# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/21 "2022-10-26T04:05:12Z")
You want grim fairytales, nothing can beat Hans Christian Andersen. Even as a kid I found them soul-sucking. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/22 "2022-10-26T04:29:58Z")
_Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ is the one I watch as an adult and marvel at it being marketed to children. ---
**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, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/23 "2022-10-26T05:08:33Z")
It’s even stranger when you consider that Roald Dahl wrote deeply mysogynistic erotica on the side. > **[Switch Bitch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch_Bitch)** > > Switch Bitch (1974) is a book of adult short stories by British writer Roald Dahl. Four stories, originally published in Playboy between 1965 and 1974, are collected. They are linked by themes of rape by deception: in each one some major act of cunning, cruelty, or hedonism underpins the sexuality. > The book is notable for its introduction of the Uncle Oswald character, a wealthy hobbyist and gadabout who stars in both the first and last stories. (Although the first story seemingly presages his... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/24 "2022-10-26T05:13:01Z")
I think I made it through the first story where the guy inadvertently beds a leper. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/25 "2022-10-26T06:54:10Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > 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. I suspect it’s because the orcs are always orcs, but the skeletons transform from regular pirates. ---
**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 26, 2022, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/26 "2022-10-26T13:00:08Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Let us not forget that the original Grimm fairy tales were really quite, well, grim But were they originally considered “for children”? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/27 "2022-10-26T13:05:30Z")
Is she scared of spiders in general? ---
**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, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/28 "2022-10-26T13:12:05Z")
She is. ---
**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, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/29 "2022-10-26T13:12:16Z")
Yes, although even then (1812) others disagreed. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales): > The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called “Children’s Tales”, they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter.[[3]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales#cite_note-3) Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in _[Snow White](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White)_ and _[Hansel and Gretel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_and_Gretel)_ (shown in original Grimm stories as Hänsel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. [Jack Zipes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Zipes) believes that the Grimms made the change in later editions because they “held motherhood sacred”.[[4]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales#cite_note-4) > > They removed sexual references—such as [Rapunzel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel)’s innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing to the witch Dame Gothel her pregnancy and the prince’s visits—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, become more prevalent.[[5]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales#cite_note-5) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/30 "2022-10-26T13:15:50Z")
There’s another thread about Dr Who. That is children’s entertainment and is screened here in the UK in the early evening. Daleks are old hat now, but those statues… ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/31 "2022-10-26T16:32:41Z")
Well, I’m gonna talk about Coraline anyway. I first watched that with my daughter when she was eight or nine, because Coraline is such a strong character: brave, but also demonstrating her fear at the same time. My daughter was a little scared during the first watch, but also loved it. I don’t think we watched it 50 times, but I’m pretty sure we watched it more than 30 times before my daughter moved on to other movies (like, say, Hanna). My daughter is 19 now, and only recently got all her friends to watch Coraline yet again. So, to the bigger question: my daughter and I bonded for many years watching other horror movies. She found vampire movies terrifying and wouldn’t watch them, but poltergeist/evil spirit movies didn’t frighten her so much, and we watched tons of those. I don’t have a good explanation about why one thing was too scary for her and not another, unless it has something to do with body horror, but my point is, kids’ mileage varies. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/32 "2022-10-26T17:21:44Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I suspect it’s because the orcs are always orcs, but the skeletons transform from regular pirates. I told my 4 year old son that we all skeletons inside us and he was NOT ready for that information. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/33 "2022-10-26T17:53:50Z")
My parents let me watch a lot of straight-up horror when I was a kid. My dad took me to _Alien_ in the theater when I was four. John Carpenter’s _The Thing_ was a staple of my video rentals. My best friends and I would rent _Friday the 13th_ movies and keep track of how many kills there were, and which film in the franchise had the highest body count. Didn’t phase me. What did freak me out? The jump scare in _Ghostbusters_ in the library. Jason Vorhees hacking open skulls like they’re casaba melons, no problem. Library ghost? Eyes closed, head under a blanket until the scene was over. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/34 "2022-10-26T18:04:59Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Both those films are rated PG, not G. People shouldn’t automatically assume animated=fun for the entire family. But, they do, at least in part because the studios actively market PG-rated films (both animated and live-action) to kids. Many recent Disney and Pixar films have been rated PG (e.g., Moana, Encanto, Finding Dory, Frozen, etc.), as are a lot of the animated “family” films by other studios (e.g., the Despicable Me and Minions movies, the Shrek movies, etc.) In live-action, the Star Wars movies and the Harry Potter movies, for two examples, are also heavily marketed towards kids, and many of those are PG-13. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/35 "2022-10-26T19:05:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > > > Both those films are rated PG, not G. People shouldn’t automatically assume animated=fun for the entire family. > > But, they do, at least in part because the studios actively market PG-rated films (both animated and live-action) to kids. The fact that studios market PG movies to children is just the result of filmmakers knowing more about what is appropriate for kids than the MPAA does. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/36 "2022-10-26T19:19:23Z")
As shown in this thread, some kids just don’t get scared by stuff others would be terrified of. I know that my 10-year-old niece is in a defiant stage right now where if we tell her something will make her scared or sad she says “NO IT WON’T” and then proceeds to laugh through the scary or sad bits, just to spite her parents. I was a big weenie as a kid and our mom never let us see anything rated past our age, and never anything scary. Half of it was her shielding us and half of it was me saying “good, I didn’t want to see it anyway.” I’m never surprised when kids don’t find stuff scary (cuz as an adult I still find stuff scary that other people laugh at) but I did think that some of the recent animated movies - _Soul, Turning Red_ and _Inside Out_ would be enjoyed by children. Not because they’re scary but because they are deep, and require some thinking. Maybe not _Turning Red_ so much but the other two are “high brow” I felt. But, I’m not a kid so wtf do I know?? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/37 "2022-10-26T20:11:50Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@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) The actual quote - and it’s completely apropos to the point - is: _“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”_ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/38 "2022-10-26T20:17:05Z")
When **The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms** premiered in Great Britain, it had an "X: Certificate, meaning “Adults Only” (The “X” rating wasn’t restricted to sexual material). I think I saw it on TV whewn I was five. **King Kong** in 1933 reportedly had women fainting in the aisles. I find that a bit hard to believe, too, but the special effects were top of the line for the day. Eight years earlier, Willis O’Brien’s effects for **The Lost World** confounded reporters. I saw Kong before I was five. The only movie I recall to have caused me any distress was the 1951 version of **The Thing** , which literally gave me nightmares. I got over it. ---
**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, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/39 "2022-10-26T21:46:26Z")
My wife is a huge horror movie fan, and our five-year-old will watch plenty of them with her (filtered for excessive violence/gore and sexual content). She emphasizes that it’s all movie make-believe, much like her father did when she was little. As such, my son is hardly afraid of anything on-screen. He does jump at jump scares. There’s a good one in the Muppets Haunted Mansion special. After we finished it, he asked to rewind back to that scene and had me play it over and over. I think it’s a thrill. He does have some trepidation about monsters and ghosts in real life, along with darkness. I’m working on that. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784/40 "2022-10-26T22:21:37Z")
Oh, the banshee! I’ve heard a lot of folks talk about how that scared them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-for-children/973784.md?page=3)