Disney: Trend for Tragedy
Amanda hamberlain
Issue date: 4/19/05 Section: Opinion
With a reputation for clean, kid-friendly entertainment and teaching good, wholesome, all-American morals to viewers across the globe, Disney movies featuring smiley-faced talking animals and perfectly proportioned heroines certainly don't come across as sympathy-inducing, depressing and routinely distressing films.
Well, at least not to the bulk of the population, which does not include myself.
Ever noticed a distinct, recurring trend throughout every over-played viewing of "Bambi" or "Finding Nemo"? And I'm not talking about the puppy dog f-faced, "aw"-eliciting characters.
I'm talking about "kill the parents off then watch the orphan struggle." Yep, you heard me.
Over the many years of its existence, Disney has become its own genre, and the children-targeted corporation has injected this subtle trend into more than a few of its "wholesome" feature films.
In "Bambi," the stumbling fawn's mother is suggestively shot by evil hunters, leaving "Bambi" to survive the forest un-parented with the help of only a smart-mouthed rabbit and a miraculously smell-free skunk. Nemo's mother in "Finding Nemo" became an instant sushi meal for a ravenous barracuda, leaving Nemo in a single-parent household. Resentful of his father's overprotection, Nemo ran away from his coral home and become a prisoner of a dentist. "Lion King" jerked many a youthful tear as well with the intense and near-graphic death of Simba's beloved father, King Mufasa. Simba's life just went downhill from there with his self-loathing, his self-isolation, and the enslavement of his mother by his uncle. Wow, Disney sure didn't cut him any slack.
These mourning cartoon males aren't the only ones getting the shaft. As for the tragic fairy tale female line of Disney delights, the prototype tragedy, Snow White, stands not only as the first ever Disney film, but also as the first Disney "let's orphan the princess and put her through hell with a wicked step mother until she finds a prince" film. Cinderella takes the cake for Sob Story of the Century, however. Parentless? Yes. Poor? Check. Forced to a tragic life of servitude until she meets a wealthy prince? Of course.
Well, at least not to the bulk of the population, which does not include myself.
Ever noticed a distinct, recurring trend throughout every over-played viewing of "Bambi" or "Finding Nemo"? And I'm not talking about the puppy dog f-faced, "aw"-eliciting characters.
I'm talking about "kill the parents off then watch the orphan struggle." Yep, you heard me.
Over the many years of its existence, Disney has become its own genre, and the children-targeted corporation has injected this subtle trend into more than a few of its "wholesome" feature films.
In "Bambi," the stumbling fawn's mother is suggestively shot by evil hunters, leaving "Bambi" to survive the forest un-parented with the help of only a smart-mouthed rabbit and a miraculously smell-free skunk. Nemo's mother in "Finding Nemo" became an instant sushi meal for a ravenous barracuda, leaving Nemo in a single-parent household. Resentful of his father's overprotection, Nemo ran away from his coral home and become a prisoner of a dentist. "Lion King" jerked many a youthful tear as well with the intense and near-graphic death of Simba's beloved father, King Mufasa. Simba's life just went downhill from there with his self-loathing, his self-isolation, and the enslavement of his mother by his uncle. Wow, Disney sure didn't cut him any slack.
These mourning cartoon males aren't the only ones getting the shaft. As for the tragic fairy tale female line of Disney delights, the prototype tragedy, Snow White, stands not only as the first ever Disney film, but also as the first Disney "let's orphan the princess and put her through hell with a wicked step mother until she finds a prince" film. Cinderella takes the cake for Sob Story of the Century, however. Parentless? Yes. Poor? Check. Forced to a tragic life of servitude until she meets a wealthy prince? Of course.
