Everyone always talks about the (frequently deceased) Disney mothers, but what about DreamWorks? Parental figures can determine a lot about a person’s life, as they play a major piece in people’s upbringings, whether or not they’re present, so it’s always good to keep a keen eye on them.
Sure, some might seem harmless, but are they really the most solid of parents? For every inspiring mother in a DreamWorks movie, there’s also an overbearing stage mom who can only promise her children a bad childhood. Here’s an examination of some of the worst and some of the best mommas in DreamWorks’ filmography.
GREAT: Fiona (Shrek Forever After)
Fiona is a ferociously defensive mother, and would do anything for her children. Taking care of triplets is no small task, but Fiona never gets ogre-whelmed (sorry).
She knows how to handle them and can do so many tasks at once, unlike her husband who resolves fatherhood by throwing a tantrum and striking a deal with Rumpelstiltskin as a way out of his mid-life crisis. And yet, Fiona’s still helping Shrek run a kingdom and fend off evil forces, all the while living her own life as well.
HORRIBLE: Queen Lillian (Shrek 2)
Queen Lillian isn’t awful so much as a tad ditsy, but the bigger problem here is that she allowed her husband to lock up her own daughter in a tower for years on end. Sure, she might have been more accepting of Shrek when he showed up as Fiona’s husband, but she wasn’t present for Fiona’s formative years and certainly seemed to like to be blissfully ignorant of what was happening.
She was trying to totally ignore the impending dinner table fight and noticing her husband being whisked away off the balcony by the Fairy Godmother.
GREAT: Yocheved (The Prince Of Egypt)
Sending a baby down a river in a basket might not seem like the most ingenious way to save a child, but what else could one do with a sudden genocidal force coming in to slaughter in infants?
Had it not been for Yocheved’s determination to save her son, Moses would’ve been toast. Her alluring lullaby is also something that stays with Moses in his subconscious for years, re-emerging when he hears his sister singing it, and he remembers his roots and decides to help the Israelites earn their freedom.
HORRIBLE: Queen Ant (Antz)
There’s nothing like a parental figure who wants to pigeonhole their children into doing exactly what they want them to do, is there? On top of that, Queen Ant is totally unaware of what is going on in her kingdom, somehow blind to the fact that the obviously sinister general of her armies is plotting a coup.
She’s pretty useless and is really just a titled position more than a real leader (and the mother of everyone in the ant colony).
GREAT: Valka (How To Train Your Dragon 2 & 3)
Sure, Valka might have disappeared from Hiccup’s life for many years, but she never stopped caring about her family. When she was kidnapped and taken so far away from home, what else could she do but try to make the world a better place by learning to understand and tame dragons?
She did have her chance to go back home, but (wrongfully) assumed they would be better off without her, seeing as her husband despised dragons. It wasn’t the right call but the intentions were good, and she did makeup with her beloved husband and son later on.
HORRIBLE: Janet Benson (Bee Movie)
Once again, another pigeonholing and totally ignorant mother makes the list. Janet Benson isn’t very supportive of her son’s desire to break free of the bee colony and insists that he just settles for doing what he was assigned to do.
Yes, she only wants what’s best for Barry, but her inability to empathize with or even properly hear out her son is pretty weak parenting. Curious that a colony mother appeared twice on the “bad” side, it appears insect mothers aren’t the best.
GREAT: Florrie (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa)
Florrie is a wonderful mother to Alex, who quickly pieces together that the lion that she and her husband (the alphas of the lion pride) come across is her long-lost son. She is nothing but grateful to gain Alex back and accepts all of his bizarre quirks, even if she’s a little fazed by them.
Alex’s misunderstanding of a fight (which costs his father’s throne) was essentially a cultural difference, and Florrie was able to see that and calm her disappointed husband down. She is nothing but supportive, patient, and understanding.
HORRIBLE: Gladys Sharp (Over the Hedge)
This takes a bit of inference, as Gladys isn’t confirmed to be a mother, but it is more than likely, considering her massive house an her equally massive car. If there was ever a search for an entitled “Karen” in animation, Gladys Sharp would fit the profile perfectly.
Gladys is rude, nosy, arrogant, unable to be pleased, and ruthless in getting exactly what she wants, with no room for compromise. She’s exactly the person no one would want as the president of their homeowner’s association which is, of course, the title she holds over everyone’s heads. She hates animals, she hates people, and she hates anything going out of line with her idealistic and insane fantasy world.
GREAT: Po’s Mother (Kung Fu Panda 2)
Had it not been for the sheer courage and love shown by Po’s mother, Po would not be alive, simple as that. In a close parallel to Yocheved saving Moses, Po’s mother went the extra mile and ensured her son’s survival by hiding him in a radish box and drawing away attention by making her presence known to the genocidal forces that were hunting down the pandas, sacrificing herself.
His mother loved him dearly and was missed greatly by both her husband and her child, but it seems she passed on her huge heart to her son.
HORRIBLE: Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2)
There’s a reason Prince Charming is such an insufferable and privileged brat, and that’s because he was spoiled rotten by his mother, the Fairy Godmother. She is a manipulative and selfish presence, failing as both a mother and a godmother, by indoctrinating her son into believing he is owed everything, and by nearly costing Fiona the love of her life.
All of it was for her own power-hungry tendencies and other self-centered goals. Selfish parents who undermine the welfare of those they are responsible for or even use them for their own personal gains are pretty scummy, to say the least.
