Don't let the cave-in get you down

So the girlfriend and I have been watching a surprising amount of Disney lately, which included a first-time watch of Princess and the Frog (which I have been dying to see since it came out) and a rewatch of Lilo and Stitch, which I only watched for the first time less than a year ago.

What I'd noticed in the other films we'd watched recently (Beauty and the Beast, Alladin, and Cinderella) was how similar many of the families - the ~good~ families - were: one child plus an eccentric and well-meaning father, usually a short chubby dude. Usually with facial hair? Strange.
( Cut for tiny round men! )

So although Dead or Missing Parents are a staple of Disney (because you need to be an orphan to be a main character, which gives me hope for great and exciting things in my future) I like that in Princess and the Frog and Lilo & Stitch the families are a bit different. A supportive and competent mother figure? A growing-into-being-a-mother-figure figure?

( Cut for adorable families, omg )

And Lilo & Stitch holds an extremely dear place in my heart, since I can project on both main characters: Lilo for being That Kid and Nani for having to suddenly deal with caring for a younger sibling. Slightly different, since my brother was only a few years younger than me and I was nowhere NEAR as responsible as she was, but still. I clearly need a Nani and Lilo icon.

Also, gotta say, having an American around is pretty useful for films like this. Well, a lot of films, really. You know that way cartoons like to exaggerate things? I used to think that American school sports were the equivilent of underground bunkers built to hide out from bullies, like they had on Hey Arnold! one time. (Or maybe it was Doug.) So having someone to cuddle into who can also pass me on tidbits like, 'that's a bottle tree! they grant wishes' or whatever is nice.