10 Darkly Disturbing Disney Movie Theories

Ever noticed that a disproportionate number of Disney characters are distinctly lacking in the mother department? Think about it: Bambi’s mum gets shot and killed before the film is even halfway through, Cinderella’s late mum was replaced by an evil stepmother and Peter Pan and his Lost Boy cohorts were also sans a real mother figure.

These aren’t just exceptional examples either. Jasmine from Aladdin? Motherless. Nemo of Finding Nemo fame? Also mother-free. Ariel the Little Mermaid and her six mermaid sisters? Their mother was crushed to death by a pirate ship. Belle from Beauty and the Beast’s mother? Dead as a doornail.

Legend has it that the reason that Disney films feature so many motherless characters is that Walt Disney was so distraught over the loss of his own mother in 1938 that he never really got over her death. You see, Flora Disney died after inhaling noxious fumes from the gas furnace of the new Hollywood home her son had bought for her and Walt forever blamed himself for her death. So much so that he couldn’t bring himself to include mother figures in his own movies – a legacy that continues today.

A sad theory indeed, but at least a slightly nicer one than him being off his rocker on cocaine.