While Disney has built one of the longest legacies in all of the movie industry, one thing that they've never done with their endless cast of characters is build a cinematic universe. Luckily, the voice actors can fix that. Kristen Bell, the voice of Frozen's Princess Anna was a guest on the shown of Ellen Degeneres, the voice of Finding Dory's title character, so they decided to do part of their show in character. You know, for kids. Check it out.
While Kristen Bell has previously said that her kids aren't really into Frozen, at least not yet, they are perhaps the only small children walking the earth for which that is the case. So, of course, there are other small children home while their parents watch Ellen who would love to see Princess Anna talk with Dory. We're guessing the kids got a kick out of it, but the improv is a bit rushed. The entire sequence is "Anna" trying to talk to "Dory," while Dory repeatedly forgets everything. It's Dory's schtick, we get that, but there's a reason that she doesn't literally forget everything, it turns out it would be really annoying to watch.
Kristen Bell was very clearly not ready for this bit. She keeps just saying "hi," likely trying to set up Ellen, assuming the host has some sort of an idea for where this is all going. It's only after it's already begun that it becomes clear Ellen really had no plan, and Bell is just stuck there saying "Hi, I'm Anna."
The lack of creative improv notwithstanding, It does make one wonder why we don't see more of Disney's characters interacting with each other. Cameo's of Flynn and Rapunzel showing up in Frozen aside, you have to go walk around Disneyland or play the Kingdom Hearts video game series in order to see Disney characters from different films standing next to each other. Even then, their interaction is limited. The closest we get is probably ABC's Once Upon a Time, and while those versions of the classic fairy tale characters are certainly based on the Disney versions, they're also clearly different characters.
Of course, in the case of Dory, we do have the "Pixar Theory." It's a glorious fan theory that every Pixar movie takes place within the same universe, on a single, consistent, timeline. Of course, if we were to take this theory into account, it would also mean that we'd never see a major Pixar crossover, as too much time sits between the films to allow most characters to ever meet.
There have also been fan theories that have linked Disney film's like Frozen, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, and even Tarzan together. Some of them have even been given tacit approval by some of Disney's creative team. As cool as the theories are, we can't help but think about just how much fun it would be to see some of these characters on screen together. It doesn't need to be a full cinematic universe, but certainly, there's a TV special idea in here someplace.
Would you like to see more Disney characters interacting on the big, or small, screen? How do you think it could be done? Give us your crossover movie ideas in the comments below.
