Viral Theory About Tarzan's Parents Connects Him to Another Disney Movie

It's true, what they say about Disney's main characters: They can never have both living parents. Think about it — Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana, Ariel, and even Bambi. For a long time in the Disney animated canon, it seemed that one of the main criteria for being an iconic film character (especially a titular one) was to lose one or both of your parents in either an unspeakably tragic or completely mysterious way.

The same is certainly true for Tarzan, who was famously raised by a colony of gorillas in an African-inspired jungle, making friends with elephants and enemies with jaguars.

But how did he end up there in the first place? What happened to Tarzan's parents? There's a theory that'll blow your mind.

In the lore — both in and outside of Disney adaptations — Tarzan's parents were wealthy, English explorers. While sailing the seas in search of adventure, they ended up in the jungle after their ship caught fire and they were forced to escape using life rafts.

They built a treehouse and settled in as a family, trying to become accustomed to life in the jungle while awaiting help. However, as many classic Disney fans know, this didn't last long as the film's titular character tragically lost his parents when he was still a baby.

In the films inciting event, Tarzan and his parents are attacked by a jaguar known later to the audience as Sabor. In an ultimate display of parental love and sacrifice, they save Tarzan from Sabor, resulting in their own deaths. This is witnessed by Kala, a gorilla whose children were also killed by Sabor.

With pity, she takes Tarzan in to raise him as her own, and the rest it history.

While not much else is officially known about Tarzan's parents, a viral theory suggest that there's actually a mind-blowing backstory behind them. In fact, some believe that Tarzan's mom and dad could also be the ill-fated parents of Frozen's Anna and Elsa.

As we know, Anna and Elsa's parents, the King and Queen of Arendelle, tragically died in a shipwreck while sailing to the fabled island of Ahtohallan, a place that they thought they might find some insight on Elsa's mysterious powers.

However, this theory suggests that while they never made it to Ahtohallan, they did make it to an unnamed jungle, where they had a son. See where we're going with this?

One of the film's directors, Chris Buck, who also directed Tarzan, once entertained the theory on MTV: "'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. ... They end up in the jungle ... building a tree house, and a leopard kills them, so their baby boy is raised by gorillas."