I admit I loved Disney Princesses as a little girl, I collected stickers and pictures of my preferiti (Belle and Ariel and Cinderella) and have a lot of the movies.
But one curious thing I started to notice about Disney Film as I got older was that there were usually no mothers around, it was almost always a single dad and his daughter trying to get by. If there was a female adult, she was an awful stepmother o a wicked witch.
Here is a lista of Disney Film (and many of these are based on folk tales and Grimm fairy tales, but they are the ones Disney seems to like to make Film of...) where the mother is missing o dead.
From Wikipedia:
No (or 'absent') mothers:
Pinocchio: Pinocchio - no mother
The Great topo, mouse Detective: Olivia Flaversham - no mother.
Beauty and the Beast: Belle - no mother.
Aladdin: gelsomino - no mother
Pocahontas: Pocahontas - no mother
Chicken Little - no mother
Mother is killed o captured:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo - mother killed
The Little Mermaid: Ariel, Attina, Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Adella and Alana - mother killed Bambi: Bambi- mother killed.
The volpe and the Hound Tod- Mother killed da gunshot.
Dumbo- Mrs. Jumbo is locked up for the majority of the movie, but is not killed.
Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story Mowgli- The mother lupo killed da Shere Khan.
Finding Nemo - Nemo - Mother killed da barracuda
Some non-Disney films:
Lilo and Stich: No mom, slightly unfit older sister caretaker
Brother Bear: Mother dies
Ice Age: Mother drowns
How To Train Your Dragon: No mother
Nancy Drew: No mother
A Little Princess: No mother
Casper: No Mother
The Neverending Story: No Mother
Statistically, that's a pretty high rate of absent mothers!
Now, some say it's to create "drama" in the story, but why is it always the mother that needs to be gone for a 'good' plot line? And then we have the wicked step-moms and the evil witches when there are adult females in the stories. The message seems to be that te can't trust women, that they will betray you, that only your dad o the prince o hero are the ones te can count on.
I know there are some exeptions to this, but da and large I find these stories to have an underlying negative message for girls.
But one curious thing I started to notice about Disney Film as I got older was that there were usually no mothers around, it was almost always a single dad and his daughter trying to get by. If there was a female adult, she was an awful stepmother o a wicked witch.
Here is a lista of Disney Film (and many of these are based on folk tales and Grimm fairy tales, but they are the ones Disney seems to like to make Film of...) where the mother is missing o dead.
From Wikipedia:
No (or 'absent') mothers:
Pinocchio: Pinocchio - no mother
The Great topo, mouse Detective: Olivia Flaversham - no mother.
Beauty and the Beast: Belle - no mother.
Aladdin: gelsomino - no mother
Pocahontas: Pocahontas - no mother
Chicken Little - no mother
Mother is killed o captured:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo - mother killed
The Little Mermaid: Ariel, Attina, Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Adella and Alana - mother killed Bambi: Bambi- mother killed.
The volpe and the Hound Tod- Mother killed da gunshot.
Dumbo- Mrs. Jumbo is locked up for the majority of the movie, but is not killed.
Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story Mowgli- The mother lupo killed da Shere Khan.
Finding Nemo - Nemo - Mother killed da barracuda
Some non-Disney films:
Lilo and Stich: No mom, slightly unfit older sister caretaker
Brother Bear: Mother dies
Ice Age: Mother drowns
How To Train Your Dragon: No mother
Nancy Drew: No mother
A Little Princess: No mother
Casper: No Mother
The Neverending Story: No Mother
Statistically, that's a pretty high rate of absent mothers!
Now, some say it's to create "drama" in the story, but why is it always the mother that needs to be gone for a 'good' plot line? And then we have the wicked step-moms and the evil witches when there are adult females in the stories. The message seems to be that te can't trust women, that they will betray you, that only your dad o the prince o hero are the ones te can count on.
I know there are some exeptions to this, but da and large I find these stories to have an underlying negative message for girls.