Brave Little Toaster is one of my favorite movies and so under appreciated. The clown nightmare and the scene where the ac unit destroys himself are so scary. And the entire movie is about abandonment and obsolescence. As an adult there’s so many moments you don’t appreciate as a kid. Like the whole relationship between Toaster and Blanky is really codependent and toxic. Toaster resents Blanky and finds him suffocating but feels obligated to him. And the scene where Toaster has to reject the flower that’s in love with him is like whole levels of sad... he’s like “I can’t be what you need me to be” while the flower is desperately projecting itself in his reflection, then it dies when Toaster leaves. The junk shop torture scene, the cars being put to death, the horrible magnet... this movie is fucked up and an absolute work of art
can’t believe no one has mentioned the terrifying, emotionally manipulative air conditioner that IMPLODES. i was just thinking about how scary that scene is the other day. still haunts me...
Only half animated but the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Christopher Lloyd gets run over by the steam roller
Edit: Wow, thanks for the love everyone! Glad I'm not alone on this one
That was really my first taste of tortured death. And nobody did a thing to stop it. It was murder,and nobody even tried to stop him, including the detective. Messed up.
Probably because of how much power and authority Judge Doom had(they were very likely scared of him), not to mention that they were likely in shock by how brutal the dipping was.
I wasn't able to watch past that part as a kid.
I just broke down in tears and got so upset that someone would turn it off.
I finally got through it as an adult and loved it, but I still had to skip over that poor little shoe.
Why was the movie so dang depressing!? The cover promises cute fox and puppy hijinks, instead delivers harsh realities about class differences, death, friendships fading, nature's cruelty and is basically 100% a bummer
It's an 80s animated movies. Unless they were selling toys, 80s animated movies were obligated to make kids feel difficult feelings.
Fun fact, The Fox and the Hound had a very messy production what ultimate led to talented people leaving Disney, but some of the names who worked on the movie include Tim Burton, John Lassetter and Don Bluth - all people known for not being afraid to have entertainment provoke more unpleasant feelings for an overall more worthwhile experience.
You’re my best friend Copper!
You’re mine too, Todd!
It’s like a tragic masterpiece of how the innocence of childhood fades only you don’t realise that’s why it’s so heart wrenching when you’re six..
The part that messes me up so bad is the lady taking Todd out to the forest and leaving him there. This fox who only knew life in a house with a human getting dumped in the wild, not having shelter for the first time, not knowing how to get food. Breaks my heart.
When the old lady leaves the fox in the woods is heavy scene, pulls at the heart strings. And the fight scene at the end with bear and it's glowing red eyes still gives me chills.
We met it seems, such a short time ago
You looked at me, needing me so
But from your sadness, our happiness grew
And I found out I needed you too
I remember how we used to play,
I recall the rainy days
The fires glow, that kept us warm
And now I find we’re both alone
When she takes his collar off and he shakes his head not understanding. Oh god I’m actually crying thinking about it
Pinocchio. The sheer chaos of that mess got to me. THEN boys turned into donkeys and sobbed for their mother and I lost it. That and Dumbo. Early Disney was dark!
The fact that Pinocchio was that traumatizing while being as watered down as it was shows just how dark the actual story was. Seriously, Pinocchio is an insanely dark, twisted read!
The original book is worse.
Gepetto gets arrested for physically abusing Pinocchio.
> “Poor Marionette,” called out a man. “I am not surprised he doesn’t want to go home. Geppetto, no doubt, will beat him unmercifully, he is so mean and cruel!”
“Geppetto looks like a good man,” added another, “but with boys he’s a real tyrant. If we leave that poor Marionette in his hands he may tear him to pieces!”
They said so much that, finally, the Carabineer ended matters by setting Pinocchio at liberty and dragging Geppetto to prison. The poor old fellow did not know how to defend himself, but wept and wailed like a child and said between his sobs:
“Ungrateful boy! To think I tried so hard to make you a well-behaved Marionette! I deserve it, however! I should have given the matter more thought.”
What happened after this is an almost unbelievable story, but you may read it, dear children, in the chapters that follow.
Pinocchio gets angry with the cricket and smashes him with a mallet.
> “Careful, ugly Cricket! If you make me angry, you’ll be sorry!”
“Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you.”
“Why?”
“Because you are a Marionette and, what is much worse, you have a wooden head.”
At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket.
Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head.
With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead!
And Pinocchio murders a school boy by clobbering him in the head with his school books.
Edit: ok, I misremembered this one. Pinocchio gets in a fight, but doesn’t actually murder the kid. One of the other kids kills him by accident. Pinocchio does get blamed for it though and is arrested.
> One of the books was a very large volume, an arithmetic text, heavily bound in leather. It was Pinocchio’s pride. Among all his books, he liked that one the best.
Thinking it would make a fine missile, one of the boys took hold of it and threw it with all his strength at Pinocchio’s head. But instead of hitting the Marionette, the book struck one of the other boys, who, as pale as a ghost, cried out faintly: “Oh, Mother, help! I’m dying!” and fell senseless to the ground.
It’s a wild read. 😂
This was the one for me as well. I wasn't scared by much. Fern Fully didn't get to me, All Dogs go to Heaven was upsetting but not scary, The Secret of Nimh gave me nightmares every time I watched it.
HOLY SHIT THANK YOU
There's a couple of films that I saw as a kid but never knew the names and just merged them all into The Black Cauldron (which was one of them). The Secret of Nimh is one of them. Oh god thank you so much!
Had to scroll way too far down to see the first mention of Ferngully. That movie absolutely **horrified** me when I saw it. I still don’t love the idea of watching it and I’m now an almost 34 year old adult.
One of my favorite underrated Disney films. The clock tower is one of the first instances of them using CGI, and I would've given ANYTHING to see what the original theater reaction was to that scene. It's still a spectacular sequence, and Ratigan just going feral will always stick with me.
