[dfwgator]

Seems like there’s a common them to almost every Disney movie, children rebelling against their parents.

[dfwgator]

them=theme

[wally_bert]

I never thought about that until you mentioned it.

[Steely Tom]

Seems like there’s a common them to almost every Disney movie, children rebelling against their parents.

Perhaps, but in Pollyanna the child in question pays a pretty heavy price for rebelling.

I would agree that there's a common theme of children undergoing the process of discovering that they have minds of their own and can explore the world in their own ways, but that's just life.

I suppose one could argue that Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are about children rebelling against authority, also.

In Mary Poppins, the children discover that their father is not the perfect tower of strength they had thought he was; we see Mr. Banks as a man who is reluctantly but resignedly taking on the pressures and responsibilities of adulthood and fatherhood, but within whom still lives a boy, who wishes he could enjoy his own children as playmates for a time, but cannot, due to the need to earn a living and keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

[originalbuckeye]

There’s frequently a dead mother in there, too.

[katana]

Saw an excellent two part biography of Walt Disney a couple weeks ago. Your observation is spot on. Disney himself rebelled against a father who was, by all accounts, a dour task master who never succeeded at anything he tried. Some "failures" can still enjoy life, but not Disney Senior. Walt was a perfectionist too, hard driving, demanding, and sparing with praise for his workers. But he also was hugely creative, knew how to have fun, and was a doting father.

Saving Mr. Banks is a very good account of how Mary Poppins was made in spite of the author P.L. Travers' objections to Disney and her own deep seeded issues with a failed father. In her case an alcoholic bank manager, fired from his job out in an isolated country town in Australia.