Why Disney characters rarely have mothers.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 10:49am

Ariel's mother was only seen briefly in a prequel and died. Cinderella's is never mentioned (and a Fairy Godmother and Stepmother don't count). Elsa and Anna lost their mother at the beginning of their movie along with their father. Even though Tiana and Merida have mothers in their movies, why do a majority of the characters don't have any? Here's what legendary producer Don Hahn, who worked on The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, as well as executive produced the Angelina Jolie version 'Maleficent' had to say:

"“I’ll give you two stories that are the reasons. I never talk about this, but I will. One reason is practical because the movies are 80 or 90 minutes long, and Disney films are about growing up. They’re about that day in your life when you have to accept responsibility.

“Simba ran away from home but had to come back. In shorthand, it’s much quicker to have characters grow up when you bump off their parents. Bambi’s mother gets killed, so he has to grow up. Belle only has a father, but he gets lost, so she has to step into that position. It’s a story shorthand.

“The other reason—and this is really odd—Walt Disney, in the early 1940s, when he was still living at this house, also bought a house for his mom and dad to move into. He had the studio guys come over and fix the furnace, but when his mom and dad moved in, the furnace leaked and his mother died. The housekeeper came in the next morning and pulled his mother and father out on the front lawn. His father was sick and went to the hospital, but his mother died. He never would talk about it, nobody ever does.

“He never spoke about that time because he personally felt responsible because he had become so successful that he said, "Let me buy you a house." It’s every kid's dream to buy their parents a house and just through a strange freak of nature—through no fault of his own—the studio workers didn’t know what they were doing. There’s a theory, and I’m not a psychologist, but he was really haunted by that. That idea that he really contributed to his mom’s death was really tragic.”

“If you dig, you can read about it. It’s not a secret within their family, but it’s just a tragedy that is so difficult to even talk about,” Don explained. “It helps to understand the man a little bit more...To me, it humanizes Walt. He was devastated by that, as anyone would be.”




This Is Why Disney Characters Rarely Have Moms Updated On: 9/12/14 at 10:49 AM

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 10:58am

In Mary Poppins, the children sure have a mom.

In Dumbo it's all about a mom and a son (and their eventual reunion).

True, there are a lot of stories in Disney without female figures-but a lot of the source material doesn't have them either. (Cinderella-the father is a widower; Little Mermaid-she's never mentioned in the original; Snow White-She does die (they mention that); Frozen is an anomaly because they deviated so much from the original); Maleficent there is indeed a mother (there is a queen); Lion King-Sarabi is Simba's mom (a minor character, but she's there-when Scar hits her it snaps something off in Simba); Beauty and the Beast we know once again that the father is a widower (in the original, there are 3 daughters and he is a widower).

I'm guessing Disney with his neuroses chose these purposely-however-the stories were based upon Grimms' Fairy Tales and Anderson-and the fact was a lot of men were widowers-because women died in child bed (or earlier than men-that trend changed around the 20th century when childbirth became safer).

[finebydesign]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 11:29am

Well as great a legend as Walt Disney was, this is much bigger than any Disney adaptation. Folklore and mythology is wrought with orphans. You really need to kill off one or both parents to get the character to pursue more adventurous times.

Gilgamesh, Rama, Moses, Hercules, and Jesus are examples of orphans that are expelled from their parents to pursue more. It is a huge plot device and it is also thematic in that is serves to force the character to grow. Parents just get in the way.

*Quick note about Cinderella, in early versions of the film she was referenced, there is even a lovely song about her.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 12:00pm

Mulan has both parents but her actions are driven by the need to protect her father from going to war and also allows her to grow and become the person she wants to be not who others want her to be.

[jv92]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 1:55pm

Surprise! Surprise! Like I didn't know about the tragic death of Mother Disney. Thanks Yahoo for this breaking update.

DUMBO, for me, is the devastating one. BAMBI is sad, but DUMBO-- oy! I can't get through that sequence when he visits the mother in elephant jail without bawling. It is indeed interesting that these two films were the ones immediately produced after Flora's death (PINOCCHIO and FANTASIA had been in production a while), but I've known this a long time. Makes perfect sense, too. Walt really put a personal stamp on those first five, as opposed to LADY AND THE TRAMP for example.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 2:24pm

But really, the real reason is because this is an archetypical plot point. Think of myths--many of them miss or lose parental figures, particularly mothers. Same with fairy tales and same with a huge majority of children and young adult fiction. And this is what Disney draws its sources from. There are a myriad of reasons you can toss around (kids, in particular, fantasize about not having parents but it's also deeply troubling to them, it also is an obvious way to give a child or teen character their own autonomy and an impetus to have to delve out into the greater world, ie there's story right there, etc, etc, etc.)

Mamma Disney probably plays some part--but really, Disney chose to adapt a popular fairy tale for his first feature to ensure a family audience and chose Snow White. I doubt the main reason was because she had no mother. (Did Disney have a wicked Step-Mother? Is that the true reason so may of his films have them? no.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 2:27pm

Lady and the Tramp does show Disney's fascination with "Main Street, USA," but yeah, during the war he lost interest in animated features (the fact that, aside from Snow White and the purposefully tight budgeted Dumbo, they all lost money may have played a part, but I think he also felt he had gone as far as he could go with the medium.) He next become obsessed with live action and then, of course, soon after Disneyland took up the bulk of his interest. (Of course he still attended story meetings and had a huge hand in the movies till his death--and it shows, but...)

