Walt Disney Hated His Mother......Or Did He?

When it comes to most Disney animated movies, has anyone else ever noticed the disturbing trend that the mother figures are either portrayed in a negative fashion or are DEAD? I have noticed this for awhile now and it seems to have ALWAYS been like this and still is today. To start, let’s go through some of the early classics:

Cinderella – Mother dead, evil stepmother

Snow White – Ditto

Sleeping Beauty – Ditto

Bambi – Mother shot dead by hunter

Dumbo – Mother chained up and taken away saying she was crazy

Pinocchio – Father, but no mother

Who doesn’t tear up a bit when see Bambi running through the forest as you hear the shotgun blast or when Dumbo's mother is locked up but she can still offer her little Dumbo some kind motherly love and and affection in her own way.

Now, the trend continues with some of the newer classics:

Beauty and the Beast – No mother even mentioned

The Little Mermaid – Ditto

Pocahontas – Ditto

Aladdin – Jasmine, ditto, and Aladdin is an orphan

Mulan – Grandmother, but no mother

Finding Nemo – Mother and “siblings” eaten

There are a few exceptions as well. In some cases, the fathers are JUST as easy of a target:

The Lion King – Father killed

Toy Story 1-3 – No father ever mentioned

The Jungle Book – Mogley is orphaned and raised by jungle animals

Tarzan – Ditto

Lilo and Stitch – Orphaned

Yup, even Mufasa didn't make it.

Pretty messed up when you think about it, isn’t it? I should mention that Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians feature both parents, human and animal, alive and well, but they truly are in the minority.

Several comments that were left on this blog when I posted it on another site led me to further investigate what Walt Disney's relationship with his mother was really like and I was quite surprised with what I found out.

For his parents, Flora and Elias Disney’s, golden wedding anniversary, Walt bought them a new house in Toluca Lake, CA. They loved the house but the furnance wasn’t very good and Walt’s mother complained about the fumes from it. So Walt had some of his studio workers (although there are stories that Walt did it himself but it could never be proved) replace the old furnace with a new gas furnace. On the night of November 26, 1938, Elias found Flora passed out on the bathroom floor and soon passed out himself trying to help her. The next morning, their maid arrived at the home and found the both of them. Flora was already dead but Elias and the maid recovered in the hospital. Police attributed the tragedy to a faulty connection in the gas furnace which had been on all night.  And Walt was never able to get over it.

So Walt didn’t HATE his mother…..he blamed himself for her death. Is it any wonder Walt had mother issues?


Here is a picture of Walt with his mother, Flora.

Copyright August 10, 2011

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Pictures courtesy of Google Images.