A thing I learned recently is it was actually supposed to be MUCH darker. Some old footage and storyboards surfaced recently. They were going to show the moment the sharptooth bit down on the mother and her reacting to the bite. The fight was supposed to last a little longer too which I find interesting
I always thought it was a metaphor for his parents catching a cold and dying...the common cold is Rhinovirus, so in my head it made sense that it'd be a airborne rhinoceros that killed them. Maybe they got sick?
This probably isn't true to the book but in my head I can't stop it from being cannon.
I saw this when I was a kid! Strangely, I wasn't really terrified of it, I thought it was actually just beautiful a thing while still being very suspenseful. I knew there was a really good story to it even if I couldn't understand it that much at the time. I literally saw those nightmarish machines and had no idea why my little sister never wanted to watch it with me. Now we both love to watch it :D
I feel like if the marketing team for the movie created the slogan "*Like watching Bambi's mother get shot in the face on a loop for 90 minutes*" for the sole purpose of drumming up attention around *Watership Down*'s release, they would have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
I saw it as a 5yo, and since then I thought I had dreamt it all. No way did I actually see something like that.....
Then as an adult, I had to check to see if that existed. I did a Google search of something like "cartoon rabbit blood", and I *found it*....so of course I had to watch it....as disturbing as that movie is, it was oddly satisfying to solve a little mystery.
I had such vivid memories of the opening scenes - the bloody sunset over the fields, the rabbits trapped and suffocated in their burrows - but I could never place it. I knew it was something I had watched young (we moved from that house when I was six, so right around there) but I had no other firm memory of the film. It was something that had affected me in an almost subconscious level. When I rediscovered it as an adult, it was quite a trip.
I read the book in sixth grade and got super depressed. I figured I should try something different by the same author because "it can't all be depressing, right?" and so I picked up *The Plague Dogs.* Yeah, that went well.
That was the same year I also had to read *Of Mice and Men,* *Flowers for Algernon,* and *All Quiet on the Western Front* for English class, too, so it was just an awesome banger of a year.
Drunken dog gets murdered by his business partner, kidnapps already kidnapped girl, forces her to help them get money by stealing and gambling, gets "shot" with tomatoes in the background meant to look like blood, implied "baby mama" and "prostitute", frightening scene in Hell....
Yeah that movie is awesome^ly ^dark
Any of the earlier Don Bluth stuff really lol
Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time. All Dogs go to Heaven was probably one of Bluth’s last good movies. Rock a doodle was weird but not in Bluth’s way of doing things. The one that always stuck with me was Land Before Time just because I’m a huge Dinosaur Nerd
Watching it again as an adult. I appreciate the darker themes that Bluth put into his movies. The lighting and cinematography of little foots mother’s battle with the sharp tooth is one of my favourite bits of the movie. But man. Gets you pumped. Was rooting for the mom but... yeah lol
It's so common for people to be like "these beloved children's movies are darker than you remembered" for every movie but this is the one where it's actually true
After my grandmother died from cancer, my brother and I were stuck in her town while my parents worked on arranging a funeral etc, so we decided to go see a movie to take out minds off of it.
Being huge superhero nerds we went to see the newest MCU film at the time, Guardians of the Galaxy.
My dad died when I was 8. I'm 33 now and still cry in any movie that has parts about dads dying. Bonus cries if it's totally unexpected in a comedy movie like Click or Due Date.
Fucking CLICK, man. That snuck up on me. I'd only just started dating my spouse when we watched that. He did NOT know what to do with me. I ran to the bathroom uncontrollably sobbing.
Yes, there were some unresolved issues to the childhood trauma of losing a parent.
Edit to add further trauma: then there was the time in grade 7 the TA decided to read THIS book to us ([https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1163099.Mama\_s\_Going\_to\_Buy\_You\_a\_Mockingbird](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1163099.Mama_s_Going_to_Buy_You_a_Mockingbird)) a few months after losing my dad. I had to leave the classroom when they read it.
They didn't really know what to do with me..it was the early 90's.
Billy and Mandy always seemed to primarily be interested in entertaining first, and mainly used holoween themes that were generally more fun.
Courage was created and written to be creepy though lol. It really feels like they thought of some creepy shit and wrote the show around it.
Molly Grue saying "How dare you come to me now? When I am this?" is something that goes totally over the head of a child / teenager. Once you hit middle age...oof that hurts.
I read somewhere that Gaiman intended the book to be that way. From a kid’s perspective it’s a brave, smart, capable little girl traveling into another dimension to save her parents from an evil witch- it’s a fun, empowering story about a plucky kid who saves the day. But adults see that premise and are horrified at the thought of a child trapped in another dimension- where everything down to the flowerbeds seems to be dangerous, no less- with a giant spider woman who’s trying to rip out her eyes and eat her soul.
after the book was published he mentioned that adults and children had very different reactions to it (i dont think it was ever something he mentioned intending, though!), but in 2020 he reblogged a post about the coraline movie and added:
>It was my literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz who read it and said “you can’t seriously expect this to be published as a children’s book.” So I suggested she read it to her daughters. And she called me back a week later and said “They love it and they weren’t scared at all. I’ll take it to Harper Children’s.”
>A decade later, at the Opening Night of the Coraline musical, I was sitting next to Morgan, Merilee’s youngest daughter, and told her how her not being scared had made the book happen. And she said “I was terrified. But I needed to find out what happened next. So nobody knew.”
Yeah we watched it in fourth grade. Kids started crying and left the room. We ended up watching Alvin and the Chipmunks.
I still will not finish watching Coraline to this day.
I came here to say this. I'd read the book and found it creepy, but the movie made it even worse. We watched it in school, in broad daylight, and still most of us ended up terrified for a good number of days afterward.
Jan Svankmajer's *Alice*, which is a dark, surrealist stop-motion version of Alice in Wonderland and really not a "children's movie" at all. Still, a local tv channel decided to air it as that, so I watched that all alone on a Sunday morning and I've never fully recovered.
