Okay, let's face it - mothers and parents in general usually get a bum rap in Disney movies. They're absent or barely involved, deceased, adoptive and abusive or flat out murdered.
There are many theories about this and most of them are aimed at mommy issues, which as well as being insensitive is frankly untrue.
Most Disney stories are tales of growing up and finding yourself and most of the characters find themselves in unusual or dangerous situations that hey, probably wouldn't happen if the parents were around and doing their job.
Now that said, there are some awesome parents in the Disney-verse and here are some of my favourite Disney mothers in no particular order.
1) Kala from Tarzan
They say it's easy to love your own child but it takes someone with a large heart to adopt someone else's child and love them like your own. Well, this is what Kala did in Tarzan 1999 after her own child was killed and heck, this kid isn't even the same species!
Even when her mate objected, she stood up to him and if she hadn't, Tarzan's story would have ended with him in makeshift diapers and not in a good state instead of the lovable hero we know now.
Kala won a lot of hearts as the caring, protective figure - even winning over her daughter in jungle law and being a great all around "I'll fight a damn leopard for you" kind of mother.
2) Chicha from The emperor's new groove
3) Ariel from The Little Mermaid
4) Helen Parr from The Incredibles
No lie - 2004's The Incredibles is one of my absolute favourite Disney-Pixar flicks..it's just perfect.
Centred around a real family with real problems and they just happen to be super powered individuals. I always thought it was interesting that when talking about the characters designs, Brad Bird stated that the father figure had to be strong, the mother needed to be flexible, the teenage daughter isn't comfortable in her own skin so she becomes invisible, the younger son is always on the go and is therefore a speedster and the baby hasn't grown into himself yet so he's basically untapped potential.
It comes across as a bit stereotypical maybe, but the way it plays out on screen works really well. We see all sides of Helen - from her strong, independent super hero persona of Elasti-girl, to her settling down with fellow super Mr. Incredible, working hard to establish a civilian life for her family while her husband goes through a mid life crisis. She almost breaks down herself, feeling powerless when he gets into trouble but gets reluctantly gets dragged back into the Super life to save Bob - and is suitably horrified when she discovers her two oldest children have snuck along for the ride and are now in extreme danger.
So not only is she saving her husband, keeping her children safe, thwarting an evil scheme, performing feats of super human strength and flexibility, saving her marriage and sorting out her children's problems - she deftly slips back into her pre-mom role and kicks serious butt by combining her two lives together.
5) Lady from Lady and the Tramp
Alongside The Little Mermaid, 1955's Lady and the Tramp was another VHS constantly being re-watched in our house.
The kids only appeared at the end of the original, and were the focus of a later 2001 Direct to Video movie Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure. What I loved about the original was the was Lady didn't understand why she wasn't getting the level of attention she had previously enjoyed, but once she meets the Jim and Darling Dear's new baby, she adores it and spends the rest of the film defending the child from rats and evil cats while being misunderstood by everyone else except Tramp.
Sequel - not a fan. Scamp is an outright little turd who thinks living on the streets with a junkyard gang is preferable to having a loving home, Angel (adopted by Lady and Tramp) just wants a loving home as opposed to her current stray status but is too 'perfect' by comparison to Scamp while Annette, Collette and Danielle just don't seem to have any individual personalities worth writing home about.
Tramp is again the over protective parent in the sequel, trying to protect Scamp from the tough life he had to live while Lady seems to comprehend the position of both boys and coaxes Tramp to speak with their son about understanding what he did wrong. It pains her to see Scamp chained up and upset but she has faith in Tramp and has mellowed out from her prim upbringing.
6) Sarabi from the Lion King
What child wouldn't know about Sarabi, Mufasa's mate and Simba's mother from 1994's The Lion King?
Personally, I find the idea of a "Lion King" offensive because it's been proven that it's the lionesses who do all the work and the lion just sits around, eats and mates... Huh. Just like human society... well damn.
Anyway, she's got a mention on this list because of her genuine character and caring nature. After giving birth to Simba, she's next seen giving him a tongue bath and laughing off his embarrassed protests. Does that not sound like a mum to you? As well as being aware of her son's mischievous nature and appointing a minder instead of flat out banning him from going anywhere. There's also this wonderful exchange:
Sarabi: "Your son's awake."
Mufasa: "Before sunrise, he's your son."
She's also a supportive and strong character, standing up for her pride against Scar and his hyena horde both verbally and by launching into battle and showing intelligence and compassion in her other dealings, as well as remaining a fearless lioness after her mate and son both die (as far as she's aware). Scar tries to screw with their minds by getting Simba to say he killed Mufasa but Sarabi - despite pausing momentarily in shock - does not believe it.
Apparently, Simba was supposed to look a lot more like Sarabi but his colouring was changed to more of Mufasa's style.
