Valentino55 — 9 years ago(December 14, 2016 05:46 PM)

Surely every avid Disney film watcher is aware of this seldom mentioned phenomenon. When the heroine's father is not a king or a chieftain, he is usually a short, befuddled character. And we're not just talking short as in, a little below average height. We're talking short as in, barely reaches their daughter's shoulder. The most obvious examples of this are, of course, Belle and Maurice, Jasmine and the Sultan, and Jane and Archimedes. I'm not sure why Disney likes to do this. I know they tend to give comical characters exaggerated features. Maurice, at least, has a sturdy build; the Sultan, while chubby, is basically a cream puff; and Archimedes, of course, is skinny. Jane's forearms are even bigger than his.
I don't think we saw the trope again until 2009's A Christmas Carol, in which Martha Cratchit towers over Bob. In the scene where she jumps out of the closet to surprise her father, I half-expected her to lift him off the ground in a bear hug, she was so much bigger than him. I know in the novel Bob is described as "little," but to have his eldest daughter tower over him seemed a little excessive.