The Mothers of Disney

Well, it's Mother's Day, so why not have a conversation of the best(and worst) mothers Disney has to offer?

Do you have a personal favorite?

Happy Mother's Day, Gothel!

I mean, she's got "Mother" right in her name!

edited 12th May '13 5:03:02 PM by KnownUnknown

Bambi's mom! Mucho respecto!

... how many Disney Mothers even are there? I mean, Bambi's mom was a major plot point, but other than that... (this is mostly from vague memories of the films, so any screwups are entirely my fault >.>)

• Cinderella- nope
• Sleeping Beauty- nope
• Snow White- nope
• Pinnochio- nope
• Dumbo- yes! Pretty cool mom, too.
• Bambi- ... temporarily >.O
• Alice in Wonderland- nope
• Peter Pan- yes, amazingly, although she got next to nothing for screentime. Seemed nice enough, though
• Lady & the Tramp- nope
• 101 Dalmatians- yes, kinda? Not sure she got all that much screentime either.
• The Sword in the Stone- nope
• The Jungle Book- nope
• The Aristocats- yes, amazingly. Haven't seen it all the way through, though, so not sure as to parenting quality
• Robin Hood- nope
• Winnie the Pooh- nope
• The Rescuers- nope
• The Fox and the Hound- ... not sure, actually. Don't think so, but not 100%
• The Black Cauldron- nope
• The Great Mouse Detective- not that I remember
• Oliver and Company- nope
• The Little Mermaid- nope
• Beauty and the Beast- nope
• Aladdin- nope
• The Lion King- nope (well, one of the lionesses was probably Simba's mom, but I don't remember there being any noticeable interaction between them...)
• Pocahontas- nope
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame- briefly.
• Hercules- amazingly, two complete sets of loving parents (biological and adoptive)
• Mulan- yes. Good mom, too.
• Tarzan- yes. Not a fantastic mom, but not awful either
• The Emperor's New Groove- yes. Pretty good mom, too.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire- nope.
• Lilo & Stitch- nope.
• Treasure Planet- nope.
• Brother Bear- nope. Well, unless you count a non-speaking role prior to getting speared >.O
• Home on the Range- no idea, never seen it
• Chicken Little- no idea, never seen it
• Meet the Robinsons- yes, not much screentime though
• Bolt- yes, pretty good mom, too.
• The Princess and the Frog- nope.
• Tangled- why hallo dere, Mother Goethel... yeesh.
• Wreck-it Ralph- nope.

So, 12 moms out of nearly fifty films. Wow.

Well, Lilo and Stitch doesn't have a "strict" mother but the older sister can be counted like that since she's supposed to be the mother figure for Lilo. In that case, she's probably the best mom out of the bunch, since there are people who like the movie just for her relationship with Lilo.

Your list is way off, Te Chameleon.

Aurora's mom.◊

Darling.◊ Her becoming a mother kicked off the second act of the film.

Unless you count Penny's adopted mom◊ at the end.

Technically yes. The film opens with Tod's mother dropping him under the fence, running away, and getting shot.

Sarabi◊ is Simba's mother.

Tarzan had two◊ moms.◊ His bio-mom died early in the film, but in her brief appearance she is seen to love him (and his father) very much, and to hold up well under the family's unfortunate circumstances.

Kida's mother.◊

Okay, now you're just getting silly.◊

Dafuq are you on about?◊ She was voiced by Oprah, for crying out loud!

And, you know, her actual mother.◊

I won't deny that "the mother situation" in Disney is pretty dire. There are lots of Missing Moms (especially in the Princess films), when mothers do show up they rarely have a major role, and there's a lot of pedestalizing of fathers and vilification of stepmothers...but it's not quite as bad as you're making it out to be.

edited 12th May '13 6:04:45 PM by Karalora

Your first Tarzan link goes to Camilla Belle in "The Quiet".

Not for me it doesn't. I can try to find a different one though.

EDIT: How about now?

edited 12th May '13 6:05:15 PM by Karalora

Yep, you fixed it.