7) Mrs Jumbo from Dumbo
1941's Dumbo is basically a masterpiece of Disney. You can watch this film and think it's a commentary on race, of animal abuse in the circus, disabilities or even how to get famous but the film is honestly about the strong bond between mother and child.
Mrs Jumbo hardly says a word in this film but you can feel her despair when the stork doesn't visit her alone, her joy when the stork finally finds her and delivers her child, her anger when the other bitch ass elephant cows tease her child for his over size ears, her absolute rage when a bunch of punk ass kids (ironically with huge ears as well) bully her child, her overwhelming grief when she is separated from Dumbo/Jumbo Jr (although they do share an absolute tear jerking scene when she cradles Jumbo Jr in her trunk to "Baby mine" after Timothy the Mouse briefly reunites them.
As we all know, Jumbo Jr goes on to be abused a bit more from the circus, then briefly lost to his adventures but returns to take care of his mother and raise them both up from the bottom to a life of comfort, and togetherness.
8) Nani Pelakai from Lilo and Stitch
While not technically a mother, Nani has had to become the legal guardian of her younger sister Lilo at the tender age of 19, due to an unfortunate accident.
Given that she has to support herself as well as Lilo - who, let's be honest, is no walk in the park - and then later has Stitch to look after, she is often very busy and quite stressed out, especially when the prospect of having Lilo taken away pops up. She is unable to hold down a job or a relationship mostly due to these reasons but despite that and the frustrations between Lilo and herself, she does her best to make sure Lilo gets to have a wonderful childhood where she can keep believing, and maintain what's important to her, (even if it's feeding fish peanut butter sandwiches or taking a million photos of people-watching) and Lilo is always put before Nani's own needs.
This film was released in 2002 but I never got around to seeing it until last year.
The themes of family are super strong in this movie but as well as that, it's about bonds, not blood as to what makes up your family.
9) Jill Anderson from Inside Out
One of Disney's newer hits from 2015 showed us a family that was very tightly bonded but struggles to cope with the emotional toll the move from Minnesota to San Francisco put on their young daughter Riley. She misses her friends, she rejects her once loved hobbies and starts to resent her parents, causing her to act out with attitude and try to run away.
There are theories that the fact that mum has 'sadness' at the reins in her head, while dad has 'anger' is telling that mum is more empathetic (but not depressed) and dad is more assertive (but not a rage fuelled monster) which sound likely. Riley is largely dominated by 'joy' as her childhood up to now was basically a montage of happy but as we all know, things change. Her parents help her learn that sadness is okay sometimes and shower her with support during this difficult transition.
10) Mrs Potts from Beauty and the Beast
To save the list from going on forever, I've only included the top ten and have only focused on mothers or females who adopt the role of a guardian.
That is not to say that Disney did not have any awesome paternal figures, oh my no! So here's a brief run down on my top ten fathers of Disney, and I hope to make a fleshed out list sooner rather than later.
Fathers of Disney:
Django from Ratatouille
Chief Powhatan from Pocahontas
Mufasa from Th Lion King
Tramp from Lady and the Tramp
Marlin from Finding Nemo
Geppetto from Pinocchio
Pongo from 101 Dalmations
Fa Zhou from Mulan
Mr Banks from Mary Poppins
Thanks for reading, if you have any notable mentions, agree with my list or have a suggestion for the Fathers of Disney list, please feel free to leave a comment!
There are many theories about this and most of them are aimed at mommy issues, which as well as being insensitive is frankly untrue.
Most Disney stories are tales of growing up and finding yourself and most of the characters find themselves in unusual or dangerous situations that hey, probably wouldn't happen if the parents were around and doing their job.
Now that said, there are some awesome parents in the Disney-verse and here are some of my favourite Disney mothers in no particular order.
1) Kala from Tarzan
They say it's easy to love your own child but it takes someone with a large heart to adopt someone else's child and love them like your own. Well, this is what Kala did in Tarzan 1999 after her own child was killed and heck, this kid isn't even the same species!
Even when her mate objected, she stood up to him and if she hadn't, Tarzan's story would have ended with him in makeshift diapers and not in a good state instead of the lovable hero we know now.
Kala won a lot of hearts as the caring, protective figure - even winning over her daughter in jungle law and being a great all around "I'll fight a damn leopard for you" kind of mother.
2) Chicha from The emperor's new groove
Wife to Pacha, mother of two children and pregnant with another - Chicha is one of the more intelligent and caring characters in 2000's The Emperor's New Groove. As well as being clearly devoted to her family, she also helps Kuzco learn a valuable life lesson despite initially desiring to whup him one after hearing he selfishly planned to destroy her family's home for his own leisure.
She was also instrumental in delaying the films baddies, Yzma and Kronk at crucial moments.
