Cartoon Theories

[Big Panda]

For those unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, people like to come up with theories for why certain cartoons exist, or what they're really trying to represent.

For example, did you ever stop to wonder, maybe the kids in Ed Edd 'n Eddy are all in purgatory? That the Rugrats are all a product of Angelica'a imagination? That every episode of the Pokemon anime beyond the first episode has been a coma dream?

These theories are ridiculously fun to think about if they're well-thought out.

The most recent theory I've discovered: all the Pixar movies are actually telling one big story arc:

Other theories worth mentioning:

-Dora the Explorer has Downs Syndrome

-The Fairly Odd Parents represent anti-depressants

-The Winnie the Pooh characters all represent mental disorders

-The Spongebob SquarePants characters represent the seven deadly sins

-The kids in Phineas and Ferb are in a mental institution

-Donald Duck is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder

Know any other theories? Got your own? Share them!

[iDEATH]

I love this stuff, though I've gotta say, I absolutely hate the Pixar theory, the jumps the guy makes without any evidence to back them up grate on me far more than they should...

 

Cracked have done a bunch of articles on these, so I'll link you to them, they make for some fun reading.

http://www.cracked.com/article_21033_5-creepy-cartoon-fan-theories-that-make-way-too-much-sense.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_19882_6-insane-but-convincing-fan-theories-about-kids-cartoons.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_19673_6-insane-but-convincing-theories-childrens-pop-culture.html

 

My personal favourites are the "Dead Rugrats" theory, the idea that Thomas the tank engine takes places a distopian regime and the idea that Spongebob takes place in the Bikini Atoll.

The spongebob one is especially great because i'm pretty sure the creator confirmed that it's actually true.

[Big Panda]

That thing about the Genie and the Peddler being the same guy: THEY ARE. Or at least they where supposed to be. I'm not kidding, in one of the many scenes that where scripted but cut, at one point the movie was to end with the Peddler concluding the story pulling off his head revealing himself to be the Genie.

In a sense, that "theory" is 100% true.

[Spin Attaxx]

Tbf I do kinda think that these theories are usually just thought up to make series seem darker for the sake of it.

 

But I suppose I do have at least one theory for a cartoon - since the Decepticons have folks like Megatron, Soundwave, Astrotrain, Reflector etc. who can change size and mass while on the Autobot side there's hardly any who do so (I think only Broadside, Blaster and his tapes do it?), I reckon it's because the Decepticons have the technological advantage - they have some kind of mass-shifting tech allowing them to be able to transform more than just their bodies and basically "cheat" transforming.

 

Or the ability was given to them by an interdimensional wizard who organised, and is masterminding, the entire conflict as a means to sell toys :U

[JezMM]

Tbf I do kinda think that these theories are usually just thought up to make series seem darker for the sake of it.

Exactly this to be honest.  I think the majority of these theories probably are just thought up as a silly random joke/thought "oh lol you could kind of interpret Rugrats as all the babies being figments of Angelica's imagination" and people latch onto it just because it makes the show cooler/darker, because they're insecure and need to justify the fact that they watch a show not aimed at their age group, or because they genuinely feel that believing a thing that someone just made up and can rarely be applied consistently across all episodes, means they're cleverer than the average viewer.

[Gabz Girl]

Not keen on cartoon theories myself as like Jez said most of them are made to be all creepy and shit. Me no likey.

However one theory that I do agree with is the Genie and salesman from Aladdin being the same character, because it's true! Not only are they voiced by the same flipping voice actor but as TheFatPanda already mentioned he was originally supposed to show his identity at the end.

[Big Panda]

Speaking of Disney's Aladdin, here's another I remember seeing somewhere.

Aladdin is actually set in a post-apocalyptic future where Islam has become the dominant religion. This explains how Genie makes all those modern pop culture references.

[Tara]

Going to echo Jez with most of them.  I'd like to think they started out as jokes, because the ones that seem to catch on the most are usually ones which use ridiculous yet undebatable facets of the show to prove them.  The one that most comes to mind is a theory surrounding Codename: Kid's Next Door which details Numbah 1 as being a mentally-insane orphan and the only existent member of the Kids Next Door.  TL;DR - The other kids are all just different sides of his personality and the grown ups are the workers at the mental institution trying to keep him stable.  One of the things that they actually use to justify this theory is literally the fact that all the characters have different personalities.  As if they were, you know, different characters altogether or something.  It's ridiculous.  Yet people eat it up.

