Top 6 Most Traumatizing Moments in Childhood Movies

There are a lot of traumatizing moments from childhood movies that I have carried with me...throughout my entire life, basically.

These scenes are ordered from least to most traumatizing.  In other words, these are the scenes I found to be especially disturbing when I was little.

1)  The doll head in Toy Story

Okay, I didn't really grow up with Toy Story.  I think I only watched it once.  But I will always remember the Doll Head Scene.  This thing just really creeps me out.  I mean, look at it.  What's so creepy about it is that it's nothing but a head, with spider-like arms attached to it (due to my fear of insects and spiders, this makes me very uncomfortable).

Years later, as a teenager, I got really creeped out by the baby in Toy Story 3, probably because it reminded me of the doll head from the first movie, and my fear of toy babies was reawakened.

I think one of the reasons people find things like toy babies or the laughter of children to be creepy, is because something seemingly innocent is made to seem not quite right.  People sense something is off about it, and that creeps them out.

2)  The banshee in Darby O'Gill and the Little People

While the doll head may have been disturbing, it didn't make me hide behind my pillow.  In Darby O'Gill and the Little People, one of my favorite childhood movies, a lot of suspense is built up towards the appearance of the banshee.  As a kid, I knew what was coming when I heard the wailing of the banshee, so the tension was extremely high by the time it was revealed.

What's most impressive about the banshee is how frightening it manages to be, even if the special effects weren't as advanced when the movie was made.  There's a scene where Darby is about to open the door of his house, and he knows the banshee is waiting on the other side of it, and so does the person watching from behind their pillow, so the moment Darby opens the door and the banshee rushes forward is very effective.

3)  The blueberry scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version)

I love Roald Dahl, but his most famous book happens to be my least favorite.  I prefer Matilda and The Witches to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I find Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be very...unpleasant, somehow.  It's just not for me.  So, naturally, I didn't really enjoy the movie when I watched it for the first (and last) time at my grandma's house.

Looking for a screencap of this scene was a very uncomfortable
experience, so I'm pretty sure I still haven't gotten over it...

For some reason, the girl turning blue and blowing up into a blueberry terrified me.  It really messed with my head.  I think gross things tend to scare me the most, and something about it disgusted me (and therefore terrified me).  Overall, it made me extremely uncomfortable, and still does.  It might not be the most frightening thing on this list, but in my opinion, it is definitely traumatizing - at least it was for me.

4)  The pig scene in Spirited Away

I think something about food disturbs me, because this also has to do with food.  Spirited Away is one of my favorite animated films, and definitely my favorite Studio Ghibli film, but there were quite a lot of frightening scenes that strongly affected me as a child.

The scene I remember being most frightened by, is the scene Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs.  Or rather, they turn themselves into pigs by consuming too much food.

This also plays into the gross factor, so it disturbed me quite a lot.  In fact, it disturbed me so much the first time I watched it, that I turned the TV off and couldn't watch it again until years later.  I was convinced my mom and grandma were going to turn into pigs every time I saw them eating.  I didn't eat anything for the rest of the day.

5)  The plagues in The Prince of Egypt

Oooooooh boy.  Alright, first of all, words cannot express how much I love this movie.  In my opinion, The Prince of Egypt is one of the best animated movies of all time.  Actually, that's not even an opinion, that's just a fact.

There's a lot of heavy material in this movie, but the part that genuinely disturbed me was the plagues.  Everything about it - how the music starts out faint and builds up, getting louder and louder, how more and more frogs come out of the water, the disease, the insects.  Especially the insects.  I still get chills.

6)  Pinocchio (just, the whole movie)

My parents agree with me that the donkey scenes in Pinocchio are incredibly disturbing and upsetting.  

It isn't the only part of Pinocchio that I find disturbing, but for me, it is definitely the heaviest.  I think the worst part is that once the children become donkeys, they're told they can never see their mothers again.  That is a very upsetting thought to a child.  Overall, Pinocchio is a very heavy movie for its target audience (if you're sensing some bitterness right now, you're right, because this movie was very unpleasant to me as a child).

