In The Book of Life, Carlos may have not supported Manolo's choice of a music career, but he raised his son with love and pride. He eventually sees Manolo's talent as an amazing one and apologizes for his initial harshness. Word of God even stated that Carlos stopped bullfighting after Carmen died so Manolo wouldn't be alone.
In Despicable Me, Gru doesn't start out this way, but by the end of the film, even his "Well Done, Son" Guy mother is proud of his parenting skills.
Mufasa in The Lion King (1994) is one of, if not THE best, fathers in any film, as he is wise, humorous, stern (when necessary), honest, protective, and royal. It's partly why his death is an infamous Tear Jerker. Even after his death, he continues to guide his son in spirit.
Although she doesn't get as much focus as Mufasa, Sarabi is also shown to be a loving parent to Simba. When Simba sees Scar smack her near the end, he loses his temper.
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, there's Quasimodo's biological mother at the beginning. Her appearance is very brief since she gets killed by Frollo in the prologue but the way she's running from soldiers with the little helpless baby in her hands, while never giving up despite her chances of escape being hopeless, is certainly what a good parent would do.
Hercules, thanks to Adaptational Heroism, both Hera and Zeus are affectionate parents to their son, Hercules. They take the best possible care of him, even with his demigod origins meaning that he doesn't fit in with everyone else. And it goes both ways, with Herc buying a massive mansion for them once his heroics start getting him a lot of money.
Considering the time period and culture, Mulan's parents deserve a mention considering they are very accepting of their daughter's quirks and genuinely want the best for her. And when she leaves to join the army, neither of them are mad so much as terrified for Mulan's safety.
Tiana's parents are clearly loving, supportive, and moral. Both of them are willing to work hard to make sure their little girl has a better life, and never lose sight of the importance of love.
Charlotte aka Lottie's father is also a certified Doting Parent.
While they don't get much screen time, Rapunzel's parents from Tangled clearly loved their daughter and, after she was kidnapped, spent the next eighteen years trying to find her. Downplayed when they reunite though, as the King ended up being way too overprotective of his daughter to the point of confining her in the castle under maximum security protection (not unlike what Gothel did to Rapunzel) while the Queen just agreed to his decision but nevertheless, they did so under the misguided belief that their daughter would be kept safe from harm.
Kala from Tarzan is a very loving, compassionate and overall excellent mother to her eponymous son, Tarzan. She takes him in when she sees that he has nobody else and will die without her, and even though raising him has it's challenges - namely the fact that he's not actually an ape like her and the rest of the troop are - she did a spectacular job doing so. And towards the end of the movie, when it looks like they're both going to part ways forever, Tarzan reassures her that she'll always be his mother, no matter where he goes.
Anna and Elsa's parents from Frozen do their very best to protect their daughters and get Elsa to control her powers, until they are lost in a storm at sea. Mistakes are made—catastrophic ones—but every decision is made out of honest concern for their daughters' well-being.
Ariel and Eric to their daughter, Melody, in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. They may have made a mistake in keeping Melody's mermaid heritage a secret from her, but the way she grew up into a respectful young woman proves that Ariel and Eric raised their daughter right. Melody even calls Ariel "mother" to indicate respect and "mom" when talking to her as a loved one.
Shrek the Third When Fiona announces to Shrek that he is going to be a father, he is terrified because he thinks he will become an abusive father like his own father was to him. In the end, though, he proves to be a very good and loving father to his children.
In Mr. Peabody & Sherman, genius dog Mr. Peabody is a loving father to Sherman, the human boy he adopted. (By contrast, in the original Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, Peabody treated Sherman more as a pet.)
Yocheved from The Prince of Egypt loves all of her children, so much so, she puts herself in danger to save her youngest, Moses, from the Pharaoh's soldiers.
Laurel Lightfoot in Onward. She’s a single mom who had to handle burying her husband, caring for a traumatized toddler, and having another baby all in a very short time frame. In the movie, you can tell she’s a loving mom who parents her boys differently according to their needs.
