Mother appreciation post

I wanted to make a compilation post of mothers in animated films I’ve seen for Mother’s day, but that approached far sooner than I expected so I had to throw this together faster than I would have wanted. And there was way more of them than I could expect, so at some point I had to start dropping them because the post was long enough already. Maybe I should start the Father’s day post now and just schedule it to avoid a similar situation?

Looooong, mostly pictures list under cut.

Dumbo

I think I might have seen Dumbo, but I have no recollection whatsoever of it. Dumbo’s mother makes an appearance in it as far as I know.

Bambi

Likewise, while I’m fairly sure that I have seen Bambi I still remember very little of it. But Bambi’s mother’s death is a big thing that scarred tons of kids? I’m not one of those though.

Cinderella

At first I thought I wouldn’t put Cinderella’s evil stepmother Lady Tremaine here, because even if adoptive mothers and other mother figures are allowed I still expect some caring from them towards their children. But then again, she does have two daughters on her own whom she seems to spoil quite a lot.

Peter Pan

In the original Peter Pan the kids’ mother Mary Darling only appears very briefly. In the sequel Wendy is a mother to the main character Jane, but since I believe that the adventure takes place in Neverland Wendy as a mother doesn’t have much screen time either.

Lady and the Tramp

Lady in Lady and the Tramp becomes a mother to four puppies at the end of the movie. As far as I know the sequel concentrates more on their eldest son so she doesn’t get much screen time as a mother.

We also have her owner “Darling”, who has a baby during the story.

Sleeping Beauty

In Sleeping Beauty we see Aurora’s mother, who looks exactly like her. Aurora didn’t need the fairies’ gift of beauty, she had the perfect genes all along! What a waste of a magical gift (as if ‘beauty’ and ‘song’ were the most useful gifts for a monarch anyway). Disney Wiki gives the mother the name Leah, and she has a like one line in the whole movie.

101 Dalmatians

The Dalmatian movie left next to no impression on me, but I dare to assume that the mother of all the little dalmatians, Perdita, didn’t have much of a role outside popping out all the puppies.

The Jungle Book

I haven’t seen this movie, but a fanart collage of Disney mothers tells me that Mowgli’s adoptive mother Messua makes an appearance in the sequel, which I also haven’t seen.

The Aristocats

In Aristocats we have Duchess, a mother to three kittens. I remember so little of this movie…

Robin Hood

I have Robin Hood listed in my ‘Mother appreciation post’ draft. Why is she in the Mother appreciation post draft? I don’t remember there being any mothers in that movie?!?

Oh, right, there was Mother Rabbit who was a mother to some rabbits. Fourteen rabbits in fact. I don’t think she had a big role in the film.

The Little Mermaid

No mothers appear in the original The Little Mermaid movie, but the two sequels give us two. Ariel’s mother, Queen Athena, appears in Ariel’s beginning, and conveniently enough Ariel just happens to be practically a clone of her. Or the other way around I guess since Ariel was probably designed first.

In The Little Mermaid 2 Ariel is a mother herself, and her kid is almost a palette swap of her.

Beauty and the Beast

Belle’s mother doesn’t appear in the movie and can only be seen in a portrait outside the film, and I don’t know how much canon that is.

What we do see is Mrs. Potts, who is the mother of the annoying teacup Chip.

The Lion King

Lion King gives us Simba’s mom Sarabi, who I can’t remember to do anything of interest and who was just a background mother with Mufasa getting all the interesting development with Simba. A wiki tells me that Nala’s mother is called Sarafina, but she has even less relevancy.

In the sequel we have Nala become a mother, and while I can’t remember much of what happened I doubt that she was one of the most central characters.

Then we also have Kovu, Nuka and Vitani’s mother Zira. As far as I can remember she was a pretty cool character and had a good villain song.

Pocahontas

Pocahontas’ mother doesn’t appear, though she inherits her signature necklace from her and is said to resemble her in spirit.

Pocahontas does have a “grandmother willow” though, whom she consults for advice.

The Hunchback of the Notre Dame

We briefly see Quasimodo’s mother in the opening sequence where she’s trying to protect he son.

Hercules

Disney moms tend to be dead, but Hercules gets two of them for compensation. Lucky for him the Disney movie isn’t exactly accurate to the original myths, so his birth mother Hera doesn’t kill people and stuff.

Hercules also has an adoptive mother Alcmene. I really liked Hercules’ relationship with his adoptive parents and would have liked to see more of it.

I enjoy Hera’s design a lot. Nice and glowy.

Mulan

Mulan is one of the few Disney Princesses who have both her parents alive and living with them. Her mother, Fa Li, doesn’t get much screen time though, and Mulan’s relationship with her father gets more focus.

Mulan also has an eccentric unnamed grandmother.

Tarzan

In Tarzan we get two mothers, Tarzan’s biological mother who dies at the beginning so we don’t see much of her, and his adoptive gorilla mother Kala. Who was a pretty good character and had a good connection with Tarzan considering the only thing I remember of the movie are their scenes together.

Emperor’s New Groove

In Emperor’s New Groove we meet Chicha, the wife of Pacha and mother to three children. As far as I can remember, she was pretty funny and I would have liked to see her more.

(I really need to rewatch this film)

Atlantis : the Lost Empire

Kida’s unnamed mother joins the group of Disney moms who die in the prologue so we don’t get to see much of her.

Lilo & Stitch

Lilo and Nani’s deceased mother can be seen in a photograph, but she doesn’t do anything in the movie (due to having died before it started, obviously).

