The death of Bambi's mother has moved — and horrified — generations of children. The fleeing, the gunshot, the desperate search and then the gut-wrenching words: "Your mother can't be with you any more."
For many, that scene was traumatizing; for some it was the very first experience of loss. But Bambi is far from the only animated film featuring a mother's tragic death.
Just ask Sarah Boxer.
Boxer is a graphic novelist, a critic and a lover of cartoons. She's also the mother of a 10-year-old boy. While she was watching kids' movies with her son, Boxer realized how frequently the characters' mothers were dead.
"Show me an animated kids' movie that has a named mother in it who lives until the credits roll," Boxer writes in the latest issue of The Atlantic. "Not many pass the test."
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