Disney Glorifies Single Parenthood

As I turned on the Disney channel the other day, I spotted a Disney classic, Cinderella, the story with the evil stepmother. At that very moment I realized that most Disney movies do not have both a mother and a father.

I could really only think of a few, including 101 Dalmatians, which had two owners and two parent dogs. The other movie I could think of with both parents was another dog movie, Lady and the Tramp. The last movie I could think of was Hercules who had both parents but did live most of his life with adopted parents. Other then that I could not think of any others.

Disney seems to make money off of the tragedy of losing a parent. Still to this day, when Bambi as a fawn calls out for his dead mother, a tear will come to my eye. Bambi's dad makes a brief appearance telling him that he has to make it on his own now. Other abandoned animals in Disney movies are featured in The Fox and the Hound, The Lion King, and Finding Nemo. In other movies, the animals just seem to only have one parent. Dumbo is heartbreaking when Dumbo's mother, Jumbo, is chained up after protecting her son. She is later put in a cart and can only touch her son with her trunk. My heart still aches for that animated elephant. In The Aristocats the mother is raising three kittens on her own. She later finds a mate but she did have to raise those kittens on her own for years before a father appeared in the picture.

Now getting away from the animal movies and looking towards the princess movies. Cinderella, who originated this thought process, lived with her stepmother and stepsisters, who treated her very poorly, which sort of gives a bad rap to blended families. In Aladdin, Jasmine lived with her father the Sultan, no mother figure in that movie. Sleeping Beauty was sent to live with Fairies. Over and over, the pattern continues; one parent or a loss of one parent. How did we grow up sane with having such images thrown at us over and over? Has it become the norm to have only one parent? Not that I would ever knock a single mother or father that is a strong role to live. But do we really want kids thinking that is the norm, thinking that being a single parent will help your dreams come true?

I just find it incredibly disturbing that there are so many movies with just one parent. I know Disney adapted a lot of those stories from books. Like Pinocchio, which was an Italian book adapted into animation, the story of a puppet who becomes a boy who is raised by just his father. But I am starting to think that since the formula worked Disney kept it going. Just pay attention next time you see a Disney movie; is there a tragic death or just one parent?