Why So Many Disney Princesses’ Mothers Are Dead

Mothers are missing from the lives of most Disney princesses, and as renowned producer Don Hahn revealed in a 2014 interview with Glamour, there’s a reason for the narrative choice. Initially, it could be suggested the lack of parents makes it easier for writers to create classic coming-of-age stories, but the absence of a maternal figure may also have been influenced by the death of Walt Disney’s own mother in a tragic accident. The death of a parent is also a common trope in the traditional fairy tales that inspired many Disney movies, which rest on the foundations of folklore, myths, and fables.

Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid are all among the list of animated Disney films in which the mothers of main characters don’t appear. In Cinderella and Snow White, absent mothers are replaced with evil stepmothers, another classic fairytale trope. Meanwhile, in Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, mothers are simply missing, leaving their young daughters struggling with adolescence, as their only support lies with distant fathers.

Live-action remakes of these Disney classics stick to the same basic narrative structure, although some have undergone changes in an effort to embrace more feminist ideals. The death of the mother early in the life of a Disney princess remains the same, however. With not much attention being paid to the loss itself, the mother’s death mostly serves as a device with which to advance the story. Without a mother to guide them, Disney princesses have figure out how to navigate love, life, and family on their own. As Hahn said in his Glamour interview, Disney movies are about “that day in your life when you have to accept responsibility.”

Most of Disney’s animated adaptations lift the loss of a mother directly out of the folk and fairy tales they are based on. The original tales of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast both eliminate moms from the narrative. Other Disney movies remove maternal influences present in the original stories so the characters face conflict more quickly. In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, for example, a grandmother character from Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale is removed. Ariel instead lives with a distant father, isolated from familial support and cut off from maternal wisdom and experience. Alone, Ariel is quick to fall for Ursula’s scheme and has to handle the consequences on her own.

With the films only running about 80 or 90 minutes, killing off parents is a quick and easy way to allow characters to grow up. “Bambi’s mother gets killed, so he has to grow up. Belle only has a father, but he gets lost, so she has to step into that position,” Hahn said. “It’s a story shorthand.” The trend has continued with new, original Disney films like Frozen, where Anna and Elsa face a rapid rise in responsibility after both their parents die in a shipwreck.

The mastermind behind Disney films may also have had a hand in portraying the death of mother figures. Films are often a reflection of the filmmaker’s own experiences, and as Hahn discussed with Glamour, Walt Disney’s mother died in the early 1940s after moving into a house Walt bought for her and his father. Hahn theorized that Walt may have been haunted by the idea that he contributed to his mother’s death. “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,” Hahn said. “To me, it humanizes Walt. He was devastated by that, as anyone would be.” 

About The Author

Jasmine Gallup
(115 Articles Published)

Jasmine Gallup is a writer for ScreenRant, covering fantasy, science fiction and superheroes. She’s worked as a freelance reporter since 2018.

By day, Jasmine writes for a small North Carolina newspaper near her hometown of Cary. By night, she explores the depths of film and television alongside her twin sister.

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