Reflective Post: Mothers in Disney movies

Upon brainstorming topics for my upcoming essay, I began to notice the amount of absent mothers in Disney movies. I was analyzing Mother Gothel in Tangled when I came to the realization that she is not Rapunzel's real mother, leading me to question how often this occurs in movies. I did some research, and stumbled upon this article. Listed in it are four different categories: movies with absent parents, mothers killed or captured, adoptive mothers or stepmothers, and single mothers or fathers. All of our childhood favorites fall in these categories. For example, the Lost Boys, Belle, and Lilo all have absent parents. Ariel and Nemo both lose their mother at the beginning of the movie, while Elsa and Anna lose both parents. In Cinderella, Tangled, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, each main character has a stand in mother, and all of them are evil. All of these situations cause a lot of the main characters to be raised by single parents. I thought that this was an interesting theme, and I wondered what could have caused it. Walt Disney's mother's death does not seem to influence the writing too much, but at the time people did not live very long, so it was common to have step mothers or adoptive parents. The article also suggests that not having parents forces the protagonists to "venture into the world alone," which could make for a better plot line for any movie. If you're not convinced of the extremity of the missing parents theme, this Buzzfeed List demonstrates the parental status for all of the Disney princesses.

The difference between how these stand-in mothers and fathers are portrayed in the movies are unbelievable though. Belle's father, for example, is just a sweet, old man, unaware of his responsibilities as a father and pretty weak, considering Belle is trying to help him. However Disney mothers (or stepmothers) are typically strong women, although often villainous, as seen in Tangled, Cinderella, and Snow White. Even Rapunzel's true mother is portrayed as the strong queen in the movie, whereas the father is more sensitive and cries on Rapunzel's eighteenth birthday. The fathers in these movies are noticeably weaker, further exemplified through Mulan feeling the need to take her weak, old father's place in the war.
I must applaud Disney for this move. Disney has a bad reputation for creating princesses that are unrealistically beautiful and perfect, yet they are subtly challenging what it means to be a masculine and feminine figure in their movies. While the protagonists typically fit their female gender mold, with the exception of Merida and Mulan, the parents that are alive show interesting characteristics, mostly through more sensitive fathers and strong, overbearing mothers. Yes, the mothers are often the villains as well (the evil stepmother, Mother Gothel, Evil Queen), but villains are villains because they pose some sort of threat to either the protagonist or to society, meaning they must be pretty powerful figures.
The tide could be turning though for these Disney princesses. In fact, the newest princess, Moana, will have both parents, Tui and Sina, featured in the movie. In this Movie Pilot article, Moana's mother is described to be "sympathetic to her daughters concerns and desires, and acts as a mediator between Moana and her father," while her father seems to be doubtful and critical of his daughter's ability. That is quite a change for the roles of the Disney parents, as we would expect the father to be more understanding than the mother due to previous movie plot lines. Aspects of Disney movies are constantly changing, and maybe this is trying to portray what is more real today. Daughters are known to be closer to their mothers even with the occasional clashing, so maybe Disney is trying to show a healthy mother-daughter relationship to set an example for little girls everywhere. Whether or not Moana's parental status is important to the movie is for you to decide when the movie is released in November.

You could also argue that the absence of parents is simply an obstacle. The princesses with deceased parents are able to continue their lives and find their happily ever after, so does that mean we can too? This is the Disney hope I have previously mentioned in other blog posts: the hope that taking a rough route will lead to something greater. If children learn this at a young age then they will be more equipped to tackle life's obstacles with ease and find their true happiness. Some say this is unrealistic, but there is no harm in having hope, in fact, it can only cause optimism and a sense of reassurance.