In Lady and the Tramp, Lady also becomes a mother herself by the film's end. Ariel is also one for the sequel.

If we're willing to go into TV series, Tale Spin had Rebecca, Goof Troop had Peg, Monterey's mother was seen in at least one episode of Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers, and the mothers are fairly relevant in Kim Possible, Pepper Ann and Phineas And Ferb.

edited 12th May '13 6:47:58 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Walt Disney Pictures films do have an issue with forgetting about the mom but Disney Pixar seems to be going the other direction. There's a superhero mom in The Incredibles and Brave is all about the royal mom and daughter bonding.

Te Chameleon did say that the list "is mostly from vague memories of the films, so any screwups are entirely [his] fault".

• Tarzan is a great example of an adoption gone right. He'll be in her heart. His natural mother is a strong and caring woman in the short time we see her, even though she never speaks. They are both fantastic moms so maybe they was being confused with someone from another movie.
• Sarabi wanted to give Simba a bath before he went to the elephant graveyard. She talked to Scar about the food situation and when she saw Simba again she thought she was seeing Mufasa. Sarafina is Nala's mother who is first seen giving Nala a bath and talks with Sarabi about if the cubs should go off and play that day.

edited 12th May '13 6:57:48 PM by lexicon

A lot of Disney films have moms in them, but it's not so often that a mom is a major character.

Aristocats, Tarzan, Bambi, Tangled (technically, Rapunzel's real mother is at least major in backstory, and twisted as she is I suppose Gothel counts), The Fox And The Hound 2 (if you count Widow Tweed as an adopted mother), Lilo And Stitch (if you count Nani), and Dumbo are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head that really focus on mothers in some way or another - though I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Do we count the Eagle from Rescuers 2?

Still, even as Out of Focus as her and the rest of Pacha's family was, Chicha was glorious.

(Also, just as a minor correction: Jungle Book did have a mom in it - Mowgli's adopted wolf mother. That entirely family is hideously out of focus, though).

edited 12th May '13 7:16:48 PM by KnownUnknown

Just don't forget Disney TV Animation, Pixar Studios, and Studio Ghibli.

For example, I like Agent K Daring and Honey Buttowski.

Aren't half of them dead?

I think the moral of the story here is that the best moms are dead.

Parents are frequently absent from significant roles in Disney films, and traditionally in children's stories and fairy tales as well. If you have a competent, loving parent about who isn't otherwise distracted, how is the plucky child hero going to get to behave heroically?

And that list of Disney films above isn't really fair; you should really only consider films in which parents are featured or mentioned. Oh, and in Robin Hood, Prince John mentioned his mother several times, even if we never got to see her, and gave the audience the distinct impression that her neglect, or perceived neglect of him, may have been at the root of his personality problems.

that shit deep son

Sure. While we're at it, we can also count Cody's mother.◊ Like most of the moms listed, she's not in it much, but she exists.

(I didn't even notice Rescuers Down Under was absent from the list...)

edited 13th May '13 10:47:09 AM by Karalora

Wow, it is difficult to think of mothers in disney films...guess they provide a better motivation when deceased(which is offensive in a number of ways).

Oh right, Tarzan's mother Kala. Easily one of the best. Aristocats...at least the mother is the main character. And Mrs. Brisby(speared to death by Bluth fans).

edited 13th May '13 11:49:50 AM by blueflame724

I just remembered, there's a mother in Robin Hood as well. Skippy's mother.◊ Again, of course, her role is very small. (And that entire set of characters are specific to the Disney version, included mostly so the kids' antics can pad out the running time.)

Secret of NIMH ain't a Disney film.

Right. It's a Sullivan Bluth Studios film, not a Walt Disney Animation Studios film. Just another reminder of how All Animation Is Disney.

Not until someone mentions Anastasia.

We saw that girls mom?

Widow Tweet is a very good and caring adoptive mom.

Dude Kangaa?

Penny from Bolt had a real mom and a fictitious dad, didn't she?