Treasure Planet

In Treasure Planet we get Jim’s mother Sarah Hawkins. I like her relationship with her son, but as a character she’s pretty much the usual caring worried mother in the background.

Meet the Robinsons

In Meet the Robinsons we get the eccentric Franny Robinson, a mother to Wilbur. As far as I can remember Franny was remotely funny, but suffered from the movie’s massive problem of random chaotic stuff happening all the time so there was little time to focus on anything.

Then there’s the couple who adopts Lewis so we also have an adoptive mother in the movie, but I guess that would be a spoiler.

The Princess and the Frog

Tiana’s mother Eudora supports her daughter’s dream but also hopes that she’d find a man and give her some grandchildren. After the beginning she kind of fades into background and we see very little of her.

Naveen’s unnamed mother appears briefly at the end of the movie.

Tangled

In Tangled we get Rapunzel’s unnamed mother who doesn’t get any lines and who doesn’t really do anything.

Then of course there’s also Mother Gothel,

Brave

The famous mother-daughter Pixar movie gives us probably the best Disney mother ever. Or at least she’s my favourite Disney mother out of this bunch. She’s interesting, she has a role outside being the caring mom in the background, she gets a lot of focus in the movie, or she’s on screen in the first place… I really wish the writing on Brave was a bit stronger because I really want to like the movie more.

Frozen

The mother from Frozen has become infamous for her character design that looks very similar to her daughters. I think it’s a lazy design and it’d be cool if she got at least some agenda, but as it is the father could have been a single parent and not a thing about the prologue would have had to be changed (as far as I can remember).

The Disney Wiki tells me that if you decipher her gravestone, her name is supposed to be Idun.

Sofia the First

I criticise the title character for being stupendously bland, and the same applies to her mother Miranda. While Sofia is a highly idealised little girl who is always friendly and polite, her mom is an awesome caring parent who is playful and supportive when the story needs her (or at least in the couple of episodes I’ve seen).

Toy Story

In the Toy Story trilogy we meet Andy’s mom, Jennifer Davis, who given the nature of the story doesn’t appear much. I really like the moment between her and Andy in the third film when Andy is about to move out.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato head apparently adopt the three aliens, which probably makes Mrs. Potato head a mother as well.

Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo is a story of a fussy single father and his son, and we only see Nemo’s mother, Coral, in the short prologue. She doesn’t get to do much else than decide that one of their spawn should be named ‘Nemo’ before she gets eaten.

The Swan Princess

While the title character’s mother died before we could see her, The Swan Princess gives us Alberta, Derek’s mother. Who, as far as I can remember, was pretty annoying.

Madagascar

Alex the Lion’s mother appears in the first sequel. As far as I can remember, most of the drama was between Alex and his father, and the mother was left with the usual ‘sensible and loving mother who stays in the background’ role.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody is a single parent, but we meet Penny’s both parents. Her mother Patty Peterson appears to care a lot for her daughter, and is easier to get along with than her husband.

Ice Age

In the Ice Age series the obligatory female character Ellie first becomes a love interest, then she’s pregnant and unsurprisingly gives birth at the worst possible time, and in the latest instalment she’s a mother to her teenager daughter Peaches. The fact that I had to look up her name tells me that I found her a pretty boring character.

Despicable Me

Despicable Me gives us Gru’s mother, who doesn’t get any punishment for having been a pretty bad parent.

In the sequel we have the subplot where Gru’s adopted girls try to set him up so they can have a mother, and end up with Lucy. I found the subplot kind of uncomfortable, since it gave the impression that single fathers aren’t good enough parents.

Avatar : the Last Airbender

What happened to Zuko’s mom!?

The comics apparently answer this and I’ve even read a summary of them on a wiki, but it didn’t interest me enough to have me memorise it. I like my Avatar as an animation. But anyway, she was awesome and one of the best things in the series actually (though pretty much anything related to Zuko’s story is awesome by default).

Sokka and Katara’s mom Kya too falls into the dead mother camp, but I find her more interesting than the usual cases because of the way she still affects the characters after her death. Usually the mother is killed just for the sake of getting her out of the picture and then she’s never referenced again outside some random “the daughter is just like her mother!” clichés. But Kya’s fate was still relevant for Katara’s character development and her and Sokka’s relationships dozens of episodes later.

As far as I can remember, Toph’s mom Poppy Beifong didn’t do anything else than agree with her husband.

Finally there’s Sokka and Katara’s grandmother Kanna, referred to as “Gran Gran”. Who did the typical cool grandma stuff I guess.

Avatar : Legend of Korra

While Avatar the Last Airbender gave us some really great mother characters, Korra was a huge disappointment compared to it.

First, the title character’s mother Senna. Who does pretty much nothing. Korra’s father gets a family, backstory and more involvement in the story, while Senna sits home crying or something.

Then Tenzin’s wife and mother to four children, Pema. Who didn’t have much to do either, but I guess she had a fun personality.

Asami’s unnamed mother died before the story started and doesn’t get any other role besides being the mother who died. We only see her in a photo.

And then we have Katara, who has surprisingly little agenda compared to how active she was when she was younger. Shouldn’t she have, I don’t know, some kind of opinion to her home country being in a civil war or something?

And more importantly, why does she have so little to do with her children’s lifes? They all go on and on how dad did this or Aang’s legacy and whatever. How come their kids grew up into such bitter adults? Why didn’t Katara notice or do something about her husband favouring one of their kids? Was there no way to incorporate Katara better to the conflict?

And lastly there’s Eska and Desna’s mother, who doesn’t get a name and who doesn’t appear or even get mentioned (?), despite being supposedly alive.