There are some people who hear the words “animated film” and automatically (and wrongly!) assume that it’ll be cosy, sanitized fluff. While some animated movies do match that description, fans of animation know that there’s just as much variety in the medium as there is in live-action films. Not only are there countless animated films that aren’t at all child-friendly, but the ones that do cater to younger audiences can be just as artful, intelligent, and potentially even as frightening as their live-action counterparts.
If you’re looking to wade further into a more general conversation about the perception of animation, then check out this recent article. But if you also happen to be interested in reading about animated movies that have a much higher fear factor than might be expected, then you’re in the right place! Below are five scenes from animated films that are widely deemed suitable for children and yet are utterly terrifying. For anyone who is new to these films: beware of spoilers. For everyone else: come join me on this nostalgic trip through some of the more traumatizing movie moments of my early life (and which might just unlock some repressed childhood memories of your own)…
Charlie’s Nightmare/Vision of Hell in All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Murder comes up surprisingly often in kids movies. But Don Bluth’s All Dogs Go to Heaven doesn’t just kick things off with murder, it kicks things off with the murder of a dog—the number one crime in all of cinema. The pooch is a German Shepherd called Charlie B. Barkin (which is a fantastic name for a dog), who despite his mischievous behavior goes straight to heaven because all dogs are inherently good—a sentiment I’m sure we can all agree on! But then Charlie cheats death so that he can return to the land of the living to get revenge on his murderer.
The only problem is that in doing so Charlie loses his place in heaven and will be sent to hell once his time on Earth is up. Obviously, Charlie is haunted by this and has a terrifying hell-themed nightmare. It begins with a ghostly voice telling him that he can “never come back,” before he’s sucked into a massive, swirling tornado. He lands on a boat cruising a river of magma that is steered by a skeletal winged demon. Next, he encounters a gigantic hellhound and is attacked by a group of gremlin-puppy-bat creatures. Needless to say, Charlie’s nightmare became my own nightmare fuel as a kid.
The Junkyard Scene in The Brave Little Toaster (1987)
The Brave Little Toaster is kind of like an early Pixar film, coming from the same creative minds who would later be some of the key players in the film studio, notably John Lasseter and Joe Ranft. Based on a novella by Thomas M. Disch, the film’s plot even bears a slight resemblance to Pixar’s first film, Toy Story (1995): five anthropomorphic household appliances, which pretend to be lifeless in the presence of humans, set off on a perilous journey to find their owner, who they call the Master.
Toaster and friends find themselves in many harrowing situations along the way, but the worst is saved for last, with the junkyard scene at the end of the film. A giant homicidal magnet hunts our crew, eager to feed them to the ruthless crusher. While our plucky gang of appliances try to evade capture, the cars in the junkyard sing a song, “Worthless,” about abandonment and depression. In a particularly dark moment, one car even chooses to drive itself into the chomping maw of the crusher.
The murderous magnet ends up throwing the beloved Master onto the conveyer belt and Toaster heroically jumps into the crusher’s mechanism to jam it up. The Master is saved, but we have to witness Toaster’s body being horrifically mangled by the crusher’s gears. Thankfully, the Master manages to fix Toaster, but there are some things you just can’t unsee…
“The Bunyip’s Gonna Get You” from Dot and the Kangaroo (1977)
The majority of Dot and the Kangaroo is wholesome, with a lost little girl learning about nature in the Australian outback with the help of a friendly kangaroo who is guiding her home. But things take a turn for the sinister when the duo come across a cave dwelling that was abandoned because the people fled from the bunyip, a creature from Aboriginal mythology. Tales of the amphibious cryptid are sometimes used as a way to frighten children away from the very real dangers of rivers, lakes, and billabongs.
In Dot and the Kangaroo, the story of the bunyip is told through ghostly cave paintings coming to life over the top of live-action backgrounds. The combination is unsettling and is made even scarier by being paired with a chilling song, “The Bunyip’s Gonna Get You.” I had buried this eerie fever dream of a scene deep in the back of my mind, but it was recently revived in all of its horrifying hallucinogenic glory thanks to my brother rediscovering it and sending it my way.
Basically the Entirety of Watership Down (1978)
I couldn’t choose just one scary scene from Watership Down because frightening moments are peppered throughout the entire film. While children’s movies often confront the anguish of death, few do so as viscerally as Watership Down. After psychic bunny Fiver has a gory vision of a field covered with blood, a group of rabbits set out to find a safe place to build a new warren.
The journey proves perilous, with distressing scenes of a rabbit being snatched by a hawk and another being caught in a snare. Then there’s the blood-drenched ending of a rabbit fight being broken up by a dog that viciously throws the bunnies around like ragdolls. But I think the worst scene of all might be the haunting recollection of the original warren being filled in and the rabbits within being gassed. The imagery of the “runs clogged with dead bodies” is certainly artistic, but it’s also deeply disturbing.
Director Martin Rosen actually stated that he “did not make this picture for kids at all,” but when it was originally released in the UK there was no PG rating and so it was classified as U (suitable for all ages). Thus, many unsuspecting parents sat their young kids down in front of Watership Down, thinking that it would be just be like a Bugs Bunny cartoon or a Disney movie, instead of the brutal horror show that it turned out to be.