 

Of course, there are some that actually are interesting, even if they are obviously false.  One of my favorites that I actually can get behind (at the risk of sounding like exactly the type of person Jez just described) is the Pinkie Pie growing up on a graveyard theory.  Pinkie Pie states in MLP season 1's "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" that she grew up on a rock farm, where "there was no fun, there was no smiling, there were only rocks."  Well, by nature, graveyards tend to be pretty dismal places, so I guess it makes sense.  But what I thought was intuitive was when someone pointed out how carrots grow with their roots sticking up from under the ground, much like the way a headstone might have an underground base that supports the visible part of the headstone above ground.  So basically, she was likening headstones to carrots and how her family seems to have an ever-expanding collection of them and... oh god, I need to lie down and cry.

 

But really, it's almost certainly untrue and is at best good for some cheap lulz, but it does have some canonical basis and wouldn't actually be too out of the way for the show (given that death is an evident part of the show's universe, even if it's never explicitly stated).

 

I also quite like the theory of Tom and Jerry being Nazi propaganda.  ... Er, well, maybe I don't like it... because, you know... that would be terrible.  But you know what I mean.  I think it was very well researched and coming from the time period in question, it doesn't seem too farfetched.  Again, almost certainly not true, but it's sort of interesting to look at.

 

But yeah, most of them are just "lol, if you completely skew this completely innocuous scene, you can somehow make it tragic."  Like Ash's coma.  Come on what.

[Spin Attaxx]

I also quite like the theory of Tom and Jerry being Nazi propaganda.  ... Er, well, maybe I don't like it... because, you know... that would be terrible.  But you know what I mean.  I think it was very well researched and coming from the time period in question, it doesn't seem too farfetched.  Again, almost certainly not true, but it's sort of interesting to look at.

Y'know, even as a kid, I thought "Tom and Jerry? Aren't they slang for British and German soldiers? If so, why is the one named after the 'enemy' the supposed protagonist?!".

 

But the idea of it being Nazi propaganda never really crossed my mind. Not enough Swatstikas or big-nosed greedy caricatures of Jewish people for me to buy it.

[Faseeh]

You know reading this stuff legitamately creeps me out.

 

I do agree with Jez, it's all overthinking. The Pixar Theory is like the only one I like though.

[Big Panda]

There's also the Toy Story theory that Andy's mum is actually Emily, Jessie's original owner.

-Based on Jessie's flashbacks, Emily grew up in the 70's, and it's plausible that Andy's mum would be old enough to have grown up in the same decade.

-The cowboy hat Andy wears is identical to the one Emily owned in the flashbacks...except the white sash. But if you look at Andy's hat you can see a faded rim from where the sash would've been.

-Emily left all her old toys in the box to give to charity...except the hat.

Conclusion: Mrs. Davis is Emily, and she passed the cowboy hat she had as a little girl down to her son.

[Tara]

Y'know, even as a kid, I thought "Tom and Jerry? Aren't they slang for British and German soldiers? If so, why is the one named after the 'enemy' the supposed protagonist?!".

 

But the idea of it being Nazi propaganda never really crossed my mind. Not enough Swatstikas or big-nosed greedy caricatures of Jewish people for me to buy it.

The Nazis were racist against more than just Jews and there were enough racist caricatures in Tom and Jerry to make up for the lack of Jewish stereotypes.  But, such was the way of cartoons at the time.  The only audience that mattered at the time were white and so any other race was pretty much okay to poke fun of to some pretty shocking degrees.

[Big Panda]

Can somebody provide a more detailed exploration of this Tom & Jerry theory?

[Tara]

Can somebody provide a more detailed exploration of this Tom & Jerry theory?

You can read the full thing here!

[Solkia]

Probably my favorite is Ash's Coma. If only for the thought that Ash Ketchum is in a coma.

[Big Panda]

I kinda like it too. The idea of everything in Ash's "journey" being a representation of his personal demons interests me.

[Tara]

Honestly, I kind of prefer the "eternal happiness theory," which suggests that the Ho-Oh that Ash sees at end of the first episode granted him a wish to have a never-ending Pokémon Journey.  It uses actually facts from both the games and the show to back it up and is actually a somewhat positive spin on a question that I feel that doesn't need answering.

 

That does make me curious to know if there are any other widespread fan theories that are actually positive and not some creepy, grimdark, sad convolution.

[JezMM]

There's also the Toy Story theory that Andy's mum is actually Emily, Jessie's original owner.