Bob and Helen Parr in the first film. Bob may struggle with Parental Obliviousness sometimes, but definitely, by the end, he gets it. Helen, in a deleted scene, even talks about how being a good and loving parent can be just as important as superheroing when it comes to making the world a better place. Rock on.
In the sequel, Bob becomes a stay-at-home dad and handles it quite well. That is, until Jack-Jack develops over a dozen superpowers in one night and Violet's date gets his memory wiped. He gets better though and still dearly loves his children.
Pixar's Brave has King Fergus and Queen Elinor (who falls into the My Beloved Smother territory, but genuinely loves and cares for her children).
Despite dealing with the stress of their recent move to San Francisco, Riley's parents on Inside Out support their daughter's hobbies and, when she has difficulty adjusting, try to determine what's bothering her without ever becoming stifling or intrusive. The way they comfort Riley after her aborted attempt to run away from home is a massiveTear Jerker.
Dory's parents in Finding Dory. It overlaps with Parents as People since they do sometimes struggle with raising a daughter who has a mental disability, but it's clear that they do their very best as they are caring and patient towards Dory even when she forgets, and love her dearly.
In Turning Red, Jin is shown to be a kind, loving father to Mei, and encourages her to keep her panda form because it made her happy.
Migration: Pam and Mack are fully committed to nurturing their creations Dax and Gwen. They accompany them on walks, feed them, engage in lighthearted games with them, and even use a makeshift jump rope to help their daughter learn to fly.
Pam celebrates with Gwen when the latter wins a swimming race against her father, and Mack praises Gwen as well when she brings him a suitable leaf to help patch up their tree stump home.
In short, Pam and Mack spare no expense when it comes to enriching Dax and Gwen's young minds, aiding in their development, and cultivating positivity by rewarding them for their accomplishments.
Herb from Robots stands out as one of the most loving and supportive parents in the history of animation. At no point throughout the entire film does he view Rodney's dream of becoming an inventor as anything other than completely worthwhile and attainable with his talents.
In The Secret of NIMH, widowed mouse Mrs. Brisby is a gentle, kind mother who spends most of the film rescuing her endangered family.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie: The Mario Bros.' mom's review on the defictionalized version of their plumbing service's website was the only five-star review when the website launched, and she talks about how polite and professional they are, as well as them being adorable and treated her like family (when she is family). It's clear as day how biased she is, but it shows just how much she cares. She's also the only relative wholly supportive of their dream at the dinner table.
Live-Action
In Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., Barbara is a really good mom to Margaret. She's supportive without being smothering — such as when she warns Margaret that wearing shoes without socks will give her blisters, but doesn't insist on them and leaves her to learn this on her own — and worries about not having spent enough time with her. She does make mistakes, but in the film the situation with her parents has her come across much better, and she checks in on Margaret afterwards in a very compassionate way.
After Marty influences the past events of his parents in 1955 and returns to his own time, George and Lorraine are seen as this, due to George having confidence in himself and Lorraine having a much more positive outlook on life.
As well, his parents were, at heart, basically good-hearted and had good intentions, to begin with, raising Marty to have a pretty strong sense of right and wrong that guides him through all three films. In the original timeline, George's main problem was having a pushover-type personality.
In Bad Moms, Amy starts out trying to fit this trope. She loves her children and does her best to help them get through school (including doing their homework). She is also a working mom, which results in her constantly being late for everything. Her husband is lazy and is revealed to be cheating on her with a dairy farmer over Skype. Eventually, the stress gets to her, and she snaps, forcing her kids to fend for themselves, blowing off her job, and starting to party with two other moms (one of whom also fits this trope, while the other one is an oversexed single mom, who constantly ignores her son). This puts her in conflict with Gwendolyn, the head of the PTA at her kids' school, who lords over all the moms with tyrannical efficiency. Eventually, Amy manages to convince all the moms at the school to start taking it easier to avoid this much stress. Also, her new hands-off approach with her kids bears fruit. Her son becomes a pretty good cook, and her daughter is far less stressed out over her chances of going to college (and she's only 12). She also hooks up with a widower, who also fits this trope (and finds the time to get rock-hard abs).
