That can’t be right – there was a My Little Pony movie and the IMDb tells me it was released two months before the Transformers movie. I don’t see why reaction to Optimus Prime’s death would have been a concern anyway, as the My Little Pony movie didn’t kill off any of the ponies.
I second the Wizard of Oz–I know it’s a classic and I enjoyed it as a teen, but as a child, it terrified me. Gremlins put me off all horror films for life. I couldn’t even sit through the previews of this movie. Yes, I am serious.
I want to add Disney’s version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I cannot imagine who this movie is for-small kids won’t understand the subplots and older kids would likely be a bit freaked out by Frollo singing that song (in front of a fireplace) about Esmerelda’s charms (I wish he had used more euphemisms–he creeped me the hell out, IMS). I never saw this film as Disney grows up; I saw it as Disney goes creepy. The novel is fine–the adaptation is not.
If anything, The Golden Compass wasn’t creepy enough with that machine to separate the daemons from the kids, but that movie wasn’t made for young kids. Just MO.
Shudders God yes! These are things that are suppose to make children happy?
Beloved pets dying IS always an occasion for a party!
Well, again, I don’t think anyone thinks kids should find those things happy. But do you only read books to be happy? I don’t think kids are any different. I think anyone who would only offer “happy” or “fun” books to kids is forgetting what it’s like to be a child. Condescending to them is just as bad as only giving them melancholy fare to read.
Um actually yes. If I want to be miserable I’ll go to work and let my boss kick me again.
Okay, I guess. It just seems kind of… I don’t know, if shallow’s the right word, but definitely limiting to say that kids should only read happy or uplifting books. And I mean some of these books are sad, but I think people can handle them. I think kids are a lot more resilient than people think when it comes to supposedly scary or traumatic things.
ETA: And in the other thread on children’s lit/film and racism/bigotry, you said that kids are capable of understanding those things. Why do you think that death is any different?
Mmm, I actually do agree more with you but it seems to me that depressing stuff is 90% of list that kids are given to read. Which I don’t understand how that encourages a kid to WANT to read. Personally, I’d never censor a kid from reading anything they wanted, I read Sybil at an extrememly young age, but I just don’t think Red Fern and Old Yeller are books or films I would willingly give to a child under the age of 12.
Well I hate the whole books about animal genre anyway, since invariably the animals always die and often rather grimly.
I had that book when I was a kid. Had a lot of similarly themed books I got from my grandparents. I thought the stories were great. I liked The Story of the Wild Huntsman.
I’ve always found the original story of Petite Pouce (the forerunner to Tom Thumb) rather disturbing. It starts with Petite Pouce’s mother preparing a pie. Petite Pouce is sitting on the edge of the bowl, watching, and falls into the mix. His mother feels around for him but can’t find him… so she shrugs her shoulders and bakes him into the pie, saying, “Oh well, at least now I don’t need to add any lard.”
As if being cheerfully cannibalized by one’s mother isn’t disturbing enough, after the pie is baked, she trades it to a wandering tinker in exchange for a new pot. (Petite Pouce eventually wakes up inside the pie and escapes, then has numerous adventures.)
What kind of message does THAT send children? Can you imagine having your mother tell you that story as a child? Talk about creepy.
Nobody mentioned 101 Dalmatians yet? 
Where the two crooks are fighting over who and when will SKIN THE PUPPIES for their fur?
But that’s the point of the story. It’s supposed to be scary. Like, seriously, what’s the plot of the movie/book if there is no fur hungry villain? A bunch of puppies running around being cute?
Honestly I think if most of these people wrote movies/books, they would consist of nothing but lolcats and Cute Overload. Or as I call it, cute porn.
I loved the book when I was a kid, though.
And if The Neverending Story is supposed to be Oedipal, is it also promoting necrophilia?
A few years back after my Mum passed we were moving into a new smaller place and I was helping my father pack. I discovered a deck of cards in his dresser and was shocked. They were a pack of cards of these images that he had been given as a child growing up in East Germany. My sister and I gently patted him on the back and let him know that we now truly understand why he ended up the way he did.
Well, at least he probably didn’t suck his thumb, thrash his dog, or fail to eat his soup. 
Seriously, this thread is actually starting to become depressing.
A book meant for kids is not fucked up simply because it has villians or someone dies. Because a book is sad, it’s fucked up? Seriously?
I loved 101 Dalmations. And Where the Red Fern Grows (both read well before I was 12).
The poor performance of the Transformers movie is what made them decide to air the GI JOE movie as a serial. The negative reaction to Prime’s death caused them to not kill Duke in GI JOE but rather have him fall into a coma after getting a spear in the chest.
Yeah. I mean, I get that people don’t like to be depressed. But I think kids can handle a lot more than people think they did. I was a pretty sensitive kid and I managed to read all of these things without a nervous breakdown. But even if you’re writing a book/screenplay that’s not meant to be super scary, where is the drama unless something bad COULD happen? Where’s the suspense, where’s the plot?
Rock-A-Doodle.
Another film by Don Bluth. There are some shocking jokes in this movie, at least for some children. Also a slight reference to alcohol. There is some seediness to the storyline of the rooster turned rock star and sexually suggestive dialogue. But so did Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
This live action/animated film had heart, and was one of the best cartoons of the `90s.
Allow me to ruin your childhood (or whatever stage you were in 18 years ago :D). (NSFW due to profanity)