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  1. #1
    Astonishing Member Timothy Hunter's Avatar
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    Default Anyone Else Find Children's Films As An Adult Disturbing?; Is This Normal?

    I just watched My Neighbor Totoro and came out of the film with a rather uneasy feeling. This is pretty weird because I can watch plenty of films geared towards adults that show the horrors of the real world and get no reaction.

    Children's films feel like alternate universes, because they only show a sanitized view of the world when in reality, life is far more vulgar and cynical.This leads me to thinking while watching the movie, does My Neighbor Totoro take place in a more innocent world than we do or is it supposed to take place in a reality exactly like our own, where everything terrible about real life happens off camera?

    Do I sound insane? Probably.

  2. #2
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    on the surface , my neighbour tororo seemed like an innocent children's movie like pan's labyrinth and there's nothing wrong about it. a child's views is always innocent even if the real world falls apart.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHc8aa13ZSE

  3. #3
    MXAAGVNIEETRO IS RIGHT MyriVerse's Avatar
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    That time the horse got stuck in NeverEnding Story. I never even remembered that happening until I rewatched it with my daughter in my 30s. I must have blocked it out.
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    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Totoro has the mother sick with tuberculosis, so it's not so innocent. But how vulgar and cynical do you want kids' movies to be? Maybe it's more about your world view than the movies.
    I find movies about serial killers and "horror porn" movies deeply disturbing.
    There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!

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    I honestly thought this thread was going to be about disturbing moments that somehow made it into kids movies like when Clayton accidentally hanged him in Tarzan.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    Totoro has the mother sick with tuberculosis, so it's not so innocent. But how vulgar and cynical do you want kids' movies to be? Maybe it's more about your world view than the movies.
    I find movies about serial killers and "horror porn" movies deeply disturbing.
    Yeah, a lot of it comes down to mindset. It's why alien invasion movies are so weird to me now. Either, the alien invasion causes me to have an existential crisis, or I worry the possible allegories to immigration.

  6. #6
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    I think many stories for children are deliberately meant to scare them. THE WIZARD OF OZ and THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR. T. fuelled a lot of my childhood nightmares.

    Adults want to scare children straight. So they make up cautionary tales so we grow up with these innate fears that stop us from transgressing certain social rules. I don't know that any movie for kids became more disturbing when I was all growed up. All of my fears were already fully developed as a child.

  7. #7
    Astonishing Member Timothy Hunter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    Totoro has the mother sick with tuberculosis, so it's not so innocent. But how vulgar and cynical do you want kids' movies to be? Maybe it's more about your world view than the movies.
    I find movies about serial killers and "horror porn" movies deeply disturbing.
    I don't want children's movies to change at all, I'm just saying they're kind of strange how they show a cherrypicked view of reality.

  8. #8
    Extraordinary Member Cyke's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    I don't want children's movies to change at all, I'm just saying they're kind of strange how they show a cherrypicked view of reality.
    I mean, you could really say the same thing about any of Aesop's Fables and all those magical creatures; many of them seem messed up by today's standards, but the bigger picture is the lessons and morals they try to teach, and that's what tends to remain timeless.

    For films, though, if you're reassessing things differently as an adult than when you were a child, it's only proof that you're adding in what you've learned in life since you were a kid, and that's natural. Moreso, if a movie intentionally creates those layers and themes, then that definitely adds to a film's rewatchability factor. Those more surreal or alternate universes help to highlight the discrepancies we face in real life, because in real life those struggles and pains are monotonized and get lost in the background noise of daily life.

    I'm glad Wizard of Oz was mentioned above -- as bright and colorful and almost utopian as Oz seemed initially, the final scene when Dorothy wakes up and points out there had a counterpart in Oz, showed how fantasy really highlighted the things that were in front of her all along, making her see them in a different light. As sweet and picturesque as Oz may have been, her adventures and all those encounters with evil (so no, not quite as idyllic or sanitized at first glance) her appreciate her real life that much more because she didn't notice those things *in* her real life before.

    Not a film per se, but I keep rewatching X-Men: TAS partly because I pick up on things that I didn't notice as a kid, partly because those layers mean both adults and their kids can have a good time watching it for different reasons, and partly because even 30 years later many of its themes are *still* relevant, even if they were coded differently (for example, as a kid I thought it was messed up that Beast put up his best defense in court and still not found innocent -- these days, adults see courtroom injustice *so* much in the news and moreso, Beast showed that, just like in real life, respectability politics are ultimately pointless if the court of law sees you as less than human).
    Last edited by Cyke; 03-01-2021 at 04:23 PM.

  9. #9
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    I don't want children's movies to change at all, I'm just saying they're kind of strange how they show a cherrypicked view of reality.
    ALL movies show a cherrypicked view of reality.
    There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!

  10. #10
    Astonishing Member Timothy Hunter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    ALL movies show a cherrypicked view of reality.
    To varying degrees yes, but children's movies do this much more so.

  11. #11
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    To varying degrees yes, but children's movies do this much more so.
    Have you seen any RomComs?
    There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!

  12. #12
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    Have you seen any RomComs?
    Hallmark is the most sanitized films of all time - and I say this as a big fan of their Good Witch films and series.

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    Astonishing Member Timothy Hunter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    Have you seen any RomComs?
    Ok, but the point I'm trying to make is that many children's films have a tendency to ignore adult subject matter as if it doesn't exist in that reality. For example, My Neighbor Totoro takes places in post WWII Japan. Does that mean that Hiroshina bappened in the same world where a giant Cat-Bus exists? Am I the only one weirded out by that?
    Last edited by Timothy Hunter; 03-01-2021 at 08:30 PM.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter View Post
    Is Cars 2 as realistic as Marriage Story?
    I've never seen a CARS movie, but it can't be any more unrealistic than MARRIAGE STORY. I have nothing in common with those people. The guy is a famous theatrical director and the woman is a famous T.V. star. They both make loads of money and have great clothes, smarmy friends and luxurious living spaces. This is science fiction.

  15. #15

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    Willy Wonka/Charlie and the chocolate Factory creeps me out as an adult, as do a lot of Christmas themed childrens movies. Like those Tim Allen Santa movies. Loved those as a kid. As an adult, yeah a lot of them are pretty freaky.

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