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Parental Abandonment/Film: Difference between revisions
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== Films -- Animation ==
* Where to begin with [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney?]]
** ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White]]'' was raised by a wicked stepmother. (This was not Disney's invention, however.)
** ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'' was, too. (Nor was this.)
*** [[Prince Charming]]'s mom is absent too and presumably dead. His dad is around, but it's indicated that there's some distance between them. (The king seems to think his son is a [[Rebel Prince|rebellious boy]] who just needs to settle down and [[I Want Grandkids|produce some heirs]] already.)
* ''[[
* ''[[Peter Pan]]'' is a subversion, as he's technically a runaway, but he still tried to make Wendy fill the void of a [[Missing Mom]]. [[Squick|And other stuff]].
* Mowgli's birth-parents are dead, and the [[Raised
* In the first ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'' movie, Penny (the child in distress) was explicitly an orphan (though it gets better for her [[Happily Adopted|in the end]]); in the second, Cody's dad was "gone", and his mother's voice was heard twice, from offscreen. (As a matter of fact, a few fans have theorized that Cody is adopted by Marahute, the golden eagle he saves, as she's a far more interesting mother figure in the boy's life.)
* Played with in ''[[The Fox and
* ''[[Oliver and Company]]'' was the [[Disneyfication]] of one of [[Oliver Twist|the most famous orphans of all time]]. This time he was an orphaned [[Talking Animal|talking kitten]]. Also, the parents of the girl who adopts him are always out on business.
* [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]] is an orphan and homeless, and Princess Jasmine's mother is dead. {{spoiler|We see Al's parents in one comic, and meet his dad in ''King of Thieves''.}}
** Aladdin had a mom in early drafts, and she even had her own song, but the idea was ultimately scrapped.
* ''[[Mulan]]'' averts this with Mulan herself, but plays this straight with Shang (his mother is implied to have died prior to the events of the film, and his father is killed while attempting to protect a mountain village from the Huns, which they then burned to the ground.
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** He gets a [[Happily Adopted|loving mom]] in Kala. Though his adoptive dad Kerchak doesn't accept Tarzan as his son until he (Kerchak) is on his death bed.
* Aladar from ''[[Dinosaur]]'' gets separated from his parents while he's still in his egg, and then gets [[Happily Adopted|taken in by a family of lemurs]]. They likely died in the meteor shower years later, if not sooner.
* Kuzco in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
{{quote| '''Yzma:''' Who does that ungrateful little worm think he is? Does he... have any idea of who he's dealing with? How could he do this to me? Why, I practically raised him!<br />
'''Kronk:''' Yeah, you'd think he would have turned out better.<br />
'''Yzma''': Yeah, go figure... }}
** Well, If Yzma's statement and implied personality meant anything, it seems we know why Kuzco was a jerk.
* ''[[Atlantis:
* In ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', Lilo is [[Promotion to Parent|raised by her sister]] Nani after their parents were killed in a car accident. Stitch is also somewhat traumatized when he learns that he has no conventional family, as he was artificially created in a lab. The [[Mad Scientist]] responsible eventually becomes a father figure, though.
* ''[[Treasure Planet]]''. Jim's father [[Word of God|Leland]] Hawkins outright left his family, setting sail on a ship, never to return. In fact, that big hole in his heart is part of what caused Jim to be a delinquent in the first place. Took an awe-inspiring adventure and a [[Space Pirate]] [[Parental Substitute]] to straighten the poor kid out.
* ''[[The Princess and
* [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|Quasimodo's]] mom was [[Death
* Pixar: No father for Andy's family in the ''[[
* No King Ant in ''[[A Bug's Life
* Boo's parents are asleep and thus unavailable in ''[[Monsters,
* ''[[
* Remy's mother was written out of the script in ''[[
* ''[[WALL-E]]'' and the rest of his kind are abandoned on Earth by space-bound humans.
