A death-defying chase down an Amsterdam sewer. A theme song called “Living Free (Until the Nazis Find Us Again)” that’s just begging for an Academy Award. A nest of musical rats living in an attic who meet Anne Frank and her family and help them escape the Nazis…
These are just a few of the tropes of Disney’s Anne Frank, a production that never really existed. Lindsey Ellis, a blogger who operates under the moniker “Nostalgia Chick,” came up with the idea for the film, which she describes as “parodying the Disneyfication of real events (such as Pocahontas) and serious-toned stories (such as Hunchback of Notre Dame).”
Ellis didn’t actually write the film, but she wrote an impeccably-detailed entry on the website TVTropes.com describing her proposed plot, including a Nazi sorceress, a dance routine titled “Life is Heil-arious,” and a “critically-panned” ending in which Anne single-handedly liberates Auschwitz.
In the real world, Walt Disney actually did produce anti-Nazi propaganda films during WWII. We wouldn’t say that this (admittedly hilarious) teasing is warranted…but we won’t say it isn’t.
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