[ SECRET POST #2008 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2008 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 088 secrets from Secret Submission Post #287.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[gabzillaz]

I think the mother/daughter relationship is something that is not usually portrayed in animated movies. At least not as a positive relationship that is the focus of the movie.

[(Anonymous)]

But did it absolutely need to be addressed? Were people protesting in the streets because there was a lack of mother-daughter films? And why was it answered with a really weak film that had a weak resolution to it? Mother and daughter play in the river together and then everything is okay between them?

I once again call on Finding Nemo for comparison. The dad fish crossed an entire ocean to save his son and realized he was smothering his son despite thinking he was protecting him. Nemo saw his father risk everything to save him and realized that his father wasn't trying to ruin his life but protect him in the only way he knew how. Their relationship was built up and resolved perfectly.

Merida and her mother did not get that kind of build up. If they had, maybe I would have actually enjoyed the film.

[gabzillaz]

I wasn't defending how the movie dealt with it, (I do have several problems with the film and I don't consider it particularly groundbreaking) just that it's not a common theme in animated movies, where the mothers are either dead, evil or wallpaper.

Playing devil's advocate, that's all :)

[(Anonymous)]

Fair enough :)

[(Anonymous)]

I thought there was enough about Merida and Elinor's prior relationship in the film, even if it was shown in a less linear fashion than in Finding Nemo. It was lovely how both women realize there is value in the other's way of life. Elinor realizes Merida's skills are useful and her opinion on the big question not irrelevant, Merida realizes that a queenly presence and a diplomatic hand are valuable skills in another kind of wilderness. It was really touching to me that Elinor immediately regretted that spoilery thing she did in response to Merida's spoilery thing when they were screaming at each other. It showed that even if she didn't entirely understand her daughter's interests, she respected that it was something very dear to Merida all the same. Their journey was the same as Nemo and Marlin's, to understand each other, and for Merida in particular to put aside her pride and accept that her mother acted out of love the best way she knew how. Journeys don't have to be geographical to be epic.

[gethenian]

Journeys don't have to be geographical to be epic.

If you're not familiar with Joseph Campbell already, you need to be. :)

[gethenian]

I'll have to see it before I can say anything about Brave, but I agree you don't often see positive mother/daughter relationships portrayed in animated films unless it's used as what I feel is simple emotional manipulation, which I think is lazy as hell and it pisses me off.

I loved the complexity of the relationship in Tangled. I thought that was delightfully, refreshingly sophisticated. But that complexity wasn't a positive thing.

...and now I am trying to think of where I've ever seen a positive mother/daughter relationship maintained throughout an animated film.... uhh.... hmmm....

Well there's The Aristocats... ummmmmm..... Quest for Camelot...

...

...well shit. Beyond those, even after skimming through most of Wikipedia's list of animated feature films, there's not a single other movie I can find in which a mother/daughter relationship features prominently in the movie. Oh, there are a good number where there are major characters who have living mothers who love them, but they're not a focus, at all. Like that little girl's mom in Balto. They're established to exist but the story doesn't need them beyond that. The ONLY things I can think of that are a stretch are those orphan movies like All Dogs Go to Heaven and The Rescuers where there's a little girl who wants parents and ultimately finds a mother who loves her... in the last 10 minutes or so of the movie...

Otherwise, it's fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, or mothers and sons.

And now I'm realizing how distinct this trend is and now I'm REALLY fascinated by it. What the hell, how are there only TWO MOVIES beside this in which a positive relationship between a mother and daughter is a major part of the story???

FASCINATING.

[gabzillaz]

It IS fascinating.... and really sad :( You'll notice that there aren't many movies - especially animated - where the female main character has female friends, this one included, either. On the top of my head, I can think of Princess and the Frog and Pocahontas, and only in one of them the friendship was an important part of the plot.

[(Anonymous)]

FASCINATING.

I would add to this that father/daughter relationships receive more positive portrayals than mother/son relationships. What's more, close father/daughter relationships often take place while the girl's still in contact with her mother, but close mother/son relationships usually take place in the absence of a father. Also, in any story where a parent's left alone with the kids and goes crazy - invariably the mother.

I wouldn't mind but - in the UK ay least - the overwhelming majority of one-parent households have a mother rather than a father and from the time families had to divy up care-giving duties that has almost always fallen to the mother.

Seriously, where's the gothic horror film about the Victorian man who's forced to abandon a decent career in order to care for his small children, with whom his relationship is distant at best, and has to run a household which he has no idea how to do - all while the children keep demanding to know where mummy is? I was going to end this sentence with him snapping and killing them, but it could also be quite awesome if his wife came back to haunt him when he started mistreating the children.

...sorry, i clearly have to go off and write something. If you'll excuse me.

[(Anonymous)]

Tell us when you're done, please? I'd read it in a heartbeat!