Look, it’s a weird hill to die on, especially when I don’t really explain, but children deserve to experience fear, disgust, and discomfort in safe scenarios where they can process those sensations.
Media for children used to be scary and that’s important.
“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” ― C.S. Lewis
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
-- G. K. Chesterton
"Kids can accept anything as long as there is a happy ending."
--Don Bluth
I grew up watching shows like The Trap Door (Claymation eldritch horror for the under-10s), movies like Watership Down and The Secret of Nimh, and reading Alan Garner and Susan Cooper's folk horror for kids. I feel like it did me a lot of good to practice being scared witless in safe, controlled circumstances where there was a happy ending.
And this is what it's all about right it's about letting kids experience challenging things in a safe way. The same with sad stuff happening in kids movies. Occasionally kids movies should be scary or have scary elements, occasionally kids movies should be sad or have said elements because it teaches them that they have agency in these circumstances, that there is a way to move through these circumstances, that these feelings are a part of life in a safe way.
