Libertarian Librarian

I'm not the first one to mention this, but I thought about it again last night as I watched Lilo and Stitch with my kids. The Walt Disney movies-- well, the animated ones, at least-- are fraught with broken families. Seriously fraught. Now, some of that isn't all on Disney-- I mean, Cinderella is going to be about a young woman with an evil step-mother and evil step-sisters. But still. Well, let's just go down the line, shall we (skipping the lesser known titles):

Snow White (1937): Okay, Disney is limited by the parameters of the fairy tale, but they didn't have to pick Snow White for their first animated effort. Evil step-mother, no father to speak of, strange living arrangements with seven small men. Hard to find a stranger familial set-up then this one.

Pinnochio (1940): Father figures in Geppotto and Jimminy. Maternal figure in the fairy, I suppose. All very odd. Becomes a real boy with an old man for a dad, and no mother.

Fantasia (1940): I haven't actually seen this one, and it does not really fit the mold. Several disparate stories combined, all inspired by music and without a lot of plot development. Family issues are not relevant in any of the pieces.

Dumbo (1941): Okay, this one is a Disney original-- no fairy tale basis. What do we get? No father to be found, and the mother gets imprisoned for most of the movie, leaving young Dumbo an orphan with only a mouse for a mentor.

Bambi (1942): Mother gets shot and dies. Father is some vague Prince of the Forest that we never see.

Cinderella (1950): It's in the story line, so what choice does Disney have, but still-- dead mother, dead father, orphan under cruel auspices of the step-family. Step- relatives, so far, have been irredeemably evil. Cruel, heartless, and villanous through and through.

Alice in Wonderland (1951): Family is not really part of this one.

Peter Pan (1953): Aha! Two parents! Remarkable. And while the father is a bit brusque, they both seem to love and care for their children. And yet... and yet. What exactly is up with Peter and the Lost Boys? Where are their parents? Where did those boys get lost from, and why? But, credit where credit is due. While the depiction of the Native American is horrible outdated, and nearly racist, the family does not get short shrift in this one.

Lady and the Tramp (1955): It's about dogs, so it's a bit outside the lines. But one of the themes is the conflict between the adventurous, but hard, live on the street versus the cushy and loved niceties of having a home-- with the requisite restrictions on freedom. In the end, home wins.

Sleeping Beauty (1959): This one is a doosy. Granted, there IS a mother and a father, but they send their child away because of some looney prophecy that comes true anyway. Good lord, are these lousy parents. Entrust the raising of their daughter to a bunch of looney fairies, are not involved with her upbringing at all, miss out on EVERYTHING about being a parent and then still have tragedy befall them. Putzes. Complete putzes.

101 Dalmations (1961): It's about dogs, but it's about family, too. Two sets of parents-- dog and human-- both sets happily married and responsible. Wow. How'd this film get greenlighted? Not only are the two families loving and responsible for their own kids, they willingly adopt 85 additional puppies. The exception that proves the rule, maybe?

The Sword in the Stone (1963): A redo of the classic Arthurian legend featuring... a young lad with no apparent family that is picked on by others. Clearly whoever okayed 101 Dalmations was gone by the time this one made it to print.

The Jungle Book (1967): Orphaned kid. Raised in the jungle by animals. No parents except what a panther and a bear can impart. Again, Disney must needs be follow the script laid down by Kipling, but why pick this project in the first place?

The Aristocrats (1970): Mother with three kittens. Papa cat? No where in sight. Thomas O'Malley does eventually work his way into the role of the father-- and amazingly, as a step-father that isn't cruel and abusive. Perhaps its only the female step-family members that are intractable louts?

Robin Hood (1973): Family is tangential to this movie at best.

The Rescuers (1977): Kidnapped girl is rescued by mice. Sucessfully rescued. Where's John Walsh when you need him? No word on what Penny's actual parents were doing while the mice were bravely saving their daughter.

The Fox and the Hound (1981): Orphaned baby fox is raised by a widow. Apparently only dogs are allowed to have traditional families.

The Great Mouse Detective (1986): A Sherlock Holmesesque adventure featuring mice. A young girl's father is kidnapped. No word on the mother. This one is pretty family neutral.

Oliver and Company (1988): Disney rework of Oliver Twist. Given that, the protaganist pretty much has to be an orphan. Regardless, it's another story about an orphan.

The Little Mermaid (1989): Seven daughters and a dad... but where's mommy? We don't know and the movie never mentions her.

The Rescuers Down Under (1990): See The Rescuers above. Only this time a boy gets kidnapped, and it's in Australia. Still no word on the parents-- though great care is given to the protecting of an eagle's eggs.

Beauty and the Beast (1991): Strange old father. No sign of a mother.

Aladdin (1992): Strange old father. No sign of a mother. Plus, an orphan. What a combo.

The Lion King (1994): We start out with a loving mother and a loving father. Then daddy gets whacked... by his brother. The son/nephew? Raised by a meerkat and a pig. Solid family there.

Pocahontas (1995): Strong father figure. No mother to be seen-- though there is an old lady/godmother type of thing with the willow tree.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996): Quasimodo doesn't die in this one. What a crock. But Quasi is still an orphan. That they don't change.

Hercules (1997): Father and mother who are also gods. Their child is kidnapped, but raised by loving step-parents-- now that is worth taking note of. In the end, Hercules is reunited with his parental god units. This one is the best since 101 Dalmations, in terms of parents.

Mulan (1998): Mother, father and grandmother. Huh, go figure.

Tarzan (1999): The story dictates he be an orphan-- but why so many orpah stories?

The Emperor's New Groove (2000): Pacho has a normal family, but no word of what happened to the Emperor's parental units that left him on the throne at a pretty young age.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001): No real family issues one way or the other in this one.

Lilo & Stitch (2002): Parents wiped out in a car accident. Orphaned older sister and younger sister struggle to exist as a family before meeting aliens.

Treasure Planet (2002): Remake of Treasure Island, with Jim Hawkins under the care of his mother, fathter presumably dead. John Silver does fill in as a father figure of sorts.

Return to Neverland (2002-- VHS/DVD only): Sequel to Peter Pan, this is a surprisingly good film. As with the original, family is not central, but both a mother and a father are present, and the family as a unit is celebrated.

Brother Bear (2003): Three brothers. One dies, one gets turned into a bear. No sign of parents, though the brothers are all older-- 16+.

Home on the Range (2004): Cows save the farm from a yodeling cattle rustler. No family issues here, just a really, really, really, STUPID movie. Maybe Disney SHOULD stick to orphan flicks if this is what they produce when they try something else.

Okay. 36 films. Of that group, I count ten as explicitly about orphans. Over 25%. Add to that another nine in which only one parent, or no parents, are represented, and you have 19. Throw in Sleeping Beauty because the parents in that one are just useless. 20. I would say seven really don't have any relation to parents, and four are fairly family neutral. That's 31. Only five, by my reckoning, explicitly have a mother and father involved in them: 101 Dalmations, Hercules, Mulan, Peter Pan and Return to Neverland.

5.

Out of 36. That's just under 14%.

For family movies, there sure aren't many families in them. Is there some sort of weird appeal to movies about orphans? Certainly this isn't just a Disney thing, given that a goodly percentage of their orphan flicks are based on other sources. Cinderella, Snow White, Tarzan, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Aladdin are all stories about orphans.

Why?

What's the deal with that? Does it make kids feel lucky to have parents? Are orphans just naturally plucky and worth rooting for?

Definitely weird. Any thoughts, folks?