Jae Ran Kim applied a "social worker’s perspective to the wholesome characters in popular Disney movies" and asked, "How many of these beloved characters live in a married, two-parent (hetero) household?"
- Aladdin (Aladdin) – orphaned and homeless; petty crimes for food and shelter
- Annie (Annie) – orphan adopted by rich single dad
- Ariel (The Little Mermaid) – dead mother, rebellious teen who runs away to be with a man
- Aristocats – Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse – three kittens raised by a single mother
- Bambi (Bambi) – raised by single mother who is murdered, has never met his absent father
- Belle (Beauty and the Beast) – dead mother, raised by single father
- Cinderella (Cinderella) – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful, absent father
- Dumbo (Dumbo)– raised by a stigmatized, depressed single mother
- Elliot (Pete’s Dragon) – orphaned, runaway from abusive foster parents, adopted by single mother
- Hercules (Hurcules) – son of gods transracially adopted by humans
- Lilo (Lilo and Stitch)– orphaned, raised by older sister
- Mowgli (The Jungle Book)– orphaned, raised by 2-male heads of household (bear and panther)
- Mulan (Mulan) – cross-dressing teen girl with intact, multi-generational family unit
- Nemo (Finding Nemo) – dead mother, raised by single overprotective father
- Oliver (Oliver & Company) – orphaned kitten transracially adopted by rich girl
- Peter Pan (Peter Pan) – orphaned, troublemaker and gang leader of Lost Boys
- Penny (The Rescuers) – orphaned girl kidnapped from orphanage
- Pinocchio (Pinocchio) – wooden toy adopted by aged creator Gepetto
- Pochahontas (Pocahontas) – dead mother, raised by single father
- Quasimoto (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) – physically disabled male adopted by evil church minister Frollo
- Simba (The Lion King) – father murdered by uncle, raised by 2-male heads of household (meerkat and warthog)
- Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty) – parents transferred custody to 3 fairies
- Snow White (Snow White & the 7 dwarves) – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful father
- Tarzan (Tarzan)– orphaned, transracially adopted by gorilla family
