A bizarre Disney theory has been floating around since the release of Frozen in 2013, and people just cant... let it go.

The theory shows up on Reddit,on Twitter,and its regularly perpetuated in articles about Frozen.

The people demand to know:Did Disney name the movie Frozen so stories about Walt Disneys frozen head would stop showing up on a Google search?

Google screenshotIs Walt Disney's head really frozen?

The legend of Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen is easily one of the most enduring pop culture conspiracy theories. Its impressive considering all indications are that he was cremated. But no matter how many times the notion has been put on ice in the last 50 years, it keeps being revived, popping up again and again, serving as the butt of jokes in TV shows such as 30 Rock and Family Guy.

With Frozen 2 coming to theaters on Nov. 22, now seems as good a time as any to find out if the franchise had anything to do with the theory.

The answer, according to writer/director Jennifer Lee? Hell snow.

In a 2018 interview about another one of her movies, A Wrinkle in Time, HuffPost asked if shed heard about the theory.

I have heard that one, Lee said. These are things where Im like, we called it Frozen for thematic reasons, and we called it Disneys Frozen because Disney made the film. Disney paid for the film and distributed it.

Lee, who heads Disney Animation Studios, said all her creative energy went into the movie itself. She added with a laugh, I wish I were that clever.

Walt Disney Animation StudiosFROZEN 2

The rumor that Walt Disney was frozen after his death has a few possible origins.But the theory seems to have been traced back to a 1972 interview between The Los Angeles Times and Robert Nelson, a former TV repairman who was enamored with cryonics and became the president of the Cryonics Society of California.

In comments from the interview surfaced by Los Angeles Magazine, Nelson mentions that Disney wanted to be frozen but claims he missed out. Weeks after his death in December 1966, a man named James Bedford became the first to freeze. (Hes still chilling today.)

In Nelsons 2014 memoir, Freezing People Is (Not) Easy, he recalled his rise and fall in the field of cryonics including a scandalin which nine bodies Nelson was preserving in a cemetery vault in Chatsworth,a Los Angeles suburb,had thawed out. He also describes how he believes the Disney legend started.

According to the book, shortly before Disneys death, Nelson received a call from a woman who described herself as an associate of the Walt Disney Studio. The Disney rep had called to get information on cryopreservation, including what facilities there were, what doctors were involved and how many people had been frozen.

Nelson wrote that his heart sank. No one had been frozen yet, and no cryogenic facility existed. He gave the rep the names of two doctors, Dr. Dante Brunol and Dr. Renault Able, who were scientific collaborators. She thanked him and the call ended.

Nelson died in 2018 and is currently frozen at the Cryonics Institute. But in researching the origins of the Disney story, we were led to Dr. Michael Perry, a historian of cryonics, whos been interested in the field since the 1960s and is a member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Perry, whod known Nelson since 1990, had helped him with his memoir, performing such tasks as fact-checking.

Perry confirmed Disney wasnt frozen.

As far as any of us knows, and according to all the claims I have ever seen, he was cremated, not frozen, he told HuffPost.

He also said Nelsons description of the Disney call is accurate.

Disney studios did briefly contact him, Perry said. It was before his organization, Cryonics Society of California, had frozen anybody. They didnt have any real facilities. They had a couple of doctors they worked with, but theyre not really doing it yet. And thats pretty much it. Apparently, that was the only contact (Nelson) had, just that one phone call.

One call was enough, it seems, to perpetuate the rumor.

Some rumors just wont die down, and I think it just captures peoples attention, and they keep it going, Perry said. Maybe people find it intriguing that Disney might be frozen.

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See the original post:
Bizarre 'Frozen' Theory Is Nearly 50 Years In The Making - HuffPost

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