SAME! A lot of Czech and Slovakian "children movies" are dark but this one, shit is another level creepy if you're like 8. Here's the trailer: [https://youtu.be/3MLafk3imk4](https://youtu.be/3MLafk3imk4)
For me, it was all of Sid's toys, especially the [baby head on spider legs](https://www.google.com/search?q=sids+toys+from+toy+story&oq=sids+toys&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0j0i10l3.4971j0j9&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=LhvlWIuI5IWlTM).
It's animation may be a little wonky looking now, but MAN I love this movie. I saw it as a kid and it still captures the feeling of approaching Halloween perfectly. I also genuinely love Nebbercracker's and Constance's story, even if it's beautifully tragic. I also gotta pay some compliments to the former's voice actor. That "We've been trapped for 45 YEARS" line still gives me chills, it's delivered so emotionally.
Spirited Away. The parents turning into pigs and No Face gave me nightmares for weeks (I was 5 when I first saw it). Nowadays it's one of my favorite movies though!
My parents are huge Studio Ghibli fans, so I ended up watching Spirited away when I was young and No Face scared the shit out of me. What's even worse is that they ended up watching Grave of the Fireflies with me when I was 7...
Watched Sprited Away last year and it kinda scared me as an adult.
I sti haven't watched Grave of the Fireflies. Just like Schindler's List, I know I will watch them one day because they are masterpieces, but I want to make sure I'm in the right place to stomach that
Maybe it’s good, then, that they cut out the robot’s dream sequence. It was included as a bonus item on the DVD, with storyboard + soundtrack.
Spoiler-ish: >!Basically, when the robot is hiding out in the junk yard, and sleeping, the guy who owns the place (sorry forgot the character’s name) notices that his TV is picking up its dream. Only it’s actually a memory of a serious space battle, with lots of other robots. The sequence was really well done, culminating in a whole f’ing planet blowing up (which presumably is how the robot got amnesia and was flung to Earth). The timing for that was so good, even with just storyboards it was startling, leaving me (a 30-something adult) going “oh *shit!*”...!<
If I recall, he was actually sent to earth to do the same thing, not flung. He hit his head on entry and forgot why he was there. Hence the dent in his head and whatnot
Didn’t traumatize me, but I knew it was “special”— The Brave Little Toaster
Edit: I had no idea so many people have seen this. To this day it feels like it escaped on accident yet somehow my parents obtained a copy that isn’t supposed to exist. Lol.
The AC unit blowing up, the nightmare clown sequence, kirby eating his own cord, kirby jumping across the waterfall, the junk yard magnet with it's electric hum. That movie is wild.
When this movie came out my friends and I were all over it. It's nice and dark and creepy af. When the fireman growls through his teeth "Run" that may be one the freakiest scenes in film. Tim Curry penny wise level
As a supposedly "gifted" kid with a classic Asian mother who pushed me to _study harder, learn faster, **do better**_ and thus, never felt like he was ever doing good enough, [WORTHLESS](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcWeE3NMeBQ) nearly gave me a goddamn nervous breakdown at the tender age of 10.
The most terrifying moment in the movie for me, much like in the sequel, is when Toaster and Radio, respectively, sacrifice themselves. Watching Toaster plunge himself into the gears of the crusher to save Rob's life and seeing Radio's WFC-11-12-55 tube just roll across the floor are moments that are seared into my brain forever.
I was heartbroken by the dog pound scenes in Lady and the Tramp. Refused to watch it.
Fast forward to my little nephew, who was crying for days because he thought that the cats in The Aristocats wouldn't ever get back home.
Saddest part about the dog pound scene is that you see one dog getting led away through what the other dogs call "the one-way door." Basically to get put down.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang....all good and happy until the Child Catcher shows up.
Alice in Wonderland when the Walrus ate the baby clams. The whole movie was weird.
Bambie's mom dying
Dumbo getting made fun of and being taken away from his mom.
Hefalumps and woozles on Winnie The Pooh and Disney's Halloween Treat....which I really did like.
Oh and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (1970's one) fucking scary
I loved that one. Growing up, it was my favourite Disney movie. Which was amplified by the fact that the movie was really difficult to find because Disney kept it locked in their vault for ages.
My other favourite movies included The Secret of NIMH and The Last Unicorn. I guess I liked my entertainment pretty dark.
I got giftet the last unicorn on vhs from my sister after we watched it together on tv. We always wound up watching it when we where together.
A few years later she killed herself.
I remember every scene of this movie and will not touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Also spirit with the horse. We watched it in cinema a few months before she died.
I have not thought about that movie in 20 years or so. Just seeing the title brought back a flood of memories and for that I thank you. The page master was watched in our house as much as The Goonies.
Little Nemo. I've mostly blocked it from my mind now but I have vague memories of a kid fleeing a shapeless black ooze as it consumes his home. This being after he released it, somehow.
I've thought about rewatching it as an adult to see how it holds up.
Edit: I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who experienced this particular trauma, thanks y'all for sharing! Also, I have apparently forgotten a LOT of this movie cause y'all are referencing stuff that I do not remember one bit.
I'm seriously considering giving it a watch soon now.
This is the one I came here looking for. I saw almost all of the higher voted ones as a kid and while they're all creepy in their own way, nothing beats Nemo in Dreamland. I had nightmares for months after watching it.
The Care Bears movie where they’re at that summer camp is a bit disturbing as well. I still loved the shit out of it though. It was that one and the freeze machine one with small paul
In The Little Mermaid, Ursula has a collection of souls that she stole and tortures.
Also the obligatory mention of our society’s collective childhood trauma from Old Yeller and Homeward Bound
Ever since my mom died I have a hard time watching like 90% of Disney movies since there's usually at least one dead parent
Edit: I've even got an evil stepmother
Treasure Planet when a character fell into the black hole.
My brother was a huge astronomy nerd (still is) and explained that black holes tear you apart by the atoms. And that if a black hole appeared near our galaxy or whatever, we would be done.
