So what is it with Disney films?
I remember being traumatized with Bambi as a kid.
Then there is Old Yeller. Another happy film.
Today I rented Finding Nemo…and sure enough, little Nemo’s mom is killed off in the first five minutes!
So is Disney just fixated with killing a parent?
This has been covered before in the distant past. I think that the consensus is that a child who has lost a parent is far more vulnerable, and more likely to get into trouble, than a child with two parents. Also, a child with only one parent, or no parents, is likely to be unhappier than a child with two parents.
The last few Disney films I saw were Beauty and the Beast (no mother), The Little Mermaid (no mother again), and Aladdin (the Princess has no mother, AGAIN).
Fathers are seen as loving but not really connected to the child’s life.
I think that it’s just a Disney meme. I mean, they also like to sing about the carefree life (chimney sweeps, “Bear Necessities”, and whatever Billy Joel was singing in Oliver!). I don’t think it’s really deliberate.
It’s also a historically common theme in storytelling, from the Brothers Grimm and before…
Bruno Bettleheim (and regardless of what you think of him personally, he wrote some brilliant stuff) suggests that stories about children without a parent (or without parents) help the child understand about growing up and the need for self-reliance.
Disney movies usually have very explicit themes (like Cinderella’s “have faith in your dreams”, etc) but they also have implicit themes, like self-reliance and maturing.
I was just reading the thread Squeegee linked to and about halfway down King of Spain is talking about the mothers role in the lion king and says “Nala’s mother even makes an appearance, although I think she only has maybe one line (and they stayed far away from the issue of Nala’s father, for fairly obvious reasons).”
I’m not sure i understand what the fairly obvious reasons were and i don’t want to bump a thread thats 4 months old, so can anybody here tell me? It’ll annoy me otherwise.
The father was probably Mustafa. Simba’s stated father. Lion society works a little different then ours.
Mustafa? Mufasa.
And I just watched it this morning with my nieces. It’s not my favorite Disney movie.
I remember when I figured out that Mufasa was probably Nala’s father, too…Lion prides only having one alpha male and all that. Makes a little more sense when Simba and Nala start shvitzing at the idea of making the beast with two backs…
Lynn, you mentioned Jasmine’s mother but you forgot about Aladdin. (He’s an orphan)
And, of course, the exception that tests the rule: Mulan, whose parents (and one grandparent) survive to the end of the film.
Why just pick on Disney? There’s The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons IIRC, The Brady Bunch (before sings they teamed up and formed a family), Diff’rent Strokes, The Dukes of Hazzrd, Full House, I coudl go on and on.
At least Full House gives you a background where they mention how the mom died, along with the oldest sister having to be a mom behind the scenes. (Or Michelle would have been a lot wilder) No other show even mentions how the mom died or when she died, that I recall. The Dukes could at least have an aunt to go with Uncle Jesse.
RC Peter Pan has the parents living. Pinocchio has the same number of parents that he started with, as does Dumbo, Alice, the 101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty, and the Aristocats.
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Not uncommon in other works. How many characters in LOTR have a living mother?
have a living mother: Merry and Pippin
unsure: Gimli and Legolas
dead mother: Boromir, Aragorn, Frodo, Sam(?)
na: Gandalf 
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brian
101 dalmations – Pongo and Perdita both live
Aladdin - mother died, finds father in later movie
- Jasmine has no mother in movie
Alice in Wonderland – no mention of parents
Aristocats - only the mother cat with the kittens
Atlantis - no mention of Milo’s mother
- Kita only has a father
Bambi - mother killed
Beauty and the Beast - Belle does not have a mother
Bedknobs and Broomsticks – the three kids are orphaned
Black Cauldron - Taran is an orphan
Brave Little Toaster – the baby has two parents
Bugs Life – only makes mention of the queen, the princess
and Dot, no “father” figures/
Cinderella - no mother, father dies, evil stepmother
Country Bears - bear boy has no natural parents
Dumbo - a mother, no father mentioned
Emperors New Groove - no parents, but a mentor
Finding Nemo- mother and several would be siblings killed
Fox and the Hound – the mother fox is killed
A Goofy Movie – Max only has Goofy, no mom
Great Mouse Detective - the daughter of the toy maker is left alone after the father is kidnapped, no mom
Hercules- loving mortal parents as well as Zeus
Hunchback of Notre Dame - Quasimodo’s mom is killed
Junglebook - Mowgli is raised by wolves, no parents
Lady and the Tramp - Lady is from a good home, Tramp is not
Lilo and Stitch - both parents are gone
Little Mermaid - mother is gone
Little Mermaid II - both parents are there
Lion King - Mufasa is killed during the movie
Mary Poppins - the kids have both parents
Monsters, Inc – Boo’s parents aren’t mentioned
Mulan - has both her parents
Old Yeller – you all know what happens
Oliver and Co- girl has both parents, but is lonely
The Parent Trap - parents are split up, but get back together
Pete’s Dragon - Pete is an orphan, escapes from a cruel family
Peter Pan – Wendy, John and Michael have both parents
Pinocchio - He is brought to life and has only a father
Pocahontas - no mother
Resuers – the girl that gets rescued is from an orphanage
The Rescuers Down Under - the story only references a mother of the boy that is rescued
Sleeping Beauty - has both parents but is shipped off to live away
Snow White - no mother, evil step mother
Sword in the Stone - “wart” is an orphan
Tarzan - both parents killed at the beginning of the movie, gorilla father figure killed as well
Treasure Planet - has a mother only
Toy Story - never mentions a father
Except the kids go to an island filled with abandonded children!
Because there is no common thread with the shows you mentioned. Disney gets the attention because a string of Disney movies have a similar element…your examples appear to be unrelated TV shows…there’s no commonality.
I think we came to the conclusion in the earlier thread that a missing parent is a common plot device is Children’s tales, and Disney either re-makes these popular stories, or uses similar devices. Basically, it’s not Disney who’s doing it, it’s Children’s stories in general.
Oh, and Thanks, Squeegee! That was the first time someone’s referenced a thread I started!
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I think both parents make it to the end of Sleeping Beauty as well.
In addition to the lessons that are learned and the narrative freedom it can give to the children in the story, is there a better way to immediately give a sense of tension in the watching child than through missing parents (simultaneously the desire for freedom and the dread of being left)?
Until “Lady and the Tramp,” Disney was never telling an original story (and mostly since then, too). Disney doesn’t create the parentless kid phenomenon, it just inherits it.
Parentless children are just really common in kid’s literature, for reasons covered.
Throw “Harry Potter” onto the heap, too. And the Baudelaire orphans (Lemony Snicket - “Series of Unfortunate Events”). And Dorothy from “Wizard of Oz.”
Hey, why does the “Lifetime” channel get so obsessed with moms getting separated from, or losing, their kids? Have they got issues or what?