disney may be known for its magic fun songs and happily ever afters but not all the good
guys get a happy ending while our disney heroes and heroines will still live on to save the day
or marry their true love it's often their parents that end up biting the bullet disney's killed off
so many parents that not only is it a trope at this point but also a joke nevertheless we can't
deny the impact that some of these deaths have had on our characters and on the audience so
today we're gonna be looking at these deaths and ranking them from the sad to the unfair to the
heart-wrenching hey guys i'm brad from wickedbench and this is disney parent deaths sad to saddest
for the record this list will include both disney and pixar just because pixar
is technically a separate studio doesn't mean that they won't sometimes follow the same tropes
a few of these depths will also be ones that may have happened off-screen but still had an effect
on the main characters now for our long time viewers you may be thinking hold up brad sad
to saddest what about gruesome the most gruesome hold on buddy gruesomeness and how they died will
factor into the ranking but we're also going to be looking at when each of them died such as whether
or not it was early on in their children's lives and how the deaths of these characters ultimately
affected their children alright with that out of the way let's get started first we'll be looking
at the deaths that are certainly sad but were more mundane and subdued in terms of gruesomeness or
how much they traumatize their kids these are the mundane deaths starting this list is cinderella's
father what puts him this low is well we don't actually know how he died we know his wife
cinderella's birth mother died when cinderella was very young so we can infer that it might
have had something to do with childbirth as for her father he stayed alive for several years and
was able to form a bond with cinderella although we aren't sure how deep it is but more on that
later he was a gentleman while he was wealthy he didn't spoil his daughter and his kindness
helped shape cinderella into someone who was just as kind he also tried to put her well-being above
everything else and even married lady tremaine because he thought cinderella needed a mother
unaware of tremaine's true nature do them again as said before we're never told how he died there's
a theory that tremaine murdered him to gain his fortune but this has never been confirmed most
likely it was an illness given the time period due to his death cinderella is forced to become a maid
and serve her step family not a good deal for cinderella why do we consider it the
least sad as stated previously we don't know how deep his bond with his daughter was since
cinderella never really talks about him or even mentions him yeah his death affected her status
but unlike other characters later on this list it doesn't seem to affect cinderella personally
since she never remembers him or mourns him outside of the opening narration because of
that we have no choice but to put cinderella's father at the bottom next is james tiana's father
from the princess and the frog james had a big influence on his daughter not only did
he encourage tiana's cooking skills but he also inspired her to work hard towards her dreams i
give this special just gotta be shared while tiana may have taken this ideal too far making work the
only thing she did james couldn't have known that in any case james was a good man so when he died
in world war one it couldn't have been easy on tiana or her mother the spirit of james lived on
with tiana being able to use her memories of him to help with her decision in the film's climax
also it should be noted that on his picture frame we can see a distinguished service cross
which is given for extreme gallantry and risk of life and actual combat with an armed enemy force
speaking of war we're putting shang's father general lee at the tail end of this section
like james general lee was unfortunately a victim of war and was killed in a battle with the huns
so if they had similar deaths why are we ranking lee a slot above james there's a couple of reasons
first lee's death wasn't a result of an ordinary battle but an ambush the general had intended
to intercept sean u's army we'll toast china's victory at the imperial city however due to sean
used intellect and tracking ability lee lost the element of surprise losing this advantage meant
doom for the general given how big the hun army was another reason we ranked lee's death higher is
because of the nature of this war instead of dying by a gunshot lee was likely stabbed and bled out
which re-ranked as slightly more gruesome finally lee's death was more devastating to his son
shang who had expected his father to be completely fine being just as confident in china's army as
his father was there's a reason why the scene that reveals lee's death is considered one of the most
devastating moments in mulan next we'll be moving on up to sadness scale and are going to look at
depths that had an extra element of unfairness to them making them more tragic these are the unfair
deaths wilden from onward was a wizard and ian and barley's father unfortunately he was never
able to meet his youngest son due to dying from a devastating illness barley was also unable to say
goodbye to his father being scared and confused by all the machines keeping his father alive we
can't say much about his actual death since it's another one that happened off-screen but not being
able to watch his sons grow up and be a father to them is certainly unfair thanks to a spell
both brothers had the chance to meet their dad or rather his legs as well as say goodbye to him
i definitely remember dad having a top part in the end however only barley is able to do
so and ian is never able to actually talk with his father this is also unfair but we understand
the reason behind ian's sacrifice and in a sense he still gets closure thanks to his big brother
so while it's still sad it's more on the side of bittersweet we all knew this one was coming
next is bambi's mother even people who have never seen bambi know about this disney death in many
ways she was an ideal mother she was kind loving encouraging and above all else protective when
she heard the hunter approaching she told bammy to run making sure that he stayed ahead of her
to keep him safe unfortunately bambi's mother was unable to get away and was shot to death
this death is both unfair and heartbreaking given how young bambi was when he lost her.
