Lunchtime Poll: What Cartoon Should Come With a Trigger Warning?
Sunday, January 15, 2017 at 12:00PM In last weekend's most hilarious Golden Globes presentation, Kristen Wiig & Steve Carell equated Fantasia and Bambi with utterly traumatic childhood experiences. Which begs the question...
What cartoon sends you spiralling into depression?
JOSE: Dumbo! As a giant eared child, it brings back so many traumas.
ERIC: Dumbo. When caged Mama's trunk reaches for Dumbo's trunk: merciless!
NICK: The Legend of Bagger Vance.
KIM: Toy Story 3 was a pretty traumatic viewing experience for me; I came out of the theatre with my eyes almost swollen shut from crying. (The holding hands when they all thought they were going to die, you guys!) If I harken back to a movie that sent me off the edge as a kid, I'm going to go with The Secret of Nimh. I know it ENDS happily, but that movie is DARK.
JORGE: Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle throws me into a deep pit of out-of-body melancholy.
DAVID: The Fox and the Hound is a regular feature in my nostalgic nightmares, even though I haven't watched it since I was about twelve and the VHS gave out. Under the weight of emotional distress, no doubt.
STEVEN: Every time I think about the fact that there is a Cars 3 coming I get depressed. Does that count?
Reader Comments (28)
Grave of the Fireflies is about as depressing as it gets. I was actually surprised at how deep and moving the story was; I'm almost positive it would be more revered if it was live-action.
All Dogs Go To Heaven
The Land Before Time (please research the meaning of the film's ending)
Disney really doesn't have a monopoly on trauma.
Does claymation count? Because the Gnome King from Return to Oz still haunts my dreams.
When I was a child I watched Watership Down on television. It took me awhile to recover.
The Fox and the Hound. The scene where she takes him to the forest, to save him...
The intro given by Steve Carrell and Kristen Wiig was a little close to home. My first movie in the theatre was The Land Before Time and we came home from that movie to find out my grandpa had passed away. Still love that movie though.
LMAO @ Nick's response.
Steven -- so true. My kid would watch Cars 2 on loop all weekend if I let him. Thank god it at least has Emily Mortimer to make me smile. but she needs to do more live action work!
Fox and the Hound
Dying at Nick's response.
Have to echo all the Dumbo responses and also champion Fox and the Hound.
When I was a kid Mufasa's death in The Lion King broke my heart. Other animated movies that broke me as a child were Dumbo(mom being caged up and the song "Baby Mine"), The Fox and the Hound (too much of the movie to list), Bambi (mom dying), and Toy Story 2 ("When She Loved Me" hurts so much).
Hell, as recently as the deaths in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6 made me bawl my eyes out IN THEATERS.
Graveyard of the Fireflies - we studied this in highschool - a room full of 16 year olds all bawling their eyes out, that shit is traumatic and has had a profound effect on my ability to watch anything from Studio Ghibli since.
With that being said,The Lion King had a profound effect on my childhood as well, Mufasa's death is utterly traumatic for 3 year olds!
On rewatch - most Disney films seem dreadfully inappropriate for kids - Alice in Wonderland is a total and utter acid trip, Dumbo is dreadfully upsetting and also hideously racist and Peter Pan is just plain weird. (Am I writing like I've binge watched A Series of Unfortunate Events? Because I have :D)
Agreeing with everybody who said Grave of the Fireflies. Every word Roger Ebert said about that masterpiece is true, and even just seeing the artwork for the brother and sister in that movie is enough to send me to a very melancholy place. I've only been able to watch it once, but its power lingers still.
I think my five-year old was scarred for life after watching Finding Nemo. But, for me, yeah, Dumbo all the way.
I find Disney animated features pre-Pixar soporific not depressing, so all good.
In the last few years, my other had a falling out with her side of the family. It was really serious and took its toll on all of us. The most I could do was be there for her in any way I could. Then, when I went to see Kubo & The Two Strings, I started seeing all these parallels and I was getting very emotional. And when it started to become apparent that the mother wasn't going to make it, I did something I haven't done in 6 years. I walked out of the theater.
In the last few years, my mother had a falling out with her side of the family. It was really serious and took its toll on all of us. The most I could do was be there for her in any way I could. Then, when I went to see Kubo & The Two Strings, I started seeing all these parallels and I was getting very emotional. And when it started to become apparent that the mother wasn't going to make it, I did something I haven't done in 6 years. I walked out of the theater.
ConMan -- !!! i'm so sorry. that does sound traumatic and it's probably a good idea that you left given what becomes of the mom.
Inside Out. The Bing-Bong story line is heavy.
Disney understood that the classic fairy tale tradition does have a dark side- but can anything be more traumatic than Bambi's mother's death? It's a total shock and comes in the middle of the movie- of course it leads to Bambi growing up.
"Bambi" for me too. My parents tell me they had to carry me out of a re-release in the early 70's, because of THAT SCENE.
Cut to Mid 80's and another re-release, and it hit me all over again.
I haven't seen that movie since my Mom passed. I don't think I should.
I will also like to mention "When She Loved Me" from "Toy Story 2". I should not have that on my Spotify, because that is a Blubber Cry of a song.
Oh man... That Dumbo gif is something else. I can hear the music just by looking at it.
Oh god yes, Dumbo. The "Baby Mine" sequence makes me cry every time. And the cruelty of the elephants throughout most of towards Dumbo is just awful.
charlotte's web
even sadder now debbie's gone
Charlotte's Web! Yes I'd forgotten about this. Also Lambert the Sheepish Lion is one from my childhood.
Up. That wordless opening always breaks me. Michael Giacchino's score adds to the sad effect.
Also, the end scene in Inside Out where Riley finally cries packs a huge punch. It shows young children that they can try to always feel joy but take a piece of sadness with them.
When the Wind blows really destroyed me even more than Grave of the Fireflies. I didn't know that was even possible.
I must say I wasn't so freaked out by Dumbo as most, but I do understand why people were. The Black Cauldron is very dark and I've seen kids in theaters being scared by Coraline (which is pretty scary esp. at the end).
Felidae is absolutely nothing for kids.
And there are a lot of other disturbing cartoons/animes that even I try to forget....