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S i d e b a r
Points Worth Noting
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This Rock
Volume 13, Number 1
 January 2002 
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- Tarzan manages to include all three negative father stereotypes: Jane has a feeble, comical father, while Tarzan has an absent (human) father and a domineering (ape) father.
- On the other hand, Tarzan also provides the renaissance with its only active mother-figure—not to mention its only unambiguously involved and positive parent of either sex—Tarzan’s surrogate ape-mother, Kala. She intervenes on her adopted son’s behalf again and again, even standing up for him to her menacing husband, Kerchak. This otherwise admirable portrait of a strong and loving mother is undermined by the way it’s positioned in opposition to domineering fatherhood.
- In the whole Disney renaissance, only Simba (The Lion King) has a father—Mufasa—who is admirable and worthy of respect. And of course Mufasa is killed in the first act. Compare that with the Disney of old, where even elderly Gepetto (Pinocchio) and Bambi’s aloof, semi-absent father received better treatment—to say nothing of Pongo, Jim Dear, and feline father-figures Bagheera (The Jungle Book) and Thomas O’Malley (The Aristocats).
- Disney fans argue that the moviemaker comes by its themes of absent parents and cruel stepmothers honestly—from the fairy tales and other sources it draws upon. That defense overlooks the precipitous decline of positive parent images in Disney nouveau as compared with older Disney, when parents were much more likely to be capable, active, present, and involved.
- Disney’s recent live-action flick Spy Kidsand the direct-to-video Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure both offer positive depictions of parents who are competent, active, loving, and even cool; who have their kids’ best interests at heart; and who know better than the kids do. The question is: Why is this the exception rather than the rule?
—S.D.G.
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