as famous as this death is we can't rank it any higher because while still shocking death
by gunshot isn't very gruesome especially if a hunter only needed one bullet it's likely her
death was quick which is really the biggest saving grace you can ask for in a situation like this
also similar to cinderella bambi doesn't acknowledge his mother after her death
he's clearly sad at first but quickly moves on and still grows up to be a noble prince of the forest
we don't get to meet lilo and nani's parents since they die before the movie starts according to lilo
the four of them were taking a family drive in the rain when they got into a car accident
but while they don't have a single scene outside of the photo lilo keeps of them
we can feel the influence of both of her parents and the aftermath of their deaths throughout the
movie the biggest lesson that they taught their daughters was of ohana and that once someone is
part of their family they shouldn't be left behind or forgotten something lilo reiterates when nani
tries to get rid of stitch dad said ohana means family from what we can tell lilo's parents were
good and kind people and their deaths affected their daughters in more ways than just grief
in fact lilo and nani were nearly forced apart due to nani still being young and not being able to
both work and take care of her little sister both girls often stress each other out not having the
proper space to grieve because they have to take care of each other and keep in the good graces
of their social worker you're such a pain even after lilo is allowed to stay with nani and lilo
and stitch the series her parents deaths continues to affect her on the anniversary of their deaths
all lilo is able to do is sleep her sadness away while nani and lilo accept that their family is
broken but still good their situation is still no less sad and unfair next is another animal death
by gunshot kerchak tarzan's adopted father kerchak and tarzan were never close it took several years
and winning a fight against a jaguar for tarzan to finally earn his adoptive father's respect
and even then it was still shaky this relationship worsened again when tarzan began wondering about
who he was and whether or not he belonged with humans when he and his fellow gorillas
were being attacked and captured however kerchak was able to see exactly which side tarzan was on
that he truly was part of their family you came back i came home this was enough for kerchak to
sacrifice himself taking a bullet for tarzan when clayton shot at him we're ranking kerchak above
bambi's mother because ironically enough tarzan was able to say goodbye to him think about it
tarzan was finally given the respect and love that he wanted from kerchak and then kerjak dies
like one second later that you have always been one of us it's bittersweet and if you add in the
fact that it was tarzan who led the humans to the gorillas territory that just makes it all the more
tragic ending this section we come to king agnarr and queen aduna elsa and honest parents from the
kingdom of arendelle say what you will about their parenting skills but whether you think they were
neglectful or just trying to do what they thought was right it's obvious that they cared about
both their daughters they never stopped loving anna and elsa and were willing to take a trip
into dangerous waters to reach out of holland to learn more about their eldest daughter's powers
not wanting her to be afraid and isolated anymore you'll be fine elsa unfortunately they got caught
in a storm and drowned something that just made the situation even worse for their daughters
in fact when elsa found out the true reason for their trip in the sequel she was devastated while
both she and anna are able to move on from their parents deaths and even correct other
mistakes made by their family the circumstances surrounding their deaths as well as how they died
far from home and in the middle of a raging and freezing ocean put the king and queen of arendelle
towards the upper end of our list finally we've reached the most memorable deaths from the disney
canon not just in terms of sadness but in pain these are the saddest and most gruesome deaths
starting this section we have quasimodo's mother while she only has one scene in the
movie's prologue it's nevertheless a memorable and heartbreaking one all quasi's mother wanted
was safety for herself and her child who she seemed to accept and love despite his deformity
unfortunately judge claude frollo couldn't see her as a woman in need unable to view her as
equal due to her being romani thinking she was nothing more than a criminal he chased her down
and murdered her on the steps of notre dame while this is probably the tamis example of murder
compared to the others that are coming up it's still a shock to see i'm sending it back to hell
where it belongs we also had to rank this death high above the others due to the impact that her
death had on her son's life not only did quasi have to grow up isolated with a cruel frollo as a
father figure but he lived his whole life thinking that his mother hated him thanks to frollo's
lies it's no wonder quasi had such a hard time trusting people believing that not even his own
mother had loved him next we have tarzan's birth parents though they may not have looked like much
tarzan's human parents were actually resourceful and proved themselves to be survivors from safely
escaping a burning ship to building a home for them and their son in the middle of africa it
seemed like nothing could truly stop them but while they would continue to fight until the very
end using a gun to stop an attack from a jaguar it wasn't enough while their deaths led to plenty of
