- 9/4/2024
Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the scenes from animated films that caused a stir due to mature themes or shocking content.
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00:00I thought we were partners.
00:01We are, but we're not equals, not even close.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the scenes from animated films
00:10that caused a stir due to mature themes or shocking content.
00:14I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.
00:19Number 20, Mrs. Brisbane Trapped in a Cage, The Secret of Nimh.
00:23You would think an animated film about a widowed mouse wanting to move
00:26would be wholesome and cozy, but this is a Don Bluth film,
00:30which pretty much guarantees at least a dose of nightmare fuel for kids.
00:39Mrs. Brisbane endures many dangers and difficult moments in her quest.
00:42In one particular scene, she escapes from a birdcage filled with water.
00:46Mrs. Brisbane takes a long while to get out, and the scene has a few fairly grisly details.
00:51It's a harrowing sequence for kids, and even adults.
00:54Just give this poor mouse a break.
00:57Number 19, Chicken Pies, Chicken Run.
01:12A film about chickens trying to escape being slaughtered and made into pies
01:16is bound to have some controversial moments.
01:18Chicken Run doesn't hold back on the execution either,
01:21especially in the scene when the Tweedies choose rebellious Ginger to be the first to be baked.
01:26Cocky rooster Rocky saves Ginger, but not before they almost get squished,
01:40sprayed by vegetables, and trapped in an oven.
01:43As they escape, the whole pie machine breaks down,
01:46and that isn't even the end of the pie machine horrors.
01:51Thanks for the horror interlude, Chicken Run.
01:54Number 18, Pink Elephants on Parade, Dumbo.
01:57It's a classic Disney film about a sweet elephant with big ears.
02:01The film hasn't cured criticism due to its contents,
02:03including stereotypical and racist portrayals and scenes of cruelty to animals.
02:08One scene that sparked controversy is when little Dumbo gets drunk
02:12and dreams of a fantasy scene about marching pink elephants.
02:24This quirky parade gets increasingly deranged
02:26as the elephants morph into different technicolor creatures.
02:29For children, the hallucination could be lurid nightmare fuel.
02:33For adults, it's a trip alright.
02:39Number 17, Becoming the Panda, Turning Red.
02:43This wholesome coming-of-age Pixar film nevertheless
02:45incurred some controversy with its comic scene.
02:48Thirteen-year-old May is a regular middle schooler in early-oughts Toronto
02:52when she discovers she can transform into a giant red panda
02:55in moments of strong emotion.
03:04Desperate to hide her sudden transformation from her overprotective mother,
03:07May inadvertently gives her mom the wrong idea.
03:10Believing May to be on her time of the month,
03:12Ming starts to dive into a version of the talk that all parents and teens dread.
03:22The realistic and upfront talk of menstruation and puberty
03:28made Turning Red a favorite for some, but it also ruffled feathers.
03:31China banned the film, and Kuwait refused to distribute it.
03:35Number 16, The Blender's Death, The Brave Little Toaster.
03:39The strength and trouble with anthropomorphic characters
03:41is that the audience can find them extremely empathetic.
03:44When a scene takes a harrowing turn, emotions run high.
03:47This classic film about living, breathing appliances
03:51has too many of those kinds of scenes to count.
03:53Clown dream, anyone?
03:57But one of the most striking moments
03:58is when an appliance store manager sells a blender motor.
04:01The blender tries to hide from him, but unsuccessfully.
04:04From there, we get a grisly sequence of the appliance's death
04:08portrayed as a kind of mutilation, complete with dripping oil.
04:16The scene's horror-style direction, paired with a foreboding score,
04:20goes beyond usual animated violence into something truly disturbing.
04:24Number 15, Hellfire, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
04:28Did the filmmakers have to include Frollo's trouble with the fireplace?
04:31Mature scenes are rare in animated films meant for children.
04:35Disney pushed the envelope considerably with this sequence.
04:38The villainous Frollo wrestles with his lust for the beautiful Esmeralda in Hellfire,
04:42composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.
04:50Including a seductive flame representation of Esmeralda
04:56and faceless robed jurors glaring down at Frollo,
04:59this sequence portrays the full intensity of Frollo's hatred and corruption.
05:12The film as a whole garnered backlash for its appropriateness for children,
05:15particularly from religious groups.
05:18Number 14, Pleasure Island, Pinocchio.
05:21This classic film about a puppet who wants to become a real boy
05:24definitely has some intense scenes for little ones.
05:27In order to complete his transformation, Pinocchio must be honest,
05:30unselfish, and true to himself, but he is often led astray by unscrupulous men and bad vices.
05:36Foxy con artist Honest John persuades Pinocchio to vacation at Pleasure Island,
05:40where young boys fight, drink, gamble, and smoke cigars.
