Welcome back from the weekend! Did you have a good one? Did you spend some quality time with your dad, or otherwise sharing the love with some dad or dad-like people in your life?

[My father—I guess, with me being the Toy Box Mommy, that would be the Toy Box Grandpa—had the nerve to be out of the country on his special day. Honestly. Some people have no respect for the importance of ritual. I had no one to call and say “Hi! I forgot to send you a card, but I love you anyway!”]

Anyway, much as they did for Mother’s Day, ToonZone is back with their assessment, this time, of the top 5 fathers and father figures in animation.

Where the Mother’s Day assessments were hilarious, this time we’re looking at some serious insights. Take their justification for choosing Marlin from Finding Nemo:

He also has a wonderful story arc in a movie that is full of them, moving from a character frightened of the world to one willing to take on an entire ocean for the sake of his son. The true sign that you love someone is that you’re willing to change for them, so watching Marlin develop from a character driven by fear and paranoia into one driven by courage and trust is a wonderfully subtle way to communicate how much he truly loves Nemo.

Later, in discussing the selection of Pongo, they give us a bit of interesting commentary about Disney dads:

[E]xploring the works of Walt Disney yields some pretty slim pickings as far as positive parental role models go. If you get a father at all, they are often well-meaning but largely ineffectual and buffoonish characters, as seen with Mr. Dr. Possible from Kim Possible, the patriarch of the Proud Family, Belle’s absent-minded father from Beauty and the Beast, or the Sultan in Aladdin. At worst, you get characters who are antagonists to their children, such as King Triton in The Little Mermaid.

Hey, wait a minute! That’s not funny, that’s just depressing. Hmph.

Anyway, it’s not so much with the giggles, this time, but it’s some great commentary and a good read, so check it out. And happy belated Father’s Day.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 6:14 am and is filed under Random acts of television, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.