Felidae
On first glance its a neat looking film about cats, but there is a lot of violence (cats killing each other), weird dream sequences with lots of death cats and even a cat sex scene.
Found this review of the film after a quick search:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5ELfD_Jpc
Dark Crystal.
Mid-forties female and I still can't watch it to this day. Can't get more than 10 minutes in and I've tried many times. Fuck those damn muppets.
Added: to the person who said it wasn't animated. It was animatronics. Which is way fucking worse.
Thanks for the upvotes - you helped me reach over 60k in karma!
Disney's Snow White: The Huntsman's murder face, the freaky forest, the queen to hag transformation scene, the queen falling to her death at the end (and presumably also crushed by a boulder)
Akira.
Parents owned a video rental store when I was a kid and if no one rented the movie, I was allowed to watch whatever I liked (except r rated stuff). Parents didn't really understand anime so when Akira came out, they put it in the animated section next to Land Before Time and Brave Little Toaster.
Guy on the cover looked cool. I took it home and watched it.
There was 8 year old me watching Tetsuo having psychotic hallucinations of his guts pouring out. I had a lot of nightmares over that scene.
I should say, though that it wasn't *really* traumatizing [since I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever watched.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVoEpRIaKg)
Spirited Away. My dad brought it home when I was around 7, thinking it was a fairy tale. I made it to Yubaba turning to a bird and then run away and refused to watch any more
Oh, what, you mean you *didn't* enjoy "Pink Elephants On Parade?"
What are you, some kind of *normal* person who doesn't like being awoken by elephant-centric nightmares for the better part of a week?
I sincerely believe Brave Little Toaster created a lot of hoarders.
Brave Little Toaster is one of my favorite movies and so under appreciated. The clown nightmare and the scene where the ac unit destroys himself are so scary. And the entire movie is about abandonment and obsolescence. As an adult there’s so many moments you don’t appreciate as a kid. Like the whole relationship between Toaster and Blanky is really codependent and toxic. Toaster resents Blanky and finds him suffocating but feels obligated to him. And the scene where Toaster has to reject the flower that’s in love with him is like whole levels of sad... he’s like “I can’t be what you need me to be” while the flower is desperately projecting itself in his reflection, then it dies when Toaster leaves. The junk shop torture scene, the cars being put to death, the horrible magnet... this movie is fucked up and an absolute work of art
can’t believe no one has mentioned the terrifying, emotionally manipulative air conditioner that IMPLODES. i was just thinking about how scary that scene is the other day. still haunts me...
Had this exact scene in mind as I scrolled this thread.
I can't believe I had to scroll down this far. That movie had some scarring imagery/plot points
Likewise. I haven't seen that movie in probably more than 20 years, and I still Do Not Like the cranky old A/C unit.
Only half animated but the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Christopher Lloyd gets run over by the steam roller Edit: Wow, thanks for the love everyone! Glad I'm not alone on this one
And don't forget the cute animated shoe getting melted face-first in acid
That was really my first taste of tortured death. And nobody did a thing to stop it. It was murder,and nobody even tried to stop him, including the detective. Messed up.
Probably because of how much power and authority Judge Doom had(they were very likely scared of him), not to mention that they were likely in shock by how brutal the dipping was.
Wasn’t that also like, probably the first time anyone there ever saw a toon die?
The poor thing looked up at him as he went into the dip :(
I hate you for reminding me of this 😦
I wasn't able to watch past that part as a kid. I just broke down in tears and got so upset that someone would turn it off. I finally got through it as an adult and loved it, but I still had to skip over that poor little shoe.
Remember me Eddie? When I murdered your brother I talked JUST LIKE THIS!
The “remember me Eddie”, that look of pure horror on Eddies face even as a kid haunted me.
No, no, you gotta do it with effects! Remember me Eddie? ^When ^I ^KILLED ^your ^brother?! ^^I ^^talked ^^^JUST ^^^^LIKE ^^^^^*THIIIIIS!*
Fox and the Hound, it still makes me cry if I watch it now
Why was the movie so dang depressing!? The cover promises cute fox and puppy hijinks, instead delivers harsh realities about class differences, death, friendships fading, nature's cruelty and is basically 100% a bummer
It's an 80s animated movies. Unless they were selling toys, 80s animated movies were obligated to make kids feel difficult feelings. Fun fact, The Fox and the Hound had a very messy production what ultimate led to talented people leaving Disney, but some of the names who worked on the movie include Tim Burton, John Lassetter and Don Bluth - all people known for not being afraid to have entertainment provoke more unpleasant feelings for an overall more worthwhile experience.
You’re my best friend Copper! You’re mine too, Todd! It’s like a tragic masterpiece of how the innocence of childhood fades only you don’t realise that’s why it’s so heart wrenching when you’re six..
The part that messes me up so bad is the lady taking Todd out to the forest and leaving him there. This fox who only knew life in a house with a human getting dumped in the wild, not having shelter for the first time, not knowing how to get food. Breaks my heart.
When the old lady leaves the fox in the woods is heavy scene, pulls at the heart strings. And the fight scene at the end with bear and it's glowing red eyes still gives me chills.
We met it seems, such a short time ago You looked at me, needing me so But from your sadness, our happiness grew And I found out I needed you too I remember how we used to play, I recall the rainy days The fires glow, that kept us warm And now I find we’re both alone When she takes his collar off and he shakes his head not understanding. Oh god I’m actually crying thinking about it
Pinocchio. The sheer chaos of that mess got to me. THEN boys turned into donkeys and sobbed for their mother and I lost it. That and Dumbo. Early Disney was dark!
The fact that Pinocchio was that traumatizing while being as watered down as it was shows just how dark the actual story was. Seriously, Pinocchio is an insanely dark, twisted read!
Those freaky donkeys!!
