Being a Woman Article: Missing Moms and 'Evil' Females in Disney Films

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Missing Moms and 'Evil' Females in Disney Films

posted by SelinaKyle

I admit I loved Disney Princesses as a little girl, I collected stickers and pictures of my favorites (Belle and Ariel and Cinderella) and have a lot of the movies.

But one curious thing I started to notice about Disney movies 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 or a wicked witch.

Here is a list of Disney movies (and many of these are based on folk tales and Grimm fairy tales, but they are the ones Disney seems to like to make movies of...) where the mother is missing or dead.
From Wikipedia:

No (or 'absent') mothers:
Pinocchio: Pinocchio - no mother
The Great Mouse Detective: Olivia Flaversham - no mother.
Beauty and the Beast: Belle - no mother.
Aladdin: Jasmine - no mother
Pocahontas: Pocahontas - no mother
Chicken Little - no mother
Mother is killed or 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 Fox and the Hound Tod- Mother killed by 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 wolf killed by Shere Khan.
Finding Nemo - Nemo - Mother killed by 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 you can't trust women, that they will betray you, that only your dad or the prince or hero are the ones you can count on.

I know there are some exeptions to this, but by and large I find these stories to have an underlying negative message for girls.

alyciajohnson, eyelessjack1738 and 8 others like this

cassie-1-2-3 Both Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear are Disney movies. This whole thing has nothing to do with Disney. It's a fairytale thing in general. Or even a story thing in general. There are Many many many stories out there of which there is no mother present. Stories with evil fathers are more adult, most likely because it arises issues of domestic abuse. The evil males in these children stories often fight against another male. They could consider using evil children, but that may influence bullying? A story needs an evel antagonist, otherwise, it's not much of a story. An adult female seems to be the tamest choice.

SelinaKyle They are? Ooops, add them to the Disney list! There may be many stories with no mother present, and it may not specifically be a Disney problem, but my question is why? Why are mothers 'disappeared' from so many stories?

Mermaid-Tail I find this interesting, and it's something I've talked about before. Even in the movies where the central character is a good female role model, and the mother is not absent the relationship with the father seems prioritised in Disney. For example in Mulan, her mother and grandmother are both alive and loving, but it's Mulan's relationship with her father that's given attention, and in the princess and the frog it's actually Tiana's father who's dead and her loving mother alive, but it is fulfilling her father's dream that drives her. I've often thought it would be nice to see a Disney heroine interact with a noticed and positive matriarch, who was given either more or at least equel importance as the father. The closest I can think of is Sleeping beauty, despite her actual mother again being given less attention than her father (to the point that Disney literally can't remember who voiced her), as the fairies who raise her, so sort of in a shared step mother role, are all shown positively and in depth, and add more to the story than the king and arguably the prince too. I really would enjoy seeing Disney show a heroine who has good interactions with other positive female characters.

i-am-woman its just to make the story emotional. They're cartoons. Not much else can happen. The mothers die instead of the fathers because girls are usually closer to them. It helps them appreciate their own mother better

SelinaKyle They are cartoons, so why such a dark theme as dead mothers? "Not much else can happen" in a story for kids except the mother being killed, dead or nonexistent? Does a girl really need her mom to DIE in order to 'help' her appreciate her?

juniper427 It’s actually pretty simple. Girls are usually closer to there mothers they are usually the parent you can trust and talk to. They are the stabilizer. Sometimes they sit quietly in the background and sometime they are the leader of the family but no matter what they are the person you can count on for love and support. The father is usually less open with emotions that the mother. It does not mean they are less loving. But for many girls a fathers trust and love seems like something they need to earn. In short a mother symbolizes stability. You get rid of they mother and the girl loses her stability. Father symbolizes becoming what you need to be. The father is often the prominent character because it is who they look up to and wish to please. This is the case with Mulan and Bambi; they aspire to be like there fathers. The evil stepmothers are the result of a cannibalization of mothers = trust. By introducing an untrustworthy mother figure you turn the girls world on her head It all has to do with psychology.

Monrose What about The Lion King? And what about all the Disney princesses? I mean, come on... who the hell cares?

CosmoLuvsTails I agree. The mum's are almost always either dead or they're a stepmother and evil. I know lots of nice steparents! It's in 'Nanny Mcphee' too. In the 'HTTYD' books, Vallhamarama (Hiccup's mum) is fine, and it's not until many, many years later that she's killed on the battlefield. Why no mum in the movie?

terhenetar Maybe because, just like in another branches of the media inustry, most producers are probably male and thus consider male characters to be more important. I am not saying that everyone in this industry is a mean misogynist. However, the absence of interesting and independent female characters playing an important part in the story is unfortunately extremely common. I think that producers, or whoever makes those decisions, follow the same patterns more or less consciously. And whether this or that film was made by Disney or not is of little importance. It is the unsetlling trend that matters. And who cares? People who want the media to give at least a decent, if not a true and fair, view of the world and avoid harmful stereotypes in the films directed at kids and teenagers. If I choose to like only male characters that's my own business, but there should be a wide range of female charatcers for those who do not. Why? It's painfully simple - because somehow half of the population just happenes to be female. Oh and before I forget, a good article. :)

Satan_ I miss zeria from lion king

lonewolf8547 I believe that one of the reasons why there are never any mothers in disney's movie is because his mother died when he was young