WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)
What could be more harmless than rabbits? Try evil rabbits led by General Woundwort who commands his bunnies to maim and kill other bunnies at will. This successful children's novel was made into a film, but nothing could be more scary than the Odyssey-like journey these rabbits must make to reach Watership Down. There are visions of destruction, bunny battles, bunny slaughter, and a lot of bunny blood. It's creepy for adults. George Romero and Eli Roth were probably inspired by Watership Down as kids. The video is a mashup set to a Marilyn Manson song, but it gives a very vivid idea of how creepy animated things can get.
POLAR EXPRESS (2004)
Zemeckis started his performance-capturing technology with this movie back in 2004, and tried to make it less odd by casting the lovable Tom Hanks as the train conductor. Despite Hanks, it is still unnerving to look at the bizarro-animation. If that's not creepy enough, the kids in the film are forced to visit the room of abandoned and beaten up toys. Don't even get me started on old marionettes. They're super creepy! Isn't Christmas supposed to be happy and sweet instead of terrifying?
DOT AND THE KANGAROO (1977)
This Australian kids film centered around Dot, who gets lost in the woods, and a friendly kangaroo and lots of animals come to her rescue. It's a little weird because only the characters are animated while the background is film. It looks a lot like paper dolls in real life. Anyway, lots of cute singing koalas, platypuses, and kookaburras, right? Sort of, until Dot and the kangaroo stumble upon an Aborigine hunting ceremony. Tribesmen draped in kangaroo skin and dancing around while the hunters advanced on him with boomerangs and spears. Dogs howl at the moon, and a very animated sacrifice scene is being shown to kids. Not only creepy, but let's do more to advance bad stereotypes of an ethic minority in a country that has marginalized and abused them. It's never too early to start building negative stereotypes. That aside, animal sacrifice, really? The video creeps out after 2:50.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996)
Disney is usually pretty good at toning down any odd or adult themes in their movies and making them entirely kid-friendly. However, when they decided to remake Victor Hugo's classic novel dealing with Quasimodo, a lustful Catholic church leader, a poor gypsy girl, and the concept of sanctuary, they took a turn to creepytown. Let's revisit the lusty Catholic Archdeacon who has some serious problems with his vows of celibacy and devotion to God. Good choice Disney. He sings the song "Hellfire" with the warm and catchy lyrics: Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone/Destroy Esmeralda/And let her taste the fires of hell/Or else let her be mine and mine alone. Nothing like a little rape and murder music to lull the children to sleep.
TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE (1986)
Before Michael Bay and Megan Fox were traumatizing people with bad filmmaking and acting, this little cartoon was a joy of boys everywhere. The battle between good and evil is a literary and movie staple, and from this great historical mix comes Optimus Prime and Megatron. That being said, the full-on blowing away of Optimus Prime in some hardcore, brutal toy-on-toy violence may have crossed a line. Does Optimus Prime resurrect? Of course, but still; let's not scare and traumatize millions of little boys everywhere. Then again, these same boys have probably moved on to Grand Theft Auto by now.
THE HOBBIT (1977)
This 1977 cartoon from J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved book wasn't made for kids, but for all the grown up fans. Coming from someone who saw this cartoon in the 3rd grade on a "free day," I was really scared and never wanted to go near the woods by my house again. Maybe it was the big, googly eyes on Bilbo Baggins, the old English music, or just the drab, dark colors, but it felt like the Renaissance fair on drugs. Don't even get me started on Gollum. Just because they didn't have the technology back then to make him live action doesn't mean they didn't know how to bring on the creepy in a major way.
ANIMAL FARM (1954)
George Orwell would rarely be considered the go-to guy for kid's films. His prestigious novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" deal with the themes of oppression, absolute power, political corruption, and greed. But just try to put those ideas in cartoon form without scaring the kids! Animal Farm was made back in the 50's and showed the animals in a farm revolt against their human leaders. Quickly a power struggle ensued between the main pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. You just know how bad the bad guy really is when he has a name like Napoleon. How did Snowball ever think he had a chance? There's stuff about horses going to glue factories, butchering animals, the super-depressing ending where the pigs becoming as bad as the humans, and a lovely lesson on inequality. Can they please stop showing this to kids in elementary school just because it's animated? Some kids (ahem) were traumatized. Thanks George.
THE LION KING (1994)
Disney's The Lion King was a phenomenal success. Cute little lion cubs, loud, crass warthogs, singing meerkats; what's not to love? How about the Shakespearean battle between an evil uncle and his reigning brother? Can we say "Hamlet?" Just throw in some murder, attempted murder, and back it up with Elton John music, and it's a winner. Not that everybody didn't have a chance to feel the love tonight, but how about Mufasa's death scene with Scar? Why does Disney insist on killing everyone and creating a wealth of orphans. Disney sure hates stable, loving parents.
FANTASIA - THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE (1940)
Fantasia was a groundbreaking and imaginative cartoon that introduced children and parents everywhere to amazing classical music. However, since the stories were based on classic short stories, some of it got really strange. Sweet Mickey just doesn't want to do menial labor. Can you blame him? But soon he's up to his ears in walking brooms carrying buckets of water. Plus, the mean old Sorcerer seems a bit much. Could you find a spookier looking old man? Amazing music, yes. But did it creep out kids everywhere and make them dislike classical music even more? Totally.