05:47Little does Pinocchio know that the island transforms boys who engage in bad behavior
05:58into donkeys, who are then sold for labor.
06:01The implications are disturbing enough,
06:03but the sequence when Pinocchio's friend Lampwick turns into a donkey
06:06really had us asking the question,
06:08This is for kids?
06:18Number 13, Arabian Nights lyrics, Aladdin.
06:22Disney's issues with racial insensitivity predate Aladdin,
06:25but the 90s film has one of the most egregious examples.
06:28Written by Alan Mankin and Howard Ashman,
06:30the original lyrics of the opening song Arabian Nights proved immediately controversial.
06:38The violent reference prompted outrage from groups,
06:44including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
06:47Critics also pointed to stereotypical depictions
06:49and inaccuracies in the portrayal of Arab societies.
06:52The lyrics were changed for the 1993 video release,
06:55to reference the setting's climate instead.
06:57Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense,
07:01it's barbaric, but hey, it's home.
07:04The 2019 film adaptation also changed the line describing Agrabah as barbaric.
07:08Where you wander among every culture and tongue,
07:12it's chaotic, but hey, it's home.
07:15Number 12, Song of the South, Song of the South.
07:18This is probably hands down the most egregious Disney film.
07:22Based on Reconstruction-era Uncle Remus folktales,
07:25Song of the South is set on a Georgian plantation after the Civil War.
07:29It features stereotypical depictions of African-Americans,
07:32with exaggerated dialect and subservient status.
07:44Protests erupted at the time about the film's offensive characters
07:47and the portrayal of the Reconstruction-era in the South.
07:50Disney did not release the full film on home video
07:52and did not put it on its streaming service, Disney+.
07:55It also eventually retooled the thematic attraction Splash Mountain,
07:58which had elements from the film.
08:13Granted, this was clearly marketed as an animated movie for adults.
08:17Based on a satirical comic strip of the same name,
08:20the film follows slacker cat Fritz,
08:22who sleazes and womanizes his way through New York City in the 1960s.
08:37One scene in particular concerns a naked Fritz in a bathtub with other cats.
08:41The film's depictions of his adventures,
08:43which includes drug use and sexual situations,
08:46helped to land it an X rating,
08:47the first ever for an American animated film.
08:50It was also criticized for racial stereotyping
08:52due to its depictions of African-American crows and Jewish caricatures.
08:56This is definitely not a film for kids.
08:58Or the faint of heart.
09:16Ever been talking to a millennial
09:17and suddenly they go quiet and get a distant look in their eyes?
09:20That's them thinking about the moment their hero died.
09:23Before Starks were dropping like flies on Game of Thrones,
09:26the Transformers movie shocked everyone
09:28with the death of one of its main characters,
09:30the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime.
09:43He was a classic cartoon hero,
09:45displaying all the admirable traits you'd expect,
09:48except, apparently,
09:49the ability to not get murdered by the world's evilest villain.
10:00We can still hear Megatron's laugh.
10:09If you still think cartoons are just for kids,
10:11this movie will fix that.
10:13Permanently.
10:14It also might leave you scarred and broken.
10:16Watership Down is a British animated movie
10:18based on the book by Richard Adams.
10:29The plot follows Fiverr after he has an apocalyptic vision
10:32and attempts to warn his clan of rabbits.
10:34The movie depicts some genuinely shocking moments of violence
10:37as the rabbits fight other animals and each other.
10:39The brutality of this film is sure to leave you speechless.
10:44Run?
10:46I think not.
10:52This film is one of the earliest examples
10:54of Disney's proud tradition
10:55of killing off their protagonist's loved ones.
10:57While enjoying the first bit of grass after a long winter,
11:00Bambi and his mother's quality time together
11:02is interrupted by an approaching unseen hunter.
11:04Faster, Bambi!
11:06Don't look back!
11:08Keep running!
11:09Fairly tame by today's standards,
11:11the details of the doe's death are mercilessly left offscreen.
11:14However, at the time of its release,
11:16it was almost unheard of in a kid's movie
11:18to kill off a character in such a cold and merciless fashion.
11:21And the scene received much criticism
11:22from reviewers and audiences alike.
11:25Your mother can't be with you anymore.
11:28Heck, even Walt Disney's own daughter Diane
11:30said he went too far with this one.
11:36Even more proof that the Mouse House
11:37isn't as wholesome as we thought.
11:39The climax of this fairy tale includes a wedding
11:41where Sea Witch Ursula almost steals Prince Eric
11:43from the titular Little Mermaid.
11:45However, the clergyman overseeing the ceremony
11:48seems to be a little too excited for the upcoming festivities.
