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In this short Supplemental, I address the fan theory which alleges a connection between Disney’s “Tangled”, Frozen” and “The Little Mermaid”.
Post by HuffPost Live.
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love the podcast, and appreciate your putting a critical analysis on this idea getting way out of hand.
though I have to disagree ever so slightly on your criticism about where the stories of Frozen, Tangles and Mermaid take place. Yes, they are in their corresponding fantasy kingdoms, but I suggest that those kingdoms exist in an alternate world, where there is the same physical geography and similar _cultures_, but not the same political entities. Thus Arendelle is likely in Scandinavia, and Corona is, perhaps, in what we call eastern europe; not enough clues in Mermaid, though, could be in the north/baltic sea, could be Mediterranean, or maybe in the Caribbean, if Sabastian’s accent counts for anything (or not, the Chef sings in a French accent and speaks a few French words.)
as opposed to some other movies, like Mulan, which is explicitly in China, though clearly in a fictional fantasy China where magic works and little sassy dragons exist.
If interested, I’ve written a bit on this and other princess-verse issues on my blog. nothing to the extant of what you’re doing, of course.
Thank you very much, and you’re you’re entitled, and it’s a worthy argument, but If I tell you that my story takes place in the northwestern province of Lillypad, you can’t tell me that he’s really from Chicago because he has a Cubs hat on and works at a deep-dish pizza parlor.
From where I sit, Arendelle is in Arendelle; not “likely” anywhere else. Period. It is disrespectful to storytellers to argue that their stories take place anywhere other than where the storytellers say they take place. And I don’t argue that Frozen and Tangled are connected. It’s fact that they are. But the little Mermaid isn’t as long as people insist on comparing real-world locales with fantasy ones.
And in the real world, all the clues you need to know where The Little Mermaid would have lived are right there. Trition’s palace was believed to be under the waves off the coast of Libya, so Ariel and all of her sisters lived there–nowhere near where the Frozen sisters and Rapunzel would have if they lived according to the “real-world” examples presented by the Huffington reporter. It blows away the argument for the theory.
So for the theory to work, they have to embrace your view of an alternative fantasy world and decide for themselves that they are indeed connected, because it makes sense in that context. They go looking at Norway and Germany for proof, I’m coming back at them with Libya. 😉 Many thanks.
Thanks for this episode. I had been hearing the rumors of this supposed connection but didn’t know the full details.
I look forward to every episode.
Keep up the amazingly good work.
Thank you very much! 😀
I liked how you explained it. It made sense where you proposed they are located. The one I always contradict is the Frozen-Tarzan connection. One huge point: When you see the ship sinking in Frozen, it isn’t on fire. In Tarzan the parents are bailing out of a ship that’s totally ablaze.