* ''[[Up]]'': {{spoiler|Russell's dad ''is'' alive, but more interested in his new wife/mistress Phyllis.}}
* [[Don Bluth]] is similarly in love with this trope. Fievel spends ''[[An American Tail]]'' trying to locate his parents (note the plural), and there is a deeply depressing scene with some orphans in an alley toward the end.
** Edmond from ''[[Rock
* In ''[[The Land Before Time]]'', Littlefoot has no apparent father and his mother dies fairly early on. He spends the rest of his time trying to get reunited with his grandparents. Cera has a father but there is no reference to her mother, Petri has no father but we meet his mother later (same goes for Ducky), and Spike was ''abandoned as an egg''.
** Cera actually calls out to her mother when she is divided from her herd, and the narrator notes that her parents -- plural -- are on the other side of the divide. Also, though there is no sign of her at the end, a three-horn that could conceivably be the mother in question is seen when Cera hatches.
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* Anne Marie from ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' was an orphan. She was voiced by the same actress who was Ducky, and, sadly, her life definitely would have been ''better'' if she had no father.
* ''[[Anastasia]]'' (or Anya) is raised in an orphanage until she's 18 years old. Here, the Parental Abandonment is fairly central to the plot and feels a lot less tacked on than usual.
* And certainly, it's worth bringing up ''[[Titan
* A milder case can be found in ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' -- the Brisby children do have a mother (the heroine), but their father, Jonathan, is dead.
* The ''[[Ice Age]]'' films:
** 1: Manfred is an abandoned parent - ( {{spoiler|his family was killed by hunters}}); Sid's family abandoned him because he was annoying; Diego abandoned his pack; the [[Clingy MacGuffin|human baby]] was simply "misplaced". His mom is killed by a smilodon, and he is reunited with his dad at the end.
** 2: Ellie was separated from her herd, and her adopted opossum mother is presumed to be deceased. {{spoiler|There doesn't appear to be any relationship between Ellie and Manny and the mammoth herd that shows up at the end of the film, other than they are no longer [[The Last Of Their Kind]].}}
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', Prince Derek has a mother but no father, and Princess Odette has a father but no mother. This is a particularly mind-boggling example, as Odette has ''just been born'' at the start of the movie, but there's not even a single mention of her mother -- just "happily, a daughter was born," as if the stork paid an unexpected housecall.
** It's probably safe to assume that she [[Death
** And then later in the movie, {{spoiler|Odette's dad is killed, leaving the poor girl with no parents}}
* ''[[Shrek]]'': Shrek's parents were written out of the script (originally he wanted to become a knight and they disapproved); Donkey is sold by his "grandmotherly" owner (Donkey himself {{spoiler|nearly becomes a [[Disappeared Dad]] when he takes a break from his Dragon girlfriend (who was pregnant at the time) -- in his defense, she never told him (or, if she did, he certainly couldn't understand due to not speaking Dragon) she was expecting, he just knew that she was "moody"}}); Fiona's parents placed her in a lonely tower "for her own good"; Prince Charming has no father; Arthur's parents are presumed dead if he's Fiona's only other relative.
* Inverted in ''[[
* ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' has this as Po finally seriously tries to learn about his past. In doing so, Lord Shen sadistically claims Po's parents abandoned him out of hate, but {{spoiler|Po eventually remembers that they did it out of desperation to help him survive, [[Heroic Sacrifice|because they loved him more than their own lives]].}}
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== Films -- Live Action ==
* ''[[The Blind Side]]'': Michael's biological father.
* ''[[Lilya
* In the Disney [[Affectionate Parody]] ''[[
** Prince Edward has no mentioned father, just Queen Nerissa, his [[Evil Matriarch|Wicked Stepmother]], although she's initially not ''too'' wicked towards him.
** Robert McDreamy (sorry) and his daughter were abandoned by their wife/mother, respectively, and to top that off he's a ''divorce lawyer.''
