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The 10 Darkest Children’s Movies

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Inspired by The Independent’s recent roundup of 10 of the bloodiest bedtime stories, we decided to take a look back into our own childhoods, and came up with this list of 10 of the darkest children’s movies. From more subtly disturbing films like Bambi to the truly gruesome ones, like Watership Down, check out our picks after the jump, and be sure to add your own sources of childhood trauma in the comments.

1. Bambi (1942) – So what if you don’t actually see Bambi’s mother get shot by the hunter. You definitely hear it, and we’d argue that for most imaginative kids, that’s much worse. And then Bambi’s absentee father seals the deal, telling him, “your mother can’t be with you anymore.” Oy.

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Comments (35)

One word. Pinocchio.

labyrinth, return to oz, brave little toaster, fern gully

What, no “5000 Fingers of Dr. T”?

35 years old and the image of General Woundwort attacking the dog still freaks me out. And I tear up a bit when Hazel-ra dies, too. Damn you Art Garfunkel and the song “Bright Eyes”.

The Last Unicorn?

I’ve never seen Watership Down eventhough it was made when I was a kid. After watching that preview…I don’t think I ever will. The Last Unicorn was my favorite movie as a kid…right next to Flight of the Navigator. I would have to say the darkest and scariest movie I remember as a child was Arachnaphobia, although that isn’t necessarily a children’s movie, whatsoever! LOL

omg brave little toaster! i don’t know why, b/c i hated how sad it made me, but i watched that movie a gazillion times when i was little.

Yes yes Return to Oz. And the film version of the book Marianne’s Dreams, Paper-something. Both are really freaky so I have no idea why I read/saw read one after the other ; )

Rikki Tikki Tavi, with the mongoose and snake and all the dark corners… freaked me out! Also Little Mermaid – Ursula was terrifyingly ugly and had those weird trapped souls in her creepy cave.

The original Invaders from Mars – parents turned into alien zombies, dream within a dream, nightmare tunnel chases…

I have just realized my general preoccupation with nothingness can be traced to The Neverending Story. Thank you for the free therapy.

two words…Old Yeller!

Watcher in the Woods and Return to Oz… Both are Disney moview and freaked the heck out of me when I was a kid.

Watcher In the Woods.. STILL SCARES ME!

Basically any of the classic Disney pics of the 30s and 40s. Also the Hal Roach ‘Babes in Toyland’ (1934).

Return to Oz. A brilliant movie. Never fully appreciated because it was a Disney film and everyone thought it was going to be like the wonderful, all-time classic Judy Garland “Wizard of Oz.” Of course, it wasn’t that. But on its own terms, and as an authentic re-creation of Frank Baum’s original novels, it was a masterful job.

Walter Murch — the sound genius from Coppola’s films — is the director. His one and only chance.

But scary for kids? Absolutely. It opens with Dorothy about to have a lobotomy because she can’t stop thinking about her first trip to Oz. She’s saved only by a lightning storm and being washed away in a raging river. Now that’s what I call an opening!

Who Framed Roger Rabbit has adult themes for a reason: it is an adult movie. For adults, not kids. Regardless of the PG rating. Just because it has cartoons in it is like saying kids will be attracted to hentai because it’s a cartoon. Yeah, kids are generally squicked out over sex scenes.

Watcher in the Woods and Return to Oz!!!

I was SURE that Labyrinth was gonna make this list. How did it not? I’m sure anyone would be scared sh*tless if David Bowie came and kidnapped their baby in the middle of the night.

This seems like it’s a list of most popular “10 Darkest Kid’s Movies” but not a “Top 10″ so to speak. Is it supposed to be? Cause Bambi isn’t that Dark except for the 2 scenes, but it’s so popular that every kid has a dark spot cause of that movie.

And they said in the “Watership Down” trailer, that it was “The most(some adjective, don’t remember)…and provacative film you’ve ever seen” Haha, that’s pretty good, but I think there’s a few (around 3000 provocative films before 1978)

I didn’t know ‘The Witches’ was even a kids movie when I was a kid…not even until now did I know. And even though I haven’t seen it in 15-20 years, I’d say it is by far the creepiest of the creepy kids movies. I always wondered why my mom put this in the “Kid videos” section of our video drawer we had, cause we didn’t have cable, just a bunch of VHS tapes and Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Return to Oz…my 4 year old niece would watch it again and again which I couldn’t understand. What a depressing movie! Dorothy goes back to Oz and everyone she knew is dead. My niece grew up to be a happier than normal person anyway, maybe because I bought her the Holy Grail to watch instead and Return to Oz got “eaten” when she wasn’t looking.

Geez- Bambi. I had to be taken out of the theatre I was crying so hard. I think I was 3 or 4. That was dark. I didn’t know Watership Down was a movie. I read the book when I was 8. Major crying fit, again. These two things helped to encourage my vegetarian ways as a child, much to my parents’ dismay.

Flowers for Algernon- the book, not a movie. Mr. Irick, my 5th grade teacher, read it to us. Great book, great teacher. Dark, but in a good way. Further pointed me toward a tweendom with PETA.

The witches has to be one of the most terrifying films I have ever seen. Possibly it would not be as scary if I watched it now, but having had to watch it in school at about 5 years old has left a permanent scar. Anything Roald Dahl is fantastically twisted, even before considering his stories are meant for a young audience.

The Secret of NIMH, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Watership Down are hardly children’s movies. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is questionable. That’s not to say that kids won’t watch them, but those are most definitely aimed at adults–or at the very most, pre-teens. Just because a movie is animated or has children’s actors doesn’t make it a kid’s movie.

What, no Time Bandits? “Don’t touch it! It’a pure evil!” and then his parents die THE END

Or Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Large Marge gave me nightmares for weeks. “And when she died, she looked just…like…THIS!”

[...] There are some truly frightening moments in these 10 Darkest Children’s Movies, but they’re not to be confused with the Top 25 Most Memorable Opening Scenes in [...]

I sort of wish they would keep making these crazy freaky “kids” movies. They make me want to go back and watch them now. These types of things may be where I get the darker side of my creativity. These movies are the kind of scary that make you want to watch them over and over…I saw most of these as a kid and I occasionally remember things from them and wonder where I saw it…now I know! Watership Down should be the scariest, in my opinion. I read the book and it was nothing like the crazed psycho rabies bunnies. WTF.

i think that the hunchback of Nortre Dame deserves a spot i I mean there are religous taboos, lust, hell and rape.

Ringing Bells, also known as Chirin No Zuzu, takes the icing of the cake. Originally intended for child audiences, it was immediately rated G as it released in stores. It was took off the shelves not long after, and even in the English-American version in which they tried to cover up the dark and depressing theme with childish sound effects and different dialogue, it was just as dark.

I can see why it wouldn’t be added though, since there probably was only 5% of kids in the world that were actually able to watch it without being forbidden to by their parents.

However, no matter how dark and violent it may be in that sharp turn halfway through the movie, it still taught a very important lesson.

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