Traumatizing Cartoons

[LightAngel]

Remember when you were little, and there was that certain cartoon you wanted to like, but kept you up nights in terror. Sure you do. I remember when Roger Rabbit came out, there was that scene at the end where the bad guy melted into an acidic puddle. I couldn't ever watch that movie without fast fowarding through that entire scene. And then there was the Red Bull in The Last Unicorn...

[Elven Moon]

I did the same thing with the Roger Rabbit movie! Even though that bad guy and his henchmen scared the living daylights out of me, I just kept watching it! Over and over sometimes. They still scare me to this very day, though I don't watch it anymore ;)

As for traumatizing cartoons... I can't think of any at the moment. I know the Hugga Bunch movie scared me, too. That whole mirror thing *shudders*

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

The Grinch. Scared the hell out of me. Also--seeing Optimus Prime die.

[Danielle]

Looks like that Roger Rabbit movie is a really scare-er. Add me to the list, though I don't get scared by the acid-puddle...I get nightmares just about the toon-version of Doom.


There was also a certain episode of Doug. Scared me stiff. And---though I hate to admit it---I was scared of Freakazoid for a while. (So I had an extreme terror of blue guys! So what?)

[DR. BELCH]

I'd say quite a few of Chuck Jones' cartoons--particularly "Feed the Kitty" (Marc Antony going into fits when he thinks his owner is rolling Pussyfoot flat with a rolling pin and cutting him up with a cookie cutter) and "The Year of Mouse" (Jerry and his little friend drive Tom crazy with a gun, a ketchuppy knife, and a noose around his neck, not to mention the tourniquet bit)--could disturb kids.
There's the end of Charlotte's Web, when the spider dies and Wilbur is all alone. Man, I cried. I saw that when I was knee-high to a junebug and haven't been able to bring myself to sit through it again in years.

[Captain Caps]

Porky Pig (and later Bugs Bunny) popping out of the drum saying "Th-Th-That's All, Folks!" and "And that's the end", respectively, freaks the living daylights out of me. To this day, if I see either Porky or Bugs bust through a drum, I have nightmares that very night. Luckily, I haven't been watching that many Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies recently.

Sincerely,

John "Captain Caps" Kilduff

[TuffyCatt]

The Little Mermaid. I was seriously terrified of that movie. I was pretty little and that sea-witch lady scared me to death. I was even scared of the ocean for a while after that movie...what made it worse was that my parents kept trying to trick me into watching it because they thought it was funny that I was scared of it. :( They would say that we were gonna watch a movie, wouldn't tell me what it was, so I'd sit down to watch it with them and the Little Mermaid would come on and I would literally run crying from the room. I'm not kidding...I hated that movie.

Other animated movies that scared me: Sleeping Beauty because of the dragon at the end and I was also scared of the cat in Cinderella. :o

Fortunately, none of these movies bother me anymore. :cool:

[Danielle]

Originally posted by Captain Caps
Porky Pig (and later Bugs Bunny) popping out of the drum saying "Th-Th-That's All, Folks!" and "And that's the end", respectively, freaks the living daylights out of me. To this day, if I see either Porky or Bugs bust through a drum, I have nightmares that very night. Luckily, I haven't been watching that many Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies recently.



Oooooohhhhhhhh, that reminds me of another one. Did anyone else see that Bugs Bunny cartoon with the carrots from space? And it made everyone look like (hate to say this, but it's true) recycled-stock footage? Yikes and a half. Honestly, sometimes my older sister would cut out a hand-drawn picture of Bugs Bunny and scare the pants off of me...that is, if I had pants. :D

[Sharklady]

My most-acute cartoon scare came from viewing Disney's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' when I was eight years old. The build-up, the chase, the hurling of that gosh-awful flaming pumpkin- for a sensitive kid, it's the stuff of nightmares.

In fact, that shot of the tree branches closing in behind Icabob *still* spooks me worse than anything in the Tim Burton movie.

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Ooh! "ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?" The theme song in particular kept me up for nights, and an actual eppy only made it worse. The eppy that creeped me out most was the lizard "bute you once, bite you twice, a little water pays the price" with the "Sister Sister" twins guess starring. Yet I still watched it...

...Of course, I feel embarrased about feeling scared of that show now, since there are plenty of scarier things out there...

[Matthew Hunter]

Now don't go spreadin' this around or anything, but "Lady and the Tramp". It is to this day one of my favorite movies, animated or non. But darn it, that rat scared the daylights outta me when I was about 3 years old...I had nightmares about it. I still remember that dream to this day, I was attacked by nasty black rats with glowing yellow eyes, like the one in the movie. I was truly terrified, it was awful.