The Giant Mouse of Minsk in An American Tail (1986)
An American Tail is another Don Bluth creation that is filled with darkness from beginning to end. The main character is Fievel, a young mouse who is separated from his family while they are emigrating from Russia to America after their house is burned down by cats. They choose America because they think it’s a cat-free country—sadly they’re wrong.
Given the subject matter, it’s no surprise that the whole film is pretty bleak. But the scene that inspired the most heart-racing fear in me when I was a child is actually one of triumph for our struggling mice. To fight back against the cats, the mice build a huge mechanical monstrosity, called The Giant Mouse of Minsk, which is inspired by the bedtime tales Fievel’s Papa tells. The design of the Giant Mouse of Minsk is freaky enough, but it’s odd stuttering movement places it firmly in nightmare territory. I’m not afraid of rats or mice (I actually think they’re really cute), but if I saw this creepy metallic contraption coming towards me then I’d definitely flee like the cats in the film, never to be seen again.
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If you’re looking for more potentially traumatizing scenes (both animated and live-action) then check out this list—and of course, please tell us all about the movies or scenes that scarred you as a kid in the comments below!
Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her rescue greyhound, Misty.
Secret of NIMH had some pretty scary scenes, too.
Pretty much any “classic” Disney film has moments of sheer terror, going right back to “Snow White” (1937), what with the scenes of the Evil Queen demanding SW’s heart in a box, the scenes of SW lost in the forest, and the chase by the dwarfs to the cliff. It was said at the time (probably half-joking) that theater seats were often thoroughly soaked after a children’s matinee.
See also “Pinocchio (1940), and the scene where Lampwick is transformed into a donkey, a genuinely terrifying depiction of body-horror (note that the final transformation occurs in silhouette, making it even scarier).
And “Fantasia” (1940), between the dinosaur battles in “Rite of Spring” and the Chernobog in “Night on Bald Mountain.”
Dumbo (1941), where his mother is dragged off to be caged.
And, of course, the fate of Bambi’s mother.
I have a weirdly vivid memory of being terrified as a toddler by the dragon scene in Snow White. However, that would have been in the early 1960s and I cannot see how a kid in smog-choked London could have seen Snow White in a theatre.
Things on the tv seldom bothered me as a young child (things confined to a box were much less scary than imagination triggered by books). But I vividly remember trying to squeeze behind the sofa to hide from a cartoon, not any of the horror movies I avidly watched while my parents were busy. An invisible, screaming electricity monster on an episode of Jonny Quest probably explains my vague distrust of electricity to this day.
I submit: anything in the entire scene featuring The Greedy from “Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TAtFQ9ZGVA
@3 James David Nicoll, the dragon was not in Snow White; the evil fairy Malificent turns into a fire-breathing dragon in Sleeping Beauty.
Does anyone else remember the cleaning robot in early Warner Brothers cartoons? It resembled a metal rod with a knob for a head and a dustpan in front and two arms with a broom that swept up everything in its path, including the other characters. That thing scared the heck out of me as a kid when few other things did.
My father, poor well-intentioned guy, took me to see The Black Cauldron in the theater.
I had to be carried out screaming and I don’t deal well with zombies to this day.
@1 I’m still bitter at that movie for turning Nicodemus into some kind of weird eldritch rodent wizard, when he’s perfectly compelling in the book as a brooding rat DILF.
I remember browsing the shelves of the local video rental store (remember those?) and looking up at the monitor that was showing one of their newest popular offerings, The Lion King. I thought it was a cartoon mainly about cute baby singing animals and thought it might be a great thing to bring home for my toddler. Then I saw the king getting violently murdered by his brother Scar. No thank you, our daughter was having enough nightmares on her own.
@6 The cleaning-robot cartoon is Warner Bros “Dog Gone Modern” (1939), directed by Chuck Jones. It features his “Two Curious Dogs” characters going into a demonstration “house of tomorrow” with all sorts of mechanized appliances. They inadvertently hit a main switch and start getting caught up on the machines.
Early Chuck Jones cartoons did contain a lot of other nightmare-fodder. There’s also “Toy Trouble” (1941) where Sniffles the mouse is exploring a department-store toy department and gets chased by a windup quacking duck that seems unstoppably, mindlessly malevolent.
I second Black Cauldron, and nominate the Rise of Darkness scene from “Fantasia.”
Chuck Jones’ “Chow Hound” has one of the most horrifying (but hilarious) endings in a Warner Bros. cartoon. A perpetually hungry dog, having used a hapless cat to cadge meals from a series of unsuspecting owners, has managed to collect rewards for the “missing” feline. Using the ill-gotten funds to buy a butcher shop, he winds up overeating his way into a veterinary hospital. Bloated and helpless, the cat, along with the mouse the dog has also used in his scheme, show up. Paying off on a running gag where the dog complains about not getting any gravy, the cat says, “This time, we didn’t forget the gravy.”
And yes, they bring a giant can of gravy, complete with funnel.
