Darkness in Family Movies

The world can be dark sometimes, and sometimes we find that a great escape would be watching our favourite movies especially when we were kids or want to revisit the movies we saw as kids, however, sometimes those stories we saw might not always be all happy go lucky because sometimes, they can include darkness, things that do happen in this world, like death, genocide, divorce, struggling families or more. Some might complain about these things because they don’t want children to see such darnkness in the world, but I disagree. The darkness we can get in family movies may sometimes be a bit much, but the reasons they are there is not to scare children, but to help them understand that the world is not always perfect, these problems exist, they can help children maybe develop empathy for people going through certain trials and tribulations of life, it can help children who are going through this know that they are not alone and it can also help them conquer their fears and provide them with a message of hope that, the world isn’t so bad and they will be okay.  Plus, it could also teach them to be cautious of potential danger, since the world can be unpredictable and dangerous, but not to scare them, just to be cautious.

Pixar is no stranger to darkness in their movies.

Monsters Inc is a mostly lighthearted movie, with a bit of darkness about a company being run by someone blinded by corruption, but there was also one bit of darkness that almost happened but had to be changed due to a disaster. At the Harryhausen’s scene, after everyone had to evacuate the building, and Mike and Sulley run off with Boo in a takeout box, the head of the CDA, orders the building to be decontaminated, and Mike comments the date couldn’t have gotten any worse, and just as he says that, suddenly a plasma dome surrounds the restaurant. Well, originally it was going to be blown up, which explains why the duo jumped, the reason it was changed was because 9/11 had happened almost 2 months before the movie came out, it was such a horrifying event and very traumatizing, that Pixar changed it to a dome just to avoid triggering PTSD for those that were around or lost a loved one in the disaster which I greatly respect them for that. The filmmakers said that after the movie got released they got messages from families saying that they enjoyed the movie very much, it got them to get out of the house and have a great time for the first time in a long time. Since the movie shows how to overcome fears and learn that some things that we are afraid of aren’t so scary after all, it was a great way to have families continue living after times of disaster, as it also provided them a sense of hope that things will be okay, Pixar still remains one of my favourite companies and this is one of the reasons why.

Probably, their first dark movie, would have to be Finding Nemo, you’d think a movie about talking fish would be happy and bright, like in The Little Mermaid or SpongeBob (though they can be a bit dark), but they got a surprise as the movie began. After laughing at the classic Knick Knack short from Pixar, they saw the beautiful ocean, and a clownfish couple is enjoying the view and excited to be parents, but all that is taken away instantly, when a hungry barracuda slowly approaches them, Marlin advises Coral to get inside the anemone, but Coral, fearing for the safety of her eggs swims down to them and the monster charges, Marlin tries to fight the beast but the barracuda hits him with his tail, Marlin hits his head on a rock and ends up falling into the anemone unconscious. Hours later, Marlin wakes up to darkness and silence, and it doesn’t take long for the viewers to realize what happened, think of it like Pixar’s Bambi’s mom scene, we see Marlin looking for his wife and finds the grotto is empty, he keeps calling her name before eventually realizing that they’re gone causing him to break down, but there is a ray of hope. As he’s crying over his loss, he suddenly notices that somehow one egg survived, he swims over to it and picks it up, vowing to keep the egg safe, this is why Marlin has become so overprotective towards his son, never letting him out of his sight and overreacts to small things. This helicopter parenting leads to a fight between father and son, Nemo rebelling and eventually getting caught by divers and taken away, Marlin has to go out to the ocean in order to rescue his son, he bumps into a forgetful fish named Dory, and they come across a lot of sea creatures and dangers, from sharks, jellyfish, turtles, an anglerfish and a whale too. Some of the obstacles they come across nearly cause them death, like being chased by a relapsed Bruce, being chased by an anglerfish, nearly getting poisoned by jellyfish, nearly getting swallowed by a whale (though he was actually helping them) and nearly being eaten by a pelican or seagulls. As for Nemo, though he seems safe in the fish tank, he does still come across some dangers himself, when Gill has him jam the filter, though he wedges the pebble into the fan, when he swims through the tube, the pebble slips off and Nemo gets sucked into the filter, luckily the tank gang save him in time, leaving the poor lad shaken up, plus, the escape plan could’ve saved him from death as the dentist plans to give Nemo to his niece Darla, a little girl who has a bad habit of shaking the bag that fish are in and it ends up killing the fish, and Nemo could be the next victim. For a movie about talking fish there sure is a lot of death here. However, the love Marlin and Nemo have for each other doesn’t stop them, when Nemo finds out his father has braved the ocean to look for him, this inspires him to try the filter plan again, only this time he uses a bigger pebble and goes out the way he came in, learning from his mistakes. As for Marlin, he is able to get advice from Crush and Dory who help him understand that he should have trust in his son and allow him to try things alone and to let go of his worries, you may not know what could happen but you need to have faith, getting Marlin to take risks that gets them to their destination, leading to the two reuniting and working together to get Dory out of the net. This movie has the characters go through one death trap to another, yet it still tells a great story about being brave and the consequences of overprotective parenting, a movie that kids and especially parents, or those with emotional issues could relate to, it takes guts to tackle PTSD, yet with Andrew’s excellent directing and the crew at Pixar’s excellent teamwork, they made a great movie, and that’s what makes it one of Pixar’s best movies yet.

