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Fan theories can range from the magnificently layered to the simplistic and dull. As Disney is one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, inspired fans have created hundreds of possible theories stemming from their entire catalog. However, although most of these theories can be bright and cheery, some theories can get really dark and upsetting.

The theories that Disney fans have come up with can surprisingly sound realistic given the evidence. Judging by how many theories fans have created from these classic films, it's hard to ignore the ones that sound the most terrifyingly true.

Did Captain Hook Kill Ariel’s Mom? Peter Pan (1953) and The Little Mermaid (1989)

Fans of Disney's most classic films have pointed out a major possible connection between two of their greatest movies. In the 1953 classic Peter Pan, Neverland is home to many wondrous people and places, such as Mermaid Lagoon. In a scene...

Animated movies have a long history of dominating the box office, with only a few holding the record for highest-grossing animated movie. Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks have contributed the most to the history of animated movies at the box office. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Aladdin, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Shrek 2, Toy Story 3, Frozen, Frozen 2, and Inside Out 2 have each been the highest-grossing animated movie of all time for various amounts of time.

Animated movies have a long history of dominating at the box office, but only a handful of them have ever held the record for being the highest-grossing animated movie. The history of animated movies goes back to the late 1800s, but box office data, in general, did not start to become available until the early 1920s. Over the decades, the genre has grown in popularity as innovative and original stories are routinely made in animation,...

Dumbo

Written by Otto Englander, Joe Grant, and Dick Huemer

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen

USA, 1941

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ catalogue began with an artistic bang when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio were released to audiences. While not the commercial successes the studio fantasized about, both demonstrated the sharp if simple storytelling and, arguably more impressive, a quality of animation that seemed unparalleled at the time. The issue, alas, was the lack of monetary success (especially with the company’s other 1940 release, Fantasia), a result that discouraged Walt Disney from swinging for the fences with his next outing, Dumbo. As far as the script is concerned, Dumbo performs some extraordinarily unorthodox circus acts to tell what is an extremely simple story, which compensates for the lower quality of the visuals, even though the latter is not quite as bad as it seems upon first glance.

The story begins in Florida,...

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Directed by David Hand

Written by Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank, and Webb Smith

Context is everything. Looking at anything in the appropriate context can change your view, or at least enrich it. When people in the 21st century look at a seminal American film such as Citizen Kane, they may be left cold by it, hampered by the hype surrounding the American Film Institute’s selection for the greatest film ever from this country. Hype can screw up the proper context for any piece of art, be it a movie, book, song, or TV show. If you watch something months after everyone else has heaped praise upon it, or months after people have excoriated it, you may find yourself expecting to see what they’ve seen and finding yourself at odds with the general consensus.