Least Scary Disney Movies

Sleeping Beauty has a really scary villan IMO. When she goes all dragon.....

Shrek is a satire of Disney movies. Take a good look at all the ways they make fun of Disney, it starts with the whole theme of the story and with little jokes poking fun throughout. I love the ending too. Fiona takes the shape of her true self and Shrek says, but you are beautiful.

Shrek is a satire of Disney movies. Take a good look at all the ways they make fun of Disney, it starts with the whole theme of the story and with little jokes poking fun throughout. I love the ending too. Fiona takes the shape of her true self and Shrek says, but you are beautiful.

It's not hard to poke fun at Disney and Disney has even done it to themselve, especially in "Monsters, Inc." "Shrek" also lampoons Hollywood movies that are not animation and "Shrek II" goes even further in pulling the curtain back on some of the silliness of Tinsel Town.

As you can probably tell, I give "Monsters, Inc." a slight edge over "Shrek."

Disney Movies
What about Mulan? Might be scary with the Huns but definatly a strong woman movie. I mean, she saves China.

Did anyone ever notice that none of the Disney movies have moms in them?
- Cinderella: mom is killed, lives with evil stepmother
- Snow White: no mom, sent away by evil stepmother
- Sleeping Beauty: mom, but seperated for many years
- The Little Mermaid: no mom
- Jungle Book: no mom
- Beauty and the Beast: no mom
- Bambi: mom killed
- Aladdin: jasmine has no mom; aladdin no parents
- Pocahontas: no mom
- Finding Nemo: mom killed
- Tarzan: parents killed, but brought up by female gorilla. Jane
only has a father
- Lion King: has a mom, but emotionally seperated by guilt
- Mary Poppins: no mom for the children

Yep, it's weird...

So we watched "The Little Mermaid". Big hit, kid loved it. She turned away at several points with "toooo scary", but overall she really enjoyed it.

I liked it, wasn't too wowed. The animation is good but a little pedestrian, a little Saturday-morning-cartoons. They got some cool stuff in there with Ursula's tentacly bottom half, but overall I could believe that the animators were bored enough to sneak x-rated stuff in there. :-) (I forget, did that actually happen or was it an urban legend?)

A question -- King Triton was all mad at humans for being fish-eaters yadda yadda -- what do mermaids eat?

Also, in terms of corgilover's observation (welcome!) where was Ariel's mom? I don't remember seeing anything about her being dead or anything, just absent. (With the very different-looking sisters I thought maybe Triton had a harem going or something...)

Anyway, it was kinda eh on a few levels for me (didn't like the whole eyelash-batting, gets-the-guy-just-'cause-she's-pretty-since-she-can't-even-talk aspect much), but kid liked it and wasn't too too scared, so that's good. She's been drawing a lot of mermaids since, always an indicator of how smitten she is with something new.

Did Disney suffer of a Oedipus complex?

I asked sozlet about Ariel's mom last night (this "Little Mermaid" discussion started when sozlet sighed and said dreamily "I like Ariel" out of nowhere), and her theory is that everyone thought Ariel was a girl, but she was really a lady, and she was the mama to all of the dancing mermaids (the sisters).

Hmmm.

It's not just Disney with the dead parents - most kids books are filled with orphans.

Even books where there are parents the kids are off somewhere out of their scope -- down a rabbit hole or out the back of the wardrobe or something.

Better be sure to stay away from Shrek. Subversive.





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too bad the Bible's so full of murder and stuff. I'd recommend that otherwise.

Urban legend on the Mermaid stuff. I always wondered that myself about what the merpeople ate. They just never addressed it. But there was one scene where they were laying out food. I didn’t notice what was on the table as Triton was so quick to knock it over. But the one good positive of the Mermaid was – she did save the prince so she isn’t completely weak.

What is great about Shrek is that the adult jokes are so over the little kiddies heads that they cannot even fathom what they are about. For example, Donkey talks about the size of the castle and Shrek says, is he compensating for something? What 5 or 6 year old would get that joke?

Just saw this thread. My daughter also loves everything princess (had to get her a "princess dress" for Christmas). Both kids saw The Princess and the Pauper (I think that's what it was called) and surprisingly, they both liked it. Even more surprisingly, I didn't mind it. I was prejudiced against it after seeing a commercial for it on Nickelodian (sp?) where they sing that aweful song about being just like each other. But it wasn't too bad and I'd let them watch it again.

I won't let them watch Pocohantas. My son saw it at preschool a couple of years ago and came home telling me how brown people were mean. He's kind of brown himself so I thought that wasn't a good message for him to get.

Oh, also recommend Shrek I and II.

That’s odd freeduck about getting the message that brown people are mean because if anything the really mean person in the movie is white. Curious as to how he got that message. Watching the movie I did not get the impression that any group (either white or brown) were mean; only that the one particular character was mean.

That's what I would have thought. I don't know how kids get the messages they get.

When I was 4, I just loved "Sleeping Beauty". It was (for me) the perfect princess, because she was so beautiful, and she had such a nice voice, and a nice dress, and was so kind, and friendly with animals...
However, "Sleeping Beauty" has a villain (and she can be a bit scary, as she is dark, and transforms into a dragon), but she is defeated at the end...
"Beauty and the Beast" is also nice, as Belle is beautiful, and nice, and kind, and she has a nice voice, etc...
Same comment for "The Little Mermaid", "Snow-White" and "Mulan".
There are Princesses and Villains, but they all lose in the end.
In fact, there must be a villain in every story, because without that, well... there won't be any story!
"Kuzco, The Emperor's New Groove" (I think it's the English title, although I'm not quite sure...) has a villain, but she's more funny than scary. Same thing for "Peter Pan", where Hook is villain, but always followed by the crocodile, which makes him quite funny. But there is not Princess in those two.

By the way:

Of course they have a mom! And she is involved in a feminist movement.

Peter Pan: A mom that they miss when they are with Peter
Sleeping Beauty; Although she is separated from her, she has a mom (who misses her)
101 Dalmatians: the mom is an important character
The Aristocats: Same thing
Hercules: 2 moms !
Mulan: a Mom
The treasure planet: a mom

Hi Radical Edward,

We saw Sleeping Beauty a few days ago -- whoa, mongo hit. The dragon didn't bother her much. (Is it a good or bad thing that she seems to be getting desensitized quickly? Ah well.)

*I* liked it much more than I expected to -- the look, the animation, was more sophisticated and interesting than I thought it would be. Lightyears beyond "The Little Mermaid", which to me was just kind of blah.

By the way I saw Bill Peet's name -- a children's book writer/ illustrator we like a lot -- in the opening credits, and went and looked up whether it was the same Bill Peet online and lo and behold... Evidently he had quite a history at Disney, drew Dumbo and some other major character I'm forgetting. SO saw his hand in the dragon, possibly the prince's horse, too.

Anyway, after a couple of weeks of playing "The Little Mermaid" over and over, now we are playing "Sleeping Beauty" over and over... groan...

I knew that Disney movies had certain similarities, but not HOW similar. Which movie is this?

Motherless beautiful feisty princess catches a glimpse of a prince, instantly falls in love after spending a short time with him, and with the help of feisty sidekicks and the prince himself overcomes an evil villain blocking the path to happily ever after. Kiss.

Details change slightly -- like you say, Sleeping Beauty has a mother who misses her, but ain't THERE -- but the basic structure is the same.

Ah well, it's awful close to the universal myth/ bildungsroman -- magical helpers or opponents, blah blah blah -- why mess with what works?