I can’t talk about Pixar darkness without mentioning Toy Story 3. The movie shows that Andy is all grown up and is going off to college and the toys are uncertain about what will happen to them, and when most of the toys think Andy threw them away, (he put most of his toys except Woody in a garbage bag and was meaning to put them in the attic, he went to help his sister and when his mother saw the bag in the ground, she thought it was trash and so she took it outside, luckily they escaped before they got put into the garbage truck by a grown up Sid), and Woody is unable to convince them that it was a misunderstanding, they go to the Sunnyside Daycare where it seems like they’ll get played with forever. When Woody tries to convince the toys to come home with him, and they refuse Woody angrily leaves, and ends up in Bonnie’s hands when he manages to escape. The toys soon realize this was a bad idea, when they get roughly played with by really little kids that don’t know how to play with them, from using them for paint, putting Potato Head’s boy parts in their mouths or noses, Rex’s tail coming off and a girl licking Buzz, yikes, Buzz goes to ask Lotso to move them to the Butterfly room with the bigger kids, he reveals his true colours as a power tripping dictator and turns Buzz into demo mode and uses him to imprison the toys and have them endure the torture in the caterpillar room if they want to go to the butterfly room, the daycare is now a prison. When Woody finds out about Lotso’s true nature he comes back to the daycare to save them. This leads to a rather tense escape scene, where the toys work together to avoid being caught by Lotso and his minions, Buzz going into Spanish Mode, Woody and Slink trapping the freaky monkey and eventually going by the garbage bin to escape only for Lotso to stop them and try to throw them away. Even when Woody tries to reason with him reminding him of his old owner, and he just brushes it off, all the other daycare toys turn on him and Big Baby throws him away, but then the villain pulls Woody in the trash with him and the toys join him, after a series of tense moments, when they see they’re about to be put in an incinerator, Losto asks the toys to pull him up to the emergency button, so he can push it, only for him to taunt them and abandon them. As the toys fall close to the incinerator, they try to get out but it never works and they accept their fate and hold each other’s hands, no words are spoken it’s just them accepting their fates and if they go, they’ll go together, luckily, they are saved when the aliens dig them out with the claw, saving us the emotional heartache we could’ve witnessed, if we did see them burn alive. This moment was quite the shock, yet it still was effective. I think we should thank the aliens for saving their lives, we are eternally grateful to them and to lead us to the emotional ending where the toys say goodbye to Andy and move on to Bonnie, otherwise it would’ve been the end.  

 

Disney may be magical but they can show darkness too, even in the early days, they were not always quite as magical.