11:52If you look closely in the movie's original version,
11:54there appears to be a pronounced bump in his pants.
11:57It's been argued that the protrusion in question
11:59was actually his knees,
12:00but that's not how an Arkansas woman saw it.
12:08The infamous scene,
12:09along with some suggestive imagery on the film's VHS,
12:12influenced her to file a lawsuit against Disney,
12:14although it was quickly dropped.
12:19They don't make them like they used to, kids.
12:21They really don't.
12:23Wizards is a 1970s sci-fi fantasy film
12:25set in a post-apocalyptic future.
12:27The movie is about two brothers,
12:29Avatar and Black Wolf.
12:30Guess which one turns out to be bad.
12:42The evil Black Wolf rises to become the leader of the land of Scorch,
12:46with its mutants, ogres, and goblins.
12:48He fails to defeat the elf army until one day,
12:51he discovers an ancient projector
12:52with reels of Nazi propaganda footage.
12:55He uses this imagery to spur his armies to victory.
13:03Um, did director Ralph Bakshi
13:06seriously intend this to be a family picture?
13:13You know things are about to go bad
13:14when there's green lightning.
13:16In this terrifying scene from the Don Bluth classic,
13:18Charlie the dog has visions of his descent into hell.
13:26There's a creepy bone boat,
13:28the requisite hell lava,
13:29and of course,
13:30the horned one himself.
13:32Scenes of hell and demons biting your nose are scary enough,
13:35but when it's happening to a dog,
13:36it just seems worse.
13:37You can imagine people going to hell, sure,
13:39but a dog?
13:41Those things are so innocent!
13:43No wonder this controversial scene traumatized so many kitties.
13:58If you walked into this computer-animated flick
14:00expecting something family-oriented,
14:02then you probably didn't bother to read the cast list,
14:04which includes the likes of Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill.
14:07While Sausage Party is full of naughty moments,
14:09the filmmakers topped themselves in the final act
14:12with anthropomorphized food having sex.
14:23Perhaps the most shocking thing from this scene
14:25is its creativity.
14:26It had the obvious hot dog and bun gag, of course,
14:29but it also had some positions we wouldn't have thought of.
14:31Not that we think about that sort of thing.
14:39After traumatizing the world,
14:41the makers of Watership Down decided to bring
14:43a little happiness and cheer into our lives.
14:46Yeah, right.
14:47This animated movie is also based on the work of Richard Adams
14:50and is about two dogs that escape a laboratory
14:52where animals are being experimented on while alive.
15:00Eventually, one of the dogs tries to befriend a human he sees,
15:03but in trying to climb on him,
15:05accidentally steps on the trigger of the man's gun,
15:07which shoots him in the face.
15:10Fun stuff.
15:15The look on the dog's face after seeing what he did
15:17is probably the same look any parent had
15:19after accidentally renting this movie for their kids.
15:26Jessica Rabbit was a bombshell with unreal curves
15:29and hair kissed by fire,
15:31and she was animated.
15:32Such overt sexuality in a cartoon character
15:35was just not common at the time in mainstream movies.
15:39You don't know how hard it is being a woman
15:43looking the way I do.
15:45Most shocking of all,
15:46when the film was released on Laserdisc,
15:48some, um, more observant viewers
15:51slowed down a scene where Jessica is sent flying from the car.
15:54If paused at just the right time,
15:55Jessica could apparently be found going commando.
16:04While it's unclear if the animators
16:05were actually trying to sneak a crotch shot into the movie,
16:07we can definitely see why the scene would stir up so much controversy.
16:27Number 1.
16:28Batman and Batgirl getting it on.
16:31Batman The Killing Joke
16:32This one was a real shocker.
16:34This animated DC feature
16:36is based on the infamous Alan Moore graphic novel.
16:38As with all adaptations,
16:40there's bound to be a few changes here and there,
16:42but this one takes the cake.
16:43This isn't about me.
16:44It's about us.
16:45It's about you getting protective and sitting in judgment.
16:49I won't have it.
16:51Then get out.
16:53In this scene,
16:54Batgirl quite unexpectedly gets hot and steamy with the Kid Crusader.
16:58It's creepy because of their age difference,
17:00it's creepy because of how Batgirl looks up to him,
17:02and it's creepy because he's supposed to be her mentor.
17:05It's just plain creepy.
17:07Not to mention controversial.
17:09It was just sex for God's sake.
17:10It doesn't have to mean anything.
17:12It's not like we have to care.
17:13I don't care.
17:14You don't care.
17:15We just go back like it was.
17:16That's all.
17:17Please.
17:20Later.
17:20What film controversy will always stick with you?
17:23Let us know in the comments down below.
17:35Be sure to subscribe to our channel to be notified about our latest videos.
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