plot : Long ago, before Princess Moana was born, the demigod Maui stole the stone heart of the goddess Te Fiti. This brought a curse to the Polynesian island where Moana’s tribe lives. To save her homeland, Moana flees from the supervision of her strict father, the leader of the local tribe. The girl fearlessly sets out to find the heart and meet sea adventures.
Four years ago, social media started talking about the fact that there is one important nuance in the story of the princess who entered into a fight with evil. According to some viewers, Moana is dead for most of the film. And all of her adventures – meeting magical creatures, befriending the demigod Maui and trying to return Te Fiti’s heart – take place in another world.
Fans are calling for attention to the beginning of the story, when Moana sets out to find Maui. She asks the ocean to show her the way and at that moment gets caught in a storm. The heroine’s boat capsizes, and she is thrown onto the shore of an island where a demigod lives. On Reddit, they discuss that the girl actually died during the storm because there is a barrier that separates the “normal” and magical worlds. And the only way to get from one to the other is to either be a god yourself, or… die. This is consistent with Polynesian mythology , where there is also a division between the worlds of people and gods.
At the very end, when Moana safely returns Te Fiti’s heart, the grateful goddess repairs her boat and “reanimates” the girl. Now she can return to her world. The same “resurrection” happens to the rooster Hei-Hei, who was with Moana throughout the journey.
The main plot evidence of Moana’s death that viewers see is that after getting caught in a storm, she communicates exclusively with magical creatures (and also speaks with the spirit of her deceased grandmother). There are no people around the heroine. There is also indirect evidence: in early versions of the Moana script, the magical world was directly called the afterlife.