Let’s start with their second movie, Pinocchio. The story is about a toymaker named Geppetto, who makes a marionette and names it Pinocchio, that night he wishes on a star that Pinocchio will become a real boy, the star turns into a blue fairy who makes Pinocchio come to life, and she tells the puppet that in order to become a real boy, he must prove to be a good boy, being brave, truthful and unselfish and he will become a real boy, and even gets a cricket named Jiminy Cricket to be his conscience. So, a talking puppet and cricket, that should be a lighthearted movie, right? Wrong! Pinocchio ends up in dangerous situations, like two con artists, Gideon and Honest John, the cat and fox, persuade him to skip school and star in a puppet play, despite Jiminy’s protests, and though it goes well, the show is a hit, the puppeteer, Stromboli won’t allow him to go back to his father and locks him in a cage and tells him that once hes too old, he will put him into firewood. After, Jiminy fails to unlock the cage, and the blue fairy comes to help, which leads to Pinocchio lying about why he wasn’t at school, and his nose grew longer and longer, to the point where there was a nest on his nose, this makes him learn that lies grow and he cannot hide the truth and Pinocchio learns to never lie again and the Blue Fairy frees him, knowing he is sorry. So it should be okay now right? Wrong! When the duo race home, Honest John sees him and pretends to be a doctor to “diagnose” Pinocchio and declare his cure is a vacation to a place called Pleasure Island, and though Pinocchio tries to object and leave, they just pick him up and take him to the coach to go to the island, this time he was kidnapped, and Jiminy went after him. Pleasure Island is shown to be a fun place for naughty boys who play hooky or bully others, this place looks like an amusement park, they can eat as much food as they want, they can roughhouse, vandalize and smoke and drink underage. Pinocchio makes friends with a guy named Lampwick and they spend time smoking and drinking. The bit where you see Pinocchio looking sick when he smokes is a great way to convince kids not to smoke. When Lampwick insults Jiminy who tries to get Pinocchio to leave, this angers Jiminy to the point that he decides to leave, but when he goes through the doors, he sees the coachman herding donkeys into crates. He would ask for their names, if they brayed, they would he shoved into crates, and be sent to circuses or mines, and the ones that do talk, we’ll never know what will happen, this makes Jiminy realize the boys have been turned into donkeys and runs to get Pinocchio out. After a terrifying scene where Lampwick transforms into a donkey and Pinocchio grows ears and a tail, Jiminy and Pinocchio flee the place. when they find out the house is empty, the blue fairy sends a letter to Pinocchio to let him know that Geppetto was swallowed by a whale, and Pinocchio is determined to go to the ocean to rescue his father no matter what. He helps him get out of Monstro the whale and sacrifices himself and once everyone is safe in shore, they see Pinocchio in the water, dead. As everyone mourns over him, with Geppetto calling Pinocchio his brave little boy, the blue fairy had seen what Pinocchio did and because of his selfless bravery, she not only brings him back to life, but he becomes a real boy and everyone in the house is happy again. Wow, a movie that shows, kidnapping, child abuse and danger, a movie nowadays would never have that, yet they still succeed in telling a great story. One of the things that is dark about the movie is that like it can happen in real life, the villains get off scot free, the Coachman continues to kidnap boys and turn them into donkeys forever, and never let them go back home to their families, Honest John and Gideon probably continue to commit more crimes and Stromboli is still abusing his puppets and putting on shows. The darkness, though doesn’t ruin the movie, children can relate to Pinocchio, sure he can make mistakes, some that put him in danger, but he’s a naïve kid, and he does learn from his mistakes and tries to be better and because he had a good heart he got his wish to be a real boy and that’s why Pinocchio is a great film for Disney that is still enjoyed to this day.