As well as being the first pregnant character shown in a Disney cartoon, Chicha also feels like a fully fleshed out character, despite not really being in any main roles. It's also refreshing to see that she doesn't shy away from confrontation or action - a part she could have easily been shoe-horned into as the first pregnant character who does not play a major role in a Disney movie.
3) Ariel from The Little Mermaid
Ariel, in 1989's The Little Mermaid was the first Disney princess I was ever introduced to. In 2000, she received her own sequel, direct to home video and suitably titled The Little Mermaid II - in which she became the first Disney princess to procreate. In another first, because she was the first non-human princess as well.
The plot in a nutshell is that once spawning, Ariel and Eric are bringing Melody to see Ariel's father, King Triton but on the way they are attacked by original and deceased baddie Ursula's sister Morganna. Realising this could happen again, the parents subsequently keep their daughter in a Rapunzel-esque situation - blocked off from the sea by a wall and completely land locked.
Melody grows up and although she's the spitting image of a gender swapped Prince Eric, she has the personality/attitude of Ariel. However, Ariel was always trying to get to land, but Melody is desperately trying to get back to the water. What follows is a sort of reverse but somewhat identical theme to the first movie. It's interesting to see the mother-daughter relationship develop as they try to understand each other and save their own skin. Probably suitable payback for all the tween crap Ariel put her dad through, but it shows that being over protective can work against you. Her main fault is being too human and not realising how it's different when it's her own child involved. They probably should have just been honest with their kid about why they want her to stay alive.
4) Helen Parr from The Incredibles
No lie - 2004's The Incredibles is one of my absolute favourite Disney-Pixar flicks..it's just perfect.
Centred around a real family with real problems and they just happen to be super powered individuals. I always thought it was interesting that when talking about the characters designs, Brad Bird stated that the father figure had to be strong, the mother needed to be flexible, the teenage daughter isn't comfortable in her own skin so she becomes invisible, the younger son is always on the go and is therefore a speedster and the baby hasn't grown into himself yet so he's basically untapped potential.
It comes across as a bit stereotypical maybe, but the way it plays out on screen works really well. We see all sides of Helen - from her strong, independent super hero persona of Elasti-girl, to her settling down with fellow super Mr. Incredible, working hard to establish a civilian life for her family while her husband goes through a mid life crisis. She almost breaks down herself, feeling powerless when he gets into trouble but gets reluctantly gets dragged back into the Super life to save Bob - and is suitably horrified when she discovers her two oldest children have snuck along for the ride and are now in extreme danger.
So not only is she saving her husband, keeping her children safe, thwarting an evil scheme, performing feats of super human strength and flexibility, saving her marriage and sorting out her children's problems - she deftly slips back into her pre-mom role and kicks serious butt by combining her two lives together.
5) Lady from Lady and the Tramp
Alongside The Little Mermaid, 1955's Lady and the Tramp was another VHS constantly being re-watched in our house.
The kids only appeared at the end of the original, and were the focus of a later 2001 Direct to Video movie Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure. What I loved about the original was the was Lady didn't understand why she wasn't getting the level of attention she had previously enjoyed, but once she meets the Jim and Darling Dear's new baby, she adores it and spends the rest of the film defending the child from rats and evil cats while being misunderstood by everyone else except Tramp.
Sequel - not a fan. Scamp is an outright little turd who thinks living on the streets with a junkyard gang is preferable to having a loving home, Angel (adopted by Lady and Tramp) just wants a loving home as opposed to her current stray status but is too 'perfect' by comparison to Scamp while Annette, Collette and Danielle just don't seem to have any individual personalities worth writing home about.
Tramp is again the over protective parent in the sequel, trying to protect Scamp from the tough life he had to live while Lady seems to comprehend the position of both boys and coaxes Tramp to speak with their son about understanding what he did wrong. It pains her to see Scamp chained up and upset but she has faith in Tramp and has mellowed out from her prim upbringing.
 |
| Even in the first movie he's causing trouble! |
6) Sarabi from the Lion King
What child wouldn't know about Sarabi, Mufasa's mate and Simba's mother from 1994's The Lion King?
Personally, I find the idea of a "Lion King" offensive because it's been proven that it's the lionesses who do all the work and the lion just sits around, eats and mates... Huh. Just like human society... well damn.
Anyway, she's got a mention on this list because of her genuine character and caring nature. After giving birth to Simba, she's next seen giving him a tongue bath and laughing off his embarrassed protests. Does that not sound like a mum to you? As well as being aware of her son's mischievous nature and appointing a minder instead of flat out banning him from going anywhere. There's also this wonderful exchange:
Sarabi: "Your son's awake."
Mufasa: "Before sunrise, he's your son."