good things for their son from finding his adopted mother kala to eventually meeting jane we can't
deny the effect that their deaths had on their son even if he didn't find out about them until
the latter half of the movie not having them left tarzan feeling out of place and different from the
other gorillas resulting in a lot of self-hatred when he was younger of course we all know what
really puts their deaths this high up there are a lot of disney deaths out there but not many of
them are the result of being attacked by a fierce jungle cat up next is coral nemo's mother like a
lot of disney parents it seems we don't know who this lady is we do know that she was excited to
be a mother and that between her and marlon she was more grounded and able to calm her husband's
anxieties like many mothers she was willing to do all she could to protect her babies even at
the cost of her own life just think in a couple of days we're going to be parents similar to tarzan's
parents her death is gruesome both coral and nearly all of her eggs were eaten by a barracuda
leaving marlin and nemo alone while we're putting this death high due to its harsh nature we can't
give it our top spot given that her death seems to affect marlin more than it affects her own son
in fact we never hear nemo mention his mother much less mourn her granted that doesn't make
her death any less sad and we can't really blame an unborn nemo for not knowing his mother
but we still feel that this element prevents it from being the saddest keeping with the animal
theme koda's mother from brother bear is next as we enter our top three koda's mother was
your average mama bear she didn't try to seek out fights with humans she was just trying to survive
and protect her cub unfortunately for a bear it's not exactly easy to communicate this to a human
especially to a hunter as stubborn as kanai ultimately koda's mother was murdered by
kanai by getting stabbed by a spear this is already bad but it's the tragedy factor of
this disney death that puts it this high up not only did koda's mother do nothing to deserve this
but her son kota didn't even know that she died since they were split up of course this makes
the moment where koda finally learns about her death and realizes that his new friend killed her
all the more heart-wrenching your mother's not coming though we're putting it in our top three
what stops it from going any higher is that coda does get to see his mother's spirit
one last time and is able to give her a proper goodbye which is more than what most characters
get on this list we're ranking queen athena ariel's mother and her death in second place
athena is only in the opening of the third little mermaid movie and while it may seem strange to
give a minor character's death such a high ranking we feel that the gruesomeness of her death and
the impact that it had on her family make her death one that's worth noting first let's look
at her death athena was tragically killed by humans not by a sword or a bullet but by getting
crushed by their ship algie megochi making this death more sad is that it only happened because
she went back to save one of her daughters attina after her tail got caught in the rocks
if it weren't for that bad luck she might have lived because of her death king triton became more
protective of his daughters as well as distant he even went so far as to ban music because it
reminded him too much of his wife the king's hot skate dog even after lifting this ban triton
didn't properly deal with this grief this resulted in him lashing out at ariel when she began
showing any interest in humans without having a proper mother figure ariel became reckless and
eventually repeated the mistakes of her father when she became a mother herself by being overly
protective and not listening ultimately that's what makes her death more devastating knowing that
it could have been prevented and knowing how much her being there would have helped her daughters
taking the gold is mufasa simba's father as both our saddest and most gruesome disney parent death
we all know the story so let's get this cry in together mufasa's death is a story of betrayal
and devastation for both simba and audiences alike of all the disney parents who were murdered
mufasa's death is certainly the most painful given that he was trampled by rampaging wildebeest
though not as bloody as being eaten by a jaguar or a barracuda it was probably just
as painful as well as a slower death and that's not counting him falling off the cliff of course
mufasa's death is the turning point in the lion king his death allows scar to take over
ultimately ruining the pride lands and leaving the rest of the lionesses to nearly starve
more importantly mufasa's death affects his son simba who it should be noted is one of the few
disney characters who actually get to witness his father's death and see the body afterwards
well yeah scar's lie plays a huge part simba's loss still changes him turning him into someone
who would rather forget the past as well as his own pain even years later all he wants is to see
his father again simba gets some closure both in seeing his father's spirit and in learning
the truth about his uncle but given that mufasa's death stunted his son's personal growth for years
and brought so much heartache to his kingdom we really can't think of any disney parent death
that can top it alright guys what do you think do you agree with our ranking and were there
any notable disney parent deaths that we missed let us know in the comments and tell us which
series you'd like to see next be sure to hit that notification bell so you don't miss new episodes
of good to evil featuring your favorite cartoons and video games but most importantly stay wicked