I watched The Fox and The Hound when I was a kid and honestly, I’m still not over it.
Good Lord, that is a depressing movie! And it’s supposed to be for children!
But it turns out there are quite a few kids’ movies that scarred people forever.
Did any animated films traumatize you as a kid?
AskReddit users shared their stories.
1. Scary.
“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 d**s when Toaster leaves.
The junk shop torture scene, the cars being put to d**th, the horrible magnet… this movie is f**ked up and an absolute work of art.”
2. Do you remember?
“The Secret of Nimh.
I wasn’t scared by much. Fern Gully didn’t get to me, All Dogs go to Heaven was upsetting but not scary.
But The Secret of Nimh gave me nightmares every time I watched it.”
3. Chaos.
“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!”
4. Yikes.
“James and the Giant Peach.
I associate it with the start of my perpetual existential dread.”
5. Hasn’t recovered.
“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.”
6. Look out!
“Only half animated but the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Christopher Lloyd gets run over by the steam roller.”
7. Sad.
“I was heartbroken by the dog pound scenes in Lady and the Tramp.
Refused to watch it.”
8. Oh man…
“The Fox and the Hound.
It still makes me cry if I watch it now.
The cover promises cute fox and puppy hijinks, instead delivers harsh realities about class differences, d**th, friendships fading, nature’s cruelty and is basically 100% a bummer.”
9. Good movie.
“When the darker parts of the Iron Giant’s lost personality come out, oogh.
That startled me so much when I was a kid.”
10. Into the black hole.
“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.”
11. Trauma.
“In The Little Mermaid, Ursula has a collection of souls that she stole and she t**tures.
Also the obligatory mention of our society’s collective childhood trauma from Old Yeller and Homeward Bound.”
12. Horrifying.
“The Great Mouse Detective.
The bad guy (Ratigan or something) straight up cartel e**cutes a mouse using a cat.
I found it horrifying.”
13. Time to run away.
“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.”
14. Innocence lost.
“The Rescuers.
I was about 7 and didn’t know that kidnapping was a real thing. I vividly remember asking my parents about it and they got emotional.
It was at that point that I lost my innocence and proceeded to have nightmares about Medusa and snoops for months.”
15. Freaked out.
“The Triplets of Belleville.
The animation, the part with the hamster wheel, the no voices, little me was freaked out.
Very cool movie though.”
What animated films traumatized you as a kid?
Share your stories with us in the comments.
Please and thank you!
