PoP! Top 6-Pack: Most Memorable Movie Moms
The PoP!-Stars narrow it down to the cream-of-the-crop in categories ranging from (but not limited to) Comics, Movies, Toys, and Geek Culture in general. This is the PoP! Top 6-Pack.
Since today is Mother’s Day, let’s take a moment to celebrate the six most memorable moms in movie history. Feel free to disagree with me, but when I think of mother characters that really stand out, these are my top picks.
6. Stifler’s Mom – Jennifer Coolidge, American Pie
Stifler’s Mom is actually the inspiration for this list, and after overwhelming support in the PoP!ulation forums, she’s definitely the right woman for the list. Without Stifler’s Mom, we wouldn’t have the term “MILF”. She’s the template for cougars everywhere. Not bad for a character that didn’t even get a name until the sequel, huh? (By the way, her name is Jeanine.)
5. Padme Amidala – Natalie Portman, Star Wars
Sure, she didn’t spend much time being a mom, but she did give birth to the saviors of the universe. Without her, Luke and Leia wouldn’t have been able to lay the smackdown on their evil dad. Granted, if she wasn’t so busy being, “Oh, I have a broken heart. I have no reason to live anymore,” she might have been able to help them out. Just sayin’.
4. Catherine O’Hara – Beetlejuice/Home Alone/Penelope
Catherine O’Hara is the go-to woman for quirky mom roles. She’s Lydia’s long-suffering stepmom Delia in Beetlejuice, Kevin’s spastic mom in Home Alone, and Penelope’s loving but fearful mom in Penelope. You could even say she was a “mom” to prize show dog Winky in Best in Show with our #6 mom Jennifer Coolidge. Whatever the role might be, she takes the “mom role” and makes it ten times funnier.
3. Beatrix Kiddo (The Bride) – Uma Thurman, Kill Bill
I bet this one threw you for a loop, huh? While we tend to think of badass fighting and that sexy yellow costume, at its heart Kill Bill is a movie about revenge brought about by The Bride’s love for her lost unborn daughter. Luckily for her, B.B. is still alive and well. If the “Freeze, mommy!” scene where she first discovers her long-lost daughter doesn’t get to you, you have a heart of stone.
2. Lorraine Baines McFly – Lea Thompson, Back to the Future
I almost feel sorry for Marty McFly. With a mom as hot as Lea Thompson, no wonder he was super skeeved out when he landed in 1955. Lea Thompson does an amazing job in Back to the Future playing three characters, haggard 1985 Lorraine, young 1955 Lorraine, and the successful 1985 Lorraine as the end of the movie. And, contrary to Kerouac’s insistence, we did not need to see her boobs.
1. Helen Parr (Elastigirl) – Holly Hunter, The Incredibles
Our number-one mom on this list is none other than the supermom herself, Elastigirl. Juggling hidden super powers, two super powered kids, and crazy baby Jack-Jack, she proves that her super powers go well beyond super stretchiness. Add in the fact that she’s wicked funny and that the has amazing hair (I’ve always loved Elastigirl’s hair), and that is why she’s my top pick for most memorable movie mom.
Come back tomorrow for my PoP! Top 6-Pack of comic book moms!
Filed Under: Columns • PoP! Top 6-Pack
I’d have gone with Annie Hughes voiced by Jennifer Aniston from the Iron Giant, personally. But that’s because I love that movie more than any other single person anywhere ever probably.