Abbreviated Film list of "Disturbing Animated films"
--CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR LATER FILMS: nudity, SA, CSA, violence, fetuses, child mortality, racial violence and hate-crimes, misogyny, gore and blood, body horror, war crimes, animal ab*se, poop eating, elder ab*se, s3lf harm, inc3st --
Because commenting was taking to long on Reddit, here's my complete list of the Version 3. iceberg chart I made for 'disturbing animated feature (40-60 min) films. --No shorts, tv or mini series-- Films/franchise titles are in italics as in the actual chart. Horror (or what I personally deem as horror for whatever reason) are highlighted in red, non-horror are left white. Movies that 'aren't fully' or 'aren't really' animation are marked in blue.
An entire creator/studio's work being condensed into a single ranking on the chart for convenience are marked with yellow, THO films in these catalogues that deserved their own ranking elsewhere on the chart mean that next to the studio/creator's name is a '*'. My personal condensed reviewratings are marked in this post with a "bad", "mid", "good", "great!" or "FAVORITE" rating at the end.
Let's get right into it:
Disney (any Walt Disney Studios and Disney Toons studios feature films) and Pixar. My FAVORITEs are Beauty and the Beast, Fantasia, Great Mouse Detective, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc personally. For all the horror the donkey-changing scene in Pinocchio struck us with it alone does not make it a horror film) Image Movers (Polar Express, Beowulf Mars needs Moms and Christmas Carol 2009.) *Nickelodeon movies (Jimmy Neutron, Barnyard, The Rugrats and Spongebob movies obv. Exception listed below is Rango) *Cartoon Saloon. (Irish 2D animation studio. My FAVORITEs of theirs are Wolfwalkers and Song of the Sea. Exception listed is The Breadwinner in the reblogs) Bluesky (Nimona, Ice Age, Robots) Aardman. Chicken Run which is a FAVORITE, Wallace and Gromit) Illumination (Minions and Sing) and Dreamworks (Ogrelord and Dreamworks Face) Sony (Spiderverse, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) **Studio Ghibli (exceptions listed are Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies in the reblogs) Soyuzmotefilm. Artsy Russian animation studio (The Snow Queen, The Humpbacked Horse). Prolific handrawn movies that inspired Miyazaki. Rankin/Bass, aka the makers of Rudolph and Frostie and the other staples of 60s-70s holiday programming. Don Bluth (specifically his older work like All Dogs go to Heaven, Land Before Time and Secret of NIMH. I know the man is iconic in the 90s childhood trauma scene but I had to make space and it was easier to put all of his work together like this) Momoru Hosada (director of Boy and the Beast, Mirai, The Girl who Leapt through Time, Wolfchildren, Belle, Summerwars) The Pokemon films The Casper films The Hotel Transylvania films The Monster High films *The Scooby Doo films (exception listed being Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, considering it's infamy) [not properly highlighted in the image] The Unico films. The Howard Lovecraft films. Garbage but are MY garbage.
Standalone films:
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night and Happily Ever After. Mid. Filmation movies made in the 80s to capitalize on Disney film rereleases and act as unofficial sequels. They get kind of dark at parts, especially Pinocchio.
The Last Unicorn. Great! Absolute classic. It is for kids but mature kids and despite that rating there are harpy titties.
Comet Quest/Adventures of Mark Twain. Great! Everyone else on the internet will know this as being the Will Vinton film from which "The scariest scene in animation"/"Mysterious Stranger" scene comes from.
James and the Giant Peach. FAVORITE. Love this movie though I didn't as a little kid on account of thinking it looked freaky. Lots of 80s-90s kids movies are like that so up it goes. While it and Comet Quest were never intended to truly scare anybody they are visually intense movies for little kids and children/people who don't know what to make of em. I get it, considering that's how I feel about 80s fantasy puppet movies.
Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure. Mid. Richard Williams animation is wonderful and Andy and Anne are adorbs, but also intense and frightening to young children. Gooseworx loves it tho.
A Mouse and his Child. Good. Sweet but intense animated film about a father/son windup toy. Apparently it's based on a story that's not for kids??? Shown alongside 'Ringing Bell' mentioned below.
The Brave Little Toaster. Great! Childhood fav, but still very intense and almost needlessly cruel at time.
The Transformers Movie. Good. As a non fan of the franchise it is shocking seeing these made-for-little boy's amusement characters die so horrifically.
Leafie, a Hen into the Wild. Good. Intense and sad 2011 family movie from South Korea. It's grim and has a bummer ending, but not the extent of the movies in the tier under the iceberg I don't think.
The King and the Mockingbird. Great! One of the mandatory viewings of 2D animation. IT'S SO GOOD, but the fluidity might offput some people ala JatGP or RaAAMA.
Ringing Bell. Great! Sanrio (yes THAT Sanrio) animated film about a baby sheep who looses his mother than goes to get revenge on the wolf who killed her. Very sad. Very beuatiful. Technically only 40 minutes but damn.