The Lion King can have a share of darkness. It’s a film that actually shows what can happen with a toxic family member. The movie begins with the Pride Lands celebrating the birth of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi’s cub Simba, who will be the king. Mufasa’s brother Scar, is not happy about it, because he wants to be king, and vows to do anything to get it. when Simba grows up a bit, he is so excited for his father to take him on a tour to show him, around Pride Rock, like any kid he thinks that it means he can do whatever he wants and rule the Pride Lands, but Mufasa tries to teach him how there’s more to being king than that and when Zazu gives a morning report, Mufasa teaches Simba how to pounce and when he does well, he praises him, and when he learns about hyenas, he orders Simba to be sent home. Then, when he goes to boast about it to his uncle, Scar takes advantage of Simba’s naivety and makes it seem like the spot beyond the Pride Lands is an Elephant Graveyard, and tells him “not” to go there, knowing full well, he will. When he takes his friend Nala to see the place, after they ditch Zazu, they see how creepy the place is and they come across some hyenas, named Shenzi, Bainzai and Ed. This results in the lions and Zazu trying to get away from them, Zazu nearly getting boiled and when Nala ends up sliding down a hill, Simba comes back for her and even scratches the hyena, when they get cornered, Simba tries to roar to scare them away, and it sounds weak. When they tell him to do it again, Simba tries to roar only to hear an actual lion roaring, it turned out to be Mufasa, he attacks the hyenas and threatens to never harm his son again. That night, Mufasa talks to Simba about what he did wrong, how much danger he put himself and Nala in and that he could’ve been killed, when Simba tells his father he was just trying to be brave, he explains to his son that being brave is not about being reckless and looking for trouble, he also tells Simba that he was afraid he would lose him and Simba understands, and this leads to a moment of them chasing each other playfully. Then when Simba asks if they’ll always be together, Mufasa knows one day he will leave him, but tells him about how the stars are the great kings of the past being there to guide him and he will be there to guide him too, a nice way to show how those that have passed will be there to guide them even if you can’t see them. Because Scar’s plan to kill Simba failed, he decides to set up a plot with the hyenas. He once again takes advantage of Simba’s naivety, by telling him to wait on a rock because his father has a surprise for him, and even tells him to practice his roar, and Simba does, never suspecting that something is off. He practices his roar, and after doing pretty well, he sees a stampede of wildebeests running towards him and Simba tries to run but it’s so hard because they’re so fast and there’s so many of them. He thinks that his roar caused the stampede but what he doesn’t know is that Scar had the hyenas scare off the wildebeests to cause the stampede, then Scar informs Mufasa about the stampede and Mufasa goes to save Simba from the tree he’s hanging onto. While he succeeds in getting his son to safety, he’s carried off by some wildebeests, he does though try to climb a rock and struggles, he begs his brother for help, but then Scar grabs his paws and says to him, “Long Live The King,” we see shock and sadness in Mufasa’s eyes as he sees his brother’s betrayal before he throws him into the stampede, yes we see him kill Mufasa, though Simba didn’t see Scar push him he’s horrified to see his father fall. This leads to one of the saddest Disney scenes ever, as the stampede ends Simba looks for his father, and when he finally does see him, he sees he’s not moving, and he desperately tries to wake him but he doesn’t and he calls for help and as he cries he nuzzles into his dead father, Disney had guts to show Mufasa’s dead body on the ground, which just made the scene all the more emotional. Then Scar manipulates Simba into thinking that he was responsible for his father’s death and tells him to run away and never return, he ends up coming across Timon and Pumbaa, they take him in and they live a carefree life, and he’s run from his trauma. When Simba grows up, a grown up Nala shows up and when they’re so happy to see each other and spend time together, she tells him that they thought he was dead and they need him because Scar is a terrible king, the hyenas have taken over and there’s no food, but due to the guilt Simba refuses to come back and can’t even explain to Nala why he can’t come back. After he blames himself for what happened to his father, Rafiki shows up to let him know that his father lives within him, and as Simba looks at his reflection in the water, he sees Mufasa and then sees his ghost in the sky, and he reminds him that he is the true king and he has to take his place, this along with Rafiki telling him that while the past can hurt, you can either run from it or learn from it, inspires Simba to go back and confront Scar, with help from Nala, Timon and Pumbaa, he shows Scar he is no longer falling for his lies and demands to be honest when Scar tells him that he was the one who killed Mufasa, and once Scar is eaten alive by hyenas, and Simba takes his true place as king. Depicting childhood trauma and how a toxic family member can take advantage of a child’s naivety is quite a chilling idea, yet it still tells a great story and still remains a timeless classic even to this day.

 