Other than that, I don' think I've ever had other cartoon-induced nightmares. There one cartoon-RELATED dream I had this summer, though not necessarily scary. I had been cataloguing my Looney Tunes collection all day and had sat through a lot of them nonstop. I had a dream that I was in a cartoon with a bunch of Warner characters, sort of "Space-Jam" or "Roger Rabbit" style....don't remember much except that it was very strange.
-Matthew

[Bubba]

Watership Down absolutely terrified me. Especially that black death rabbit thing.

[Dub]

I've never seen Watership Down but I'e heard that theres a scene in it thats terrifying. Perhaps thats the one.

For me - I'm not really bothered by cartoon "terror" so to speak - but the most gruesome thing I think I've ever seen was the Judge Doom acidic puddle scene **shudder**

That just LOOKED like it hurt.

Of course - theres also a lot of scenes in DBZ that gave me chills. The most recent being when Videl kicked Spopovitch's head and it twisted around ***cringe**

And then he....pulled it back and it reeled around and he popped it back into place ***SCREAMS***


UGGGH - I hate that scene. I literally cringe everytime I think about it >_____<

[Singin' Stray Cat]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the other scene in "Roger Rabbit" involving acid... y'know, the one where Doom grabs that little cartoon shoe and melts him in it? That was awful.... :(

[Sharklady]

> I've never seen Watership Down but I've heard that theres a scene in it thats terrifying. <

Your source was probably refering to the nightmarish destruction-of-the-warren scene. If you're at all claustrophobic, those surrealistic images of underground entrapment and suffocation can scare you to the core.

I'm just glad I didn't see that one when I was eight.

[LD1984]

Lemme see...

Roger Rabbit scared me at the part where they melted the cute little red shoe! Singin' Stray Cat, I feel ya!

There was an episode of Tiny Toons about a kite and a fly. I cried when the kite was all ripped up and the fly was crying!

In "The Chipmunk Adventure", I would cry when the Chippettes sang to the baby penguin!

This is the wimpies one: I would cry at the end of the cartoon where Elmer Fudd kills Buggs Bunny with the lightning bolt! You know what I'm talkin' about! The opera and the spear and magic helmet! Even though Bugs bunny got up a second later and said something, I would cry! I experimented. One morning, I played and rewound the tape 20 times to see if I could make myself cry. Lets just say my eyes hurt afterwards.

[Psycho Fox]

Originally posted by Singin' Stray Cat
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the other scene in "Roger Rabbit" involving acid... y'know, the one where Doom grabs that little cartoon shoe and melts him in it? That was awful.... :( Yup but for me it was Plauge Dogs the whole movie is a downer

[Sharklady]

> I would cry at the end of the cartoon where Elmer Fudd kills Buggs Bunny with the lightning bolt! You know what I'm talkin' about! <

As best I recall, that cartoon is entitled 'What's Opera, Doc?', and Bug's closing line is, "Well, whatda ya expect from opera? A happy ending?"

And it's no wonder Elmer is so regretful after finally eliminating his old nemesis- what's left for him to do with his life now?

[TuffyCatt]

Hmmm, Watership Down was one of my favorite movies when I was pretty little. I think it bothered me a little bit, but I still liked it. I read the book a couple years ago and then watched the movie because I hadn't watched it in a long time...I was surprised after watching it again that I wasn't scared of that movie when I was little...I think it scares me more now than it did when I was five.

[LightAngel]

Hey, does anyone remember The Last Unicorn. I swear that movie wasn't made for little kids. There was a scene at the end with a talking skull and the Red Bull who frightened me to death. It was still my favorite movie though!

[Dub]

Oh wow - You just went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back :D

last Unicorn didnt traumatize me - but there was this one scene with a lady with huge breasts that grabbed one of the chracters and...hugged him so bad she almost smothered him. his face was like...buried in between them and he was screaming for air. It was meant to be a funny scene but to me it came across moreso as almost freakish @____@

[Matthew Hunter]

The hug thing...there was something like that in "Rocko's Modern Life", a huge, fat hippo lady at the beach asks Rocko to put her sunscreen on her, he gets stuck between her breasts, and she gets angry "How DAAARE You!" and throws him into the ocean!
-Matthew

[Thad Komorowski]

The Herman and Katnip cartoons were the most disturbing of all cartoons for me when I saw them for the first time.