I think heavy moments are good to have sometimes, and kids deserve to have intelligent, insightful, and meaningful films.  But sometimes, it can get a little too disturbing.

Halloween

It seems that the holiday of Halloween has been downplayed over time.  Some people try to make it less frightening and feel the need to suppress it.  For example, some parents make their children trick or treat during the day time.  That takes all the mystery and excitement out of Halloween.  Why do we, as a society, feel the need to contain everything so that it is tame?  That says to me that there is something freeing about Halloween that makes some people nervous, and they feel like they need to push it down.  Frankly, it's too cool of a holiday for people to stop celebrating.  There's a reason so many celebrate it to this day.

It has become the norm for only young kids to go trick or treating.  When I was a kid, there would be crowds of people trick or treating on Halloween night, and a lot of people participated in it.  But as the years went by, fewer people trick or treated, and I was beginning to be pressured not to trick or treat any more because I was "too old".  I was still a kid, but people began to think that only small children should participate in trick or treating.  I wasn't too happy about this, and it bothered me when an adult commented on it while giving me candy.  They would usually say something like, "aren't you too old for trick or treating"?

But the fact is, lots of teenagers like to participate anyway.  I don't believe it's fair to leave them out, especially when there doesn't seem to be many places for them to go and socialize.  I remember that there were sometimes a group of teenagers at the park I would go to as a kid, because they didn't really have anywhere for people of their age to go and have fun.

I know my great grandparent's generation had fun social events in their community during the late twenties, and again during the war years - they would go to dances.  I've noticed that people don't really go to dances any more, at least not usually.  In fact, most people don't know how to dance.  Teenagers are also worked too hard in school, and because of this, they undergo too much stress, and don't have as much time to socialize with their peers, something which surely is a human need for their age group especially.  I find it unnerving that people in their youth have most of their teenage years swallowed up by worrying about school.  So it makes me happy that a lot of teenagers my age have been deciding to go against the norm and trick or treat anyway.  I completely understand why they still want to - it's fun, freeing, and nostalgic, because they probably went trick or treating when they were little.  Why should we let go of childhood completely, just because of our age?  Does not being a child any more mean we can't have any fun?  Well, maybe it does, but not for me.  I think we should always keep in touch with our childlike side, because when we were children, we knew how to be free.

A jack-o'-lantern I made a couple years ago for Halloween.

Halloween was a part of my childhood.  Every year I looked forward to October, because it meant that one of my favorite holidays was approaching.  I loved picking out a pumpkin, carving it, then watching it glow in the dark after my dad lit the candle inside it.  I also loved dressing up in a costume and going trick or treating with friends.  The best part was going from door to door, and seeing the decorations all lit up in front of each house.

The picture above is of me on Halloween night when I was 12 years old.  I was trying to look like the Faery Queen from the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin", but most people thought I was an angel.  This frustrated me, so I kept having to repeat that I was not an angel, but in fact a Celtic Faery Queen.  They were a tad bit confused.  Some guessed I was a fairy, and only one or two people caught on that I was something Celtic.  Below is an illustration of the Queen of the Fay from the picture book I had when I was little.  The Queen of the Fay is the woman on the right, almost completely dressed in green.

I have always felt that Halloween is a very unique and interesting holiday.  The atmosphere it creates draws people to it.  It is the one holiday that is dark and encourages people to face their fears, instead of suppressing any dark emotions we may have.  Our society tends to numb its feelings and dwell in a pretend world too much, shying away from anything real and acute, even though such experience is a natural part of our humanity.

Halloween comes from Celtic origins, when the Irish and Scottish were still Pagan, and before Christianity entered their lands.  In ancient times, the Celts would celebrate Samhain, a festival that celebrated the darker half of the year, which took place from sunset on October 31st to sunset on the first of November.  This festival appears in much of Irish mythology.  The fact that Halloween comes from Pre-Christian Ireland only makes me love it more, as I am interested in ancient Ireland.  It is wonderful to have a bit of ancient custom survive the past.  I know some people who do not celebrate it for certain reasons, but I do not believe that it is wrong to celebrate Halloween.  I will always look fondly on it as one of my favorite holidays as a kid.

