Babble.com has up a list of the 26 most disturbing kid movies ever. Wow, did it bring back some terrifying memories. There are a few Disney movies on there, but one notable omission: The Fox and the Hound. For my money, this is the hands-down most horrible children's film of all time. Themes: the death of parents and the inevitability that your best friend will one day try to kill you.
But the 26 the list's author came up with are pretty great too, and he did throw in Old Yeller at #10 with this description:
From the death of Old Yeller we learn three things:
1. New friends will always turn on you.
2. If you ever open your heart to love something it will contract rabies and try to kill you.
3. Shooting Old Yeller represents Travis's metaphorical entrance into manhood. This means that before any boy can become a man he must shoot his dog in the face.
We'd still rather see that than woodland creatures crying for their mamas.
Read the whole list here. What do you consider the most disturbing kid film of all time?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. I had forgotten about Garbage Pail Kids. I never liked them.
I dont know why any parent would let their kids have anything to do with a product so gross.
A.C. at 10:31PM on Jun 29th 2008
2. The Willy Wonka tunnel scene flashed in my head even before I viewed the list. I saw it as a kid on the bigscreen. I always liked the movie, but have never been able to shake off the weirdness.
Other movies I saw as a kid that disturbed me were the Red Shoes and France's contribution, the Red Balloon. The scene with the kid floating away with the balloons still makes me shudder.
Finally, the first Spy Kid movie where the odd TV host can torture his captives by turning them into beings that resemble grotesque drawings and they are trapped there - eeeew! Those characters were beyond creepy; they just weren't right!
Please exit quietly. You don't want to wake the Oompa Loompas. Believe me.
Violet B. at 1:34AM on Jun 30th 2008
3. What a load of pessimism! I'll tell you what should make number one on the list: Golden Compass. There's nothing worse than a movie whose author overtly admits that he wants to steal faith of the true God away from the hearts of our children. But a movie from a book of one of the greatest author's of all time, C.S. Lewis who wrote Chronicles of Narnia (which contains lessons of morality, purity, truth, etc.) makes 26th place. There is something seriously wrong with babble, and AOL's reasoning process here. I anyone really reading this babble? Please pray with me that AOL (babble.com) will start sending a positive message of encouragement, hope and truth and stop undermining the role of morality and ethics in our society and the development of our youth.
StoptheBabble at 1:53AM on Jun 30th 2008
4. I saw the movie Old Yeller.
The dog kills a rabid wolf attacking the family and itself contracts rabies and must be put down.
What can we learn from this?
1. Don't go out at night when predators are about.
2. Shoot the wolf before your pets become involved.
3. Get your pets vaccinated against rabies.
I once lived in Florida near the Everglades and one family near us found their pet cat dead on their front porch, probably having been bitten by a rattlesnake.
The Goddess Athena at 2:01AM on Jun 30th 2008
5. Is it just me, or was anyone else disturbed during Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer when Santa joins in the bullying of Rudolph?
Then he later agrees that the best thing to do is "get the women folk" back to Christmas Town.
This really bothered me as a kid.
Way to tarnish up the tinsel, Kringle.
Clarice at 2:50AM on Jun 30th 2008
6. Spy Kids DID have some creepy, creepy parts to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bjgrV9wjHc&NR=1
Alan Cumming is a master of the weird.
Melanie G. at 3:05AM on Jun 30th 2008
7. The 2001 Japanese anime Spirited Away is a visually stunning film, breathtaking in its story and its scope. I love this movie, yet I find many parts depicting the fantasy world disturbing. It also repeats the familiar theme of a child separated from parents and forced into enslavement, seeking to escape.
Although Walt Disney distributed this in the US, it was a Hayao Miyazaki film, not a Disney. The movie was, however, marketed to children. My children liked it, but I can see how some parts could be very frightening to kids.
Rose at 3:42AM on Jun 30th 2008
8. James and the Giant Peach scared me. Another orphan tormented by greedy relatives. Joanna Lumley as one of his evil aunts was positively terrifying.
Lanny at 5:01AM on Jun 30th 2008
9. It is not really a "kid movie' but I was very young when my mother took me to see "Great Expectations." That movie, to a very young child, was the scariest thing I have ever seen. I still get the shivers when I find myself remembering that film and I am almost seventy. It took me some time before I could read any of Dicken's other works.
longwalker at 5:05AM on Jun 30th 2008
10. "Backyardagans rule. At least that's what my 5 year old says. And babble, I agree on the AOL crap fest.
Dave at 7:08AM on Jun 30th 2008
11. I have to agree that most of these movies scared the bejeezus outta me as a kid. Probably why I like horror movies as a big kid (not a "grown-up").
But at the same time, I have to agree this generation of parents wants their children to be shrink-wrapped to protect them from *everything*. I saw it as a high school teacher, and I see it in my stepchildren. The oldest is so neurotic b/c of his mother he's turning into a gentile Woody Allen (sans the sexual depravity thing)
The biggest point is that if you have young children, don't let them watch PG-13/PG movies! Watch a movie first before letting your children see it. Be a *proactive* parent. Isn't that why everyone *insisted* on putting ratings/parental controls on movies, video games, music, the Internet and public television? I'm sick of everyone scapegoating various forms of media instead of monitoring what your child sees, listens to, and does on the computer. Parents are too self-absorbed nowadays to have children, and then they wonder why their children become intollerant, spoiled, lazy, whiny societal drains.
Even though my parents grew up in the 1950's and were staunch Catholics, my sisters and I could listen/read/watch whatever we wanted, because my folks were either *present* or they trusted their skills in raising us with morals and values that we knew right from wrong, and what was real and what was "special effects".
alaggrt at 9:06AM on Jun 30th 2008
12. StoptheBabble,
Thanks for making it so obvious that you're nothing more than a propagandist. Bonus thanks for killing the innocent fun of the word 'babble'.
Rose,
Spirited Away would have freaked me out as a kid. The Stink Spirit scenes... ugh!
Mokele Mbembe at 9:20AM on Jun 30th 2008
13. What I found disturbing about Neverending Story was that it says that anything is possible if you just believe it really really hard. This is a roadmap to inevitable disappointment in real life.
I'd like to throw in the Ewok Adventure movies...
First movie: Mace and Cindel embark on a journey of impossible odds and rescue their parents. Yay!
Second movie: Mace and the parents die in the first 5 minutes! This is as fatalistic as Newt dying at the beginning of Alien 3 just after Ripley rescued her in Aliens. Cindel is left behind to grow up as an orphan on a planet of furries.
Lesson: Don't bother rescuing your family. It is a waste of effort, they will die anyway.
Mokele Mbembe at 9:39AM on Jun 30th 2008
14. AOLWTF?
Mokele Mbembe at 9:40AM on Jun 30th 2008
15. AOLWTF?
Mokele Mbembe at 9:41AM on Jun 30th 2008