
Desperate for help, they contact a priest (Wilson), who, in turn, enlists the aid of a widowed scientist-turned failed-paranormal expert (Stanfield), a French Quarter psychic (Haddish) and a crotchety historian (Danny DeVito). The official synopsis reads: "In this mysterious adventure, a doctor (Dawson) and her 9-year-old son (Chase Dillon), looking to start a new life, move into a strangely affordable mansion in New Orleans, only to discover that the place is much more than they bargained for. Dear White People director Justin Simien is set to direct. Like the first movie, the new film is said to focus on a family moving into the titular haunted house. Jamie Lee Curtis will play Madame Leota and Jared Leto the Hatbox Ghost. The new film will star Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, and Owen Wilson.
#Recent disney movies with parent deaths movie#
Now they too can have messy dynamics that motivate entire plotlines, just like the flawed dads in Chicken Little and The Little Mermaid.A Haunted Mansion movie starring Eddie Murphy already exists, but Disney is rebooting the franchise with a brand new take on the famous theme park ride. No longer are women assumed to be figures who can wrap up all conflict in five minutes. There have also been projects that focus more on complicated dynamics between mothers and daughters, most notably in the two Maleficent features (which concern a surrogate mother/daughter rapport) and Pixar titles Brave and Turning Red. If the mom is going to be dead, then the dad now has to go down with her too, as seen in Frozen. What do many of these animated classics feature? Lots of dead moms.įor the newer animated works, there’s been an emphasis on keeping both parents alive in projects like Tangled, Moana, and Encanto.


This tightrope walk has become even more perilous in the modern world, as Disney is committed to remaking all of its animated movies into modern live-action features. However, this company still wants to profit from new works that evoke memories of old-fashioned classics. Meanwhile, constantly killing off women to motivate plots doesn’t fit with the progressive image Disney wants to put out into the world. On the one hand, the trend has become noticeable even to younger viewers at this point. Modern Disney fare has often been stuck in a tight spot when it comes to responding to the decades of media the company has produced with dead moms. The rampant idea is that dads are innately less capable of being thoughtful parents while moms are more “thoughtful” and thus can solve any problem that comes their way. In 20th and 21st-century Disney cinema, meanwhile, the deaths of moms have been informed by arcane perceptions of which gender is “better” at parenting.

Of course, even given this phenomenon, it's far more likely patriarchal perception of women and their ability to "properly" function in narratives likely influenced the presence of moms in these ancient tales. In other words, it wasn’t uncommon for many kids to grow up without their birth mother in eras like the 1700s. For one thing, for centuries, there was a gruesome trend of high maternal mortality rates, which concerned women who died during childbirth.

Plus, there’s also traditional gender roles at play when it comes to why so many moms are dead. Similarly, the immediate removal of a mom lends an immediate underdog quality to these characters that can make them seem more sympathetic to general audience members. Removing the mother in such a stark permanent fashion allows heroes like Snow White or Cinderella to have no obligations keeping them home, they’re now freer to go out into the larger world. A hero must be separated from familiar confines to really discover themselves and do great things. Joseph Campbell’s famous “Hero’s Journey” theory suggests that many great narratives must begin with a protagonist answering the “call to adventure,” which requires leaving home.