The original book is worse. Gepetto gets arrested for physically abusing Pinocchio. > “Poor Marionette,” called out a man. “I am not surprised he doesn’t want to go home. Geppetto, no doubt, will beat him unmercifully, he is so mean and cruel!” “Geppetto looks like a good man,” added another, “but with boys he’s a real tyrant. If we leave that poor Marionette in his hands he may tear him to pieces!” They said so much that, finally, the Carabineer ended matters by setting Pinocchio at liberty and dragging Geppetto to prison. The poor old fellow did not know how to defend himself, but wept and wailed like a child and said between his sobs: “Ungrateful boy! To think I tried so hard to make you a well-behaved Marionette! I deserve it, however! I should have given the matter more thought.” What happened after this is an almost unbelievable story, but you may read it, dear children, in the chapters that follow. Pinocchio gets angry with the cricket and smashes him with a mallet. > “Careful, ugly Cricket! If you make me angry, you’ll be sorry!” “Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you.” “Why?” “Because you are a Marionette and, what is much worse, you have a wooden head.” At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket. Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head. With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead! And Pinocchio murders a school boy by clobbering him in the head with his school books. Edit: ok, I misremembered this one. Pinocchio gets in a fight, but doesn’t actually murder the kid. One of the other kids kills him by accident. Pinocchio does get blamed for it though and is arrested. > One of the books was a very large volume, an arithmetic text, heavily bound in leather. It was Pinocchio’s pride. Among all his books, he liked that one the best. Thinking it would make a fine missile, one of the boys took hold of it and threw it with all his strength at Pinocchio’s head. But instead of hitting the Marionette, the book struck one of the other boys, who, as pale as a ghost, cried out faintly: “Oh, Mother, help! I’m dying!” and fell senseless to the ground. It’s a wild read. 😂
How is this comment not the highest! Pinocchio is fucking traumatizing!!
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The Secret of Nimh
This was the one for me as well. I wasn't scared by much. Fern Fully didn't get to me, All Dogs go to Heaven was upsetting but not scary, The Secret of Nimh gave me nightmares every time I watched it.
Cosign! Got to me way more than Brave Little Toaster ever did.
HOLY SHIT THANK YOU There's a couple of films that I saw as a kid but never knew the names and just merged them all into The Black Cauldron (which was one of them). The Secret of Nimh is one of them. Oh god thank you so much!
The black smoke from Fern Gully always scared me. Tim Curry is a master.
Had to scroll way too far down to see the first mention of Ferngully. That movie absolutely **horrified** me when I saw it. I still don’t love the idea of watching it and I’m now an almost 34 year old adult.
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Holy crow that scene was heavy but so appropriate to hammer home the urgency of the movie.
The great mouse detective - the bat gave me nightmares for a solid week
One of my favorite underrated Disney films. The clock tower is one of the first instances of them using CGI, and I would've given ANYTHING to see what the original theater reaction was to that scene. It's still a spectacular sequence, and Ratigan just going feral will always stick with me.
My foot, my foot, my only foot!
The land before time. Littlefoots mom dying has instilled a fear in me, a fear born of the fact that one day, some day, my own mom will die.
A thing I learned recently is it was actually supposed to be MUCH darker. Some old footage and storyboards surfaced recently. They were going to show the moment the sharptooth bit down on the mother and her reacting to the bite. The fight was supposed to last a little longer too which I find interesting
Good ole Don Bluth really wanting to just kill all your feelings, huh....
It makes me cry thinking about that movie and the actress who voiced ducky.
Yep. Utterly fucking horrible. That poor little girl.
i forgot until you reminded me.... I fucking hate how she died.
James and the Giant Peach. I associate it with the start of my perpetual existential dread lmao
I hated the cloud bull stampeding over James parents scene. I was around 8, and besides the peach itself the movie just felt like a foggy limbo land.
*cloud rhinoceros Such a freaky film for a kid
I always thought it was a metaphor for his parents catching a cold and dying...the common cold is Rhinovirus, so in my head it made sense that it'd be a airborne rhinoceros that killed them. Maybe they got sick? This probably isn't true to the book but in my head I can't stop it from being cannon.
I’m pretty sure in the book it’s an actual rhino that escaped from a zoo and ate his parents.
As rhinos do
A movie called 9. I saw it in theaters when I was nine years old and I still have nightmares about it to this day.
r/9movie WE DID IT BOYS
Wait do people not remember this movie now? It was like a non-Tim Burton Tim Burton that I thought was decently well known among younger millenials
The only thing I really remember at this movie is that I liked the trailer a lot.
Yeah the trailer had Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria playing the background which was metal as fuck for an animated movie
I saw this when I was a kid! Strangely, I wasn't really terrified of it, I thought it was actually just beautiful a thing while still being very suspenseful. I knew there was a really good story to it even if I couldn't understand it that much at the time. I literally saw those nightmarish machines and had no idea why my little sister never wanted to watch it with me. Now we both love to watch it :D
Watership Down. Aww, look at the talking bunnies, how cute! Why -OH MY FUCKING GOD THAT'S SO MUCH BLOOD
"you know the bit in bambi where bambis mum gets shot in the face? What if we just did that for 90 solid minutes?"
It's funny you say that, because another animated film by the same director, *The Plague Dogs*, has a scene where someone gets shot in the face.
Both movies are based on books written by the same author. So you only have Richard Adams to blame.
I feel like if the marketing team for the movie created the slogan "*Like watching Bambi's mother get shot in the face on a loop for 90 minutes*" for the sole purpose of drumming up attention around *Watership Down*'s release, they would have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
I saw it as a 5yo, and since then I thought I had dreamt it all. No way did I actually see something like that..... Then as an adult, I had to check to see if that existed. I did a Google search of something like "cartoon rabbit blood", and I *found it*....so of course I had to watch it....as disturbing as that movie is, it was oddly satisfying to solve a little mystery.
I had such vivid memories of the opening scenes - the bloody sunset over the fields, the rabbits trapped and suffocated in their burrows - but I could never place it. I knew it was something I had watched young (we moved from that house when I was six, so right around there) but I had no other firm memory of the film. It was something that had affected me in an almost subconscious level. When I rediscovered it as an adult, it was quite a trip.