I would like to talk about one of DreamWorks’ best movies and sequels, Kung Fu Panda 2. People thought the first movie was going to be dumb but when they did see it, they were surprised to see how great it was, so they hoped the second movie would do well too, and they were blown away, a lot even think it’s better than the first, I believe that too. I remember seeing the trailers for it and I was just dying to go see it, and once the time came I really enjoyed it and it was worth the wait. This movie also surprised viewers with how dark it was. As Po and the Five fight Shen’s bandits when they invade the musicians village, Po suddenly sees something that triggers a memory of when he last saw his mother and this confuses him, after his father reveals to him that he adopted him and he doesn’t know how he got there, this has Po feeling unsure about who he is, just as that happens Lord Shen returns to Gongmen City (he was banished when he murdered the pandas because he was going down a dark path and he was foretold that if he continued he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white), and the masters of Gongmen City, Master Rhino, Master Croc and Master Ox try to use their Kung Fu skills to fight him, Master Rhino was not prepared for a weapon that is too powerful for Kung Fu, the cannon. Once the news comes to the Jade Palace about Rhino’s death, Shifu sends Po and the Five to go stop him, and it seems like a typical battle, after a series of fights with the wolves, once they meet Lord Shen, the soothsayer questions if Po is here for anything else but he doesn’t, but it’s only when he tries to fight him that Po realizes Shen was there when he last saw his mom and that causes him to let Shen get away. After he explains to the Five why this happened, Tigress tells him to stay because she doesn’t want him to be killed, Po sneaks out anyway and tries to ask Shen questions about what happened that night, but he manipulates Po into believing that his parents never loved him and ends up shooting his cannon at Po and he captures the five. After the soothsayer helps Po recover from his injuries, and encourages him to let his feelings and memories flow, this gets Po to remember how he got separated from his parents, Shen ordered his wolves to get all the pandas, Po’s birth dad Li Shan fought the wolves and ordered his wife to take their son and run away, when the mother panda held her baby, she eventually realized there was nowhere to go and she put her baby in a radish basket and after bidding him a tearful farewell, she went off to get the wolves attention all so her baby would be safe. My goodness, a sequel to a movie with a goofy title starring Jack Black could make people cry? I’m sure you never thought you’d see that happen yet they did and it’s more powerful. After the soothsayer reminds Po to never let the past define him and he remembers the great life he had up to this point, this gives Po the confidence to fight Shen once and for all. This leads to an awesome fight between Po, the five, the remaining masters of Gongmen City and Shifu, and when Shen tries to shoot Po, Tigress ends up taking the bullet for him, though she’s not killed she was a bit weak, this gets Po to use his inner peace to catch the cannon and throw them away, saving Gongmen city. The film succeeded in being dark, while still having the charm that Kung Fu Panda has, though parents complained about it being dark which is why they toned it down in KFP3 (yet it still felt like KFP either way, a bit weak but still effective), it still remains one of a lot of fans’ favourite Kung Fu Panda folm

 

Another dark story I can think of would be Blue Sky’s first movie, Ice Age. Before this franchise got milked completely, there was a first movie that can still be loved. The movie might seem like Shrek in the Ice Age with a grouchy protagonist and wacky sidekick duo, and we get comical moments from Scrat or Sid, if you look more into the movie, you’d see it’s probably more darker than you might remember. The movie has these sabre tooth tigers, who are vowing to eat this human tribe for killing some of their pack, especially the baby, kind of like why Shere Kahn wanted to kill Mowgli. When Diego fails to capture the mother and her baby, his leader Soto orders him to find the baby. As this happens, the dying mother swims over to Manny and Sid, and puts her baby near them before she dies, and after an argument and persuasion from Diego (whos trying to lure them into the sabre tooth trap), Manny agrees to take the baby back to the humans. After a series of shenanigans, from trying to get the baby to stop crying and an ice slide, they go into a cave and they see some paintings, where we see a mammoth family, they lived a happy life, but then some humans came to attack and they ended up killing the mother and her baby, it’s not too hard to realize that Manny was that father, and that’s why he was so grumpy, plus some folks pointed out, that in the scene where we first see him, he was going in the opposite direction, than the animals during the migration, meaning he was possibly considering suicide, talk about darkness, but they did it by showing instead of telling. It also can help us understand why Manny was reluctantly willing to return the baby back to his family, it also is when Diego was having second thoughts about luring them to his pack, especially when they see the baby take his first steps. Once they get close, Diego tells them his true intentions, and at first Manny is furious and unwilling to trust him, but does when Diego tells them he’s their only chance. This leads to a rather intense climax, where Diego turns against his pack, the tigers violently fight each other, Diego gets severly wounded and Manny pushes Soto to a spot where icicles fall on him, and the other tigers flee. Once the fight is over, they see Diego dying on the ground from his injuries, he tells the baby to be strong and take care of Manny and Sid, and tells them to leave him and get to the humans before they leave. It leads to a sweet moment where they bring the baby back to his father, they say goodbye to the baby, and the father gives Manny a necklace on his tusk to say thank you. Its especially sweet because Manny knew what it was like to lose his family and despite humans being responsible for what happened, he is not willing to let the father go through what he did, showing how this journey healed his grieving heart. Plus, being a cat, and having 9 lives, Diego managed to survive and had one more game of peek-a-boo with the baby, except more friendly and it didn’t scare him. While the sequels messed it up, I can appreciate how amazing Ice Age will still be, the ability to make emotional scenes, characters with depth, humor and heart, no crappy sequel will ever take it away. While I find Ice Age 2 to be meh and Ice Age 3 to be good but nothing special, I do praise them for showing Manny moving on and gaining a new family, with finding Ellie and eventually her giving birth to baby Peaches, showing Manny has a family again and it’s such a nice moment for him.

