Remember my words, my child. Many terrible things may happen to you once I am gone: Your stepmother may attempt to lock you away or murder you, your uncle may steal your inheritance, you may become an orphan with only a few animals or short men for friends.
In those dark days, you will have a flashback and hear my voice. When this happens, remember who you are. Remember you are the child of two loving parents who had untimely deaths just so you could one day marry royalty and live wonderfully, happily ever after.
If Disney Fathers Lived…
- Mufasa would have continued to rule in peace, Scar would have faded into obscurity, and Simba would have been trained to be a responsible and reliable lion prince.
- Snow White’s father may have discovered the Evil Queen’s secret lair and prevented the dark magic. He at least could have given his daughter good advice about hanging out with seven bachelors and riding off with random princes. It worked out for her, but a wise dad might have helped.
Maybe her father could talk to animals too?
- Cinderella’s father would have realized Lady Tremaine’s less than pleasant nature, and either gotten a divorce or separation. If nothing else, he would have been able to make sure the stepsisters and Cinderella shared.
- Tiana and her father James would have opened a gumbo restaurant together, and Tiana would have had her dream earlier, and not been turned into a frog.
- England would have been stable, Wart/Arthur would have been raised as prince and taught actual matters of state, and the throne of an entire kingdom wouldn’t be determined by a parlor trick.
Fathers are not perfect. However…
Fathers are security. Fathers are support. Fathers are full of wisdom and frank honesty. Fathers are fun and playful. Fathers help us learn independence, to fix cars and household appliances, to laugh, to play, to be a responsible and reasonable human being.
In short, fathers are great.
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As for my own father, here are a few things he has done for my siblings and me:
- Fixed our cars whenever they broke down or needed some repair
- Taught us to love Star Wars, Star Trek, and other actionated nerdy things
- Show by example how to be hard working and dedicated, to make sure the job gets done and done well.
- Been an example of being charitable and giving, to find and help those in need, whether family or acquaintances
- Driven hundreds of miles to rescue my sister and her broken down car so she could go back to school
- Put up with how loud and obnoxious all six siblings and I can be together, especially when singing “Happy Birthday,” and participating when necessary.
- Give my sisters and me the advice, “Don’t marry a man to change him.”
- Work hard to make sure the plumbing, electricity, and everything else works like it should.
- Taught my two older sisters, my brother, and myself how to drive, with a stick-shift. He is a brave man.
- Taught us to love airplanes.
To my own dad, and all the other dad’s out there, whether biological, adopted, or acquired through the road of life…
Happy Father’s Day
- Who’s your favorite Disney Dad?
- What have you learned from your own dad?
- How are you celebrating Father’s Day?
Other thoughts on Disney Dad’s:
Non-definitive Completely Biased Ranking of Disney Dads from Just A Dad With Questions
Top Ten Disney Dads: The Coolest, Bravest, and Most Dedicated from xtremegoofkingdom
Top Five Disney Dads from The Film Geek Files
Note: This is a follow up from my Mother’s Day post, which you can check out here.
The L. Palmer Chronicles 
Awesome! I had no idea how long Disney had been killing off fathers. I thought it was sitcoms that did that.
1. The Grimm’s brothers and those they heard the fairy tales from have been killing off fathers for centuries.
2. Which sitcoms have killed off the father?
On 1, yes of course. On 2, more the spirit of fatherhood. Fathers are lameducks on TV, or mostly so. I guess it’s funnier that way.
Let me point out that, whenever a kid has both parents and a problem comes up, their natural inclination is to say, “Mom, Dad, what should I do?” And if they follow that wise advice… it’s a boring story! So not only Disney but almost every children’s story has to get the parents out of the picture somehow. Even making the parents workaholics will suffice to make the children act on their own.
I thought about the fact there wouldn’t be a story while I was writing it, but if I pointed that out, there wouldn’t be a post. Such a dark cycle. Most of the time, the death of a parent is used a cathartic tragedy, forcing the main character to go out of their comfort zone and fulfill the story of the movie.
My dad totally taught me to be nerdy too. Go dads who love Star Trek! 🙂
Just one of the things dads are good for.
Good post! My dad taught me that with hard work and dedication, you can do anything. And he taught me never to call boys, let them always call you…in which I scoffed at him and told him we live in a new age/world and that he was an old fart. Later I realized he was 100% right.
Are there any father’s that lived through a Disney movie? I guess Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins, but that’s not animated. OH…The Little Mermaid. DUH. But the mother was dead in that one. Yeah, I guess debyfredericks is right – too complicated for the movie to have both parents.
Disney fathers actually have a far lower mortality rate than Disney mothers, which made this post a little harder to write.
Yeah, it is definitely interesting to think about how the kids would have turned out. An alternate post might be the number of single parents in Disney movies…very few happy 2 parent families. Thanks for linking to my post as well!!
First, I’m always glad to give a shout out.
Second, I suppose the single parent is easier to focus on. There’s more potential conflict, because being a single parent is a great challenge. Also, the single parent makes one less character.
That being said, I’d love to see more happy homes – whether mixed families or not.
I hadn’t thought about how many Disney father’s are missing! At least it’s not always the mother. This was fun though. 🙂 I know it would be more difficult with both parents, but it really can be done. None of the parents had to die in Sleeping Beauty.
I think the mothers still tend to be missing more often.
While Sleeping Beauty’s parents live through the whole film, they also don’t seem very effective in protecting her.
I got my love of sci-fi and fantasy from my Dad. 🙂 It’s hard for me to think of any Disney fathers – those movies all seem to be littered with orphans! I loved Wreck-It Ralph, where Ralph learns how to be a good father-figure to Vanellope.
It might be fun to do a future post on great father-figures. They deserve a shout out too.
I’m glad your Dad helped you love sci-fi too.
That’s the thing, if the fathers were there, there wouldn’t be a story to tell. The Cinderella example is perfect. I kind of like Darth Vader being a good example, too. Classic movie scene, “I’m your father.” Imagine Star Wars without Vader. What a different movie that would be!
It definitely builds loss and conflict. While writing this, I actually kept thinking about how boring these movies would be if the father lived.
It’s kind of sad to think that we wouldn’t have all these great movies if the fathers had been alive. That said, my favourite Disney dad was alive throughout the movie – Marlin from Finding Nemo!
Marlin is a fantastic dad. Any dad who would travel all the way across the ocean to find his son is great.
It sounds like your father had many of the same admirable traits that my Dad had. 😉
The Moms were killed off, too. This is true in much of YA (Young Adolescent) literature. This way the child is left to deal with life’s problems on his own and grows as a result. (ex. Harry Potter, The Outsiders, etc.)