Disney princesses have arrived in our house, despite all my best attempts to protect my daughter from them. It’s impossible- Disney is an inescapable beast. Even her pull-ups have Disney princesses on them. Living in this house, when she pretends to be a princess, she’s a “giant princess who scares the dragon”, which is awesome.
But as Disney movies have crept into our house I’ve noticed something I didn’t focus on in pre-princess days, and that is that Disney movies can be seriously scary. As in “hiding under the blanket” scary. My son has been talking about the shadows from the Frog Princess movie for a good six months now! And the villians- Cinderella’s stepmother is incredibly vicious and horrifying without any supernatural help at all. Gaston is a dangerous , cruel bully. And once you go supernatural… well, there’s the terrifying Chernobog from Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain”, evil personified. I always forget how scary children’s movies and television can really be. But Disney respects that, although there’s a place for princesses, and a lucrative one, there’s one for villiany too. Who’s your favorite? Cruella de Vil? Maleficent? Ursula the Sea Witch? Jafar? Someone, or something, else?
Let me know so I can decide which movie I should expose my kids to next.
Liz B
January 12, 2011 at 12:09 am
I know it’s not Disney, but the Wizard of Oz was always the best scary/fun movie. I was obsessed with it as a child, but we had to stop watching because my younger sister was afraid of the Wicked Witch. The Wicked Witch!! Witches are supposed to be scary!!! I was way more afraid of the trees that threw apples and the flying monkeys–these things were abominations that went against nature. Way scarier than a witch!
Kiddo and Squeaky's Mom
January 13, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Yeah, the Shadow Man from “The Princess and the Frog” is a good un’. Have you watched “Spirited Away” yet? It doesn’t *mean* to be creepy (I don’t think?), but noticed very wide eyes with my nephews when showed it to them (i.e. the strange characters, when the parents turn into pigs). The ending is great, so they don’t get nightmares, but they need to stay to the end.
MonsterLibrarian
January 14, 2011 at 1:29 am
The flying monkeys are pretty scary, but it’s the tornado that’s really scary, I think. Probably because I grew up in the Midwest, where we actually do have tornadoes, so it’s much more likely than running into flying monkeys.
It’s interesting that different people have different triggers as to what’s really scary. We had to go for several years without watching “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” here because my son was terrified of the Abominable Snowman. Some things I would think he’d be disconcerted by don’t bother him at all, though.
medical Technologist
January 20, 2011 at 12:24 pm
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