This is depressing!
Think about your favorite childhood Disney movie. Was there a mother figure in it? Chances are, NO!
For some reason Ariel only had King Triton, Jasmine had no maternal figure in Aladdin, and Belle only had her poppa Maurice! Even poor Bambi was there when his mother was killed by a hunter!
So, why is that?!
Well, Disney producer Don Hahn recently delved into the question in an interview with Glamour, where he revealed:
“Walt Disney, in the early 1940s, when he was still living at this house, also bought a house for his mom and dad to move into. He had the studio guys come over and fix the furnace, but when his mom and dad moved in, the furnace leaked and his mother died. The housekeeper came in the next morning and pulled his mother and father out on the front lawn. His father was sick and went to the hospital, but his mother died. He never would talk about it, nobody ever does. He never spoke about that time because he personally felt responsible because he had become so successful that he said, ├óΓé¼╦£Let me buy you a house.’ It’s every kid’s dream to buy their parents a house and just through a strange freak of nature ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ through no fault of his own ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ the studio workers didn’t know what they were doing. There’s a theory, and I’m not a psychologist, but he was really haunted by that. That idea that he really contributed to his mom’s death was really tragic. If you dig, you can read about it. It’s not a secret within their family, but it’s just a tragedy that is so difficult to even talk about. It helps to understand the man a little bit more.”
That is so, so sad!
But it makes sense because the missing mother theme is definitely seen throughout Disney’s work.
Thoughts???