Mother's Day, the most moving Disney moms

Mother's Day

Mother's Day and Disney Movies? A decidedly universal instinct, the maternal one, which perhaps is never too celebrated and honored properly. The theme of the mother-child bond is often addressed in media culture and, as we all know, not even Disney has exempted itself from the representation of often "unconventional" families, even if it is much easier to deal with abandoned or even orphaned children. . For Mother's Day, let's retrace together the stories of some Disney mothers, often present in stories that we can find today in the films of the Disney Plus streaming platform.

A fairy and the his “little beast”

One of the merits that we can recognize in Disney is that of having brought to the screens the story unknown to most of one of the witches considered the worst in the story of the fairy tale, Maleficent. One of the traditional villains who inhabit the fantastic realms of the Disney world has suddenly been rehabilitated in the eyes of the world thanks to a perfect Angelina Jolie in the role of Maleficent, the 2014 film that made (re) discover one of the most unexpected Disney moms. >
If at the beginning this purification, albeit partial, of a witch, which we have always and only known for having forever cursed the life of Aurora (Elle Fanning), the Sleeping Beauty we all know, may leave us perplexed. some nice surprises in this live action of 2014, all in all well appreciated by critics. So how can such an evil woman be linked to maternal instinct?



Not a biological mother, but almost an adoptive one, Maleficent is the one who takes care of the same "little animal" from afar that she had condemned shortly after her birth. It is known that often the sins of the fathers fall on her children, and this is exactly the case of Aurora, who must serve her sentence for that treacherous love that her father, King Stephen, had felt for Maleficent in adolescence. The same age when Aurora will have to fall into an eternal sleep, because of that spinning wheel we all know, but how many times has she risked her life before reaching 16?

Maleficent with a heart of gold

Here Maleficent manifests herself as one of the Disney moms we loved most: incredibly tough and damn beautiful and haughty, the fairy often saves little Aurora as she grows up from ravines and dangers, while the wild fairies to whom she was entrusted are too busy with their frivolous bickering. A little because the conscience has voices that we hardly silence, a little because Aurora's eternal naivety and serenity have broken through her heart, Maleficent thus rediscovers true love, the only one able to awaken Aurora from it. eternal sleep to which Maleficent had condemned her.

You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream.

A character with a double soul, that of Maleficent, and a primordial instinct, that of Aurora, which leads the young woman to recognize in the fairy the same figure that had saved her as a child, when it was thought that of those events could not have memory. The Jolie-Maleficent duo turns out to be moving when one of the child versions of Aurora is the same daughter of the actress, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, thus facilitating the scene in which the woman picks up her little girl and she remains docile. . Nothing strange for either of them; a piece of reality brought to the set.

Come, my darling, homeward bound

We are not only talking about real women, protagonists of recent live action, but also of maternal figures who manage to enter the hearts of their daughters for a long time, even after their untimely death. Let's talk about another of the Disney mothers, Queen Iduna, mother of Elsa and Anna in Frozen, a woman who knows how to talk to her daughters, especially the eldest, even from the afterlife, at the crucial moment of her existence.



There are several memories that the two sisters keep in their hearts, when they fell asleep with the queen's lullaby, nothing more than a typical song of her people, the Northuldra. If the voice of Iduna put the little ones to sleep, the voice of Idina (Menzel), voice actress of Elsa, joins that of Evan Rachel Wood in Shown, a song sung when Elsa finally discovers the origin of her power and the knots come to comb (ironically, even her hair melts from the perennial braid).

I am found

More than once the essence and the shadows of the mother, next to those paternal, are recalled to retrace the past of Elsa and Anna's family, and the maternal figure is the only one who appears to Elsa in the frozen land of Ahtohallan, after crossing the Dark Sea. A deep bond that makes everything closer to her and in that moment the emotion is really evident in her eyes (but also in ours, let's not hide behind a finger!).



One Northuldra shawl that her mother wore and that Elsa wears in her most difficult moments, the palace paintings that speak of memories of the past; it is difficult to carry on one's shoulders the weight of a throne acquired too soon, and which he did not even feel about her. Not forgetting when, years earlier, Elsa was discovering that she possessed magical powers. Certainly, not even at that moment did both of her parents turn their backs on her, although her obligation to keep her secret with Anna did not make things easier for her.

- Do you know what is permanent? - Thing? -The love.

It's a story, you know, truer than ever

But Elsa is not the only one to carry difficult burdens and remorse. The empire of animation tells us about another example of Disney mothers, this time a very tender mother-child bond. We are talking about a teapot and its cup, Mrs. Bric and Chicco in La Bella e La bestia, not only present in the cartoon version of the distant 1991 and in the various shorts dedicated to this story, but also in the 2017 live action that has seen Emma Watson in the role of Belle and Dan Steven in the decidedly more uncomfortable and less attractive ones of the Beast.



In this version, the human transformation of the two characters is embodied by Emma Thompson and Nathan Mack, the first engaged in the Beast's castle as a housekeeper. We all know that a witch's dark magic has turned the prince into a beast and all the servants into talking objects, but this terrible misfortune has not annihilated or nullified their feelings and bonds. Moreover, if the prince did not have the heart to host a beggar in disguise in his immense luxurious residence, it is certainly not their fault.



Once again, however, everyone pays for her consequences; the time to make a rose fade and the objects will remain so, as well as the Beast in its horrible condition. On the contrary, she does not wither Mrs Bric's affection for her little one and nothing prevents her from becoming fond of Belle, guiding her by the hand, or rather by the handle, during her forced stay at the castle. Mrs Bric becomes a kind of mother for her too, who had lost her biological mother at an early age to a terrible plague. The same destiny reserved for the prince, orphan of the maternal figure as a child.

lei It takes you away, like the tide, happiness.

Once again, fairy tales bring with them an important lesson, and Disney could only amplify this message. It doesn't matter what the physical condition or the distance between a mother and her children is. It does not matter whether we are talking about biological or acquired mothers, it is not the label that changes the substance, just as the feeling is not dictated by the bond of blood. What matters is affection, love, perseverance in looking after the offspring, a "warm embrace" in difficult moments and a magic to raise the children and protect them from the most dangerous precipices.



We know that there are many Disney mothers told over time between a cartoon and a live action; we are certainly not forgotten of that poor gypsy who took Quasimodo from her arms in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, a lioness as strong as Sarabi who protects first and then waits for her Simba for a long time in The Lion King, or the fairy godmother of Pinocchio .

The examples we have analyzed just now show exactly three different conditions of motherhood with which we wish to celebrate Mother's Day and dedicate our thoughts to all mothers. Never before do they need all our affection and gratitude for their role, unique and irreplaceable since the dawn of time.

Sleep, my darling, safe and sound

For in this river all is found.