The ending of "Mice-Capades" (Herman and Katnip) left me crying when I saw it on a rental tape when I was like five. The mice point the gun Katnip is about to shoot at them, towards the cat's own head. Once he pulls the trigger and the smoke clears, we see Katnip's dead corpse on the floor. The mice come out, and see Katnip's soul emerge from the body, almost crying at the sight of his body on the floor. Katnip quickly swipes Herman and is about to kill him, but reminds the cat about the "firery furnace" (Hell). "If you feed them, you shall grant your wings!" Katnip is forced (if he ever wants to get into heaven) to feed the mice a banquet, waiting on their every call. :eek:

The ending of "Of Mice and Menace" always left me with nightmares about the same thing happening to my cat. Katnip gets crushed and dies at the penny arcade. Herman and the nephews then use his stiffened, lifeless body as shooting practice! :eek:


-Thad

[Lonestarr]

The thread is "Traumatizing Cartoons" and yet, no one mentions "Pinocchio".

- Pinocchio being lured away from Geppetto (to the tune of a wonderful song, however)

- the sinister Stromboli

- Pinocchio and his friend, Lampwick, turning into donkeys (this scene really got under my skin)

- the kids-turned-donkeys being rounded up (and that one donkey with a kid's voice)

- and lest we forget the Monstro the Whale sequence

My guess is that most of you blocked it out of your minds, because you just can't forget stuff like that.

[Joe Tully]

Yeah, that's why Pinocchio will always be one of the greatest Disney movies if not THE greatest...It was made before Disney became all worried about toning things down for the kiddies. Good call Lonestarr.

Well, UPA's The Tell-Tale Heart could count here too, but that was really, really supposed to be disturbing. And I have the Watership Down movie and yeah, some of the stuff in that is pretty disturbing. Cute bunnies attacking and killing cute bunnies=kinda gross. Secret of NIMH kinda worked that way too, esp. as a kid.

[Danielle]

Originally posted by Joe Tully
Yeah, that's why Pinocchio will always be one of the greatest Disney movies if not THE greatest...It was made before Disney became all worried about toning things down for the kiddies.


As in Atlantis, D*sney's first movie that had a PG for a reason. That, I guess, would also be considered a "traumatizing" cartoon ('specially when the general or whatever he was was cut with the glass and became that monster-type thing... *shudder*.


One question; why didn't anyone mention "Yellow Submarine"? Doesn't the Blue Meanie frighten you? :eek: I guess I'm just a sissy. :D

[Lonestarr]

Originally posted by Danielle



As in Atlantis, D*sney's first movie that had a PG for a reason. That, I guess, would also be considered a "traumatizing" cartoon ('specially when the general or whatever he was was cut with the glass and became that monster-type thing... *shudder*.




Actually, "The Black Cauldron" from 1985 was D*sney's first PG-rated animated feature. Here's an interesting bit of trivia: Disney went into the black for their first PG-rated live-action film as well: "The Black Hole".

I imagine that younger viewers might be sensitive to it, but not me. You wanna see something really scary: refer to my previous post.

[Sharklady]

> One question; why didn't anyone mention "Yellow Submarine"? Doesn't the Blue Meanie frighten you? <

No, not really. While I'll admit his mood swings are disturbing*, he's a bit too soft and fuzzy to be truly frightening. And that very cute way he got his comeuppance- being festooned with pretty flowers- would compromise the scariness of even the most horrible monster.


* Presumably, that's why they borrowed the device for PPG's Him.

[Anthonynotes]

Well, since I was a teenager when I saw "Roger Rabbit" at the movies, guess nothing about it scared me at the time (same for TTA or "Little Mermaid")...also didn't get too scared by most of the old cartoons I saw as a kid.

However, as a kid, I'd have nightmares about the old "CBS Special Presentation" bumper--the one with the word "SPECIAL" that swirled towards the camera/screen with bongo music playing, that ran before the start of every CBS animated special in the 70's & 80's (which was parodied on A! with the word "Animaniacs" swirling towards the camera as bongo music played)....also got creeped out by the old "Viacom" logo (the one with the "V" moving towards the camera with ominous-sounding music playing).

-B.

[DR. BELCH]

Jon "WB" Gray:
[T]here was this one scene with a lady with huge breasts that grabbed one of the chracters and...hugged him so bad she almost smothered him. his face was like...buried in between them and he was screaming for air.


Matthew Hunter:
[T]here was something like that in "Rocko's Modern Life", a huge, fat hippo lady at the beach asks Rocko to put her sunscreen on her, he gets stuck between her breasts, and she gets angry "How DAAARE You!" and throws him into the ocean!

Pokemon also has something along those lines--poor Ash bearhugged by a female gym leader who thinks Ash is her son and nearly asphyxiated by her chest.

How about Mufasa's death in The Lion King? I'll admit I saw that on my 20th--maybe 21st--birthday, and still got misty....

[TuffyCatt]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH

How about Mufasa's death in The Lion King? I'll admit I saw that on my 20th--maybe 21st--birthday, and still got misty....

