That the old Disney movies are terrifying!

[Herecomethehotstepper]

Dc are 3 and 5 and we've spent a lot of lockdown watching movies on Disney+. They love the newer films like Frozen and Moana but I will occasionally sneak in a classic movie.

The movies I grew up watching seem so scary compared to the modern ones! We watched Pinocchio last night and the creepy man that kidnapped little boys away to pleasure Island 😮 Last week DD had a nightmare after the forest scene in Snow White when all the trees are coming to life. It made me wonder whether we are too soft on kids now or if they were too hard back in the 30's and 40's.

[Moomin12345]

Shhh. I don't want the wonderful old Disney movies to end up censored or banned. They've already heavily edited some editions of Tom and Jerry. yes, kids these days are very sheltered in most cases. I assume the parents will just show them rainbows and butterflies until they're 18 and then reality will hit them like a tonne of bricks all at once...

[AnneOfCleavage]

"Touch the spindle, touch it I say" always gave my DD the creeps from Sleeping Beauty and the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

[mynameiscalypso]

Pinocchio is the worst. The bit where they turn into donkeys still terrifies me.

[LEELULUMPKIN]

I still have flashbacks to Bambi's Mother getting shot!

I also remember walking back at night from the cinema after watching 101 dalmatians and kept expecting Cruella to reach out and grab me.

[Sparklesocks]

Some of them are quite chilling! Pinocchio was made in 1940 so maybe context is relevant, I guess the scary man may not seen as scary compared to WW2 kicking off throughout Europe etc.

[ElfCakes]

I think that fire monster in Moana is pretty scary as well though but maybe I'm a wuss

[Floralnomad]

Pinocchio is hideous , irrespective of whether it’s scary it’s just not a nice film . I’d go for slightly younger ‘old’ films like Hercules .

[Pelleas]

Disney's 'Snow White' was rated A by the BBFC from its release in 1938 until 1964, when it was cut to be rated U. It wasn't until 1987 that the uncut version was rated U. The A rating was similar to a modern 15!

I saw it at the cinema when I was a child in the early 80s and found it quite frightening - mainly the scene where the step mother transforms herself into a hag.

[Mittens030869]

Never mind Disney, it was the Wizard of Oz that scared me as a child. I became terrified of strong winds at night. (I'm not saying that it was bad for me btw.)

[Herecomethehotstepper]

@Moomin12345

Shhh. I don't want the wonderful old Disney movies to end up censored or banned. They've already heavily edited some editions of Tom and Jerry. yes, kids these days are very sheltered in most cases. I assume the parents will just show them rainbows and butterflies until they're 18 and then reality will hit them like a tonne of bricks all at once...

Oh I'd hate for them to be censored, they are masterpieces.

I am always surprised when I see the year they were made. It must have seemed magical to children born in the 40s and 50s.

[Thisischaos]

DS(5) has no interest in watching them even though we have the DVD’s of many of them from charity shops.

He did however eventually watch Peter Pan recently and while he seemed to like it, I couldn’t get over the father shouting and flapping about the house and the mother simpering over him while he raged. Cringe-worthy. Then he was mean to the dog so that cemented my opinion of him!

I watched them all as a child but can say I particularly remember much of them.

[pigsDOfly]

I was taken to see one of the classic Disney films when I was a child, aged about 5/6 - think it might have been sleeping beauty - I had nightmares for what felt like weeks.

I've watch some modern films, with what I would think of as scary characters in them and my 5 year old DGD seems completely impervious to the scary bits.

I suspect she's a lot more sophisticated than I was, but even so.

I watched toys story with her and her younger sister and I found the weird toys that the little boy cobbled together really sinister, but when I mentioned that to my DDs neither of them could understand what I meant.

Maybe it's just me.

[Pleasenodont]

Definitely but I think that was part of the thrill as a child for me personally. I used to be utterly terrified of the hunter in Snow White but it didn’t stop me loving the film.

[Fifthtimelucky]

I see Snow White came out in in 1938 (in the UK). My father went to see it (school trip). Assuming that was in 1938 he'd have been 12.

It made a huge impression on him and he often used to talk about, well into his 80s.

[00100001]

It's about like fairytales though. The originals were gruesome.
They're much tamer now.

[ShebaShimmyShake]

Snow White is terrifying. The scene where she's lost in the forest, and the scene where the queen transforms herself and poisons the apple is so trippy.

There's lots of dark stuff in kids' books and films...look at Roald Dahl, it's honestly about as dark as his adult stuff.

[pigsDOfly]

I am always surprised when I see the year they were made. It must have seemed magical to children born in the 40s and 50s.

Speaking as a child born at the end of 40s, I just found most of them scary rather than magical.

As an adult I always found them rather creepy tbh.

[waitrosequeue]

What about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang child catcher !

Children today would be completely traumatised. Saying that those who saw it as children still remember it.

[pigsDOfly]

Oh yes, fairy tales.

I remember my sister being completely freaked out by the story of Hansel and Gretel and her horror that the children felt that they had to used a nail to fool the witch into thinking they were too thin to eat.

That image seemed to haunt her, and tbh she wasn't that young.

[Hopeful57]

The first film my father ever watched was a Disney movie. He was apparently quite terrified (about 3-4 and sent to the cinema with his 2 older sisters)...

I personally didn't grow up watching Disney movies. Simply because we didn't have a TV... I myself don't get the appeal tbh.

Some of the modern ones are quite nice but the older ones just seem creepy to me. And I don't see how most of them would apply to girls, tbh!

[Aeris1]

101 Dalmatians is awful too. Cruella wanting to skin the puppies and
Jasper and Horace talking about how to kill them. It's quite dark I think

[Sparklesocks]

Kids’ resilience really varies too, some are not particularly sensitive to what they see on screen but others are. I think that is the case in all generations. What is terrifying to one child might not even cause their similar aged sibling to blink.

Fears are also very personal, it’s hard to define why some images and stories really tap into a part of your psyche and scare you but have no impact on others your age - and I think that’s the case for adults too.

[Ionacat]

I don’t remember that about Snow White, but I can’t watch Pinocchio even now. The Pleasure Island with the curse makes me shudder even now. So neither of my girls have watched it - they’ll happily watch Sleeping Beauty though.

[Hopeful57]

Would "apply" => would appeal to girls!

[BuffyTheVodkaDrinker]

I love the classic disney movies but the pink elephant scene in Dumbo always scared me as a child.