The heroes and heroines of most Disney movies come from unstable family backgrounds;[1] most are either orphaned or have no mothers.
[4] A prevalent urban legend explains the phenomenon resulted from the death of Flora Disney, mother of Walt and Roy Disney, who perished in 1938 due to a gas leak in the house the two brothers had recently purchased for her.
The so-called phenomenon had been present in Disney canon from before Flora's 1938 death, with the presence of the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which released in 1937.
Further, the prevalence of absent mothers, or even evil step-mothers, were not creative choices made by the Disney brothers themselves, but were plot points present in the source material that were adapted into later animated films, such as the original Cinderella tale, the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods, and Helen Aberson-Mayer's Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
Some feminists (such as Amy Richards) believe it is to create dramatic interest in the main characters; if mothers were present to guide them, they argue, there would not be much of a plot.