Bit: Laurel's mom and dad express their love for her as she leaves, warning her to be safe then tell her how proud they'd been about her overcoming (implied) trouble in her gender transition, which they clearly accept fully as well.
The Blind Side has Leigh Ann and Sean Touhy having a loving relationship with their daughter and son and later on with their adopted son Michael.
The King originally wants Kit to marry a princess for political strength, but then he (briefly) meets Cinderella and understands why Kit has fallen head-over-heels in love with her. His dying wish is for Kit to go and find her.
Cinderella's biological parents, naturally, before they die. Her mother encourages her imagination and teaches her to always be courageous and kind, while her father showers her with love and brings her presents from his travels. Even when he dies, he makes sure Ella gets the tree branch she asked of him.
In Coneheads, Beldar and Prymaat are such good parents that they give up their newly obtained privileged status on Remulak and fake their own deaths so that their daughter can have the life she wants on Earth. As Beldar tells her, "After all, it's not every day that a father can give the world to his young one..."
Man of Steel has, of course, the Kents, both of whom lovingly raised Clark to be a good person; with Martha continuing to be a constant source of guidance and moral support even after he becomes Superman as shown in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Jor-El and Lara do everything they can to ensure Kal-El's survival and are clearly heartbroken at having to let him survive without them on a distant world; and on seeing him as an adult, even Jor-El's Virtual Ghost expresses wistful joy in finally seeing him having grown up. For an AI with his thoughts and memories to express such poignant emotion speaks volumes of the paternal love the real Jor-El had for his son.
Suicide Squad: Deadshot may be a Professional Killer with an agenda, but he deeply cherishes his 11-year-old daughter, Zoe. He spends the entire movie trying to reunite with her while being held in prison.
Wonder Woman has Hyppolyta, who considers Diana her "greatest love"
Justice League: Henry Allen wants Barry to move on with his life instead of chasing cold leads trying to prove Henry's innocence.
Aquaman has Thomas Curry raising his son as a loving father and never spoke ill of his lover Atlanna who was forced to abandon them to protect them.
A villainous example is Jesse Kane and his son David. Jesse is clearly proud of his son and David would rather die than leave his father to his death (Jesse had to pull out a grenade to force David to leave him behind).
SHAZAM! has Victor and Rosa Vasquez, foster parents who treat the kids as their own, encourage them to see each other as a real family and show considerable patience with newcomers who've experienced the darker side of the system.
Donnie Darko: You'd think it would be the kind of movie where the parents are dysfunctional and Stepford Smiler, but Donnie's parents are loving and understanding, and he seems to love them back in his own way.
Olive's parents in Easy A are happily married, very supportive of their children and treat their adopted son no different than their natural daughter. Olive's mother provides sage advice when Olive has to clean up the mess she's made of her own reputation.
The Fall: The Cavells are extremely understanding of Vada's emotional struggles and try their best to give her space while nudging her along to recovery. The only time they are visibly upset at her is when she was AWOL for a whole night.
Final Destination 2: In a film series where parents are generally left offscreen, Nora Carpenter and Mr Corman from the second movie are two examples.
Jack and Caroline Ryan in The Hunt for Red October count. Jack never forgets his daughter's teddy bear even when preventing World War III.
Played with in Jurassic World. And oddly enough, it's the dinosaurs who are the main focus in this case, with several comparisons being drawn between Owen Grady's and Henry Wu's dino-parenting styles. While Papa Wolf Owen genuinely cares for his four Velociraptors and does everything he can to properly raise them, it's revealed that Henry Wu kept the I. rex in complete isolation and treated her like a disposable experiment instead of a living, feeling animal. Owen outright says that this treatment and parenting style has turned her into an Ax-Crazy psychopath.
The mated pair of T. Rexes from The Lost World: Jurassic Park absolutely dote on their offspring. When the humans injure the baby and remove it from their nest, they go full Mama Bear and Papa Wolf to get it back. At the end of the movie, the father T. Rex is shown teaching the baby how to hunt using Ludlow as a target.