She's also a supportive and strong character, standing up for her pride against Scar and his hyena horde both verbally and by launching into battle and showing intelligence and compassion in her other dealings, as well as remaining a fearless lioness after her mate and son both die (as far as she's aware). Scar tries to screw with their minds by getting Simba to say he killed Mufasa but Sarabi - despite pausing momentarily in shock - does not believe it.
Apparently, Simba was supposed to look a lot more like Sarabi but his colouring was changed to more of Mufasa's style.
 |
| Female PRIDE. Amiright?? |
7) Mrs Jumbo from Dumbo
1941's Dumbo is basically a masterpiece of Disney. You can watch this film and think it's a commentary on race, of animal abuse in the circus, disabilities or even how to get famous but the film is honestly about the strong bond between mother and child.
Mrs Jumbo hardly says a word in this film but you can feel her despair when the stork doesn't visit her alone, her joy when the stork finally finds her and delivers her child, her anger when the other bitch ass elephant cows tease her child for his over size ears, her absolute rage when a bunch of punk ass kids (ironically with huge ears as well) bully her child, her overwhelming grief when she is separated from Dumbo/Jumbo Jr (although they do share an absolute tear jerking scene when she cradles Jumbo Jr in her trunk to "Baby mine" after Timothy the Mouse briefly reunites them.
As we all know, Jumbo Jr goes on to be abused a bit more from the circus, then briefly lost to his adventures but returns to take care of his mother and raise them both up from the bottom to a life of comfort, and togetherness.
8) Nani Pelakai from Lilo and Stitch
While not technically a mother, Nani has had to become the legal guardian of her younger sister Lilo at the tender age of 19, due to an unfortunate accident.
Given that she has to support herself as well as Lilo - who, let's be honest, is no walk in the park - and then later has Stitch to look after, she is often very busy and quite stressed out, especially when the prospect of having Lilo taken away pops up. She is unable to hold down a job or a relationship mostly due to these reasons but despite that and the frustrations between Lilo and herself, she does her best to make sure Lilo gets to have a wonderful childhood where she can keep believing, and maintain what's important to her, (even if it's feeding fish peanut butter sandwiches or taking a million photos of people-watching) and Lilo is always put before Nani's own needs.
This film was released in 2002 but I never got around to seeing it until last year.
The themes of family are super strong in this movie but as well as that, it's about bonds, not blood as to what makes up your family.
 |
| Lilo at the start |
 |
| Lilo at the end |
9) Jill Anderson from Inside Out
One of Disney's newer hits from 2015 showed us a family that was very tightly bonded but struggles to cope with the emotional toll the move from Minnesota to San Francisco put on their young daughter Riley. She misses her friends, she rejects her once loved hobbies and starts to resent her parents, causing her to act out with attitude and try to run away.
There are theories that the fact that mum has 'sadness' at the reins in her head, while dad has 'anger' is telling that mum is more empathetic (but not depressed) and dad is more assertive (but not a rage fuelled monster) which sound likely. Riley is largely dominated by 'joy' as her childhood up to now was basically a montage of happy but as we all know, things change. Her parents help her learn that sadness is okay sometimes and shower her with support during this difficult transition.
10) Mrs Potts from Beauty and the Beast
Mrs Potts from Beauty and the Beast (1991) is one of those characters that you look at and just know they're a mother, even if their tea-cup child isn't following them around all the time.
She obviously loves her offspring, and even being a darn tea pot for forever long doesn't seem to faze her much. It's also been pointed out that she is the one character apart from Belle that the Beast has respect for and has been known to listen to and it's just as well because Mrs Potts is pretty much the only sane and reasonable person in that damn castle.
She's sympathetic and understanding, does her best to help out, while sometimes afraid of the Beast's wrath, is not afraid to stand up to him when it's required and to burn some villagers along with her child.... okay, that last part sounds a bit off but hey, they were under siege so fair's fair.
She's also bad ass enough to pop up around the Disney universe in her tea pot state despite being turned back into her human self.
To save the list from going on forever, I've only included the top ten and have only focused on mothers or females who adopt the role of a guardian.
That is not to say that Disney did not have any awesome paternal figures, oh my no! So here's a brief run down on my top ten fathers of Disney, and I hope to make a fleshed out list sooner rather than later.
Fathers of Disney:
Django from Ratatouille
Chief Powhatan from Pocahontas
Mufasa from Th Lion King
Tramp from Lady and the Tramp
Marlin from Finding Nemo
Geppetto from Pinocchio
Pongo from 101 Dalmations
Fa Zhou from Mulan
Mr Banks from Mary Poppins
Thanks for reading, if you have any notable mentions, agree with my list or have a suggestion for the Fathers of Disney list, please feel free to leave a comment!
 |
| Patiently awaiting the male edition like.. |
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