Hello dear friends!
Introducing today's subject
A few days ago I was talking with some friends and family while having lunch and it came out the theme of the Walt Disney films. Someone told us the reason why none of these stories gives prominence to the maternal figure.
The truth, I confess that I had never questioned myself, I had not even noticed that in the films I saw and enjoyed so much throughout my childhood, there’s an almost total absence of the parents of the main characters. Not only do they not have a leading role, but each story itself always narrates the lives of characters who had to grow up on their own and face the adversities of their lives alone without the support and guidance of their parents.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (Chicago, Illinois; December 5, 1901 - Burbank, California; December 15, 1966) was an American producer, director, screenwriter and animator. Capital figure in the history of children's animation films, it’s considered a global icon thanks to its important contributions to the entertainment industry during most of the 20th century, famous for characters such as Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse. He founded with his brother Roy O. Disney the company Walt Disney Productions, which years later became the most famous producer in the field of animation and is currently the largest media and entertainment company in the world. This corporation, which is known today as The Walt Disney Company, is a multi-million dollar company with annual revenues of tens of billions of dollars.
I invite you to make a reminder of some of these stories of fairies, glitter, princes and something else.
Cinderella
This is a fairy tale par excellence, starting with Cinderella herself, her good heart, her goodness and her tenderness make her, for me, the best fairy godmother a child can have in the process of forming his personality.
Her strength, independence and positivism in life without holding a grudge place her in the second place, after the princess Jasmine, in the list of Exemplary Disney Princess.
From the beginning of the story and part being the servant of the house of his evil stepmother and stepsisters who did not stop bothering her. The young noble complied with all the mandates without being upset and without ceasing to dream of her happiness.
And as you see here the figure of the mother is not presented ...
Beauty and the Beast
This princess ranks third in the Disney Princess Exemplary list.
Fuente
Widowed merchant with three daughters, two more pretentious and one more noble, which would be called "Beauty" because of her beauty. The father falls into economic disgrace and when returning from one of his trips he takes into account the requests of his daughters. While the others asked for luxuries, Bella said she would be very happy to receive a rose as present from her father.
And that’s when the father goes and takes the rose from the "wrong" place, from the castle of the Beast, who offended offers to release him in exchange for bringing to the castle one of his daughters.
And the rest of the story is already known by you dear friends, happy ending, with love and Prince Charming.
I would like to take from this story, the reading that everything in life happens for something, if there’s goodness in the soul and things are done out of devotion, nothing and nobody can hurt you.
In this story we also note the absence of the mother.
Snow White
Princess who ranks fourth in the Disney Princess Exemplary list.
Fuente
A good queen pricks her finger with the thorns of the only rose that grew in her garden despite the intense cold. Three drops of blood fall on the snow and she imagines every detail of her daughter, still to be conceived, describing her as a snow-white skin, red lips like that rose and black hair like a crow.
And her dream came true, the beautiful Snow White was born.
What happened next? The good mother dies of an illness.
Thus, the girl is forced to grow up under the tutelage of the next wife of his father, a beautiful but cold woman, a powerful and evil sorceress, who was jealous for the beauty of the young girl and she made every effort to kill Snow White.
Returning to the introduction
As we have recalled through the three examples cited, the absence of the mother of the main characters is recurrent in each story.
On the one hand there’s the logical reason for the duration of a movie that is approximately two hours. With this time it is true that it's not enough to develop the whole story of the characters, and at Disney it’s about seeing the growth of their characters, therefore depriving them of the mother figure makes them the responsibility of the home, as it’s Bella's case while her father is not there. In this way the story is abbreviated.
But the reason that left me astonished in that family conversation is much more personal, intimate, so I searched for exact details of the facts on the Internet and here I share them.
In Hahn's words:
"At the beginning of the forties, Walt Disney bought a house for his mother and father to move. He had the people in the studio go and fix the heater. But when his parents moved, the boiler broke down (...) The housekeeper arrived the next morning and took them quickly to the garden. His father was sick and they took him to the hospital, but his mother had already died. This fact would mark him eternally”.
In five years he had created Fantasy, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi and Snow White. He had enough money and the enormous desire of every young dreamer to buy a house for his parents and so he proposed it. When materializing the purchase of the house seemed all perfect, a great dream realized, new goals, happiness, satisfaction, and suddenly, they move and this tragedy happens ... his mother dies.
Without being a psychologist, I understand that it’s a really painful, traumatic event that marked Walt's life forever. So, creating fantastic stories and not mentioning the mother could be a way of escape and relief to his suffering.
Here you leave my reflections, but as I always say, draw your own conclusions and do not hesitate to share them with me.
A greeting full of glitter!!!
And thank you very very much for all your kindness, your beautiful comments and your support. It engages me to continue doing this work seriosly.
Have a nice day!