Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Jealousy, hatred, vanity, THE QUEEN IS THE FIRST ANIMATED CHARACTER IN HISTORY TO DELIBERATELY PLAN AND EXECUTE AN ATTEMPTED MURDER TWICE, black magic, and evil witch.
◄ IMDb Polls
Poll: Dark Disney
We are not talking about lighting here. We are talking about subject and content matter about evil, racism, prejudice, cruelty, murder, greed, hatred, insanity, death, and etc.. It has always been in Disney films since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) in order to drive the narrative and provide some adult content to interest them in a children’s film. Thank God, Walt Disney knew when to pull back and not go too far even though he was good at scaring kids and knew exactly how to do it. But some of the latest films, after his death, have gone particularly dark. (I could list some examples here but that would bias the poll.) The dark parts are generally the intense, scary, and not funny parts. So, I’m not asking you which one is your favorite. I’m asking you, “WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK IS THE DARKEST?”*
I’m starting this poll off with ones that I think went straight to black or pretty much the worst. But I’m leaving the rest to you to suggest some that you think went dark. Bring them to the light here for inclusion. Just make sure they are rated over 6.0. I confess that I haven’t seen all of the Disney films but I have seen a lot.
* That was typed deliberately for emphasis.
Make Your Choice
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Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Within minutes after the start of the movie, the movie tells you is it going to go very dark with the talk of betrayal, revenge, greed for money, greed for power, jealousy, stereotype racism, distrust, and keeping secrets. -
Zootopia (2016)
Hatred, bigotry, stereotyping, racism, drugs, mafia, crime, murder, and an attempted coup d’etat. Zootopia is supposed to be a utopia when, in reality, it is not. -
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
This is a fantasy/science fiction horror tale in which the Autumn people of Mr. Dark's Pandemonium Carnival are not human but a vampire-like creatures that grant your deepest desire in return for seizing your soul and make you live in misery or death. They feed on misery. Mr. Dark’s words say it best, “We are the hungry ones. Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well”, “And butter our plain bread with delicious pain.” and “ We suck that misery and find it sweet. We search for more always.” -
The Black Cauldron (1985)
Raising the dead -
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
A ghost story that involves an occult ritual. -
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Maleficent (the character’s name is a word “ adj, causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means”), Maleficent is a vengeful evil dark fairy who plots a murder because her pride was wounded. She is sadistic and delights in the evil she does. And in fact quite lazy by send out others to do her searching instead of doing it herself. She is a class bigot. She delights in taunting her victims as shown in her speech to Prince Phillip (which was actually written for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” (the extras on my dvd for SWatSD has the recording of that scene that was edited from the picture). -
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
Kidnapping and exploiting children. -
Frozen (2013)
The brutal fact in the day in which the story was set, many people didn’t marry for love, but for what they could get out of the marriage. Some works by Shakespeare (“The Taming of the Shrew”) and Charles Dickens (“Our Mutual Friend”) can attest to that fact. And the use of hatred, greed, and superstition too. -
Frozen II (2019)
It carry on the themes of hatred, fear, bigotry, and superstition. -
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
Illegally killing animals for money (poaching) and torturing them. The main villain delights in killing and mocks the kid. -
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
The film is an animated live action hybrid film noir hard boiled detective story with the lurid tale of adultery, money, greed, and murder. And adult sex jokes was supposed to go over the kids heads but …. -
Fantasia (1940)
The “Night on Bald Mountain / Ava Maria” and “The Rites of Spring” segments. -
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
The film talks about fear. The film’s plot contains the villains kidnapping children and bleeding them dry of their screams in a mechanical vampire-like way so that society that the monsters live in somehow can convert the children’s screams into electrical power. It also talks about how children are more desensitized today than in the past because of the easier access to mass media. -
Oliver & Company (1988)
justifying stealing to survive, kidnapping, cruelty to kids, jealousy, sadism (Sykes delights in torture, cruelty, and in a phone call, he wants to hear the details on how someone was tortured), and attempted murder. Sykes’ vicious dogs -
The Rescuers (1977)
Kidnapping, child abuse and child endangerment. -
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Obsession, racism, bigotry, superstition, fanaticism, brutality, and quite literally, in the book, the most humane character is the most physically deformed character in the story, Quasimodo! -
Fantasia 2000 (1999)
(“The Steadfast Tin Soldier” and “The Firebird” segments.) -
Pinocchio (1940)
The Coachman, Stromboli, Pleasure Island, and Monstro the whale -
Pocahontas (1995)
Fear, greed, racism, lying, invasion, betrayal, and let’s face it, Governor Ratcliffe tricks his own people into slavery (indentured servitude) by promising hope of a new life, and then turns the tables on them when they land in the “New World”. -
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
(Suggested by Pencho15) “has murders and dead bodies coming back to life, besides a beloved character turning quite dark.” -
Dumbo (1941)
(Suggested by Mariojacobs) The story is about prejudice, making fun of people who are different, and cruelty to children. Greed and cruelty when all but one of the clowns don’t care if Dumbo gets hurt in a dangerous stunt. Also, alcoholic hallucinations. It is what it says about people that gets dark. -
Bambi (1942)
Man is the villain here. The film deals seriously with death and guns as the mother is shot by hunters. -
The Black Hole (1979)
(Suggested by TheOldJalapenoman) insanity, experimenting on humans, lobotomy (too magnify the horror, cutting into the thinking portion of the brain), turning humans into robotic cyborg zombie slaves. -
Brother Bear (2003)
Fear, anger, hate, refusal to take responsibility for his actions, unjustified murder, and then he is forced to face all the consequences his actions. -
The Lion King (1994)
(Suggested by Breumaster) “The murder of Mufasa by Scar, and Scar's dark conspiracy with the hyenas to overtake the kingdom.” And … “The conspiracy scene is a hint on any fascistic reign or dictatorship in humankind” -
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Added October 13, 2023, (yeah Friday the 13th for 2023) . Do I need to tell you how dark the famous horror story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is?
