Just as title says: What do you think would be the Darkest Disney Movie(s)?

To me a few of those would be:

Bambi - The mom was killed by a hunter (though off-screen, but still...)

The Black Cauldron - This movie does have a few darker undertones and The Horned King really scared me as a kid and still does, too bad that the plot wasn't a bit better.

But the one movie that is truly the darkest out of these would be:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Let's face it, this movie has genocide, attempted infanticide, lust, and the man behind all of this is using the church as a cover...I could just go on really.

I'd probably agree that Hunchback wins, though I'd also say that Pinocchio is really messed up, what with all the kidnapping and child slavery and turning them into donkeys and being eaten by giant whales and shit.

I guess I'd go with Hunchback. Don't know about Pinocchio as I've never liked it and have never seen it more than a couple of times. I hear it's kind of bad though.

The final battle between Clayton and Tarzan was kind dark. The first time I saw it and was old enough to understand just what happened and how Clayton died I remember saying holy shit!

Tangled had all that emotional abuse.

The Incredibles had some dark moments too.

(***Spoilers)

I agree; all of those films you guys mentioned have a lot of dark undertones.

I remember reading some negative feedback on Tangled because the witch stabbed and killed someone with a knife/sword (which apparently hardly/never happened in Disney films?).

I personally always thought Beauty and the Beast was dark, especially if you've seen all of these films. From what I recall, in the second or third, the broomstick assumes that the candlestick is cheating on her and attempts to kill him. Also, I find it pretty oppressive from a feminist standpoint-- in many ways, Belle staying with the Beast reflected Stockholm syndrome.

Also, is Anastacia a Disney film? That one really scared me as a child.

I had forgotten about Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I've even seen the sequels.

Anastasia isn't a Disney film. It was made by Fox. It's not a bad movie though and yeah has some scary moments. People just tend to think it's Disney because Disney/Pixar have the market cornered. Dreamworks also put out The Road to El Dorado and The Prince of Egypt both of which are also very good and also have their dark moments.

And Tangled

Those are some good points regarding the different studios. Those '90s movies always confuse me because they followed similar animation styles. I do recall the Prince of Egypt being very eerie.

I agree with you on Tangled. I think some of the darkest moments in any Disney film are mostly emotional or psychological. It was pretty unrealistic how they portrayed Rapunzel. She would certainly have several complexes from being locked up and totally withdrawn from the world, right? And Gothel was definitely a psychopath. Yet, she raised a girl who turned out to be very sweet and loving.

I dog on some of these films, but I did enjoy Tangled from a surface level. It's really hard, as an adult viewer to not over-analyze these things.

Yeah, you'd think she'd be a bit messed up after so much isolation and manipulation, but it's still a kids' movie. Can't have the main character mentally damaged. At least not too much. Quasimodo had a similar upbringing and I don't recall him being too messed up either. At least not in the movie.

Oddly enough I was never afraid of any Disney movie.

Hunchback is overall pretty dark but many other movies have their powerful scenes, as well. For example, the Elizabeth Tower scene in The Great Mouse Detective and Snow White's Evil Queen turning herself into an old woman.

Definitely Hunchback. What's weird is that I first saw it about a year ago, and it seems highly inappropriate for kids...can't handle how dark that movie is. And the songs D:

To be honest, The Princess and the Frog has a scarier villain than other Disney movies...he's into voodoo and pretty much summons evil spirits and demons and shit. It's unsettling.

Fantasia, the original D:

The Disney wiki does well in describing the main protagonist: "He has been praised as Disney's best representation of pure evil, and as animator Vladimir Tytla's greatest triumph. As a very "raw" representation of evil, he, in his original appearance, is not placed in the context of any real story, and he and his minions' actions are not committed in pursuit of any discernible goal other than general havoc–wreaking and tyranny on all. Some other media has attempted to give his character more concrete context."

The guy calls all the spirits together that aren't born in “Holy ground" and forces them to dance for him until he gets tired of them and throws them into a fiery pit. The entire movie has this odd creepiness to it withe dark lighting and hand-drawn animations. The music itself is fairly dark, as well, even at happy times. This was my first Disney movie and it scared me half to death (I was like 3), and made it so that any time I saw the "Disney D", I'd cry and ask my grandparents not to make me watch it ;-;

Way to be a childhood killer, Fantasia

Hunchback was definitely pretty dark, it kinda surprises me when I go back and watch it, it was pretty risqué for a Disney movie. Little Mermaid was pretty dark, didn't Ursula get stabbed with a ship and die? Also the Lion King, of course- straight up murder and some other stuff. I hadn't thought about Pinocchio but that's true, looking back that one was pretty dark- it was always a little too weird for me as a kid, I never got into it.

The Black Cauldron had a dark tone but didn't have a 'scary' moment for me. It did get pretty heavy when the furry creature sacrificed himself, there was that. This was considered Disney's 'black sheep' and was a production nightmare; apparently they did some choppy cutting of scenes to shorten the whole thing. Most of the scene of the skeleton army being resurrected got the axe.

I re-watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame as a teenager and realized my memory of it was by far the most hazy compared to other Disney movies I watched as a child. I think it's one of the most 'adult' Disney movies and there were things that just went over my head.

I don't remember what movies made me put my head under the covers as a kid, but there is also more grown-up scary. When Todd and his owner part way in the woods in Fox and the Hound I get so depressed. And when the Incredible's Mom says "there are children onboard!" I get so upset.

On a aside; I read parents commenting on a website about how they would not buy their children Hello Kitty movies because they were too scary. I loved those movies and was never scared, and heck look at the movies their parents watched and they turned out okay.

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