Which movie is better for young, anxious ASD child?

[Worriedmotheroftwo]

Hello! I have a very anxious autistic 5 year old. Can I please ask (from those who have seen these movies) which of these live-action movies are least scary?

Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast.

He's never seen a live-action movie before, apart from Peter Rabbit and things like that. He loves to animated Disney versions of both these films and is keen to try a live-action one. He does scare very easily though so I'd like to choose carefully!

Many thanks 😊

I've not seen either film so can't directly answer your question but as the mum of an extremely anxious ASD nearly 4yo, I use Common Sense Media when trying to decide if a film might be OK for my DD. It lists all the potentially difficult bits so you can assess how your particular child might react.

I think Jungle Book would be too scary for him. Haven't seen BATB.

I think both would scare him tbh but beauty and the beast is the lesser of the two.

Many thanks. Maybe I'll watch it first on my own to check. Thanks for the reply.

Oh this is brilliant. I've never seen this before. Thanks very much indeed!

Having take a quick look at that website, I think I leave it for a year or two re both movies. Thanks for your help!

Both would be too scary. Beauty and the beast is terrifying for scared kids and jungle book isn’t much better

@Worriedmotheroftwo really glad I could help - I never show my DD anything I've not checked out on there since I discovered it! Some of the comments do make me laugh though!

Both too scary probably. I still remember the screams of my DD as I took her out of Frozen (original, animation).
Tinkerbell and Octonauts were all she could manage at that age. She’s now 15 and her tastes have changed!! Won’t watch horror (good!) like her friends, but loves fantasy of any kind. Trying to hold off Game of Thrones for a few more years.
DS couldn’t cope with anything live action at all. I wonder if it’s about understanding that the people aren’t ‘real’. Still watching tv aimed at much younger children aged 12.

Both too scary.

What about moana instead?

I was going to suggest Moana or Encanto.

Encanto especially has very little 'threat' and even the 'baddie' Bruno is revealed to not be a baddie at all pretty quickly!

Moana and Encanto have always been big hits in our house.

The only thing to watch out for is emotional sensitivity - there are heartstring-pulling dying grandparent scenes in each (two in Moana near the start and end; one in Encanto towards the end but the one in Encanto is harder than the one in Moana, IMO). One of mine can hack those, the older one can’t I don’t blame them, either. Easy to skip on, though.

My ASD DD watched the granny death scene in Moana obsessively, over and over, for months around that age!

Encanto freaked her out a bit at the cinema - I think it was all the sensory overload (it's very colourful).

I actually think you might be better going back to period Disney.

Failing that, "Wonka" is quite gentle and the songs are WAY less ear wormy. Not animated but quite cartoony in design.

We Don't Talk About Bruno.

Argggh! Fecking don't then!

Ratatouille? Shrek?

Moana freaked my DD out when she was younger (about 5)
Encanto is better

DD also freaked out by live action jungle book so out of those 2 beauty and the beast

Have you seen the Julia Donaldson adaptions?

My son is autistic but a different profile to your child he likes Percy the Park keeper which is very gentle.

Also a snowy day on prime is lovely

I found beauty and the beast more scary. Where they come after the beast is horrible, so much anger and hatred on human faces. It's really scary if you're sensitive.

At the same age, my children (incl my autistic boy) loved Sing - very low on peril and high on songs!

Sing is a good suggestion. Also maybe Madagascar.

Sing is a great suggestion. Also the Despicable Me films have mine giggling away.

I think Disney+ shows fairly high age ratings for all the live action versions of classics, about 9+ if I remember correctly. My non-ASD child couldn't finish the Jungle Book at that age, too scary. I would stick to animated films for now or something old and light such as Mary Poppins, Paddington is also great and more modern, funny and not scary (Paddington 2 is a bit dark though as the baddies want to hunt him, that was very scary too). The Common Sense Media link shared above is great for reviews.

Both would be too frightening but we had success with Encanto at about 7, but honestly. Might be easier to give films a miss until DC is older. Mine thought all visual media was real and still needs to be reminded at almost 10.

Be aware that although they seem aimed at young children, and actually very young child cope just fine as the threat and scary bits go over their head but around 5/6 years their perspective and understanding changes and actually Us are for 6+ and PGs are for 8+.
I'd stick to Us for a while until your child copes better. The Tinkerbell films are good for that.

What about Christopher Robin for a gentle live action film? It’s the one with Ewan McGregor, NOT Goodbye Christopher Robin (helpfully named) which is a biopic and not a Winnie the Pooh film.