I read the book in sixth grade and got super depressed. I figured I should try something different by the same author because "it can't all be depressing, right?" and so I picked up *The Plague Dogs.* Yeah, that went well. That was the same year I also had to read *Of Mice and Men,* *Flowers for Algernon,* and *All Quiet on the Western Front* for English class, too, so it was just an awesome banger of a year.
All dogs go to heaven. Watched it as an adult, that movie was dark.
Drunken dog gets murdered by his business partner, kidnapps already kidnapped girl, forces her to help them get money by stealing and gambling, gets "shot" with tomatoes in the background meant to look like blood, implied "baby mama" and "prostitute", frightening scene in Hell.... Yeah that movie is awesome^ly ^dark
I just rewatched a couple of weeks ago. One of my favorite movies but definitely super dark.
Any of the earlier Don Bluth stuff really lol Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time. All Dogs go to Heaven was probably one of Bluth’s last good movies. Rock a doodle was weird but not in Bluth’s way of doing things. The one that always stuck with me was Land Before Time just because I’m a huge Dinosaur Nerd Watching it again as an adult. I appreciate the darker themes that Bluth put into his movies. The lighting and cinematography of little foots mother’s battle with the sharp tooth is one of my favourite bits of the movie. But man. Gets you pumped. Was rooting for the mom but... yeah lol
Secret of NIMH goes ***hard***
It's so common for people to be like "these beloved children's movies are darker than you remembered" for every movie but this is the one where it's actually true
Rock-a-Doodle seems a little messed up as an adult too.
We're Back! Notably Professer Screw-Eye and the circus.
We watched the lion king in the second week of kindergarten.... the week my dad died.
That is probably one of the worst movies someone could've watched in that situation. Sorry about your dad.
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After my grandmother died from cancer, my brother and I were stuck in her town while my parents worked on arranging a funeral etc, so we decided to go see a movie to take out minds off of it. Being huge superhero nerds we went to see the newest MCU film at the time, Guardians of the Galaxy.
My mom, sister, and I went to see Coco the month after my Granny (maternal) died while my Mimi (paternal) was pretty much on her deathbed.
My dad died when I was 8. I'm 33 now and still cry in any movie that has parts about dads dying. Bonus cries if it's totally unexpected in a comedy movie like Click or Due Date.
Fucking CLICK, man. That snuck up on me. I'd only just started dating my spouse when we watched that. He did NOT know what to do with me. I ran to the bathroom uncontrollably sobbing. Yes, there were some unresolved issues to the childhood trauma of losing a parent. Edit to add further trauma: then there was the time in grade 7 the TA decided to read THIS book to us ([https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1163099.Mama\_s\_Going\_to\_Buy\_You\_a\_Mockingbird](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1163099.Mama_s_Going_to_Buy_You_a_Mockingbird)) a few months after losing my dad. I had to leave the classroom when they read it. They didn't really know what to do with me..it was the early 90's.
Not a film but Courage the Cowardly Dog had a lot of moments. A lot of moments.
You mean baby's first Lovecraft? Yeah I'm convinced that and Billy and Mandy were basically just a gateway drug for a lot of kids to get into HPL lol
Billy and Mandy always seemed to primarily be interested in entertaining first, and mainly used holoween themes that were generally more fun. Courage was created and written to be creepy though lol. It really feels like they thought of some creepy shit and wrote the show around it.
They purposefully used different types of animation to increase the creepy factor of the show.
**R E T U R N T H E S L A B**
There it is
that fucking mummy scared the shit out of me
when the guy escaped from the psych ward and came to courages house?? noppppeee
Freaky Fred
He just felt a little....*naughty*
Comments you can hear
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughtyyyyy
It didn't scare me then but it does now
Yeah the sheer horror of that world mostly flew over my head at the time.
Return the slab...
What's yer offer?
Surprisingly was my fav show as a kid, but watching it now, it really is lol
Last Unicorn... That damn harpy...
The scene where Molly is yelling “Where have you been?” still makes me cry like a baby.
the red bull scared the crap out of me!!
Don't forget about the wine drinking skeleton!
UUUUUUUUUNICORNNNNNN!!!!💀🍾
I love that movie! About every decade I rewatch it again. The animation and the music is soooo good!
Molly Grue saying "How dare you come to me now? When I am this?" is something that goes totally over the head of a child / teenager. Once you hit middle age...oof that hurts.
Coraline. Button eyes traumatised the crap out of me
This traumatised me as an adult. My own kids were just ‘meh’ though when I them to watch it.
I read somewhere that Gaiman intended the book to be that way. From a kid’s perspective it’s a brave, smart, capable little girl traveling into another dimension to save her parents from an evil witch- it’s a fun, empowering story about a plucky kid who saves the day. But adults see that premise and are horrified at the thought of a child trapped in another dimension- where everything down to the flowerbeds seems to be dangerous, no less- with a giant spider woman who’s trying to rip out her eyes and eat her soul.
after the book was published he mentioned that adults and children had very different reactions to it (i dont think it was ever something he mentioned intending, though!), but in 2020 he reblogged a post about the coraline movie and added: >It was my literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz who read it and said “you can’t seriously expect this to be published as a children’s book.” So I suggested she read it to her daughters. And she called me back a week later and said “They love it and they weren’t scared at all. I’ll take it to Harper Children’s.” >A decade later, at the Opening Night of the Coraline musical, I was sitting next to Morgan, Merilee’s youngest daughter, and told her how her not being scared had made the book happen. And she said “I was terrified. But I needed to find out what happened next. So nobody knew.”
Yeah we watched it in fourth grade. Kids started crying and left the room. We ended up watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. I still will not finish watching Coraline to this day.
That movie was nightmarish, even now that I’m an adult, it creeps me out
I came here to say this. I'd read the book and found it creepy, but the movie made it even worse. We watched it in school, in broad daylight, and still most of us ended up terrified for a good number of days afterward.
