Why is it that Most Female Disney Characters have No Mother or a Mean Stepmother?

[Jodi1980]

Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Little Mermaid, etc, etc

 

[Deb & Bill]

How about Wendy and Aurora?

 

[aahmom1]

I don't know but being a step-Mom I get sick of the whole 'evil step-Mother' thing.

 

[holycow]

but you have to remember they aren't just Disney characters they are fairy tales that have been around for a long, long time..

HC

 

[GEM]

Probably because their mothers would have never let them get into the messes that make the stories interesting.

 

[JasonLyons]

and there all beautiful, time for disney to get an ugly girls with a nice moms

 

[TheLionKing]

It is a built in sympathy generator..... so it helps with the story and appeal of the character.

The same is true for the male characters like Alladin, Oliver, Quasimodo....

If you think of it, very few characters have both parents at the end of the story, if they even had them both at the beginning.

101 Dalmations is one I can think of right now...

 

[browneyes]

Nala had a mom.

 

[Chuck S]

Didn't Mulan have a Mom? I know she substituted for her father in the army, but I think she had a mother, too.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

It's extremely rare for the protagonists in fairytales & epics to have one or both parents.

 

[Cindy B]

Yes, Mulan had her mother, father, and grandparents... I personally love MULAN!

 

[figmentvi]

Sleeping Beauty had a Mom and a Dad. King Stefan and Queen What's-her-name. No reference to her name anywhere, but she existed.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Originally posted by Cindy B
Yes, Mulan had her mother, father, and grandparents... I personally love MULAN!

But that was taken from history, not a fairytale. I love Mulan too.

 

[Robinrs]

One of my biggest complaints about Disney BEFORE the DIS was the absence of mother figures AND the parenticide issue I felt was too constant (Bambi, the Lion King) and too traumatic for some young children. I'll never forget how my son cried at the thought of losing me after seeing Mufasa killed, it reminded me of how I felt when I saw Bambi as a kid!

Well, I guess it's integral to the story but UGH!

Pocahontas didn't have a Mom, either.

 

[TheLionKing]

Why couldn't I remember Mulan?

Sleeping Beauty is removed from her parents to live with Flora, Fauna and Meriwether. So that is kind of like losing her parents....

Obviously, no rule is wthout it's exceptions.

 

[sudiequ]

And not to get off the subject of not having mothers and/or fathers, but....... is Cinderella the only one who gets married . I wonder if the other princesses know something we don't

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Not only that, but often if they do have a parent, they're either fools or tyrants.

 

[ripleysmom]

Wendy has a mother.

Most of the Disney characters were fairy tales long before Walt found them. I guess that is just the way that they were written.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

sudiequ - Ariel got married to Eric & Aurora got married to Phillip.

 

[sudiequ]

LOVETHATMOUSE - thanks for the update, guess i should've known that . My 2 boys were never interested in Little Mermaid, so i didn't have to watch that one over and over and over , but Lion King was another story .