** Giselle has no parents to speak of, and it's not made clear why she's living alone in a cottage in the woods, if one could call having a forest full of friends "alone".
* ''[[Ever After (
* In ''[[Blade Runner]]'', Rachel is a Replicant: a biological android without parents who has false memories of having a family implanted to give her emotional stability.
* The Burns Gang of ''[[The Proposition]]''. Arthur, Charlie, and Mikey are brothers, but there is no reference to their parents and Arthur is implied to have raised the younger two. According to [[All There in the Manual|an interview on the DVD]], Sam Stoat, another gang member, killed his parents.
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* Likewise, the French film ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099607/ La Fracture du Myocarde]'' (known in English-speaking countries as ''Cross My Heart'') deals with a boy's attempts to keep the authorities from learning that his mother has died and he's living on his own.
* In ''[[Mirror Mask]]'', Valentine [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|briefly mentions]] that his mother abandoned him, although "She wasn't really me mother, anyway. She bought me from a man..."
* ''[[
** And then there are the Largo siblings. All three of them were bailed on by their mothers (whether Rotti had them killed or they simply left is unclear) and, combined with their distant father, they're all rather screwed up. The [[Expanded Universe]] canon material found on Myspace implies that Pavi and Amber would have been okay if their mums had survived their childhoods, but Luigi was born the way he is.
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'': As a child, Will Turner is found floating on a piece of wood. He told Jack his mother raised him, but she's dead now; his father spent a considerable amount of time tied to a cannon at the bottom of the ocean before making a deal with Davy Jones.
* ''[[Kick-Ass]]'': The hero's mother dies of a brain aneurysm at the breakfast table.
* This is a running theme in the ''[[A Nightmare
* Delayed version: In ''[[Away We Go]]'' the lead characters are forced to find another place to live when the man's [[Parental Obliviousness|"heroically self-absorbed"]] parents leave the country and rent their (the parents') house to strangers. Apparently their son's girlfriend ''being pregnant and effectively homeless'' wasn't a good enough reason to delay a refreshing move.
* Cher in ''[[Clueless]]'' is a half orphan; her mom died during a freak accident during a routine liposuction, although she still likes to pretend she's watching over her. Josh even ribs her about her desire to makeover Tai being a manifestation of her having no mother and treating her as a Barbie doll. Later (in one of the few totally played straight scenes), when she is insecure that she isn't enough of a 'do-gooder', her father tells her that he hasn't seen such good-doing since her mother.
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* Played brutally straight in [[David Lynch]]'s ''The Elephant Man'', and, indeed, in Mr. Merrick's real life.
* ''[[Empire Records]]'': Lucas' mother turned him over to the state when he was twelve "for being a bad seed", Berko appears to be living alone in a cabin behind the store, Gina, AJ, Eddie and Mark's parents are never mentioned, nor is Corey's mother, and when Deb is asked about ''her'' mother, she says something along the lines of "If you find her, let me know - I'd like to talk to her too".
* In ''[[An Officer and
* Patrick "Kitten" Braden from ''[[Breakfast On Pluto]]'' is the product of an illicit affair between {{spoiler|the local Catholic Priest and his beautiful young housekeeper}}. As such, he is promptly given up for adoption and raised by an [[Wicked Stepmother|uncaring foster mother]]. The film revolves around Patrick's search for the mother who abandoned him.
* The version of [[The Penguin]] in ''[[
** This tropes always thought he was actually raised by members of the freak circus.
* The Japanese film ''[http://asianmediawiki.com/The_Homeless_Student The Homeless Student]'' delivers a one-two punch: first the mother dies, then the children come home from school to find all their belongings outside the apartment. The shiftless, frigid father rides up on his bicycle to explain he has gambled away all the family's money and hasn't paid the rent. Then he rides off again, leaving his three children to fend for themselves. [[Flat What|What]].
* [[Leonardo
* Sam Flynn in ''[[Tron
* Jordy's parents MOVED without telling him in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.
* ''[[
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