Another film I saw as a child that I didn’t realize was dark until years later was Jumanji. I saw this movie in summer camp when I was like 6 years old, and though I quite enjoyed it, I never thought much about it afterwards, until years later when my brother told me his class watched that movie and it sparked my interest, and revisiting it brought back memories and it also surprised me with how dark it was. Think about it, the protagonist Alan Parrish, is attacked by bullies and finds a strange looking board game. After having a falling out with his loving but strict father, he tries to run away but his friend Sarah shows up and he shows her the game and when both accidentally roll the dice, their pieces move by themselves and they show a clue about what is to come out of the game, Sarah’s move releases bats, and Alan’s move has the game suck him in, yikes! Then, years later, a woman moves into the house with her niece and nephew Judy and Peter, whose parents had died in a car crash, which leads to Judy telling lies to cope with it and denying that she misses them and Peter not speaking very much. They also hear rumors about what happened to Alan, some claim he was murdered by his father and he hid pieces of him in the walls, okay I don’t recall that information when I was younger. Then when the game calls them to come play, they start and they release giant mosquitoes and monkeys, when Judy reads the instructions she realizes that they have to finish the game to get rid of the exciting consequences of this dangerous game, when Peter rolls a 5, he not only releases a lion but also Alan, once he looks around his home he’s so happy and eager to see his parents only to realize from Judy that everyone thought he was dead, as he looks around town, he finds out that the factory closed down because when it seemed that Alan ran away his father Sam spent all his time looking for him, and eventually stopped coming to work, before he and his wife died, making Alan see that his father really did love him. After a while as the kids try to play the game again, but Judy’s rolls don’t work, it makes Alan realize that they’re playing the exact game he started and he has to play and has to find Sarah, when they do find her, we see how this event has traumatized her, she was in therapy for hours and people thought she was crazy, my goodness, it goes to show how trauma can affect and harm a person eternally. This is why she was so scared to play the game, and though it takes time, they all agree to finish the game together. Then, when Alan rolls the dice, he let’s out a hunter named Van Pelt, who Alan is deeply afraid of, because he acts like his father, demanding him to fight like a man (it was intentional because Van Pelt is played by the same actor as his father) so he tries to run from the crazy gun man before coming back to the remaining party. After a series of shenanigans, when Peter turns into a monkey because he tried to cheat, when Alan confronts him, he doesn’t show anny affection and tells him to stop crying and face his problem like a man, only to realize he’s being a jerk and that kind of approach is wrong and he apologizes, this shows a person realizing the parenting skills might not have been great and is willing to break the cycle, deep for a family movie. While the scenes following can be scary for those with arachnophobia, there’s also another something I never noticed as a child until I revisited it, at one point this purple flower that shoots poisonous barbs, shoots some at Judy and not too long after, we see her collapse and pretty much die, on one hand, at least she’ll be joining her parents again, on the other hand, geez! Luckily it’s all fixed, when Van Pelt corners Alan, he doesn’t run or hide he stands there and is willing to finally stand up to him, which is him basically standing up to his father and willing to confront his fears, this bravery gets Alan to win the game, and not only do the consequences of the game vanish, but this also takes Alan and Sarah back to 1969, when the game started, giving Alan a second chancw, he was able to make up with his father, who was now able to show a loving side and he also took responsibility for a mistake he made so his friend Carl Bently wouldn’t get fired when he took the fall, and when we cut to the present time, the factory is having a Christmas party, Carl got his job back, Alan and Sarah are married and they hire the kids’ father and even stops him and his wife from going on the trip that killed them, because Alan confronted his demons he gave himself and everyone a happier life. This movie has themes, of toxic masculinity, death, trauma and so much more, yet is still manages to be a thrilling adventure and still can give you a good laugh with good old Robin Williams, this is a movie that can still inspire kids to face their fears, break cycles and to be brave, especially in this hard world we live in, that’s why this movie shall remain timeless.

 

It can be tricky to use darkness in family films because it could frighten or traumatize viewers and especially kids, I guess considering the scary world we live in that might be why things in family movies aren’t as dark as they used to be, but I think having darkness in family movies is still a good idea (as long as it doesn’t go too far), because it can help kids understand that the world isn’t always going to be perfect and they will come across hardships and to be cautious of potential danger, but those movies also provide hope that there is good in this world and they can overcome these challenges and I think the movies I mentioned are great examples of that.

What family movie do you find to be dark nowadays? Are some movies from your childhood a lot darker than you remember? Feel free to comment!