Dark Parts Of Disney Movies That Went Over Your Head As A Kid
Who doesn't love a fairy-tale ending to a story? Because that's a guarantee that somebody is going to find their special somebody else and they will live happily ever after. In terms of actual fairy tales, it isn't quite so cut-and-dried (though, to be honest, there's often cutting involved). The original fairy tales were collected from oral tradition, transcribed from the telling around the hearth. Why do human beings even tell stories? Entertainment; a well-stretched-out joke; a cautionary tale — don't trust strangers, kids. Disney has made a fortune out of harvesting storylines from the folktales of the world. And sometimes the studio will clean things up a bit. Okay, more than a bit. At least, sometimes.
For instance, Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid doesn't marry the prince; she sacrifices herself so that he can be with the one he truly loves, and the mermaid turns into sea foam, and — honestly, the theology is a little tough, per Bustle.
Just say it: This is creepy
It's no secret that the Brothers Grimm relayed stories that are very grim indeed, as Biography relates. Cinderella's stepsisters can't fit the slipper she left behind at the ball, and when the prince asks them to try it on, their mother prompts the first sister to cut off a toe so that the shoe fits, and urges the second to cut off part of her heel, so that the shoe fits. (The prince figures it out. The copious blood is one clue.)
Even with the sanitized Disney version of things, there are still moments in the films that give pause — and not in the "let's watch that again" kind of pause, unless emotional masochism is the goal. Disney movies are for kids — until they aren't. Perhaps first and foremost, the screen moment that trumps all the others, is the death of a mother. Of course, we're talking about Bambi — a feature-length film released in 1942, based on a novel by Felix Salten about a young deer coming of age in the forest.
It's all fun and games until someone loses a mother
From a technical standpoint, it's a remarkable achievement — the studio had the animators observe actual animal movements to get the pictures right, reports Oh My Disney. But after meeting Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk and other cheerful denizens of the woods, we are treated to the death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a hunter. Traumatizing? For generations. Right up there with the Wicked Witch of the West threatening Dorothy and her little dog, too. Another addition to our "What Were You Thinking?" File has to be the on-screen death of Simba's father in The Lion King. Does it provide motivation, a narrative arc, blah blah blah? Yes. But Simba's Dad! People often cite the metamorphosis that occurs in 1943's Pinocchio — the naughty runaway boys are turned into donkeys and enslaved after indulging in forbidden pleasures like playing pool and smoking, crying for their mothers as it happens. Don't disobey, kids. Surely nobody wished upon that particular star.
Then there are the scenes where someone kisses somebody else who may or may not be dead already, as Insider points out. At best, in a coma — Snow White, Sleeping Beauty — and in our more enlightened times that is absolutely not okay, but was it ever? Really?
And don't even think about Song of the South.