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Elsa and Anna have a brother, and itll change the way you watch two Disney movies
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Frozen (2013) - photo by Herb Scribner
Theres a new Disney family connection thatll change the way you view Frozen forever.

In an interview with MTV News this week, Frozen director Chris Buck said that Anna and Elsas parents, who board a ship at the beginning of the film and never return, didnt die in a sea voyage crash as the story infers. Instead, the couple ends up shipwrecked, and the mother gives birth to a new baby boy.

"I said, Of course Anna and Elsas parents didnt die,'" Buck told MTV News. "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. They get shipwrecked, and somehow they really washed way far away from the Scandinavian waters, and they end up in the 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 Elsas brother is Tarzan."

Yes, thats right: Anna and Elsa's brother is the tree-swinging Tarzan in the Disney universe.

Mind. Blown.

But this revelation isnt exactly a surprise for Frozen fans. Viewers have long theorized about what exactly happened to the Frozen parents, according to Yahoo! News.

One popular theory, now debunked by Buck, suggested that Anna and Elsa's parents were on a sea voyage to the wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn, the starlet couple in Tangled, Yahoo! News reported. Their ship crashed on the way there, and eventually became the ship thats visible in The Little Mermaid.

These theories about Frozen point to a bigger trend with movie-goers today in the age of the Internet: fan fiction. Today, many fans create unique theories about plots, subplots and characters almost like conspiracy theories that are widely embraced until the director or story creator comes out with the truth.

Such is the case with Harry Potter. Fans have published theory after theory about the book and movie series, including such things as Draco Malfoy being a werewolf and Professor Snapes first words to Harry having a little more weight than expected. In fact, Harry Potter theories are so popular that a Tumblr blog has even been dedicated to the mind-bending interpretations of the book.

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling will sometimes address these theories and debunk them, much like Buck did with the Frozen theory.

For example, Entertainment Tonight reported in June that Rowling provided answers to some fans' most popular questions, like why the Dursley family, who sheltered Harry before his journey to the Hogwarts school of wizardry, disliked Harry. A fan theory had previously claimed that the Dursleys werent bad people. But, as Rowling explained, Vernon Dursley was a hateful man, especially after Petunia admitted to her husband that her sister Harry Potters mother was a witch.

Vernon, as Petunia had expected, was deeply shocked, Rowling writes. However, he told Petunia solemnly that he would never hold it against her that she had a freak for a sister.

These theories tend to hold a lot of weight with fans until directors and creators debunk their validity. But why?

It may be because fan theories are a lot like conspiracy theories, which are often created by people who are very interested in a certain topic, much like fans of a Disney movie, according to Scientific American. These theories are often simple and easy to understand, making it easy to unite people despite their socioeconomic status, political beliefs and environmental upbringing.

Fan and conspiracy theories also make people feel like theyve discovered something new about the subject theyre studying, which causes them to feel wise and smarter than the rest of the fandom, according to The New York Times.

It can be comforting to do your own research even if that research is flawed, The Times said. It feels good to be the wise old goat in a flock of sheep.

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