Those first five masterpieces really are just awesome pieces of film work. I think they hold up just as well, if not better than any live action film from the era (yes, I include Citizen Kane there.) In terms of pure film making technique--the way it's shot, etc--they actually feel more modern than most live movies from that time.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 2:57pm

The WWII Disney films were essentially package film because most of the animators went to fight in the war. Had Cinderella not been a hit, I think Disney would have closed the animation studio and focused on live action.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 6:16pm

The real reason why there are so many motherless Disney characters is because the same characters were also motherless in the fairy tales they were based on.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 9:32pm

I cannot believe this thread after I was accused of starting stupid ones.

To each his own. If this does it for you fine.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 10:06pm

"The real reason why there are so many motherless Disney characters is because the same characters were also motherless in the fairy tales they were based on. "

As I said...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 10:07pm

"I cannot believe this thread after I was accused of starting stupid ones.

To each his own. If this does it for you fine."

Everyone involved in this thread, I assure you, appreciates you taking the time to read it and make your own comment. Fine.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/12/14 at 10:13pm

Mr Roxy just ain't with it.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 7:35pm

Without taking anything away from Mr. Hahn's quoted remarks, the surviving versions of fairy tales date from a period where the mortality rate of women in childbirth was very high and "stepmothers" were very common. At least that's my impression from the literature of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

More importantly, perhaps, an evil stepmother allows for a conflict with the hero/heroine without trampling on cherished ideals of biological mothers.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 8:28pm

^ Any element of misogyny?

Just thought I'd throw that bomb into the mix.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 10:54pm

I wouldn't say so entirely- the ones with the missing mothers are as often leading ladies as leading men.

But the evil parent is almost always a mother, never a father.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 5:41am

I don't think it's the entire answer, but isn't there some misogyny in all traditional Western cultures? (Non-western, too, but that's another subject.)

Certainly there are fairy tales with no parents or stepparents at all, but as the person originally quoted said, if the story is a "coming-of-age" tale, the writer needs some sort of parental figure for the hero/heroine to outgrow or overcome.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 8:43pm

"More importantly, perhaps, an evil stepmother allows for a conflict with the hero/heroine without trampling on cherished ideals of biological mothers."

Right -- and it's worth pointing out that when fairy tales were more and more marketed towards kids, some of this was changed. The Brothers Grimm constantly revised their collection making each revision more kid friendly (Hansel and Gretel's mother who basically sends the kids to leave the house because she can't afford them turned into a step-mother, for example.)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:10pm

Thanks, Eric, I didn't know that. I know that Disney and others have eliminated elements deemed too gruesome (the cutting of Cinderella's stepsisters' toes and heels) for children, but I had no idea the Grimm Brothers had done it themselves.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:34pm

The Grimm collections were arguably (and this is a much argued point,) the first to collect the stories specifically (by the later editions) as material for children. Of course many of the gruesome elements you mention remain (the Juniper Tree is a particularly gruesome fairy tale although I *believ* they eventually removed it from their own reprints--it's been a long, long time since I took a class where we compared different editions.)

Of course it's all relative. Perrault's Red Riding Hood (and he collected and re-wrote the stories for the French upper classses,) is basically a morality lesson as to why teenaged girls should not sleep around (his moral even warns that there are many men who are wolves but look like handsome humans,) and of course ends with Red being eaten up--no rescue. It's slightly toned down though from the previous Grandmother's Story which does have Red escaping (no woodcutter--she feigns having to go to the bathroom and runs away,) but involved a man-wolf who clearly had lust not food on his mind, and earlier killed but didn't eat Grandma, instead tricking Red into eating her flesh and drinking her blood.

The Grimms took that story , added the woodcutter ending and an epilogue (which is usually ignored now,) where Red and Grandmother meet a second wolf but have learned their lessona nd cunningly kill him themselves.

On the other hand, of course, the Grimm's Cinderella has all the gory stuff you mention that Intothe Woods kept, whereas Disney based their version on Perrault's version (the earliest one to have a fairy godmother, a pumpkin coach etc, but no slicing up of feet or blinding by birds.) But then on the other hand, Perrault's Sleeping Beauty has the whole second half with the Prince's Ogre Mother who concocts a plot to eat Beauty and her two twins -- the Grimms' Briar Rose version ends with the kiss (which they invented many think--all earlier versions simply have Beauty waking up when the Prince arrives, or pre-Perrault, have him sleeping with her while she's passed out, and her waking up when she gives birth only to discover he's already married and it's his WIFE who is the cannibalistic monster, not his mother.) It's fascinating how these stories have changed due to intended audience, and, of course, the time--and really when people fault Disney, Disney isn't really doing anything that hasn't been done for centuries.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:45pm

^^^^^ Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 11:23pm

The father & daughter relationship is obviously very important in the stories of the Disney Renaissance featuring the fourth through eighth Disney Princesses.











ETA: I can't believe I accidentally put two 'Aladdin' photos in here at first. I was certain had posted the 'Beauty and the Beast' photo the first time.







Updated On: 9/15/14 at 11:23 PM