L Everett Scott

I had a chat with my cousin who said that she was getting a little tired of Moana because her daughters constantly ask her to watch it with them. When I suggested she try to turn her kids on to other Disney titles, perhaps older ones, my cousin said she didn't think many of them were appropriate for small children. She feels that they're either too frightening (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty), have parts that are too intense (Dumbo), or might be traumatizing (Bambi).

This got me thinking: which family films scarred you as a child? Which 'kid-friendly' movies won't you put on for kids and why?

I'm going to guess that Neverending Story (with that Swamp of Sadness scene) is going to get mentioned a few times.

tanman

THE poster child for this.

It kind of worked to my advantage. My daughter one Saturday morning got up early and decided to watch a movie (She's not supposed to watch anything without our permission) so she picked Coraline. She doesn't watch anything without our permission anymore.

I mean just LOOK at this? How is this a kids movie?

Josh-da-man

Runaway

My father allowed a me and a friend of mine to watch The Last Unicorn, when we were still in Kindergarten and my friend had nightmares for weeks, because he was so scared of the Red Bull. His mother was very angry with my father after that and my friend wasn't allowed for sleepovers at hour house.

It's one of my wife's favorite movies and we watch it every christmas.

d2cheer

Kids are way too coddled nowadays...

Nick Danger

The trees attacking Snow White. The crows being mean to Dumbo.

I assume that small children are tougher than I was, and are cheerfully watching The Walking Dead at the same age I was watching The Friendly Giant.

GoldenJCJ

Return to Oz will mess up even the most hardened badass.

dom56

Boat tunnel scene in Willy Wonka

Paff

Can't believe it took 8 posts for someone to mention this.

fujishig

Yeah, this is not a children's film. Or it shouldn't be. The Last Unicorn too. Maybe that Hobbit animated series, I remember that haunting me.

Some that really scared me as a kid were
The Secret of Nimh
The Dark Crystal
That Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (both parts... it still befuddles me that there's a Mr. Toad ride, I have no idea what kids who have never seen it think about it)
Pinnochio (those donkey-boys... I don't think they are ever rescued either)

I think they are perfectly fine with nothing super inappropriate or anything, but they have scary parts. There are a few Disney movies that, at the time, I didn't watch over and over but I read the books over and over, and stuff like the Rescuers and The Fox and the Hound still stay with me, but I think part of that is how little I was at the time.

Seems like lots of kids were traumatized by Transformers the Movie (1986). I personally thought it was awesome.

I showed my kids the vast majority of these. And I've learned that different kids are traumatized by different things. I was really surprised my son was super scared by the end of Moana so much so that he didn't want to watch it for years, even though he was fine watching things I consider much scarier. But my wife told me not to show them Gremlins... yet.

I'll also add that my youngest was really really hit hard by, of all movies, Onward. Basically the whole dad plot and the ending.

L Everett Scott

I assume the issue was


Either that or it was the Weird Al musical number.

fujishig

How dare you.

Yeah, the slaughter to replace the old toys with the new toys was a bit shocking to some, but especially the one you mentioned.

Paff

It didn't bother me as a kid, but that gif of the Abominable Snowman terrorizing Clarice, with her legs kicking and everything, is traumatizing me now.

L Everett Scott

Speaking of which, I wonder how many kids were horrified by the beginning of Season 3 when Sixshot rather unceremoniously


I just remember not believing what I was seeing when I first watched that episode.

GoldenJCJ

I showed my 6 year old this movie for the first time a few months ago and it’s a lot more fucked up than I remember. Aside from the infamous boat “trip”, there’s a quick scene with Charlie outside the factory where some creepy salesman approaches Charlie for no other purpose than to be creepy. What is he selling? A rickety-ass cart full of knives and scary looking bladed weapons! Then there’s Grandpa Joe who couldn’t get his ass out of bed for 20 years to help with the family finances but is quick to dance his way out when Charlie has a free ticket to the chocolate factory. What a piece of shit! And of course, Wonka himself who’s nothing but a psychopath, purposely picking off children for the thrill of it. Not to mention his unhinged diatribe at Charlie at the very end. Finally, Charlie wasn’t exactly an angel. His bullshit antics in the bubble room was just as bad, if not worse, than the othe kids’ indiscretions. Just because he gives the everlasting gobstopper back to Wonka he gets a free pass? No, screw that little bastard.

fujishig

Yeah, IIRC they took out their power supplies or something to build their machine.

In Transformers: Prime, they basically kill off the Rock's character in episode 1, then he comes back as a zombie. So maybe kids are a lot hardier these days.

Paff

Everything you cite is why I still love this movie.

I saw it as a kid, and saw nothing but colors and candy (didn't remember the boat trip scene, must have blocked it out and someday a therapist will cite it as the "repressed memory" that's ruining my marriage or something). But yeah, as an adult it's a whole new movie. Willy Wonka is a right bastard who loathes children. I think I nearly pissed myself (as an adult) in laughter when he says "No. Stop. Come back" as Mike TeeVee is hurling himself into the teleportation machine.

L Everett Scott

I haven't watched either the Mel Stuart or the Tim Burton version of Chocolate Factory in years so I can't offer an opinion, but are we saying that the Stuart film might be a bit much for kids while the Burton movie is fine?

fujishig

It is a rather dark movie, despite the bright palette. I don't think you even see that the kids are ok at the end of the movie. The book is even darker.

I do like that they address the elephant in the room in the remake, mainly how did the Oompa Loompas know exactly what song to sing as each kid got sucked up? Like Wonka planned it all along. Also Deep Roy portraying all of the Oompa Loompas is scarier than anything in the original, IMHO.

rbrown498

IBJoel

For me, it's Edward Scissorhands, especially this moment in the attic and then at the end:



I feel like a lot of these examples have an uncanny valley thing going on.

GoldenJCJ

I’m of the opposite opinion. As fucked up as the original is, I have no problem showing it to my kids as “essential viewing” for kids. Tim Burton’s remake doesn’t even register a mention to my kids as a worthwhile movie. Though, it’s got nothing to do with “appropriateness”.

Troy Stiffler

Its been awhile. But didn’t he casually murder five or so kids?

Beetlejuice gave me some odd nightmares when I was a kid.

fujishig

In the Gene Wilder movie you never see the other kids again. In the Depp version you see the kids leave but they are deformed by the experience.

The screwed up thing about Beetlejuice is that someone somewhere thought it was a good basis to sanitize for a kids cartoon.

Like if you look at cartoons in the 80s/90s, they had cartoons for a bunch of movies that kids had no business seeing:
Rambo
Chuck Norris
Robocop
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
The Toxic Crusader
Swamp Thing
Police Academy
Tales from the Crypt
Mortal Kombat
Ace Ventura Pet Detective
The Mask
The Real Ghostbusters (you might say this is ok for kids but the movie definitely has adult content)

Heck there was a cartoon about Mr. T traveling the world with a team of teenaged gymnasts solving crimes (though kids loved Mr. T)

GoldenJCJ

“Casually” is debatable. At best he was complicit in workplace negligence that got 4 kids maimed or killed.

At worst, he was a demented psychopath who created an elaborate set of traps to brutally murder children, the likes of which weren’t seen again until Jigsaw showed up in the Saw franchise.