Are Disney classics "Frozen" and "Tarzan" connected by secret parental ties that make Anna, Elsa and the king of the jungle one big happy family?
"Frozen's" co-director Chris Buck told
MTV News this week that, well, in his mind they are, but nothing with a Disney stamp of approval on it.
Buck, who was also co-director of Disney's 1999 "Tarzan," sought to clear up comments made during a
Reddit Q-&-A last year that appeared to tie the story lines of "Frozen" and "Tarzan" together. It suggested that Buck believed that Anna and Elsa's parents did not die at sea but in a jungle and not before their mother gave birth to a baby son.
Buck, though, came clean to MTV News during a special screening of the Walt Disney Animated Studios Shorts Collection, saying it was only part of his larger imaginary world.
"When you're working on a feature, you have a lot of time to think about stuff because it takes four years to make one," said Buck. "I think Jen (Jen Lee, a 'Frozen co-director) and I were walking to a meeting, and I just start to tell her the entire story."
"I said, 'Of course Anna and Elsa's parents didn't die. Yes, there was a shipwreck, but they were at sea a little bit longer than we think they were because the mother was pregnant, and she gave birth on the boat, to a little boy," he said.
Buck said his story told to Lee moved the parents' shipwreck from Scandinavian waters to a jungle.
"They end up building a tree house and a leopard kills them, so their baby boy is raised by gorillas. So in my little head, Anna and Elsa's brother is Tarzan — but on the other side of that island are surfing penguins, to tie in a non-Disney movie, 'Surf’s Up.' That's my fun little world."
While the "Frozen" and "Tarzan" tie-in received a lot of buzz, it's not like "Frozen" needed any of the extra attention. The 2013 movie became the biggest animated motion picture of all-time with $1.2 billion in global ticket sales, $400 million of that domestically,
according to Box Office Mojo.com.
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