-Based on Jessie's flashbacks, Emily grew up in the 70's, and it's plausible that Andy's mum would be old enough to have grown up in the same decade.

-The cowboy hat Andy wears is identical to the one Emily owned in the flashbacks...except the white sash. But if you look at Andy's hat you can see a faded rim from where the sash would've been.

-Emily left all her old toys in the box to give to charity...except the hat.

Conclusion: Mrs. Davis is Emily, and she passed the cowboy hat she had as a little girl down to her son.

 

 

Honestly, I kind of prefer the "eternal happiness theory," which suggests that the Ho-Oh that Ash sees at end of the first episode granted him a wish to have a never-ending Pokémon Journey.  It uses actually facts from both the games and the show to back it up and is actually a somewhat positive spin on a question that I feel that doesn't need answering.

 

That does make me curious to know if there are any other widespread fan theories that are actually positive and not some creepy, grimdark, sad convolution.

 

These are two theories I like.  They're simple and don't really try to reinvent the plot but they add a certain something if you think about them and don't go against the intended tone of the series.

[Solkia]

Honestly, I kind of prefer the "eternal happiness theory," which suggests that the Ho-Oh that Ash sees at end of the first episode granted him a wish to have a never-ending Pokémon Journey.  It uses actually facts from both the games and the show to back it up and is actually a somewhat positive spin on a question that I feel that doesn't need answering.

 

That does make me curious to know if there are any other widespread fan theories that are actually positive and not some creepy, grimdark, sad convolution.

 

But that would mean Ash is still conscious, that's terrible

[Big Panda]

On the subject of theories that don't "reinvent the plot" as you say, I love the "Blue's Ratticate" theory in Pokemon Red/Green/Blue.

[Chili Dawg]

Ash's coma I thought was hilarious when it was new. At that point I hadn't heard a million regurgitations of it involving every children's cartoon ever so it was a cool new dark yet fun idea to think about.

 

When I hear these things now they're just obnoxious. Like the Pixar theory? Just stop... I like to think about the connections in their films once in a while too- like how Randall goes to the trailer from a Bug's Life, Gerri being the cleaner, pizza planet truck yadayadayada. Then you get into all this shit about A Bug's Life being after the goddamned apocalypse and the witch in Brave being a reincarnation of Boo or whatever the fuck that theory suggested- dumb. Just dumb, needlessly complicating things just for the sake of it.

[GOAT]

On the subject of theories that don't "reinvent the plot" as you say, I love the "Blue's Ratticate" theory in Pokemon Red/Green/Blue.

This one creeped me out so hard as a kid. Still does actually. And yeah these cartoon theories definitely could be considered creepy pastas. The two that kill me on the inside are the Tails doll and the Majora's Mask Ben stories. 

[VO.SUPER]

Here's a more grounded theory. This one is from the Little Mermaid

 

 

See the painting hanging above the fireplace? Doesn't that couple look familiar to you?

 

 

That's right; it's Phillip and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Seeing as how their picture takes up a huge amount of viewing space in Eric's dining hall, it would suggest a connection of sorts, perhaps an ancestor? Seeing as that movie takes place in the 14th century and Little mermaid is somewhere in the 17th, I would guess that connection. They are Prince Eric's ancestors.... that explains why he's GENeric? Amiright?

[Vec]

Exactly this to be honest.  I think the majority of these theories probably are just thought up as a silly random joke/thought "oh lol you could kind of interpret Rugrats as all the babies being figments of Angelica's imagination" and people latch onto it just because it makes the show cooler/darker, because they're insecure and need to justify the fact that they watch a show not aimed at their age group, or because they genuinely feel that believing a thing that someone just made up and can rarely be applied consistently across all episodes, means they're cleverer than the average viewer.

 

As someone that is a mod in a Captain Tsubasa forum, we have to deal with people that bring that the in the last episode of the series it turns out that everything is a dream and that the protagonist wakes up at the hospital without legs which he lost after the car accident that the football supposedly saved him. Not only it's a terrible thing, but also the manga is still going today, so it never ended.

 

There's something similar with Doraemon too

[SuperStingray]

I don't like theories that involve elements of the series being halucinations, dreams, comas, etc.  It's cynical, lazy and ruins a well told tale by making it sound like it was built on lies.  We already know that fiction is a lie, no need to salt the earth of inspiration.  The only one of those theories I like and actually seems logically sound is the Courage the Cowardly Dog one, where all the insane things throughout that series are just phenomena and people that are mundane to us but terrifying when seen through the eyes of a dog.