Disney movies & no moms

[flyinshirer]

Mom and I were talking the other day about Disney movies & realized that a lot of Disney movies have no mommies! Examples:

Nemo's mommy was killed
Bambi's mommy was killed
Cinderella only had a step-mom
Belle was raised by her father
Ariel has no mommy
Sleeping Beauty has no mommy
Jasmine was raised by her daddy
Pinochio was a puppet but had a dad

I know there is more but I'm really tired!

Why? It makes me sad!

 

[DesertBell]

I've commented on this same thing before, but I thought I'd point out that Sleeping Beauty does, in fact, have a mother. She's just a very minor character.

 

[spazzyjazzy]

Maybe the writer's had mommy issues.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

It doesn't really have to do with Disney. This is a classic fairy tale story structure. How much better to make your protagonist sympathetic than to have him or her be motherless? If you research all kinds of fairy tales you will find this to be common, even across cultures.

If anything, Disney made the original fairy tales upon which they are based have happier endings and less gruesome than the originals. Most of their films (Pixar notably excepted) have had basis in fairy tales, if not a traditional adaptation of the fairy tale like Snow White.

 

[actionvaughn]

Ariel's mom is one of the back stories of the newest Little Mermaid movie. Or so I hear. I actually Googled a list of all Disney movies, and these are the only Disney characters with a neutral family, (mom, dad, kid):

Wendy, Michael, & John Darling
..The puppies from 101 Dalmatians?
Hercules.. Sorta.
Mulan
Jane & Michael from Mary Poppins

I hope I'm missing something... Everyone else either loses a parent, or they aren't mentioned at all. Poor Nemo, Mowgli, Lilo, Tarzan, Simba, Koda and others..

 

[audrabolster]

There are a lot of weird female dynamics in the Disney movies.

 

[ballarinamom]

The reason? Nothing gets more sympathy than a motherless child

 

[nunzia]

HA! So funny..my kids and I talked about it all the time.."well, you know the mother is going to be dead, cause it's a Disney movie!"

 

[audrabolster]

HA! So funny..my kids and I talked about it all the time.."well, you know the mother is going to be dead, cause it's a Disney movie!"

That, and I always notice that whenever you see a fat person you can almost always guarantee that they will be a bad guy/girl.

 

[tink2dw]

Or the Mother is telling the story. Very few times does the narrator and/or the story teller include themselves in the telling of a story.

 

[bumbershoot]

It doesn't really have to do with Disney. This is a classic fairy tale story structure. How much better to make your protagonist sympathetic than to have him or her be motherless? If you research all kinds of fairy tales you will find this to be common, even across cultures.

If anything, Disney made the original fairy tales upon which they are based have happier endings and less gruesome than the originals. Most of their films (Pixar notably excepted) have had basis in fairy tales, if not a traditional adaptation of the fairy tale like Snow White.

Yeppers!

Trust me, I had some serious issues with this, until I finally realized the fairy tale connection.

After my own mom died, and I went on my adventure of healing and growth from that, I had to avoid the movies completely (I wasn't a big fan before, though, so this was not a big deal).

It's been 8 years now, and I can definitely tell you that the death, especially the early one, of a beloved parent, and all the healing and growth you go through after it, trying to find your place in the world without the one who has known you longest, changes you completely.

Therefore, there's no more powerful event in a story, to cause growth and change in the protagonist, than the death of a parent.

I think the fairy tale authors had more issues with fathers, considering how WEAK they all seem to be, marrying rotten second wives who tormented the daughters...


Watching Nemo for the first time with my son was pretty powerful, it was really hard...you almost see his mom's death and that's rough.

 

[jemilah]

I have allways hated that! We watched Enchanted last night......and sure enough No mom! And what is up with the replacement mom? My mom passed when I was 19 and trust me there is no replacement . I think they could do a wonderful modern fairy tale with parents! Fiona from Shreck has a mom. Ok , I am done ranting.

 

[sand2270]

Toy Story has a single mom. Whether she is divorced or widowed they never address.

 

[inspcramer]

Dumbo's mom was imprisoned. Realisticly the characters would have never gone on the adventures they did in the movies if their mother had been around. She would have nixed it and made them clean their rooms.

 

[bumbershoot]

"Fiona from Shreck has a mom. "

But she's totally on her own her whole life, until Shrek goes looking for her. She too has a replacement mom, the dragon, to protect AND imprison her...

Her mom only appears in the second movie (or is it the third?).


sand2270, interesting. I never got the impression that the mom was single, I just figured the dad was always at work. Interesting perception!

 

[grizbuzz]

I've always found it unnerving that mothers are missing from most Disney tales. And oddly my young boys never ask where Mom is...just doesn't occur to them that she should be in the story, I guess.

I heard someone bring this question up in an interview of a guy who wrote a book on Walt Disney (I'm afraid I've forgotten the name of the author)...his answer was that most of the stories are about coming of age, learning how to navigate world, how to be a good friend, etc. Not having a mother forces the character to be more independent and go through that process at an often younger age.

So Moms...I guess we're holding our kids back and sheltering them from growing up and living their personal stories. Somehow you got to think that there's a good story out there for a character with a mom and a dad...

 

[sand2270]

My reasoning for thinking the mom in Toy Story is single is because there is no dad involved when they move in the 2nd movie. Probably over-thinking it, I am a single mom so maybe I am in that mindset. But while I was still married my ex would have been involved in the birthday party (1st movie), moving, etc.

 

[grizbuzz]

I always assumed Mom was single in Toy Story. Dad wasn't around for the birthday party or for the move. And he didn't help out with the garage sale either.

 

[kiwitravel]

That, and I always notice that whenever you see a fat person you can almost always guarantee that they will be a bad guy/girl.

I think thats a bit of a generalisation, larger people are often also portrayed as good guys too:

Jasmines father and the Genie good guys, skinny bad guy
Barlou a good guy, snake and thin tiger as baddies
The Dwarfs wer certainly weight challenged while the evil queen was thin
Cruella D'Ville was thin
Scar (Lion King) was thin, Pumba was weight challenged
Hook was normal sized
Wiinie the Pooh was on the large size
Potc was very weight neutral

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

In high school, my history teacher would give us an extra credit question at the end of each test and they would always be Disney related. And one of the questions was "Name a Disney movie where the protaganist has BOTH a mother and a father throughout the entire movie." We couldn't use the dogs from 101 Dalmations or Mulan..

I said the Darling kids from Peter Pan..

But I remember everyone had a hard time with this question..

And it's true. It just adds to the hardship of the character's progression into "life" and "finding themselves"..

Molly, my Mom was the same when it came to Disney movies after she lost her father, then her mother. She wouldn't watch them with me, and when she would she would cry and I would be all confused..