The Iron Giant. Great! As a kid the moments with the bomb at the end, agent Mansly and even the moment where Hogarth first meets the Giant were pretty scary.
-Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Great! Technically only half animated but it was wrong not to include it mostly for the sake of Judge Do-"WHEN I KILLED YOUR BROTHER?! I TALKED JUST LIKE THIIIIIIIIS!!!"
Fantastic Mr. Fox. Great! Met some people and families who were disturbed by the style of the Wes Anderson film. Another case of "people are scared of stop-motion and so find anything other than Aardman freaky".
Kubo and the Two Strings. Great! One of the best Laika films. Not horror but does get horrific with Kubo's grandfather and Aunties.
Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart. Mid. A steampunk gothic kids??? (lots of sex references; maybe in France it's made for teens and adults) film about a boy who can never fall in love or his clock heart will give out. It's sad and the style may upset people.
Rango. FAVORITE! Trippy lil older teen movie especially with it's style. I don't know how much bits like the dream sequence or Rattlesnake Jake scared kids but they probably did.
Yellow Submarine. Great! Despite not actually being a film for kids a lot of kids can watch it and have and find the psychedelic designs and art creepy.
Nutcracker Fantasy. Great! See Benett the Sage's video on it and the hidden Japanese history of Rankin/Bass.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Great! Another part-animated film but one which is beautiful, sweet and solemn. Not a movie made for kids but one that they could watch and cry with their hipster parents over.
Mad Monster Party. Good. Rankin/Bass Halloween film made with MAD Magazine. Commonly expected monster-puns but also a lot more references to sex, drinking and death in this flick than you'd expect of Rankin/Bass. It slaps.
The Nightmare Before Christmas. FAVORITE! Prolly favorite film ever. I'm still so shocked by people who say the visuals alone make it not a kids film. It is for kids. Kids like dark stuff.
Frankenweenie. Mid but also FAVORITE! I stan despite it's problematicisms (coughcoughToshiakicough) but I still think it's better than Corpse Bride. The grizzliest thing is the method in which some of the monster-pets die.
Corpse Bride. Good. Even as a kid this movie never scared me besides Victor's initial meeting of Emily.
The Book of Life. Mid. I WANT TO LIKE IT MORE! George's Day of the Dead film with some more dashes of death-talk and frights than Coco. George is GOAT and I just wanna like his work more but can't and I hate it.
La Petite Vampire. Mid. ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE if not flawed film based on a French webseries. Cutsey monster-goodness with monster-appropriate references to death and afterlife.
The Halloween Tree. It's over an hour so it counts as a movie. As expected for a Ray Bradbury story about Halloween it has some frights to it.
Igor. Mid. Not that bad. I guess if lesser-grade CGI is 'disturbing' to you somehow it might freak kids out.
Zombrilenium. Bad. Wanted to like this french film more but it's really not very good.
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. Good. The OG 'Scooby Doo but darker' flick. Good children's horror fun.
Osmosis Jones. Good. It's a gross out buddy comedy with genuine horror happening to the anthro-cels. With or without Thrax it's pretty horrifying at parts. Had to go somewhere in this tier for sure.
Ana y Bruno. Mid. A Mexican animated film with a twist I think everyone but me saw coming. Feels very Bluesky-ish despite being about a child who can see other people's hallucinations.
Alice. Great! A mandatory viewing especially for stop-motion fans. In the words of Kyle Kallgreen, what makes this film so unsettling is that it wasn't just made for art; it was legit made for children and not intended as a horror film. Svankmajer made this movie for kids. Tho I do unironically find it less scary than the 55' Disney film.
Paranorman. Good but not my fav. The bit with Agatha and the zombies (even if it's played for laughs) are pretty creepy and also the harassment Norman gets may be disturbing.
Coraline. FAVORITE! "SHE'S A PEACH, SHE'S A DOLL, SHE'S A PAL OF MINE!" Neil Gaiman's crimes will never take this brilliance away from me.
Monster House. Good. Noice solid children's-horror flick which also has no fatalities say for the villain but still manages to be scary. The best ImageMovers film.
Wendell and Wild. Mid. Flawed and badly paced but y'know still about demons, death, possession and prison abuse of the system and made by Selick and Jordan Peele so really how could this not go on here.
Tito and the Birds. Mid. Found it's overall story an execution of said story lacking but the build up and dread the film has does feel appropriate.
Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio. Great! LOVED IT. A movie made for people that kids can watch and not be too disturbed by but still- with or without Del Toro, it IS Pinocchio and a lot of the things that happens in it are messed up.
-The Dark Crystal. Good. Not technically an animated film but I had to mention because there aren't any humans on screen. Messed up, mythological and grim like Oz and Henson wanted. Is there anything to be said that hasn't been said already? Dark is literally in the title.
