Nemo and Ariel each had two but then lost one. Lilo and Alladin lost both, while Lightning and Woody had none to begin with. Dumbo and Wilbur each had just one. We never knew how many Flik had, and Lady’s was left unsaid. George acquired one, and Stuart later got two. Simba had two, but lost one.
What the heck am I talking about? Ah, parents.
Seems like our (and our children’s) favorite movie cartoons have non-traditional notions of what a typical (or atypical) family looks like. In contrast, television cartoon families seem, well, more traditional.
Dora has two, and so does Johnny Neptune, Bill, and Doug. Timmy has four, but two are actually “fairly odd.” Bugs Bunny had none, but baby Bugs has Grams.
Ever since my significant other and I became the proud fathers of two wonderful (and active!) little girls who like cartoons, we’ve begun noticing what kind of parents there are on television and in movies. Especially in the cartoons that our daughters watch.
Only Aurora had two, but they sent her away (to three “mothers”) to save her. Tarzan lost both of his. Simba and Jasmine each had two but then lost one. Cinderella and Snow White had just one, although they each later got a second (and wicked) one. Even Bambi lost one.
It seems that just about every popular animated movie has an alternate family structure. One parent, or one biological and one step, or none at all, or losing one or both, or getting one or two “new” parents, or being cared by one’s sister (Lilo and Stitch was actually the most difficult for me to watch, because of Lilo’s sometimes physical struggles with her older guardian sister).
Yet, relations with these non-traditional parents or guardians often serve as one of the main driving forces behind the main characters. And when one sees a rapport or conflict, it becomes memorable.
Simba’s father and Bambi’s mother both die in tear-jerker scenes. Mulan poses as a man to save her weakened father, while Belle takes her father’s place at the Beast’s castle. Ariel and Jasmine rebel against their fathers and end up meeting their true love. Nemo’s father searches the entire ocean for his son (and of course don’t forget the agony of watching Nemo’s parents valiantly protect their hundreds of children). Snow White and Cinderella struggle against their step-mothers.
(Hmm, why is it that mothers die, fathers are weak, and step-mothers are wicked in these movies?)
Interestingly enough, many of these characters go on to meet mates and have traditional families of their own. Simba, Bambi, Lady and Tramp, and both Milo and Otis (no, wait, Milo and Otis aren’t animated characters). I’m pretty certain that while Disney, Pixar, and Hanna Barbera has been willing to play fast and loose with family structures, they wouldn’t go as far as having their movies end with these main characters having their own alternate family structure. Oops, stratch that — Wilbur the pig adopts Joy, Aranea, and Nellie. [Oops, I originally said Charlotte instead of Wilbur, but Charlotte’s the spider and not the pig!]
All this is just something my partner and I have been pondering for a while. It’d be interesting to see what others think about this.
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I love you for noticing/posting this. Not only do children’s movies have interesting takes on family structure (and definitely the way “happily ever after” always seems to look more, umm, “traditional” than reality also gives one pause), but another thing that always drives me nuts is gender illustration - how we decide people are feminine and masculine in these movies.
Case in point: Robots. Machines were given feminine and masculine characteristics that aren’t necessarily authentic, and it drove me nuts.
Oh, haven’t seen that movie, Robots! Were the main characters “made” without parents (like Woody and Lightning)? Seems similar to “Cars” — the characters are all obviously male or female. But another interesting thing about “Cars” I noticed — there are NO kids. Maybe in the speedway audience, but nowhere else, period.
No, there’s a definite traditional family structure thing going on in Robots. Parents order a kid, and then they switch out parts to accomodate his “growth.”
Hmm, I’ve definitely noticed this trend every since I became a parent. It really puts things, especially kids’ movies, into perspective. Another blogger posted about this recently. Have a looksee:
http://tinyurl.com/yvu6ow
(The blog is AntiRacistParent.com but the link was so long so I shortened it.)
Oh my goodness, Keri, what a wonderful post by AntiRacistParent.com! I’m taking the, ahem, liberty of copying the list from that post and pasting it here. Again, here’s the original tinyurl link:
http://tinyurl.com/yvu6ow
• Aladdin (Aladdin) – orphaned and homeless; petty crimes for food and shelter
• Annie (Annie) – orphan adopted by rich single dad
• Ariel (The Little Mermaid) – dead mother, rebellious teen who runs away to be with a man
• Aristocats – Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse – three kittens raised by a single mother
• Bambi (Bambi) – raised by single mother who is murdered, has never met his absent father
• Belle (Beauty and the Beast) – dead mother, raised by single father
• Cinderella (Cinderella) – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful, absent father
• Dumbo (Dumbo)– raised by a stigmatized, depressed single mother
• Elliot (Pete’s Dragon) – orphaned, runaway from abusive foster parents, adopted by single mother
• Hercules (Hurcules) – son of gods transracially adopted by humans
• Lilo (Lilo and Stitch)– orphaned, raised by older sister
• Mowgli (The Jungle Book)– orphaned, raised by 2-male heads of household (bear and panther)
• Mulan (Mulan) – cross-dressing teen girl with intact, multi-generational family unit
• Nemo (Finding Nemo) – dead mother, raised by single overprotective father
• Oliver (Oliver & Company) – orphaned kitten transracially adopted by rich girl
• Peter Pan (Peter Pan) – orphaned, troublemaker and gang leader of Lost Boys
• Penny (The Rescuers) – orphaned girl kidnapped from orphanage
• Pinocchio (Pinocchio) – wooden toy adopted by aged creator Gepetto
• Pochahontas (Pocahontas) – dead mother, raised by single father
• Quasimoto (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) – physically disabled male adopted by evil church minister Frollo
• Simba (The Lion King) – father murdered by uncle, raised by 2-male heads of household (meerkat and warthog)
• Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty) – parents transferred custody to 3 fairies
• Snow White (Snow White & the 7 dwarves) – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful father
• Tarzan (Tarzan)– orphaned, transracially adopted by gorilla family
Fascinating! Definitely food for thought and a fun discussion. Thank you! Another nontraditional structure - the Donald Duck family. Donald has three nephews, but said nevvies do not appear to have parents, just Unca Donald, who in turn, has Unca Scrooge. There are a few instances of Scrooge’s parents and sisters being mentioned in passing, but otherwise, no sign of Unca Donald’s parents nor of any other family members. For that matter, none of the Mickey Mouse family of cartoon characters appears to have families of their own. (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Pegleg Pete, and the rest)
Terrific blog, Josh! There are many more nontraditional families out there than people think.
The last time I looked at statistics from a PBS poll, only 1/3 of respondents defined a family as the traditional mother-father-2-children family. Instead, the majority of respondents cited love, togetherness, and caring as defining components of a family. Children’s movies and books do reflect some truths!
This reminds me of back when I was doing my training as a psychotherapist. The agency I worked at required clients to fill out a form and name their parents, siblings, and children. Not surprisingly, this form didn’t work for a number of people. Some had grandmothers functioning as mothers, family friends who had become aunts and uncles, neighbors who were known as grandparents, and so on.