Mandy Moore Is Not Here For Your Morbid ‘Tangled’ Fan Theories
Fans do so love their theories, whether they’re regarding Jar Jar Binks’ secret second life as a Sith Lord or the nonexistent connection between new sci-fi thriller Life and a planned spin-off for Spider-Man’s extraterrestrial nemesis Venom. Not to mention my personal favorite, which supposes that all Nancy Meyers films take place in the same well-lit, immaculately decorated universe known colloquially as the NMCU. But not everyone gets the same delight from constructing elaborate yarn-pinned-to-corkboard-style conspiracies, and Mandy Moore (the former Entourage star, not the noted La La Land choreographer) did not find much amusement in a particularly morbid theory linking her animated vehicle Tangled to Disney’s follow-up Frozen.
Vulture took note of a new interview with Moore running at TV Line, in which the interviewer introduces Moore to the circulating notion that ice princess Elsa’s parents died while traveling to attend Rapunzel’s wedding to caddish but lovable Flynn. Take a gander at the video below, in which Moore’s face conveys her full bafflement and discomfort with this bleak read of the film’s hidden mythology:
To her credit, Moore’s a pretty good sport about it, conceding that if fans want to go ahead and invent an elaborate connection around death and loss, they have that freedom as consumers of art. But she mostly balks at the suggestion, despite the fact that killing parents outside the bounds of the narrative was pretty much Hans Christian Andersen’s calling card. She compares the harebrained nature of the theory to Lost, which is apt but still betrays an entry-level knowledge of the vast, disturbing world of fan conspiracy theories. If the TV Line interviewer really wanted to freak her out, he could’ve led with the one about how Pokemon is secretly set in a Children of Men-style dystopia.