Growing Up Backwards

Something I've noticed is that when people are little, they want to grow up, and when people are grown up, they want to be little again.  When we're tweens we want to break free of our childhood and when we are teenagers we want to re-connect with it.  Perhaps it's because we figure out how stressful it is to be a teenager and we realize how much freedom we lost when we lost childhood.  When we're in middle school we want to act cool, and we detach ourselves from sentimental belongings, but when we're in high school we just want to hug our stuffed bunny, and our want for growing up simmers down to indifference.  At least, all of this has been something I've observed in many people.  As for myself, I never wanted to let go of the stuffed bunny - I wanted to play all day with no worries for as long as possible.  I hated the idea of growing up when I was little.  I remember crying on my fifth birthday because I was heartbroken I was never going to be four years old again.

Every girl I knew that was my age when I was little wanted to be a teenager.  They would watch Lizzie McGuire or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and other shows or movies based on teenage characters.  I remember watching The Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews at one of my best friends' houses when I was little.

Well, I remember liking Julie Andrews in
this movie, but that was about it.
I didn't know about Anne Hathaway then.

The truth was, I hated those teenage-y and over-the-top girly tv shows and movies.  Hated them.  I despised them, and I found little enjoyment in watching what little I did watch of them.  But then, something a bit confusing happened to me as a teenager.  Suddenly, I felt nostalgia for all of these teenage-y shows and movies that every girl I knew loved when they were little.  I started to like them.  Well, except for Lizzie McGuire.  I still find that unbearable.  But take Ella Enchanted with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy, for instance.  Ella Enchanted is exactly the sort of movie I used to regard as an enemy.  But now, I love it.  It's such a light-hearted (yet impressively emotional and even a bit dark at times) movie and one just can't help but feel a certain fondness for it.  I mean, come on.  They sing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" at the end.  Who could dislike that?  Frankly, Ella Enchanted is an adorable movie.

Hey look!  It's Fantine when she was young!

I suppose this was when men were kind, love was blind, and the world was a song, wasn't it Fantine?  I guess he did go breaking your heart in the end.  I wonder if Prince Charmont is Cosette's father...

My Favorite Color: A Becoming Shade of Green

If I were asked what my favorite color is, I would usually answer either "green" or "green and blue", or something along those lines.  But if I were to delve further into the idea of what my favorite color is, my answer would be more specifically, a certain shade of green.  

When I was little, I loved to read story books.  One of my favorite story books was The Fairies' Ring.

A certain shade of green pops up in many of the illustrations throughout The Fairies' Ring.  Most of them show a fairy in a green gown.  The exact shade of green the fairies are wearing is my favorite color.  I like it more than any other color.

Below are two of the illustrations that show this shade of green.  It's a very rich green, and it isn't very dark or very light.  It's more in between;  it reminds me of how clovers look after it has rained.  

I have always really liked the introduction of this book.  It says:  

"Are fairies real?  No.  If you are a scientist who needs proof beyond faith, beyond anecdote, beyond mouth-to-ear resuscitation, there are no fairies.  If you are modern, if you are an adult, if you cannot remember childhood, if you need irrefutable facts, there are no fairies.  Yes.  If you are from the nineteenth century or earlier; if you are a storyteller, a peasant nurse, a grandmother, a flower lover, a child, then there are fairies."

So where does the phrase "a becoming shade of green" come from?  Well, it's kind of a long story...

The first time I ever saw Babar:  King of the Elephants (1999) was when I was either three or four years old.  My favorite scene was when Babar sang a song called "I Can Take Good Care of Me".  During Kindergarten I memorized the entire song from start to finish and performed it in front of my class (and at the end of my performance I posed and shouted "Yeah!" as if it were a Jazz number).  Anyways, the suit that Babar wears is described throughout the movie as a "becoming shade of green".  If you have never seen this movie, you most likely have no clue what I am talking about.

