The Fathers of Disney

If The Mothers of Disney deserves a thread, so do the fathers. We can talk about our favorites but what I've been thinking about is that it's sad that it seems like the only way to make a father relevant to the child's (mostly daughter's) life is to make him single.

Not necessarily, Mufasa was an influential part of Simba's life and Simba was the same with Kiara and they were both still married. As was the Tramp and Phoebus and Fa Zhou and Zeus and Amphytryon.

Titles please? The really admirable fathers are not single and have a son to look up to him, Mufasa, Zeus, The Great Prince of the Forest, and Kerchak. The ones I'm concerned about are those single fathers for all or nearly all the movie, Ariel's father, Belle's father, Jasmine's father, Pocahontas's father, Jane's father, and Kida's father. Was the only way to make those men important to make them have to raise their children by themselves?

It's rather a bizarre theme actually. We have, like, just one single mother in the whole of the Disney animated canon. Do Disney executives fear that female protagonists are too much and have their fathers be there to offer "male sympathy fodder", or do they really tired of the concept of motherly love being exalted?

Do note that Jane's father was a widower in the book the movie was based on. Disney didn't change anything there.

edited 17th Jun '13 6:10:15 AM by CorrTerek

The Great Prince of the Forest kind of left do do his own thing until Bambi's mother couldn't raise Bambi anymore. He seems like a father who skipped town until he got stuck with custody, but he's probably more like a professional who didn't have time to be involved in his family's life. The cashgrab 2000s sequel softens him a lot from his portrayal in the original, though.

He, along with Mufasa and Kerchak are also probably polygamous, since none of the other child characters have an explicit father around and that's how it usually works in animal packs.

ISTR Terkoz having a father of her own, but it's been a while since I watched the movie.

On that vein, IIRC Tantor had both parents alive, and Colonel Hathi also would count. And Mowgli's wolf father. So would the Darlings.

Technically, not only Disney Zeus was another Happily Married father, but so was Herc's adoptive father. So Herc subverts the trope twice.

Don't forget Bob Parr, either.

edited 17th Jun '13 2:31:37 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

@ Napoleon De Cheese - I don't know what "ISTR Terkoz" means or "IIRC Tantor." Yes Disney did have a number of married parents but we usually didn't see much of them. Hercules for example had an adoptive mother and father who he left and never came back to. The story was about his father helping him to return home. It's been a while since I've seen it but I remember Zeus being really good fatherly character.

I think Bob Parr is a good example of a man who finds that fatherhood isn't like he thought it would be. He has to learn to like being a father.

@ Peryton - When you say one single mother you're probably thinking of The Princess And The Frog. There's also the older or just less remembered Dumbo, The Aristocats, The Rescuers Down Under, and Treasure Planet. When it comes to Pixar we have two single fathers from Finding Nemo and Ratatouille but no single mothers. I guess Pixar decided that single fathers work better than single mothers.

edited 18th Jun '13 12:16:24 AM by lexicon

Actually, there was Andy's apparently single mother. Not that she was an especially memorable or influential character, but there you go.

Hercules for example had an adoptive mother and father who he left and never came back to.

Did you even see the credits? Hercules did return to his adoptive parents as a visit.

We also saw a glimpse of them during the "From Hero to Zero" montage, where it's implied he's sent them a lot of money from his exploits as a hero.

Well maybe if Disney didn't have such a dead parent fetish...

As for Herc, he was trying to make his own way in life. He still liked his parents, but was on his own by the end of the film.