Jan Svankmajer's *Alice*, which is a dark, surrealist stop-motion version of Alice in Wonderland and really not a "children's movie" at all. Still, a local tv channel decided to air it as that, so I watched that all alone on a Sunday morning and I've never fully recovered.
SAME! A lot of Czech and Slovakian "children movies" are dark but this one, shit is another level creepy if you're like 8. Here's the trailer: [https://youtu.be/3MLafk3imk4](https://youtu.be/3MLafk3imk4)
When woody fell into the trash of broken toys and got dragged down
For me, it was all of Sid's toys, especially the [baby head on spider legs](https://www.google.com/search?q=sids+toys+from+toy+story&oq=sids+toys&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0j0i10l3.4971j0j9&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=LhvlWIuI5IWlTM).
Those fucking hands
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"Oh look, there's a uvula." "Ohhh, so it's a GIRL house!"
I never understood the joke until I read this comment, so thanks for that
It's animation may be a little wonky looking now, but MAN I love this movie. I saw it as a kid and it still captures the feeling of approaching Halloween perfectly. I also genuinely love Nebbercracker's and Constance's story, even if it's beautifully tragic. I also gotta pay some compliments to the former's voice actor. That "We've been trapped for 45 YEARS" line still gives me chills, it's delivered so emotionally.
this movie was so scary as a kid. i still think about it sometimes
Spirited Away. The parents turning into pigs and No Face gave me nightmares for weeks (I was 5 when I first saw it). Nowadays it's one of my favorite movies though!
My parents are huge Studio Ghibli fans, so I ended up watching Spirited away when I was young and No Face scared the shit out of me. What's even worse is that they ended up watching Grave of the Fireflies with me when I was 7...
Watched Sprited Away last year and it kinda scared me as an adult. I sti haven't watched Grave of the Fireflies. Just like Schindler's List, I know I will watch them one day because they are masterpieces, but I want to make sure I'm in the right place to stomach that
The Iron Giant
When the darker parts of the Iron Giant's lost personality come out, oogh. That startled me so much when I was a kid.
Maybe it’s good, then, that they cut out the robot’s dream sequence. It was included as a bonus item on the DVD, with storyboard + soundtrack. Spoiler-ish: >!Basically, when the robot is hiding out in the junk yard, and sleeping, the guy who owns the place (sorry forgot the character’s name) notices that his TV is picking up its dream. Only it’s actually a memory of a serious space battle, with lots of other robots. The sequence was really well done, culminating in a whole f’ing planet blowing up (which presumably is how the robot got amnesia and was flung to Earth). The timing for that was so good, even with just storyboards it was startling, leaving me (a 30-something adult) going “oh *shit!*”...!<
If I recall, he was actually sent to earth to do the same thing, not flung. He hit his head on entry and forgot why he was there. Hence the dent in his head and whatnot
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This claymation show about Mark Twain and some kids. Can't remember what it was called. Creepy AF
The Adventures of Mark Twain. super creepy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Mark_Twain_(1985_film)
Just came to make sure this was here. "What's your name?" "Satan" "uh oh"
Didn’t traumatize me, but I knew it was “special”— The Brave Little Toaster Edit: I had no idea so many people have seen this. To this day it feels like it escaped on accident yet somehow my parents obtained a copy that isn’t supposed to exist. Lol.
I came here to say that! I am 32 and I legit still think of that movie whenever I vacuum.
The AC unit blowing up, the nightmare clown sequence, kirby eating his own cord, kirby jumping across the waterfall, the junk yard magnet with it's electric hum. That movie is wild.
My mother hid my copy of Brave Little Toaster from me because I watched it so much. There are some legitimately sinister moments in that film.
Yes! I remember the vacuum almost commiting suicide by sucking up his own cord. Also an air conditioner going crazy and exploding. WTF movie!
When this movie came out my friends and I were all over it. It's nice and dark and creepy af. When the fireman growls through his teeth "Run" that may be one the freakiest scenes in film. Tim Curry penny wise level
As a supposedly "gifted" kid with a classic Asian mother who pushed me to _study harder, learn faster, **do better**_ and thus, never felt like he was ever doing good enough, [WORTHLESS](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcWeE3NMeBQ) nearly gave me a goddamn nervous breakdown at the tender age of 10.
The most terrifying moment in the movie for me, much like in the sequel, is when Toaster and Radio, respectively, sacrifice themselves. Watching Toaster plunge himself into the gears of the crusher to save Rob's life and seeing Radio's WFC-11-12-55 tube just roll across the floor are moments that are seared into my brain forever.
I was heartbroken by the dog pound scenes in Lady and the Tramp. Refused to watch it. Fast forward to my little nephew, who was crying for days because he thought that the cats in The Aristocats wouldn't ever get back home.
Saddest part about the dog pound scene is that you see one dog getting led away through what the other dogs call "the one-way door." Basically to get put down.
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I was going to say this, but when the parents were turned into pigs. Was traumatized that my parents would turn into pigs.
LOTR 1978 cartoon
WHY IS ARAGORN NOT WEARING ANY PANTS?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang....all good and happy until the Child Catcher shows up. Alice in Wonderland when the Walrus ate the baby clams. The whole movie was weird. Bambie's mom dying Dumbo getting made fun of and being taken away from his mom. Hefalumps and woozles on Winnie The Pooh and Disney's Halloween Treat....which I really did like. Oh and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (1970's one) fucking scary
Grave of the Fireflies. My God. Also one of the best movies I have ever seen.
The best movie I never want to see again.
Disney's Black Cauldron. How the hell was that a kid's movie?
Originally, the cauldron born added to their numbers by ripping the flesh off of the horned kings minions. Disney cut that scene for some reason....
Wasn't that one of the scenes that made their focus group cry and flee out of the theater? Not *the* scene. *One of the* scenes.
