Sunday Brunch
Sunday Brunch: "Your Mother and Mine" by
guest writer Albert Gutierrez
May 8, 2011
Author's note: The food and retail industry
makes this weekend and other holiday weekends
extra busy. Please give a warm welcome to
everyone's favorite
Saturday Matineer and guest
Sunday Bruncher Albert Gutierrez. He takes over
Mother's Day weekend at From Screen to Theme and
looks at five memorable Disney moms.
In the lieu of a specific look at Disney food,
this week's Sunday Brunch is dedicated to
mothers everywhere, your mother and mine. During
last night's "Saturday in the Park," I decided
to quickly poll the WEDfriends for memorable
Disney mothers. They gave me a list of ten
names, and I hand picked five from the list to
share with you. And to keep this food-related,
I've also taken the liberty of speculating what
their favorite food might be:

Mrs. Jumbo, 1941's Dumbo
Mrs. Jumbo is very protective of her son, Dumbo.
She shields him away from the laughing
elephants, then literally spanks a little boy
who is mocking him, a misinterpreted action that
leads her to chained up isolation. Timothy
manages to bring Dumbo over for a visit and they
share a tender moment before he must leave
again. She soon has the last laugh, as Dumbo's
amazing flying abilities free her from her
prison and is reunited with her son.

Mrs. Jumbo's favorite food is probably the Elvis
sandwich. Why the Elvis sandwich? Because each
of the ingredients - peanut butter, bananas, and
bacon - pertains to Mrs. Jumbo's son, who is her
favorite elephant in the world! Dumbo is seen
eating peanuts with Timothy, and he later shoots
them out of his trunk. Since he didn't have
sneeze from allergies, he and his mother
probably enjoy a good peanut now and then. Next,
bananas have a thick skin that cover and protect
the mushy fruit inside. Elephants too have a
thick skin, but deep down they are just as mushy
and emotional as the rest of us. Finally, bacon
seems unlikely to join with peanut butter and
bananas, and yet it works. And everyone thought
a flying elephant was unlikely, but Dumbo has
proved them wrong!

Faline, 1942's Bambi
Faline and Bambi were childhood friends,
although she seemed to enjoy teasing him in
their youth. When they grew up, Bambi had to
fight Ronno in order to be with her, then he
saved her later from a pack of hunting dogs. By
the movie's end, she had become the Princess of
the Forest and bore two yearlings of her own.

Faline's favorite food is something that is both
sweet and teasing, just like her: the Chocolate
Orange. Not entirely chocolate, and not entirely
orange, this treat is similar to bacon in the
Elvis sandwich: too strange to go together, yet
is remarkably effective and delicious. Faline
too probably was an unlikely candidate for
Bambi's wife. As kids, he looks completely
terrified of her. But thanks to some
twitterpating, he saw her in a whole new light.

Winifred Banks, 1964's Mary Poppins
Winifred Banks is a very vocal supporter of the
Women's Right to Vote. She goes off on rallies
and even throws spoiled eggs at the prime
minister. All this time spent at her various
causes necessitates a nanny for her two
children, Jane and Michael. However, she still
manages to spend time with them, especially
after the sudden disappearance and reappearance
of their father, her husband, George. The family
go off to fly a kite together, with a rather
unspoken promise that they will always be
together from now on.

Thanks to her pioneering efforts in the Suffrage
movement, Winifred's favorite food is something
that needs an equal amount of effort to free
itself from the constraints around it: coconut.
Most of us are used to coconut being little
white strips of shaved fruit that can be mixed
into various recipes. But coconuts themselves
take a lot of effort simply to open, and then
more effort to turn its meat and juices into
something to eat. Mrs. Banks loves coconut,
because like her, there is a lot of effort and
determination needed to get what you want.

Coral, 2003's Finding Nemo
Coral and Marlin moved to the reef hoping it
would be a great place to raise their hundreds
of children, and she mused how she wanted one of
them to be named Nemo. Marlin promised that one
would be, while the rest could be Coral Jr. and
Marlin Jr. Sadly, Coral never got to meet and of
her children, but Marlin kept his promise and
named their surviving child, Nemo.

Coral's favorite food is salad. Why salad? By
itself, it can be the most boring thing in the
world: a plate of lettuce. However, you can add
various greens, other vegetables and food, and
top it off with a variety of delicious
dressings. A lot of things come together to make
each type of salad unique, and yet they all
still fall under the umbrella title of "salad."
Likewise, Coral and Marlin had only one name
that they agreed on for their children:
Nemo. Due to Coral and the other egg's tragic
death, Nemo became a lot more than just one son
to Marlin. He embodied the lives of all his
unborn brothers and sisters, and was a tribute
to his mother Coral. I bet you never thought
Nemo and salad could be compared like this!

Eudora, 2009's The Princess and the
Frog
Eudora is the mother of Tiana, who had always
dreamed of owning and operating her own
restaurant. She jokingly pesters Tiana about
wanting grandkids one day, and we see her again
later after Tiana and Naveen have opened "Tiana's
Place," the most happening eatery down in New
Orleans.

Eudora's favorite food is hard to figure out.
After all, with a cook for a daughter, how can
she pick just one to call her favorite? Could it
be Tiana's gumbo, a family recipe that's been
perfected and shared by their community? Or
maybe Tiana's beignets, the wonderful fried
dough treats that is the best way to a man's
stomach? All we know is that after Tiana's
adventures, Eudora probably will be avoiding
frog legs for a while!
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