This is seriously bothering me. I wonder if maybe Walt Disney was a woman hater and that's why there were no moms...Except I just realized that's stupid as I typed it, because the princesses are female...Although, he did let Bambi's mom get shot, which kind of fits my 'woman hater' theme...Maybe he has something against moms?
My only other theory is that in the original versions of all these stories (the ones that were fairy tales before they became Classic Disney Movies) they didn't have moms because it works better to show the princess without a mom, considering a Mom would NEVER let them go through half the shit they do go through.
With the exception of Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, because the "Disney Princess" line existed long before they added her. And she had a mom AND a dad. Disney was totally going against their usual theme there. However her rich friend didn't have a mom...so maybe the weren't really losing that "no mom" theme...
Stepmoms don't really count because they all wanted to get rid of the princess. If they were loving moms to the princess then they could count but they weren't. Snow White's mom tried to have her killed and the poisoned her, and Cinderella's stepmom made her a servant and locked her in a tower so she couldn't try on the slipper....
Jasmine doesn't have a mom. In the entire movie they never even make an illusion to her mom, like "When your mother was alive," or "if your mom was here.." or anything like that.
Belle doesn't have any mention of a mother either.
Ariel did have a mention of her mom though. At one point her father says "If only her mother was here..." (or something close to that) when he was talking to the crab about why Ariel is acting weird.
But I did forget about Sleeping Beauty's mom. : /
Occasionally they include Mulan (even though she never married a prince nor was she royal) but she had a Mom too.
