Search Results for: Bambi

Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?—Revisited

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Movie Review, Young Adult Fantasy

  Sarah Boxer originally asked this question in the July/August 2014 issue of The Atlantic and I wondered right along with her in a previous post. She points out that not only do children’s filmmakers kill off the mothers with brutal regularity, but they are now replacing them with perfect fathers. She saw this as a last, desperate chauvinistic power grab. An attempt to establish a kinder, gentler patriarchy. And I suggested that it was the film industry’s attempt to model good fathering to a nation of underachieving dads. Disney Studios’, the most matricidal of all filmmakers, latest release follows Ms Boxer’s scenario with chilling exactitude. Into the Woods is a fairy tale composed of fairy tales; and since fairy tales are littered with dead mothers we should expect this. But Into the Woods exceeded even my most fevered imaginings. The plotline is composed of four fairy tales smushed together. • Rapunzel: In which a wicked witch steals a couple’s first-born child because the husband… Read More »

Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?

Posted C. LaVielle9 CommentsPosted in Book Review, Goddess, Writing

In the July/August 2014 issue of The Atlantic Sarah Boxer wonders “Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?” And they are, you know. Bambi, Nemo, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and almost any other cartoon main character you can think of is a motherless child. In fact, Ms Boxer challenges her readers to “show me an animated kids’ movie that has a named mother in it who lives until the credits roll.” There aren’t that many. The Lion King, Coraline, The Incredibles and a few others come to mind. However, she doesn’t try very hard to answer her own evocative question. She gives a few lame answers like: The unfolding of plot and personality depends on the dead mother.* The dead mother is psychologically good for the child because it allows him/her to preserve an internal good mother (even if the natural mother hadn’t been all good) and allows him/her to direct all his anger at the step mother.** I can think of better… Read More »

The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana—Part 5

Posted C. LaVielle4 CommentsPosted in Tarot, The Hero's Journey

The Shapeshifter, The Shadow, The Ally, The Trickster The Shapeshifter Everyone “…contain(s) multitudes” as Walt Whitman said, and shapeshifter characters dramatize this. From a baffling lover that is constantly changing moods and convictions, to a villain who does something nice, to a wimpy guy who morphs into a superhero, the shapeshifter’s purpose is to provide excitement, tension, and suspense. The Shadow The dark side, things hidden or rejected, anything we don’t like about ourselves. The shadow lurks in every character, but it sings in the villain. And the villain is really the most important character in the story. Think about it, without the villain there wouldn’t even be a story. Therefore, the villain must be crafted as carefully as the hero. She can’t be just bad, she must be terribly, hauntingly, and soul searingly bad. She must resonate with the shadow in all of us. The Ally Don Quixote’s Sancho Panza, The Lone Ranger’s Tonto, Bambi’s Thumper, Captain Kirk’s Spock, Frodo’s Sam. Dorothy’s Scarecrow, Tin… Read More »