Ahhh, yes the Lion King...I got so I cried at the beginning of that movie before anything had happened, because I knew what was gonna happen. It's still one of my favorite movies, though.

[Danielle]

Oh no.....don't mention Lion King. If you got misty-eyed during the movie, do not, I repeat, DO NOT see the Broadway play. The next time the curtain closed, I saw an usher actually passing out tissues... {*sniff*} Makes me cry just thinking about it.......
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[Elven Moon]

Ah, I just remembered some cartoons that still send shivers down my spine:

Watership Down - I am so afraid of this movie! ::shudder:: My junior high teacher made us watch this twice, and I'll never be the same again...

Pinnochio - The whole amusment park thing scared me. I mean, really scared me. Gave me nightmares. I've never sat through this entire movie, and I haven't seen it in years.

Has anyone watched "A Disney Halloween"? Do you remember those two cartoons involving Winnie the Pooh, and Donald Duck that were on it? In the first clip, WTP has a dream about those weird dancing elephants. It was completely strange. The second one involved DD and an escaped Gorilla from the zoo. That gave me nightmares, too.

But then, I'm frightened very easily, so maybe I'm just a big sissy-girl :p

[LightAngel]

I think I remeber what you're talking about. Is it the same one with Donald Duck being chased by a bear or something, and then some segment featuring Mickey Mouse and dancing skeletons. If it is, I must've blocked that out before now!

[Sharklady]

> The second one involved DD and an escaped Gorilla from the zoo. <

I remember seeing that cartoon, but didn't find it scary 'cause I knew real gorillas usually aren't aggressive.

A number of years ago the Seattle Zoo really did have a large male gorilla escape from his enclosure, but he was so intimidated at being in strange territory that all he did was hunker down on the sidewalk. His keepers had to shoot him with a tranquilizer and carry him back into the enclosure, and he's never tried to get out since.

[TuffyCatt]

Originally posted by Danielle
Oh no.....don't mention Lion King. If you got misty-eyed during the movie, do not, I repeat, DO NOT see the Broadway play. The next time the curtain closed, I saw an usher actually passing out tissues... {*sniff*} Makes me cry just thinking about it.......
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Awww....and I really wanted to see that too. Well, I haven't cried when watching the movie for a while, so maybe I'd be able to handle it. I doubt it though... :(

[robert]

We covered scary cartoon scenes, but did certain cartoon _characters_ scare you or do today? Now cartoons don't and didn't scare me, if they did when I was young I don't remember, but a couple of villains are worth mentioning to me to answer the question I just posed.
Judge Doom: Didn't scare me, but his presence is certainly intimidating and has scenes like the shoe dipping part mentioned earlier to back that up. Of course, you might have guessed I'm impartial to him because I put him in one of my fics.
Scar from The Lion King: Kids would likely fear him because of his infamous killing of Mufasa but it's his smarts that are scary, especially in how he set things up to make it look like Simba's fault. Plus it doesn't hurt that Jeremy Irons was so brilliant in vocing the evil lion too.
"HIM" of PPG fame: Everytime "He" shows up in that show, things are guaranteed to be a tiny bit unsettling. Like Scar, his using and manipulation of people set him apart, and of course there's that alternaing voice of his. Mojo Jojo is the most troublemaking, and often seen, villain in Townsville, but Him is much more eviler and more feared{heck even Mojo showed fear of Him when He called him in "Telephonies"}His small role at the end of the episode "Speed Demon" was especially scary.
Too comprehensive, maybe, but at least this gave me an excuse to post something here again.

[Danielle]

Originally posted by robert
We covered scary cartoon scenes, but did certain cartoon _characters_ scare you or do today?


Well, not TODAY exactly, but there are quite a few cartoon characters that scared me:

The Ghost of King Ramses from an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. Actually, his voice scared me more than his looks. I'm not saying he DIDN'T look scary.... :eek:

The Phantom Virus from Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase...okay, I guess that could be considered one that scared me today...well, maybe you can consider the villians from ALL the Scooby Doo movies a part of my list...

Judge Doom. Geez, how many people are gonna pick him?!

The Hitchhiker-Chainsaw-Guy from the TTA movie. *shudder*

Mr. Dink from Doug. So sue me. The fear of Mr. Dink started when I saw the episode where Doug broke his grill...anyone who saw how Mr. Dink changed into this green, scary lion will know what I mean.

Satan from the Animaniacs episode "Hot, Bothered and Bedevilled". Though that stopped after Dot turned all scary. Then I was scared of Dot. :D

Mozenrath from Aladdin the Animated Series or whatever they call it.

HIM. Join the club, Robert. ;)


And I'm sure if Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon ever DOES become an animated film, I'll have more to add to the list...