A short bit of comic horror from Tex Avery’s “The House of Tomorrow,” which demonstrates how an all-purpose adjustable chair can accommodate the tall (a high back armchair), the short (a settee), and the mother-in-law (an electric chair).
Watership Down – I saw that at a friend’s house when I was a kid. Gave me nightmares. I still can’t watch it (any version) and there’s no way I’m reading the book!
Studio Ghibli cartoons are pretty awesome, and most of them do contain more adult subject matter, but none of them so much as “Grave of the Fireflies”. That movie is like a right of passage, you think you’re a Ghibli fan, wait until this movie rips your heart out.
Holy crap! I figured I was the only one freaked out by that dang Bunyip.
There was a Smurfs episode that really shook me pretty bad when I was little. A contagion runs through the Smurf population. Almost a zombie apocalypse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1M625x_fto
Don’t forget any scene with Hexxus from Fern Gully…
Just want to say – not a kids movie, but Plague Dogs is the most gut wrenching animated movie I’ve ever thought of.
My eldest daughter blames me for all her anxieties on me for making her watch Sleeping Beauty (Disney 1940s) when
she was about 9 years old She tells me the witch still haunts her worst dreams and she is over 40!
Closely followed by the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! That one I get – sort of – he scares me too, but is that not the point?
Who knew? She watches horror films for fun and I NEVER do
We’re Back! That movie gave me nightmares.
I think it’s a tossup between Optimus Prime’s death in Transformers: The Movie (which left six year old me bawling, I won’t lie) and the Peanuts Thanksgiving special (which is really grim for its intended audience).
Oh! Ursala’s death scene gave seven-year-old me nightmares after watching it in the theater.
Black goop scenes in Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland for me!
The Red Bull from The Last Unicorn scared the crap out of five year old me.
Speaking of Fantasia, in addition to its more obvious scary parts, I actually found the Mickey Mouse / Sorcerer’s Apprentice episode, with the rising waters and unstoppable, un-destroyable brooms (zombrooms?) VERY disturbing. Maybe more so because I had never expected to see Mickey actually in real danger.
The Land Before Time – omg? i was traumatized as a child, but i love this movie (the series too) so much. The tar pit? Sharptooth? Littlefoot’s mom?!? Petrie?!? DUCKY?!?! It’s so much.
Not animated but the Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. I watched it in/around Christmas of 1974… and it literally scared the bejeezus out of me. Mr. Chicken never leaves the haunted house. It was supposed to be a comedy, and something kids could watch.
I remember being afraid to go to sleep that night.
Another Don Knotts vehicle: <i>The Incredible Mr. Limpet</i>. I was quite freaked by the (animated) scene where he gets turned into a fish.
I don’t think I would call Watership Down a kids movie. Someone in the comments mentioned The Last Unicorn, I wouldn’t really consider that to be a kids movie either. Just because it’s animated doesn’t mean it’s for kids. Flintstones when it first aired was exactly something that was for kids.
I concur with Amanda @@@@@ 22 – I remain traumatized by the Red Bull to this very day.
Speaking of the Last Unicorn – Flight of Dragons, by the same production company, has the bit at the end with Obadon the Red Wizard being transformed into … well, I’ll let people watch the film (it’s awesome).
Also, speaking of Looney Tunes, some of the baddies in the classic “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery” completely used to freak me out. Obviously not too much though – I must have watched it 100 times!
Has anyone heard of a sci fi animated feature “Starchaser: The Legend of Orin”? It’s got some heavy Starwars rip offs, but it’s largely pretty original. Anyway, an early scene features basically robots that have harvested human organs (cue shot of stomach pulsing behind a perspex abdomen etc.), just after the protagonist has been covered in foot-long red leeches in a swamp. No idea if it was made for kids, but that’s when I saw it.
@27 You are correct that being animated doesn’t automatically make a movie for kids, but The Last Unicorn was marketed as a children’s movie.
Plague Dogs & Watership Down, both books by Richard Adams, are brilliant stories and films, but not for littles- I read Plague Dogs at 11, was duly freaked but prepared for the movie. Harassed my Mom & aunts about make-up and animal testing for months after. Found Watership Down in 8th grade, was in a group of books to choose to report upon… I was not prepared for the movie. Loved/love it, but was not prepared for the visuals. And MelMc, I grew up with the original Jonny Quest, absolutely my favorite cartoon (with RoadRunner/Wile E. and Scooby fighting for second). The Energy Beast, with that big cyclops eye and noise, that creeped me out as much as the Id monster from Forbidden Planet; why was I watching FP @@@@@ 6-7 yoa? Parents rule was nightmares were my problem, so watch if you want, but no night rescuing would occur. Yeah, couldn’t stop watching, and always wondered if the Id monster was the model for the Energy Beast. Fave Jonny Quest tho’ was The Robot Spy, Dr. Zin’s daddy long legs spider/robot thing with the knockout tentacles (I hope that brings a smile to a fellow JQ fan); gotta say, if I become a mad scientist, the first thing Ima build is a giant daddy long legs spider robot. Bwahahahaha!
@5 – Came here to say this. That Raggedy Ann and Andy show was a serious trip and that creature was terrifying. The show was so psychedelic and disorienting that the whole thing was unsettling.