Kiss Me (2011): Elizabeth admits to Lasse that at first she wasn't happy about Frida being a lesbian, but came to accept this since it's just who she is. Lasse also isn't happy to admit Mia likes women and has some homophobic comments on the matter, but also says her happiness is what matters over all.
Bertie and Elizabeth in The King's Speech do their best to spend time with their two daughters, particularly Bertie who is a Doting Parent. Likewise with Lionel and his wife with their children. The scene where Lionel's sons guessed which Shakespeare character Lionel was playing was just adorable.
The 2012 film adaptation of the long-running Les Misérables musical prominently features Hugh Jackman portraying Jean Valjean as a completely caring and devoted father to his adopted child Cosette, who dearly loves her step-father back.
Rhomann Dey in Guardians of the Galaxy is a Space Cop, Reasonable Authority Figure, and Friendly Enemy to our heroes (who are former criminals or outlaws, especially Peter Quill). Later, he personally said he's grateful to them because they helped to protect Xandar and thus saving his daughter's life in the process.
Frigga in both Thor and Thor: The Dark World is very loving and caring to her two sons, including Loki who was adopted and not Asgardian.
Scott Lang of Ant-Man is possibly the best father in the entire MCU. He adores his daughter Cassie, tries to set a good example of behavior for her, enjoys playing with her to the point that he constructed a play-fort that spans his entire house (he couldn't take her out due to being under house arrest at the time), is always available when she needs him (even if he's been captured by a villain) and while he encourages her heroic desire to help others, he doesn't make her his partner or sidekick or anything like that because it would be far too dangerous for a ten-year-old. In Ant-Man and the Wasp he tells Hope that Cassie was what kept him going when he was in prison, and her calling for him during the climax of the first movie was what helped him escape from the Quantum Realm.
Governor Swann of Pirates of the Caribbean is a notable single-parent example to his daughter Elizabeth. He dotes on her from the first scene, always respects her opinion, and is willing to admit when he might be wrong about something. While he's a bit insistent on her marrying Commodore Norrington in the first film, Norrington is a highly accomplished and respected Navy officer who's known them all her life, and more importantly, is extremely considerate of Elizabeth's wishes and desires, even when they're a sacrifice. Hardly a bad match for your daughter in 18th-century pirate country! He just has the bad luck to not be Orlando Bloom.
Poltergeist: Steve and Diane Freeling are loving and devoted parents to their three children, Dana, Robbie, and Carol Anne. When Carol Anne is pulled into another dimension by angry spirits, they don't hesitate to battle the supernatural and cross over into the other realm to get her back.
Stephanie Smothers of A Simple Favor, despite the name, is an extremely devoted, loving, and competent single mother to her son, Miles. She actually has to be told not to sign up to volunteer for every activity his school hosts, and she also runs a vlog about parenting on the side. When her best friend Emily disappears, she steps up to help take care of her son Nicky while his father works, driving the boys to and from school, fixing dinner, and tucking them in. She also comforts Nicky when Emily is believed to have died, not even getting angry with him when the poor boy takes out his grief by punching Miles.
In This Is England, a troubled boy becomes friends with a group of supportive older teens. After the teens give the boy a stylish haircut, his furious mother confronts the teens and scolds them for overstepping their bounds. Once she's made herself clear, however, she acknowledges that the teens have been a positive influence on her son and allows them to continue socializing.
Used in Tragedy Girls to make the point that our Villain Protagonists do not have a Freudian Excuse. Their parents are loving, affectionate, and concerned for their well-being... and yet they grew up to be remorseless serial killers anyway. That said, it appears the girls do love their parents back, at least a little.
Rafiki: Kena's dad isn't exactly happy to learn she's a lesbian. He makes it clear though it's the guys who beat her up who should have been arrested, standing by her when no one else does, not even her mom (who's response is to blame Kena's lesbianism on demonic possession, having the pastor pray that they will be exorcised by God).
