We all remember at least one Disney or Pixar classic film that terrified us as children, or may even still scare us to this day. There are a lot of films that may have gone a little too far with creepy, spooky, or just plain disturbing characters and scenarios – some definitely worse than others. What were the writers of these films thinking? I don’t want to harbor any traumatic experiences, but let’s reminisce, shall we?
1. Spy Kids – Fegan Floop’s Music Video:
Remember Fegan Floop’s evil theme song with thumb men flying around on eyeballs?? What are those!? Seriously! Who came up with the idea of having thumb people flying around on eyeballs for a Spy Kids movie? Emphasis on KIDS! Not to mention the lyrics Floop sings, “It’s a cruel, cruel world, all you little boys and girls. And some mean, nasty people want to have you for their supper!” These lyrics quickly reopened the deep dark fear all of us had that Hansel and Gretel is based on a true story.
2. Toy Story – Sid Plays Operation:
They say serial killers show signs of their evil ways at a young age. Some of these signs include cruelty to other children, animals, and creepy creativity. Andy’s neighbor Sid surely fits the bill when he decides to steal his sister’s doll for an “operation.” And by operation I mean he CUT OFF THE DOLL’S HEAD AND REPLACED IT WITH A PTERODACTYL FACE! WTF!
3. Star Wars – Luke and Leia Kiss:
That awkward moment when you passionately kiss your brother to make the guy you like jealous…cough cough…Princess Leia. Talk about disturbing! However, this was a valuable lesson to us kiddos – don’t kiss people you just met, because you might be related.
4. Winnie The Pooh – Heffalumps and Woozles (Lucid) Dream:
Pooh was LITERALLY having an out of body experience. In the scene you clearly can see Pooh’s spirit leaving his body to go be tortured by evil heffalumps and woozles trying to steal his honey. Pooh is so terrified of his inescapable nightmare it left us all in tears. I think I can speak for all when I say we can relate that as kids one of the biggest fears we faced was having bad dreams. And this horrible scene of heffalumps and woozles just gave us another reason to be afraid of bedtime.
5. Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Haunted Army:
Although the haunted army was trying to save England from a German attack, they were still incredibly creepy. Miss Price, the witch, brought hundreds of knight uniforms to life with the spell Substitutiary Locomotion. The knight uniforms marched in foggy darkness chanting the scary spell as they went to attack the Germans. Not only did they attack the Germans, but the inanimate army could not be killed. If they were stabbed or shot they would carry on with their disturbingly inhuman march.
6. Chitty Bang Bang – The Kid Catcher:
“There are children here somewhere, I can smell them,” if this doesn’t send shivers up your spine I don’t know what will. From his horrifying child-sized net and cage to his creepy pointy nose with claw-like fingers to match, the child catcher is not to be messed with. It was a mentally scarring moment for us kids when he tricked Jemima and Jeremy into his cage by disguising it as a free candy cart.
7. James and the Giant Peach – Cloud Rhino:
So many of us were afraid of thunderstorms as kids, myself included. And James in the Giant Peach did nothing but heighten our fears of storms with its thunderstorm rhinoceros. In the beginning of the film the narrator explains how James’ parents were “gobbled up in 35 seconds flat” by the thunderstorm rhinoceros making poor James an orphan.
8. E.T. – Two Brains As One:
When Elliot leaves his new pal E.T. home while he goes to school, strange similarities start happening. While E.T. is reading a cartoon that says, “Help! Help!” Elliot is suddenly empowered to free all the frogs that are about to be dissected in his classroom. But wait, it gets weirder. E.T. is watching a couple romantically kiss on television and then Elliot abruptly kisses a girl in his class the same way. This left us kids all wondering, was Elliot being brainwashed? Is an alien going to brainwash me next??
9. Matilda – The Chokey:
The chokey instilled claustrophobic fears in every child who watched Matilda. With the foggy hole in the wall’s leaky pipes, deadly nails, and glass sticking out of the door, this made any kid fear the fictional Trunchbull. Imagining being trapped in the chokey all day at school made everyone fear small dark spaces during hide and seek.
10. Jumanji – Sucked into a game board:
This movie tops them all. Imagine the horrifying reality of being trapped in a parallel universe’s jungle. Having no friends, no family, and absolutely no childhood. 26 years, every day trying to find food and water while the natural born killers of the jungle hunt you night and day. And this all happened to you because you tried to play a board game with Sarah Whittle.
Sorry, did this bring up harsh memories you had blocked out? My bad. These movies still haunt my conscious mind here and there. But hey, we survived our childhood movie scares! Just view this as preparation for Halloween.
Featured image via “Toy Story 3 trailer-002” by TooMuchDew / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Spy kids! Love them!