A parent's death during the course of the film, evil stepmothers and created family are common themes in Disney films.
Reasons for the Number of Missing and Dead Parents in Disney Films
This is sometimes due to the nature of the source material on which the films were based – orphaned children are a common theme in fairy tales, allowing children to have adventures and develop the traits of self-reliance and bravery without the comfort (or hindrance) of parental/authority figures. A few Disney films show the actual death of a parent as an emotional plot device – Bambi and The Lion King (a retelling of Hamlet) both use this technique. Occasionally the parents' death, while not shown onscreen, is thematically relevant to the movie (Lilo and Stitch, The Sword in the Stone). At other times, it is necessary to the main character's initial situation of hardship (Jungle Book, Snow White, Cinderella, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
At other times the missing parent is less well explained. Pocahontas, Jane and Belle have happy family lives despite their mothers being dead. Ariel and Jasmine are less contented at home, but do not themselves attribute their problems to their motherless situation. It is possible in these instances that the animators simply wished to avoid cluttering up the film with non-essential characters. As animating and voicing each character costs money, leaving out parents who contributed nothing to the plot may have been simply a financial decision.
This list mentions some of the more significant missing/dead parents from Disney's most popular films.
Characters Missing Both Parents
- Aladdin (Aladdin)
- Lilo and Nani (Lilo and Stitch)
- Snow White and all seven of the Dwarves (who adopt her as a mother-figure) (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)
- Cinderella (Cinderella)
- Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)
- Esmerelda (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)
- Mowgli (The Jungle Book)
- Peter Pan and the Lost Boys (who adopt Wendy as a mother-figure) (Peter Pan)
- Tarzan (Tarzan)
- Arthur (The Sword in the Stone)
- Tod (The Fox and the Hound)
Characters Missing One Parent
- Jasmine (Aladdin)
- Ariel (The Little Mermaid)
- Belle (Beauty and the Beast)
- Pocahontas (Pocahontas)
- Pinocchio (counting Geppetto as a 'father') (Pinocchio)
- Jane (Tarzan)
- Bambi (Bambi)
- Simba (The Lion King)
- Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)
Orphaned Characters in Disney/Pixar Films
Pixar films are somewhat difficult to categorise, as the characters are frequently either effectively adult, minimising the impact of their parents' absence; or, in some cases, animals or objects which do not have 'parents' in the real world. It would seem strange to categorise the toy Woody or the robot Wall-E as 'orphans', especially as their lack of parentage is not thematically or narratively significant in the films.
A few notable missing parent situations from the Disney/Pixar canon include:
- Andy, the human character in Toy Story does not appear to have a father in his life (whether due to death or divorce is uncertain)
- Nemo in Finding Nemo loses his mother before birth
- Linguini in Ratatouille is an orphan, although his late father is seen onscreen as a ghostly figment of Remy's imagination.
See also Orphans in Children's Literature.
Sarah Tennant - Sarah Tennant is a onetime English major who lives in New Zealand with her husband and two small children. Her interests range from ...
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