I loved watching Disney movies as a kid (born in 1961) and now with grandkids I’m watching old and new ones along with Pixar movies. I find it somewhat odd that so many of the kids’ movies were terribly sad and/or frightening. Which ones do you remember? Didn’t anyone notice back then?!!
A few examples from my childhood:
Ole Yeller - dog dies
Bambi - mom is killed
Toby Tyler - monkey is shot out of a tree
Snow White - Huntsman is told to cut out her heart
All princess movies - mean stepmothers
Dumbo - beating the mother elephant - I couldn’t even finish watching this one!
My mom thought ‘Where The Red Fern Grows’ would be a good movie for 4 kids under 10; I was 4 and slept through the happy first half. I still well up reading the Wiki for the damned thing.
Two years later we all went to the newest King Kong film and I had the Burger King glass from it forever (it’s how I learned the name Dino De Laurentiis). It was pretty sad but not a kids’ movie.
In 1975, my little sister was 5 years old. Snoopy, Come Home came on TV while we kids were being watched by a baby-sitter (Dad and Mom were out for some reason that evening). The folks returned at about the mid-point of the show, so the essential conflict (Snoopy feels obligated to leave Charlie Brown and return to his original owner) hadn’t been resolved.
When my tiny adorable whip-smart little sister related the story thus far to my father, she broke down in wailing sobs saying “SNOOPY CAN’T COME HOME!”.
Sadness, indeed.
OTOH, there was never a happier 5-year-old Snoopy fan in the world when Snoopy discovered he couldn’t stay with his original owner (“No dogs allowed!”) and returned to Charlie Brown.
Being able to experience sad emotions at the movies can be a good thing for children. They can experience death and loss without having to go through it in real life, and learn more about their reactions and how to handle them. They can also learn empathy. Being able to experience sadness when the mother of a fictional character dies can help them to be more empathetic when one of their friends goes through a tragedy.
The same thing applies to fear. If you learn about being afraid and dealing with your fears in the controlled environment of a movie (or a book), you’re better equipped to deal with scary situations that you may encounter in your life.
The 70s King Kong was sad in more ways than one. I’m surprised that Jessica Lange managed to pull her career out of the muck after that-- albeit, she didn’t work for like three years, but the fact that she became famous, and a serious actress is remarkable.
There used to be a really funny YouTube video that disappeared for some reason, but it was about a guy whose favorite version of Kong was the 70s version, and his friends were staging an intervention.
believe it or not ive had younger relatives cry at the end of RTOJ and ROTS because of vader and amadala dying … ( we made a weekend of it when they came out with all 6 in the last box set)
My daughter keeps yelling at me because I introduced her son to The Iron Giant before the age of three, and he loved it. She cried almost every time he forced her to watch it, because she said “I recognize the feel good happy ending was tacked on, and the Giant really died in the end, even though the kid doesn’t.”
She has accused me of having a movie dysmorphic disorder and that I’m incapable of judging whether a movie is suitable for children. She may have been four years old when I took her to see Return to Oz in the theaters, and she claims it still haunts her dreams.
The Land Before Time kills off the mother in the first twenty minutes, except instead of happening off screen to a hunter like in Bambi it happens on screen to a demonic tyrannosaurus. The mother is crippled, struggles to stand up, falls down, gives up, tells her son to go on without her, and then imparts some spiritual wisdom before dying. Also it’s raining and there’s maudlin music. If that doesn’t traumatize young children I don’t know what will.
I don’t recall the incident, but my mother told me that when taken to see Bambi as a 4 year old, I was so upset about the death of Bambi’s mother, that I stood up in the theatre and said in a very loud voice “I don’t like this mean movie!”, stepped out into the aisle and headed out of the theatre. To mom’s amusement, I received applause and cheers as I walked toward the door.
My view of the penchant for killing the mother in children’s movies has not changed in the 55 intervening years.
As an adult my 10 yr old daughter had us go see “Bridge to Terabithia” I had no idea of the movie just knew it was a book that the middle school had to read. OMG the end of the movie the lights come on and my husband and I were complete wrecks. My daughter and son walk out of movie like “la la la la…” ( come to find out they knew the basic story). 10 years later I still bring it up to her saying she ruined my life with that movie.
That was the first or second movie my parents took me to the theater for. The other one that I’m not sure if it was second or first was Mafalda, based on an Argentinian strip; I don’t remember whether it was sad or not but considering the characters it probably had serious teeth (and I’m not just talking about Felipe’s occasionally-prominent ones).
They told me that when the lights came on, I was one of several kids who were standing up, holding onto the back of the seats in front, asking to see more.
When I went to see Aladdin in an almost empty theater (it had been out for several weeks) there was a kid like that
