> This week in my American cinema class the topic was 'Disney'. We specifically ended up talking about their anxiety around the subject of the
family.
> Out of the 43 feature films that Disney has produced, 30 have a family as a central feature of the story. Of those, only one features a nuclear family (101 Dalmations). Seven feature parents as either repressive (The Little Mermaid) or outright evil (Snow White). This is something that seems to pervade a lot of their attitude - even in 'The Three Little Pigs' short



I don't think this is just a Disney thing, I think it's just a fact of storytelling in general. It's just harder to write or tell a compelling story about a loving nuclear family than it is to tell one about an imperiled orphan. The drama is inherent in an imperiled orphan story--the storyteller just has to ice the cake a bit, if you know what I mean.
Whether removed by death or circumstance, the fewer parents around, the more chance for adventure, pathos, etc.