The movie that scared me the most was the Witches. I still can’t watch THAT scene without feeling kind of creeped out. For years, even as an adult, I couldn’t, like AT ALL. It was too horrible.
But The Incredibles is. Remember, it starts out with all superheroes being driven underground by lawsuits. Unambiguous “tort reform” message.
North is terrible. Look, I’m usually anti-political correctness, I think it’s simply damaging in a different way after it gets to certain levels, but this movie it… Well, apparently all Eskimos send off their old to die by sending them out to sea on ice floes. And that’s not the least of it. I suppose it could have been intended to make fun of stereotypes by making them so over the top, but it’s so hard to tell I’m calling it as actual simpering stupidity.
For a more… illustrated approach, here’s the obligatory Nostalgia Critic review:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/7838-north
ETA: It was aimed at kids, it may not be popular or memorable, but I’m guessing it fits the criteria.
I have read that that movie gave a lot of kids nightmares. The Oompa Loompas, in particular, were nightmare fuel. (Loved the SNL parody with Al Gore as Willy Wonka’s more down-to-Earth accountant brother! “. . . And a million dollars to develop that ray gun that turns a giant chocolate bar into a tiny chocolate bar . . . What was the thinking behind that, anyway?!”)
The Neverending Story has such and Oedipal complex that it could keep a whole team of psychiatrists busy for years.
Dumbo is pretty horrific.
You have his mother unjustly jailed.
That pack of other elephants are pretty mean.
Scary clowns.
The Pink Elephant sequence.
Really the crows are one of the better things about the movie. (even if people complain that they are a racist caricature)
The bit at the end when he does freaking fly is terrifying if you don’t understand that the feather is not in fact magic.
And after all the hell the circus put Dumbo and his mother though, they stay with the circus and let them exploit his unique talent. Sure he and mom get a nice new train car but you bet your sweet ass that circus is making 100 times that much. It even enriches the lives of those bitches!
Still, one of my favorite movies.
Isn’t it scarier if you DO realize it’s not magic? Because he has to do it by himself and if he doesn’t…he’s screwed.
ETA: When I got older, I thought Rudolph was pretty screwed up. Not the character, but the situation. He’s also exploited and the moral is don’t laugh at someone for being different–you might be able to use them later. In my dream ending Rudolph ends up doing the Charleston on Santa’s face. Ho!
What I can’t figure out is, just WHO’S supposed to watch this movie? Kids old enough to know there’s no Santa Claus? Too late! They’re NOT going to watch this movie and start believing again.
Kids little enough to believe in Santa? The movie would only start planting ideas in their heads (“Why don’t his parents believe in Santa? What do they know that I don’t?”).
A story can either uphold a fantasy or debunk it. What it CAN’T do is debunk it and then try to tell the kiddies to keep believing in the debunked fantasy anyway.
One last thing… didn’t the kid’s parents ever wonder where the extra presents were magically coming from every Christmas?
Nutcracker Fantasy has to be up there. I saw this at the movies when I was maybe three, and the whole cinema was full of kids crying from the horrors on display.
For evidence, I submit the intro. If that’s not enough, Wikipedia spells it out.
A sample:
What maded you think that? I haven’t seen it for a while, so I might have forgotten most of the story.
But isn’t that the biggest plot hole in like a quarter of all “haha no really, Santa actually exists” Christmas movies ever? Explanation - memory altering, he changes their memories to think they had the exact cost of the items in their bank before and then forges receipts and plants them after he’s done giving the gifts. Jolly old soul my ass, greatest con-man in history I tells ya.
In stories/movies where Santa is real but no one believes but the kids, I always wondered. Who are these presents coming from? Pervy Uncle Moe who sneaks in and out of the house every Xmas?
The ‘don’t be skeptical!’ message is really present in almost every holiday story and a ton of kids movies. I guess The Polar Express is one of the least subtle about it, but it’s not unique.
Toy Story. Toys aren’t really coming to life.
I keed, I keed.
Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” gave me nightmares I still vividly recall more than 40 years later. Between the horror of Maleficent and the overwhelming message that women are to lie passively, doomed to their fates until a prince comes along and saves them. Ugh. It’s a well-done movie, but too much for young kids.
The Groupmind of SD has spoken. Nothing is political, unless it can be possibly construed as anti-science (such as Polar Express), in which case it is heresy. I understand now. You are holding up five fingers! I see it!
If anyone in ‘The Incredibles’ is John Galt, it’s Syndrome.
I am surprised there is no mention of Labyrinth. Girl wishes that her little brother would just disappear, so he’s stolen by Goblin’s whose king played by an uber-sexy David Bowie wants nothing more than to fuck her brains out for eternity. Nothing is featured more prominently than her breasts and his package, both of which are mighty desirable if I do say so myself.
In the meantime she must travel through a bog of shit (literally) in order to get her brother back from the Goblin King and her own selfishness.
I barely remember going to see this when it first came out, but when you wrote “The 5,000 fingers of Dr. T”, I said “Ooh, Dr. Terwilliger…” and got a little shiver down my back.
Now I’ll have to find it, and see if it’s as creepy as my gut reaction was.
I agree that The Incredibles is political. I just think your reading is superficial and contradicted by the text.
Rather than an endorsement of Objectivism, The Incredibles is the story of Bob Parr’s flirtation with and ultimate *rejection *of it. The essence of Objectivist thought is the refusal to live one’s life for another (or to demand that another live their life for you). Mr. Incredible’s entire character arc culminates with his realization that his life only has meaning through the his ties to his family, friends, and community. He has the superhuman abilities of a Randian hero, and yet rejects the path of John Galt, instead choosing to subordinate his individual wants and needs to the common good.
And the bit about the ungrateful masses clawing down Atlas from his pedestal, causing the Earth to tumble from his glorious shoulders? About the ungrateful masses not knowing what’s best for them, being easily misled by the collectivist Syndrome and his promises of sharing the power?