https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S019074091730720X<\/a><\/p>\nSo, I get a little twitchy when I see \u00e2\u20ac\u0153running away\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the solution to the character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems. \u00c2\u00a0And once you see it, it keeps rearing its head as a recurring theme.<\/p>\n
Beauty and the Beast<\/b><\/p>\n
Everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite film about Stockholm Syndrome, it turns out, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a lot to say about the subject of family.<\/p>\n
Addendum: the live-action remake did find it necessary to tack on tragic parental loss backstories for both<\/i> Belle and the Beast, so knock that version down a couple pegs.<\/p>\n
Aladdin <\/b><\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most striking about his parents is their absence. \u00c2\u00a0There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one brief mention of the fact that he is an orphan. \u00c2\u00a0The movie doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t touch on familial themes at all. I mean, the Sultan seems like a decent enough guy?<\/p>\n
Given how the rest of this list goes, a complete lack <\/i>of adoption themes is not the worst possible outcome. \u00c2\u00a0No news is good news if the rest of the news is fucking tragic.<\/p>\n
The Lion King<\/b><\/p>\n
Simba watches his own father die violently, and then is made to feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his fault by his murderous uncle. \u00c2\u00a0He copes with this loss by running away from home, which (again!) turns out just fine for him in the end.<\/p>\n
No to all of this. \u00c2\u00a0And I say this knowing that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still my favorite Disney movie. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes the truth hurts.<\/p>\n
Frozen<\/b><\/p>\n
Good lord, Disney. \u00c2\u00a0Both parents killed off, on-screen, before we even make it out of the exposition. \u00c2\u00a0Is that a record? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shame, because eventually the story drives home the immense value that sisterhood can have. \u00c2\u00a0And again<\/i>, the protagonist runs away from home in a state of emotional distress, which turns out fine.<\/p>\n
Tangled<\/b><\/p>\n
The protagonist is kidnapped from her birth family as a baby. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Her kidnapper assumes the role of her mother, yet is verbally abusive and neglectful. \u00c2\u00a0The story revolves around reuniting Rapunzel with her birth family, but in the process she has to kill her aforementioned surrogate mother. \u00c2\u00a0Oh, and she ran away from home to do it.<\/p>\n
Read the above paragraph from the point of view of an adoptive parent and try not to cringe. \u00c2\u00a0This would be one of the movies that falls into Venn diagram region of Not Overtly Tragic and Negative Adoption Themes. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far from the saddest Disney movie out there, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of a worse one for a foster child.<\/p>\n
The Princess and the Frog<\/b><\/p>\n
Tiana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father dies off-screen after a time-skip from the exposition. \u00c2\u00a0However, everybody seems to be coping healthily with it. The movie focuses primarily on internal development of the two protagonists.<\/p>\n
This movie provides an illustrative example of how to handle loss, and family, just right. \u00c2\u00a0The story uses family as a motivation for self-improvement, not as a plot device to build tragedy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Inside Out<\/b><\/p>\n
This film is actually founded in some pretty real cognitive science behind emotional development, which is probably why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually used as a resource in some forms of cognitive behavioral therapy. \u00c2\u00a0https:\/\/psmag.com\/social-justice\/a-conversation-with-psychologist-behind-inside-out<\/p>\n
What I absolutely love is that, in this movie, running away is not the solution to the protagonist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems<\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen as a catastrophic failure. \u00c2\u00a0Something to avoid at all costs.<\/p>\n
I give this one top marks even though ostensibly it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even a movie about adoption, just for how gracefully it handles the theme of family and coping with loss.<\/p>\n
Moana<\/b><\/p>\n
Everything was going great. \u00c2\u00a0Both parents make it through to the end of the movie intact. \u00c2\u00a0A grandparent dies offscreen, but it is presented less as tragedy and more as part of a cycle using a reincarnation gimmick. \u00c2\u00a0So far so good.<\/p>\n
But then, we get Maui opening up about his past, telling the story of how his parents didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want him, and so they threw him into the ocean.<\/p>\n
So close, yet so far, Disney. \u00c2\u00a0Seriously, the one movie where both<\/i> parents survive and you have to throw attempted infanticide <\/i>out of left field.<\/p>\n
Conclusions<\/b><\/p>\n
I had to stop here because I realize I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve embarked on a bit of a fool\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s errand in that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen every Disney movie ever made and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember all of the ones I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen well enough to comment on them. \u00c2\u00a0I will note that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting that what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the saddest movie in the collection I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve reviewed, The Lion King, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the one with the worst adoption themes; that distinction goes to Tangled. Likewise, the most uplifting movie about familial bonds, Frozen, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the best themes for adoption; that prize goes to Inside Out, which oddly enough isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a movie that even touches the idea of parental loss.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As always I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious what you, dear reader, think about the topic. \u00c2\u00a0Let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blase and unoriginal for parents to complain about Disney movies constantly killing off parents. \u00c2\u00a0But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been seeing all these old films in a new light, watching them again as an adoptive parent with my children. \u00c2\u00a0There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a new flavor coming through, always present but previously imperceptible to me. The themes and messages present […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}