Disney and Parenthood

I found a list of Disney animated feature films and narrowed it down to those with a human child as the main character. There are 18 such films between 1937’s Snow White and 1999’s Tarzan. So, if each of those main characters had two parents, that would make 36 parents total. If you count the number of (biological) parents actually known to the audience to exist (and survive the film), the number is 9. The only characters with both parents alive are Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (though she isn’t even raised by them, and I’m not sure if they’re both alive by the end of the film), and Mulan. Seven of the characters are orphans from the beginning of the film.

This was just another one of those things that I had always meant to look up but took forever to get around to. (BTW, Walt Disney's parents survived into his adulthood.)

Comments

Melanie said…
Very interesting- I think a lot of Disney's stories are actual fairy tales (Grimm) or based on literature (oliver twist). So it's not like he wrote them himself.
I found a site with more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_mothers
November 20, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Erin Stones said…
I have often thought about this. My daughter is obsessed with the princesses and I am sure looks at me like the wicked stepmother! Oh well!
November 20, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Turbo said…
Being the Disney freak that I am, I have thought about this. As Melanie mentioned, many of the stories are either fairy tales or those taken from other cultures and given a Disney twist. It seems that the characters are so much more endearing because they've suffered (or benefited, depending on your perspective) from not having both parents.

But then again, maybe I'm thinking too much into it.
November 20, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Heidi said…
I have always thought I wanted to look that up too. I am glad somebody else did the work. How to you explain to a 2 1/2 year old what just happened to Simba's Daddy? Kind of disturbing plotlines to a lot of them.
November 21, 2008 at 4:39 PM
A Bunch of Roaches said…
I know...I think it is kind of funny. Am I twisted?
November 22, 2008 at 5:12 PM
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