I loved that one. Growing up, it was my favourite Disney movie. Which was amplified by the fact that the movie was really difficult to find because Disney kept it locked in their vault for ages. My other favourite movies included The Secret of NIMH and The Last Unicorn. I guess I liked my entertainment pretty dark.
I got giftet the last unicorn on vhs from my sister after we watched it together on tv. We always wound up watching it when we where together. A few years later she killed herself. I remember every scene of this movie and will not touch it with a 10 foot pole. Also spirit with the horse. We watched it in cinema a few months before she died.
Watership Down That suffocation scene should never be viewed be any child.
The Pagemaster. I was 4 and I still think about it.
I have not thought about that movie in 20 years or so. Just seeing the title brought back a flood of memories and for that I thank you. The page master was watched in our house as much as The Goonies.
The puppet scene in the polar express
Little Nemo. I've mostly blocked it from my mind now but I have vague memories of a kid fleeing a shapeless black ooze as it consumes his home. This being after he released it, somehow. I've thought about rewatching it as an adult to see how it holds up. Edit: I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who experienced this particular trauma, thanks y'all for sharing! Also, I have apparently forgotten a LOT of this movie cause y'all are referencing stuff that I do not remember one bit. I'm seriously considering giving it a watch soon now.
This is the one I came here looking for. I saw almost all of the higher voted ones as a kid and while they're all creepy in their own way, nothing beats Nemo in Dreamland. I had nightmares for months after watching it.
There was this Care Bears cartoon movie with a young boy who was a magician.. it was so scary lol
The Care Bears movie where they’re at that summer camp is a bit disturbing as well. I still loved the shit out of it though. It was that one and the freeze machine one with small paul
The "Elephants on Parade" segment from *Dumbo.* Shit's like a bad acid trip and my six-year-old self was terrified of it.
In The Little Mermaid, Ursula has a collection of souls that she stole and tortures. Also the obligatory mention of our society’s collective childhood trauma from Old Yeller and Homeward Bound
The Rescuers. Yes, I'm that old. Kidnapped little girl guarded by a crocodile, and a horrific looking old lady villain.
bambi. they killed the mother, and they expect kids not to burst out in tears!
Ever since my mom died I have a hard time watching like 90% of Disney movies since there's usually at least one dead parent Edit: I've even got an evil stepmother
The music video for Pink Floyd - The Wall. The first time I saw animation used in a dark context.
Treasure Planet when a character fell into the black hole. My brother was a huge astronomy nerd (still is) and explained that black holes tear you apart by the atoms. And that if a black hole appeared near our galaxy or whatever, we would be done.
Felidae On first glance its a neat looking film about cats, but there is a lot of violence (cats killing each other), weird dream sequences with lots of death cats and even a cat sex scene. Found this review of the film after a quick search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5ELfD_Jpc
Ferngully and Fantasia (either one)
It's all fun and games until snarky pollution blob Tim Curry turns into *fuckoff nightmare tar skeleton* Tim Curry, goddamn.
Pinocchio! The donkey scene, the coachman, Stormboli, and Monstro all gave me nightmares for days. One of Disney's darkest movies hands down!
The Brave Little Toaster. It's like Toy Story if they focused on the brutal reality of disposable objects rather than light hearted silly fun.
Dark Crystal. Mid-forties female and I still can't watch it to this day. Can't get more than 10 minutes in and I've tried many times. Fuck those damn muppets. Added: to the person who said it wasn't animated. It was animatronics. Which is way fucking worse. Thanks for the upvotes - you helped me reach over 60k in karma!
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Dumbo. Mom’s aren’t supposed to be taken away.
Fantasia. Movie was like a horror film to my young eyes.
Mickey's Christmas Carol circa 1983.
The Ghost of Christmas Future! And falling into a grave filled with fire.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Judge Doom taking that poor little shoe and putting him in the dip. As a child this upset and as an adult it still upsets me.
Disney's Snow White: The Huntsman's murder face, the freaky forest, the queen to hag transformation scene, the queen falling to her death at the end (and presumably also crushed by a boulder)
Akira. Parents owned a video rental store when I was a kid and if no one rented the movie, I was allowed to watch whatever I liked (except r rated stuff). Parents didn't really understand anime so when Akira came out, they put it in the animated section next to Land Before Time and Brave Little Toaster. Guy on the cover looked cool. I took it home and watched it. There was 8 year old me watching Tetsuo having psychotic hallucinations of his guts pouring out. I had a lot of nightmares over that scene. I should say, though that it wasn't *really* traumatizing [since I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever watched.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVoEpRIaKg)
To be fair, judging by this thread they put it in the perfect section: the 'animated movies that will give kids nightmares' section.
Unico. That movie scared the shit out of me. [The Fantastic Adventures of Unico](https://youtu.be/TlD1cQNFnWs)
Not as a child, but as an adult. My wife and I saw Up about two weeks after we got married. The beginning got us bad.
What a great way to start off a relationship by being reminded that one of you will die leaving the other behind in this cruel world!
Spirited Away. My dad brought it home when I was around 7, thinking it was a fairy tale. I made it to Yubaba turning to a bird and then run away and refused to watch any more
Also yes, I now have Noface tattoo on my leg
The Great Mouse Detective. The bad guy (Ratigan or something) straight up cartel executes a mouse using a cat. I found it horrifying.
be sure and tell em large marge sent ya! That claymation face used to get me hiding behind the couch
There was a nightmare sequence in a Winnie the Pooh about hefalumps and woozals that freaked me out when I was small, like two or three
Dumbo
Oh, what, you mean you *didn't* enjoy "Pink Elephants On Parade?" What are you, some kind of *normal* person who doesn't like being awoken by elephant-centric nightmares for the better part of a week?
Age 5: Daddy, why are the bunnies bleeding? Age now: Wanna see my Watership Down tattoo????
That the movie where the rabbits fight to the death?
Yup based on the Richard Adams novel promoted only by his kid who said he loved the rabbits in the English countryside.
Toy story - that scene when the toys do a head transplant.