Now, Disney is known for parents being a BIG part of their movies. BUT it’s usually because they die in the first five minutes. It has become a running joke that Disney hates parents, specifically moms, because they are always killing them off. Which, let’s be honest, usually does create a big emotional journey for the main character.

However, in recent years it feels as though Disney is finally trying to break away from the “dead mom” narrative of the early nineties. In fact, the upcoming movie Hexed is actually about a complex mother-daughter relationship, so will it break the dead mom curse?

Now, Disney in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s LOVED a dead mom movie. We are looking at you: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Tarzan, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Goofy Movie, and… need we go on?

While some of these movies had both parents missing, many still had the dad around, which was really not helping the whole “dead mom” situation. Especially for the princess movies, these girls often only had their dads around, like Belle, Pocahatas, Ariel, and Jasmine.

Or no parents at all, like Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, and Snow White. In some of these stories, the mom isn’t even mentioned. It was a very interesting narrative Disney had for a while, showing young girls having to navigate life, adventure, and love without their moms around or even discussed.

Well, it seems as though Disney has gotten the message because they have changed that narrative in the past several years; we have gotten some Disney movies that not only have a mom present, but the mother-daughter aspect of the movie is an important part of the plot. For example, Brave, where the whole journey was about Merida connecting with her mom through a long adventure to turn her back into a human after a spell turns her into a bear. And it really dove into the complexities of their relationship.

In more recent years, Disney also created Turning Red, which showcased the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship between Mei and her mother, Ming. A large part of that movie focused on growing up, finding independence, cultural expectations, and generational differences, all through the lens of a teenage daughter navigating her relationship with her mom. While both these movies are beautiful representations of mother-daughter dynamics in Disney movies, it is still a fairly rare subject to be explored.

Which is why we are so interested to see what Hexed holds and will offer audiences in the world of these complicated relationships. One of the film’s writers, Jared Bush, has shared that at its core Hexed is a mother-daughter story and that they made sure that relationship “was actually the star of the film.”

He went on to explain, “We hope parents watch this and say, ‘Oh, man! This feels like me and my child. Maybe they’ll feel like, ‘When I grew up, I felt like Billie did, but now that I’m a parent, I’m understanding what my parents were going through.’” This story is really meant to dive into the complexities of the decision a parent makes to protect their child, the child not understanding the limitations given to them by their parent, and really exploring the middle ground in which understanding, love, and that relationship live.

It was also shared that this will be a “very human story in a very fantastical world.” Which is something we are extremely excited to see play out. So, will Hexed continue to help break the Disney mom curse? Only time will tell, but we already know we will be heading to theaters on November 25th to find out!

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Disney Reveals MORE Details On Hexed

 

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Will you be seeing Hexed when it releases in theaters? Let us know in the comments!