Why do parents have to die in kids movies?

[Anonymous]

Yes it allows the children freedom to follow their own path. It's similar to the way Hester found freedom in the woods away from the town in The Scarlet Letter. (I should go write an English Lit paper.)

[Anonymous]

I still feel aching in my heart when Simba lays over his Daddy as he dies in "The Lion King."

Nothing is more tragic and horrific to watch than that scene.

Gets me every time.

[Anonymous]

A lot of kids movies have the young main characters having adventures or doing things that, typically, parents would never allow a child to do. If the parents were around in the film and being good parents by our societal standards, the plot couldn't really advance with the kids as main characters because the parents would always be stopping the kids from doing whatever in order to protect them.

And if it's not for that reason it's to show the young main characters having to grow up and become independent outside of their parents' shadows -- coming of age type films have always been popular and having the parents around might get in the way of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In short, because for kids to relate to the story and adapt the larger moral or principle, they need to step into the main character's shoes and feel like they're doing this on their own volition. This is best facilitated by faking an independent, "on my own" kind of environment, which eliminating the authority figure/caregiver does. It's kind of screwed up and Victorian, but then again, fairy tales were a teaching tool back then.

If you're really interested, read Bettelheim. It's pretty riveting. To me at least.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Uses-Enchantment-Meaning-Importance/dp/0307739635/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402849248&sr=8-1&keywords=the+uses+of+enchantment

I think I love you. Used to read Bettelheim, now read the Magic School Bus series!

[Anonymous]

Because movies are just another form of storytelling, and for nearly as long as there has been storytelling, most children lived with a high probability that one of their parents would die. Stories were a way of teaching resilience in the face of those odds. We aren't so far away from those days.

[Anonymous]

I prefer the death of the parents than what we got from the beginning of "Up." I'm a grown man and I sat there "Teardrop, you better not fall." When kid movies start doing stuff like that on the regular, then I'll complain.

[Anonymous]

Kids work through their fears through pretend play. This is a form of pretend play. Having a parent die is a universal fear of childhood. The movies help them "think through" or play through how they would adapt and overcome if their parents suddenly died.

[Anonymous]

I don't think OP is weird or narcissistic for asking. People have been complaining about all the dead mothers in Disney movies for decades. Yes, it eases the way for a story about a child branching out, or coping with adversity, etc. But let's face it. A lot of this is a lack of creativity and lazy copycat storytelling. It's harder for writers to come up with ways to write the parent/child relationship so they just dispense with it. I find that frustrating too, especially when most media examples of it are snarky, precocious kids talking to clueless, inept parents. Kids also need to see examples of and relate to healthy, ongoing relationships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids movies have the young main characters having adventures or doing things that, typically, parents would never allow a child to do. If the parents were around in the film and being good parents by our societal standards, the plot couldn't really advance with the kids as main characters because the parents would always be stopping the kids from doing whatever in order to protect them.

And if it's not for that reason it's to show the young main characters having to grow up and become independent outside of their parents' shadows -- coming of age type films have always been popular and having the parents around might get in the way of that.

This. If a child protagonist has living parents, unless those parents are neglectful, nothing is going to happen to that child--no adventures = no story. This is not a Disney invention. Fairy tales are full of orphans and wicked stepmothers for a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think OP is weird or narcissistic for asking. People have been complaining about all the dead mothers in Disney movies for decades. Yes, it eases the way for a story about a child branching out, or coping with adversity, etc. But let's face it. A lot of this is a lack of creativity and lazy copycat storytelling. It's harder for writers to come up with ways to write the parent/child relationship so they just dispense with it. I find that frustrating too, especially when most media examples of it are snarky, precocious kids talking to clueless, inept parents. Kids also need to see examples of and relate to healthy, ongoing relationships.

I hate this too. Kids are so savvy, parents are idiots who end up deferring to the clever kids.