The one that I have never
understood about Disney movies is what happened to mother in most of
their films. Most people have never given it much thought, but why
does it seem like the mother is phased out of most of their films. It
seems like a strange thing to do for a company that makes films
directed towards teaching children values. I can think of two movies
that jump out at me, Bambi and Lilo & Stitch. Bambi has his
mother shot by a hunter, literally within the first three minutes of
the film. Lilo's parents died in a car crash and mentioned only when
she looks at the photograph she has of them. I know Disney liked to
mess with people by having subliminal messages in his films. The
conspiracy theorist make claims about Disney having propaganda in his
films.
There are two major
theories as to why Disney made films without mothers. The first
theory is that Disney believed that mother offered safety and love
for her child. The main characters in Disney movies had to go through
trials and tribulations to become self-actualized. By taking the
mother out of the movie it veers the main character out of their
comfort zone and force this character to be strong in the face of
adversity. The second theory is about Walt Disney's mother tragic
passing. According to reports Disney's mother Flora had tragically
died of asphyxiation due to a faulty connection with the gas furnace.
The gas furnace was installed by studio workers for Disney. It is
believed that Disney did not take the death too well, and that is why
his films lack a mother figure.
Most of the movies that
are made by Disney are adaptations of traditional fairy tales. To put
all the blame on Disney would be irrational, but his movies always
had people that were upset about raising someone else offspring. I
feel like that is a very irrational thing to be upset about. Maybe it
is a different generation personal view on it, but the character in
these movies are forced into a place where they don't want to be
either. I guess it wouldn't make good cinema if the legal guardians
were able to deal the unfortunate circumstances. I think Disney
started to use the lack of mother as a motif in most of his films. I
still feel that it is a weird way to sell films directed towards
children.
I have to admit, after reading this I googled a list of Disney movies to try to remember which ones had mothers. I can see what you mean, as I looked at the list there were many that either didn't have a mother at all, or the figure of the mother was scarce.
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about this before but this is so true. I feel like there should be a more equal balance of movies that include mothers and those that do not. These movies are geared toward children who are easily influenced and learning a lot about the world and how it works. I guess as long as children are not bothered by this aspect of the movies, we do not really need to be either. Although, it is really strange that so many Disney films do not include mothers and mainly have characters whose mothers are deceased.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true!! I have never realized the lack of mother hood in all of the Disney movies. It almost feels like Disney is promoting and empathizing the role of how important it is to be a independent woman. As I recall in the Disney movie Mulan this is just like the type of movies you talk about. Mulan grows up with no parents and is taught to do everything on her own, and enlists in the army to fulfuill her dead dad's goals for the family, and having no mother presence what so ever in the movie.
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