Absent Mothers in Disney films

The heroes and heroines of most Disney movies come from unstable family backgrounds. Most are either orphaned or have no mothers. Few, if any, have only single mothers. In other instances, mothers are presented as "bad surrogates" eventually "punished for their misdeeds." There is much debate about the reasoning behind this phenomenon. In her thesis, Ashli Ann Sharp attempts to relate the phenomenon to traditional tales from the Grimms and Hans Christian Anderson, along with a lot of graduate school pop psychology. Some allege that it comes from the guilt that Walt Disney had about the death of his own mother Flora Call Disney. Feminists believe it is to create dramatic interest in the main characters. If mothers were present to guide them, there would not be much of a plot. Whatever the cause, strong, female leadership is obviously lacking in Walt Disney's films. Below is a list of some notable examples of this aspect of Disney movies and television series.

List of Movies
No Mothers
*Pinocchio: Pinocchio - no mother
* Peter Pan: Lost Boys - in search of someone to be their mother
*The Little Mermaid: Ariel - no mother
*Beauty and the Beast: Belle - no mother.
*Aladdin: Jasmine - no mother
*A Goofy Movie: Max - no mother, Roxanne - no mother
*Pocahontas: Pocahontas - no mother
*Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy: Elizabeth - no mother, Will - no mother
*Herbie: Fully Loaded: Maggie - no mother

Step Mother
*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Snow White -evil stepmother
* Cinderella: Cinderella - evil stepmother

Orphans
*The Sword in the Stone: Arthur - orphan
* The Jungle Book: Mowgli - orphan
*Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Charlie, Carrie, Paul - orphans
*The Rescuers: Penny - orphan
*Pete's Dragon: Pete - orphan
*Escape to Witch Mountain: Tony and Tia - orphans
*Oliver & Company: Oliver - orphan
*Newsies: Jack, Racetrack, Crutchy, etc. - orphans
*Aladdin: Aladdin - orphan

Mother is Killed/Captured
*Dumbo: Dumbo - mother is captured
*Bambi: Bambi - mother is shot
*The Fox and the Hound: Tod - mother killed
*The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo - mother killed
*Tarzan: Tarzan - parents killed by leopard
*Lilo & Stitch : Lilo - parents died in car crash
*Finding Nemo; Nemo - mother eaten

List of Disney Channel Original Series
*Hannah Montana: Hannah Montana - no mother

List of Disney Channel Original Movies
*Cow Belles: Taylor, Courtney - no mother
*Smart House: Ben, Angie - no mother
*Not Quite Human: Becky - no mother
*The Little Kidnappers Harry, Davy - orphans
*The Thirteenth Year: Cody - orphan
*Genius: Charlie - no mother
*Rip Girls: Sydney - mother drowned

See Also
*List of Disney feature films
*List of Disney Channel Original Movies
*List of Disney Channel series

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