I'm familiar with the argument that parents must be dispensed of for a good narrative arc, but I don't really buy it. I can think of all kinds of great children's stories where nobody's parents are tragically offed in the first 5 minutes. To wit: Harriet the Spy, The Dark is Rising series, A Wrinkle in Time series, E.B. White's books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Great Brain...all these have children going on great adventures often without parents, but without killing said parents off. Then we have wonderful family-oriented fiction like Judy Blume, Ramona, the wonderful Elizabeth Enright books, All of a Kind Family, Finn Family Moomintroll, Little House on the Prairie...
None of this is to say that I think parental death should be forbidden in children's books or movies. However, I have always found it a little odd the way this is done in material for VERY YOUNG children. Bambi and Nemo come to mind as examples of over-the-top parental death in films aimed at a young audience.
Last edited by ultramarina; 05/10/11 07:24 AM.
