21 Children's Movies With Deeper Issues Than We Realized
The twist in Monsters, Inc. is that the corporation is the monster.
Recently, a Reddit user asked people to share a movie that was darker than they realized and, well, points were made:
1. Lilo & Stitch
"Nani is 19, taking care of her little sister who has behavioral problems, while being investigated by CPS, on top of working and trying to pay for a whole house!" —cowboyfairy
2. The Incredibles
"Attempted suicide, lots of unseen collateral damage and possible civilian deaths, and the systematic assassination of superheroes." —mc_squared_03
3. Home Alone
"Home Alone is about two adults trying to murder a child." —maksmadonov
4. The Secret of NIMH
"The Secret of NIMH definitely haunted me as a child. The animation was so dark, including the whole storyline of the animal testing center. Timothy [almost] dying and the rats fighting to get the nest out of the mud in the end! So many things! It spoke to me on so many levels, though." —Rexygirl20
5. Coraline
"This movie taught a generation the dangers of trusting strangers, and that appearances can often be incredibly deceiving. Monsters don't look like monsters at first. They look like the complete opposite." —Reddit User
6. The Brave Little Toaster
"I had awful memories of many of the scenes for years: the terrifying radiator that got so angry he killed himself, the time when they almost fell off a cliff, the appliance Dr. Frankenstein guy, the massive electromagnet looming over the sad cars waiting to be crushed to death, and the toaster and its friends..." —KagakuKo
7. All Dogs Go to Heaven
"I've always said All Dogs Go To Heaven is a mafia movie in disguise." —shug_paladin
8. Snow White
"The stepmother wants to murder a 14-year-old girl because she is prettier than her. The 14-year-old finds a random house in the woods and decides to clean it. She lives as a servant of seven men in exchange for a place to stay. A random prince finds a corpse in the woods and decides to kiss it." —MysteriousLobster1
9. Monsters, Inc.
"Waternoose was willing to kidnap children just to keep his company afloat. Instead of investing in alternative energy, he decides to go out and harm another world. —XxsquirrelxX
"The twist in Monsters, Inc. is that the corporation is the monster." —Animated_Astronaut
10. Shrek
"It shows how people have hatred for other people just because of the way they are — religion, looks, race, culture, poverty. It has a good lesson that we should love everybody regardless." —JaCrispyMcNuggets
11. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
"The old guy was clearly a sexual predator." —dobbyisfree0806
12. Zootopia
"If Zootopia was a movie with humans instead of animals, it would seem a LOT darker and probably inappropriate for kids because of characters literally going insane, and also the race war." —PoekiepoesPudding
13. The Wizard of Oz
"Glinda the Good Witch pretty much used Dorothy and her friends to kill the Wicked Witch of the West so she could gain power. She may be a good witch but still. Wow." —leatherwolf89
14. Wall-E
"At the end of the day, he takes off his treads and gets into a slot on the shelf and rocks himself to sleep. Those shelves were originally for containing his whole family of identical WALL-Es at the end of their workdays. He was part of a close family that worked and lived together. Now, over a period of 700 years, he's gotten to the point where it's just him all alone in his family home that would have originally housed something like 50 or so of his brothers. I was so sad when that occurred to me." —The_Fat_Controller
15. The Rugrats Movie
"Tommy almost murders his infant brother by covering him with mashed bananas and feeding him to hungry monkeys because he's crying. Shit's dark as fuck." —First-Fantasy
16. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
"The fact that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a children’s movie is still baffling to me. There is a scene with a creepy older man who goes around the town kidnapping children because kids were suddenly illegal. He lured them with candy." —merlin1707
17. Finding Nemo
"A dark movie? Maybe the one about the family where the serial killer killed the mother and all but one of the children. And the one left was left disabled until he's abducted, and his father has to find him with only the help of a developmentally disabled woman?" —rainbowgrower1044
18. Frozen 2
"Elsa and Anna discover their direct paternal ancestors took advantage of an entire race of people for their own selfish gain. Kristoff struggles with loving someone who is emotionally unavailable due to current traumas. Anna loses her last living family member and, yet, is forced to carry on and reverse her family's tragic legacy, risking her own life to do so. Olaf is stuck in a position of a child dealing with the stresses adults around him are feeling and trying to understand it, all through a veil of innocence." —dawndollygolden
19. The Fox and the Hound
"When you realize one of your favorite movies was about an orphan who's brutally hunted by his unlikely friend." —lovasaurus
20. The Princess Bride
"The prince is trying to start a war with another country and planned to kill Buttercup to start it... They leave him alive at the end. Do you think he is going to rethink those evil plots just because his torture buddy is dead? He is still going to be king and one would assume he will find a new ill-fated wife to murder." —ThePrincessInsomniac
21. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
"It’s pretty dark. I read somewhere that he possibly suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. For example, he wears clothes that stand out so he is always the center of attention. He dismisses questions when they are asked because he can’t stand criticism. He placed all those kids in danger with not a care in the world. There’s a lot more examples. It’s weird when you look back on these children stories because you realize it goes a lot deeper." —dahzzr1404