So, what does this story have to do with the topic of this post?  I dunno.  

Okay, just kidding.  

The real answer is:  not much, except that this song and this movie come to mind whenever I think of my favorite color.  I think the reason is because I associate this particular color with my childhood memories. To me, green is also a symbol of life and rebirth, as it is for many other people.

My Harry Potter Fandom

It all started in fourth grade.  One school day during lunch, I walked into the library, in search of a book.  I had seen the first and second Harry Potter films in first grade, but I don't recall really making the connection when I came across a row of Harry Potter books on the shelf.  My memories of watching the first two Harry Potter films were slightly blurry, and only certain scenes came to mind when I thought of them.  I hadn't really understood what the Harry Potter films were about, or who the characters were.  In first grade, I only really took in the atmosphere of films, and certain scenes would leave an impact on me and stay in my mind, but I never completely understood what was happening in them.  So I didn't really make the connection between the books and the two films I had seen before.  So, in a way, my discovery of Harry Potter did not begin with seeing the first two films in first grade, but when I began reading the books in fourth grade.  I checked out Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and began to read it.  Immediately I was swept away by the story, the characters, the atmosphere of the series.  I read book after book, so that by the time I was in the fifth grade, I had come to the fourth book in the series.  For some reason, I never finished the fourth book.  I started reading it, but I found it less interesting than the previous ones.  Not soon after I had started it, my dad bought me the fourth Harry Potter movie as a surprise one day, having caught on to the fact that I was obsessed with Harry Potter.  I watched the movie, and after I had seen it, I didn't feel like reading the book, since I already knew what would happen.  So I skipped the fourth book in the series, and moved on to the fifth book.  By sixth grade, I was finishing reading the sixth book.  I remember very vividly (spoiler alert if you haven't read the sixth Harry Potter book before) when I read the scene in which Dumbledore dies.  I was sitting in my car, waiting for my brother's art class to finish, when I read that scene.  That was one of the few times a book has ever made me cry.  I couldn't believe it had happened.  Professor Dumbledore was a well beloved character, and would be painfully missed in the next book.  Not long after I had finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I excitedly moved on to the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is the last in the series.

I loved all of the Harry Potter books dearly, especially Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which opened this whole new world of fantasy and imagination for me.  You know how reading a book takes you into a world which you have trouble leaving when you have finished reading it?  I didn't want to leave the world of Harry Potter when I had finished reading the series.  I had Harry Potter in my mind almost all of the time.  I went through an incredibly long phase of being obsessed with Harry Potter.  I had read all of the books by J. K. Rowling (except for the fourth one), seen and loved all of the movies with Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasely, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger.  By the way, I used to think her name was pronounced Her - mi - own, instead of Her - mi - nee.  When I began to get into watching the films, I realized her name was not pronounced like that.  So from then on, I pronounced her name differently in my mind when I read the Harry Potter books.  Her character never felt exactly the same for me after the change in pronunciation, though.  It's funny how much a name helps to create a character. 

When I was younger, I would often wish I could receive the letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  I even designed the kind of wand I would want to have, what sort of owl I would like, and what house I would be in.  I've always wanted to be in Ravenclaw, but I think it more likely I would end up in Hufflepuff.  I decided I would want to play Quidditch, and fly on a broom.  I even imagined meeting Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.  As Harry Potter grew up and the films continued, I grew up.  It was as if the Harry Potter series grew up with me.  This made Harry Potter a large part of my childhood.  When I turned eleven, the letter never came.  To this day I still wish I could go to Hogwarts and be a witch.

The world of Harry Potter never left my mind.  I'm not "obsessed with it" any more, but the story, the characters, are all in the back of my mind.  I would say despite not reading a Harry Potter book for a long time now, and not seeing any of the films in a while, I am still an expert on the subject of Harry Potter.  Watching any of the Harry Potter movies, even a short scene from it, will bring it all back to me.