indirispeaks:
My friend and I are arguing over the stupidest thing. I am trying to tell her that in the majority of Disney animated films, there is no mother figure. (or the mother figure is killed/evil) I have compiled a list of the major animated films from earliest to latest. I have not included live-action…
Now you mean maternal figures, right? I have to disagree in some regard. Many of the movies have maternal figures without them necessarily being mothers. Your argument seems a little “all over the place” because even if a mother is killed in the movie, it doesn’t ever seem to really lessen her presence. Examples:
Dumbo - Mother was killed, but there are many scenes in which Dumbo remembers her very fondly which may attribute to his calm demeanor.
101 Dalmations- This put the maternal and paternal figures on equal footing as a “wholesome Christian value” that children need both parents. (It doesn’t necessarily have to be shared by the public at large)
Jungle Book - No biological mother or father. Remember: Mowgli’s parents were killed by Shere Khan. However, Mowgli did get the maternal and paternal peerage by Baloo and Bagheera. While they weren’t the traditional male-to-female ratio, the two male characters managed to try their best to “raise” the boy.
Aristocats - Mother main character. This one kind of defeats your argument since the mother is the main character,
Rescuers - While the first one was about an orphaned girl, she was given to a good home at the end. In Rescuers Down Under, the boy had a mother and while she wasn’t the focal point of the story, she clearly had a loving relationship with her son.
Oliver and Company - This was a parody on a classic English novel, Oliver Twist. He was an orphan, but one can argue that Fagan (the man who brought boys in to teach them how to steal) was as close to a maternal figure as he could get. In the Disney version, the maternal figure rested on the little girl who adopted him.
Well I did say most. although I may point out that Dumbo’s mother wasn’t killed, she was imprisoned as a “mad elephant” for most of the movie and at the end, was redeemed.
And yes I did say that the Dalmations parents were focused on equally. I listed Aristocats as having the mother as the main character. That was one of the very few movies (Along with Princess and the Frog) where the mother was actually focused on, with the “father” only coming in at the end of the film. I want to go and watch that again now… I don’t really count both Rescuer movies, mainly because the mothers are absent and/or barely mentioned during the screen time.
I will concede on Oliver and Company. I was thinking more of the dog pack, but yeah Fagin was a pretty maternal character. And much more likeable in animated form, though there’s something adorable about the live action version. He does teach his boys to steal properly!