# That's for children? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, disney-hulu\ **Created:** [October 25, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784 "2022-10-25T21:37:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/1 "2022-10-25T21:37:32Z")
It is Halloween season so I watched Coraline again. Love that movie but as I watched it I asked myself --not for the first time-- is this supposed to be for kids? This movie is scary as fuck! Another movie I saw that I think was made with kids in mind is but maybe should not be seen by younger children is Tomorrowland. I don’t think it’s a bad movie at all but, boy, is grown Frank’s relationship with Athena problematic. Why is that even a theme in a movie about Disney made for kids? That’s my opinion, anyway. What’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/2 "2022-10-25T21:49:57Z")
_Coraline_ is rated PG so it’s not blanket “meant” for young kids but of course since it’s animated they’re gonna watch it. The thing is, kids get scared of the weirdest things and not by any means always the things adults think are scary so it’s pretty hard to suss out what’s gonna be a problem for an individual kid. That being said, _Coraline_ deals with a fairly common childhood terror, of losing one’s parent or having them become “wrong” in some way but the terror is resolved and that tends to leave a kid feeling okay about the movie overall. Harlan Ellison wrote several essays on the subject of the “acceptable level of terror” in a movie and pointed out that kids raised on Universal monster movies seem to have turned out okay in the main. He figures that showing kids that they can handle scary things or that scary things are not always as scary as you think and that some things that seem to be non-scary at first actually turn out to be the biggest problem is a valuable set of information for them. I tend to agree and was fairly permissive about allowing my kids to watch scary movies–they turned out pretty much okay and have great imaginations. I think it’s overall more of a problem that all the mothers in Disney movies get killed off–what’s THAT telling the kiddies? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/3 "2022-10-25T21:50:46Z")
Speaking about the book, author Neil Gaiman said that most adults experience it as a horror story, but most children experience it as an adventure tale. I like the book better than the movie. In the book, Coraline don’t need no man to come to her rescue. She survives and saves her parents through her own cunning, guile, and bravery, not by a Wybie-ex-machina. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/4 "2022-10-25T21:52:01Z")
Both those films are rated PG, not G. People shouldn’t automatically assume animated=fun for the entire family. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/5 "2022-10-25T21:52:28Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > The thing is, kids get scared of the weirdest things and not by any means always the things adults think are scary so it’s pretty hard to suss out what’s gonna be a problem for an individual kid. The daughter of two friends found the orcs in LOTR funny. She was terrified by the skeletons in Disney’s Pirates Of The Carribean though. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/6 "2022-10-25T21:57:23Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > I think it’s overall more of a problem that all the mothers in Disney movies get killed off–what’s THAT telling the kiddies? Less of a problem in more modern Disney films. _The Princess and the Frog:_ The dad is dead, not the mother. _Moana:_ The grandmother dies, but of old age, and she appears to Moana as a comforting guardian spirit. _Tangled:_ Rapunzel’s evil stepmother dies, but she never really loved her, and Rapunzel is reunited with her real parents. _Encanto_: Mirabel’s grandfather was murdered shortly after her mother, aunt, and uncle were born, but Mirabel grew up in a loving family, albeit one dominated by her harsh grandmother, who _does_ love them, but puts a lot of pressure on everyone to contribute. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/7 "2022-10-25T22:03:18Z")
I grew up with the Child Catcher in _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,_ and the Banshee in _Darby O’Gill and the Little People_, and uncensored roadrunner cartoons. I didn’t turn into an axe murderer. Where fictional stories are concerned, children are not as fragile as the child welfare advocates fear. Someone once wrote that the point of fairy tales is to demonstrate that the monsters can be defeated. Saint George slays the dragon, Hansel and Gretel toss the witch into her own oven, Jack kills the giant. But defeating the monster is heroic precisely because the monster is scary. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/8 "2022-10-25T22:04:26Z")
My kids were completely unfazed by John Carpenter’s _The Thing._ Maybe they ARE psychos… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/9 "2022-10-25T22:18:13Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > People shouldn’t automatically assume animated=fun for the entire family. Long ago, when my children were small, I rented Watership Down (for myself). The clerk made sure to tell me it wasn’t a sweet bunny movie for the little ones. I think he’d had some complaints! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/10 "2022-10-25T22:45:25Z")
I still get shook by the invisible energy monster in _Jonny Quest_. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/11 "2022-10-25T22:46:15Z")
Whoa, tags! I didn’t mean for this thread to be only about Coraline! And not only movies, either. I meant give your opinion on this and other things made for children that is, in your opinion, maybe not. Should have been clearer. Like that last sentence. Should have been clearer. I should stop while I’m behind. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/12 "2022-10-25T22:47:04Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Someone once wrote that the point of fairy tales is to demonstrate that the monsters can be defeated. That quote was cited in the prologue of _Coraline_, as a matter of fact. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/13 "2022-10-25T23:07:06Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > That quote was cited in the prologue of _Coraline_, as a matter of fact. “Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” Gaiman attributed the quote to G. K. Chesterton, but [it was actually just a paraphrase of something Chesterton wrote](https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/42909304300/my-moms-a-librarian-and-planning-to-put-literary). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/14 "2022-10-26T00:27:19Z")
My grandson was watching Jurassic Park movies when he was five years old, which worried my wife and I, but he was really into dinosaurs and didn’t seem bothered by them. But the Borg in “Star Trek: First Contact” freaked him right the f\*\*\* out and we wound up having to turn off the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/15 "2022-10-26T00:35:44Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > The thing is, kids get scared of the weirdest things and not by any means always the things adults think are scary so it’s pretty hard to suss out what’s gonna be a problem for an individual kid. Indeed. My dad frequently let me watch R-rated movies and shows when I was 6 and 7 and 8, and nothing in Terminator or Alien or Tales From the Crypt ever bothered me. On the other hand, this bit in **Super Mario Bros. 2** where the mask gate detaches from the wall and becomes an enemy you have to beat terrified me so much that the first time it happened I dropped the controller and ran away screaming and had to get my mom to beat it for me while I kept my eyes closed. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/amv_5M0XHe0/maxresdefault.jpg "Super Mario Bros. 2 Boss 21 - Mask Gate") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amv_5M0XHe054) ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/16 "2022-10-26T02:07:40Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > My grandson was watching Jurassic Park movies when he was five years old, which worried my wife and I, but he was really into dinosaurs and didn’t seem bothered by them. A kid came into my 7-Eleven with his father yesterday, all of six or seven years old, wearing a Jurassic World T-shirt. I said to them, “It delights me that little boys still love Jurassic Park. When the first movie came out, I was not much older than him.” ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/17 "2022-10-26T02:44:36Z")
Let us not forget that the original Grimm fairy tales were really quite, well, grim, and not the sanitized, Disneyfied versions that they were subsequently turned into. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/18 "2022-10-26T02:57:43Z")
Yeah. The evil stepsisters in _Cinderella_ cut off their own toes to try to make their feet fit in the slipper. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/19 "2022-10-26T03:51:14Z")
And Shelob? My daughter nearly broke my hand ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/20 "2022-10-26T03:59:58Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Let us not forget that the original Grimm fairy tales were really quite, well, grim, and not the sanitized, Disneyfied versions that they were subsequently turned into. The Grimms were [sanitizing fairytales](https://www.straightdope.com/21343848/and-they-lived-happily-never-after-were-the-original-versions-of-classic-fairy-tales-more-dark-and-b) long before Disney, same as Perrault and many others. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784.md?page=2)