Bambi in the Top 25 Horror Films - Time Magazine

I am not surprised. At age five, the wicked stepmother in Snow White scared the hell out of me. It's all a matter of age.

www.donaldmichaelplatt.com

Simple Living said:

Can you believe Bambi was listed as one of the top 25 horror films? It's ridiculous.

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I don't know that I would rank it among the top 25 horror films of all time but- I saw Bambi at the movies when I was about five and the forest fire terrified me. I cried and cried at the horror of it.

Simple Living said:

Can you believe Bambi was listed as one of the top 25 horror films? It's ridiculous.

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That whole list is silly. Docudramas?

C'mon. If you're going to make a serious list then make a serious list.

Otherwise break it down into categories, Movies that Scare Children, Movies that Scare Adults, Humorous Horror, and Documentary-Type Horror, Movies that Scared People Because They Didn't Understand the Medium.

The original Fly scared me more than Jeff Goldblum's did. The only thing scary about the remake was jeff Goldblum. He's creepy.

WHAT? That's insane!

The Horror Shows--Clearly!

Bambi FREAKED me as a kid because they MURDERED HIS MOTHER!!! He and his dad run for their lives in the middle of a forest fire! (Where the hell was Smoky the Bear in all this, I wondered.)

Then you have the one with a wicked stepmom who orders her huntsman to CUT OUT SNOW WHITE'S HEART!

He has a BIG EFFING KNIFE IN HAND!

She's SCREAMING!

Oh, the huntsman killed a deer and gave its heart to the stepmom--I bet HE was the one who snuffed Bambi's momma.

(And hey--why is it not okay to kill deer in one movie, but just fine to do that in another, huh-huh-HUH?? Answer me that, Uncle Walt!)

Wicked stepmom falls to her death after being chased by scary little men. I'm still afraid of heights to this day.

Then you've got one with an e-vul fairy who turns into a FRELLING DRAGON TO BURN THE HERO ALIVE!!!

Then he STABS HER IN THE HEART WITH HIS SWORD!

SHE DIES UUUUUGLY.

Cinderella gets locked in a cupboard--giving me a fine sense of claustrophobia that has lasted and lasted and...

Pinocchio's friends turn into grotty farm animals--okay, our neighbors didn't have far to go on that one, but still.

He and his stepdad get EATEN BY A WHALE! (Ew!)

The puppet (made of wood so he should have floated, dammit) DROWNS! I saw his LIFELESS body and his stepdad weeping for him!

They whammed it home that if you weren't beautiful royalty or had an older, wiser protector in life you were absolutely HOSED.

And on and oooooonnnn.

I spent my tender years hiding under the seat in the theater to save myself from those bloody Disney sadists.

I would NEVER take a kid to a Disney film. They lull you into a sense of safety, then destroy it with great violence. You get that with Hitchcock, Roger Corman or John Carpenter. But with them you know from the start it's supposed to be scary and upsetting.

If you want to inflict violence on a kid in the name of entertainment, then do it honestly and be upfront about it.

I still prefer my beloved Three Stooges, Bugs Bunny cartoons, and good ol' Universal Studio monster movies. No deception there. The morality tale was very clear, root for your favorite.

Much more healthy than any "Disney classic."

Right, Gillhoughly!

I was older when the wolf from Peter and the Wolf burst full hideous face on screen. That was another child-terror bomb. More shock effect than horror for me, but Oy, the screaming in the theater!

www.donaldmichaelplatt.com

Wow. I don't remember any of that. I must be blocking.

Oh, I loved my vinyl copy of Peter and Wolf. I wore out the grooves listening to that.

I think this is an appropriate distinction. Both of his parents die, and his home burns down? What more terrible ideas could you give a little kid?

Our whole extended family unanimously agreed that our kids don't need to see Bambi -- even the older grandparents said, "we shouldn't have let YOU watch it as a kid!"

My daughter saw a burned house & had nightmares for a year over it. Who needs it?


wee

Interesting list. I can't say I agree with all the choices, or the reasoning behind them, Bambi in particular. Is it scary to kids? Maybe. But does that justify it being named a top horror movie? I say no. It may be a classic animated film, but that's its distinction to me.

Simple Living said:

Can you believe Bambi was listed as one of the top 25 horror films? It's ridiculous.

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Not Bambi Meets Godzilla? My wife glares at me whenever I say I am going to show that to our little granddaughters.

But it's a classic! (Of its kind.)

--Ken

wee said:

My daughter saw a burned house & had nightmares for a year over it. Who needs it?


wee

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This is a little OT but a few years ago, at a "Safe Kids Fair" that I took my kids to, one of the displays was a horrible replica of a burned kid's room, complete with blackened bed, smoldering teddy bear, and such. My daughter Meg had nightmares for a long time over that and is still - at eleven - afraid of fire. I had to wonder what the hell kind of sadistic mind put that together and why no one thought about the adverse effects it might have on a child!!!

ResearchGuy said:

Not Bambi Meets Godzilla? My wife glares at me whenever I say I am going to show that to our little granddaughters.

But it's a classic! (Of its kind.)

--Ken

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Now that's a true horror classic

Yeah, let's remember that those old-time fairy tales by the Grimm boys and H.C. Anderson that Uncle Walt so freely plundered were originally for the grown-up market.

Other Disney crimes? How bout the demons in Fantasia? Though crocs and hippos dancing with the ostriches freaked me out much more--that was a shade too Salvador Dali for my young mind to handle!

Dumbo--the poor hero is humiliated by bullies, and they LOCKED UP HIS MOM, DAMMIT!

Lady and the Tramp--a BABY is nearly bitten by a RAT. The reward for the dog who saves him? Taken to the pound to be destroyed. Nothing like a blues song from dogs awaiting execution to cheer a kid up. I hated those Siamese bitch-cats.

Jungle Book? A tiger and a snake try to EAT THE KID.

101 Dalmations - they're going to KILL AND SKIN PUPPIES????

But that's nothing. Let's perpetuate the myth to all little girls that some day a prince will come and SAVE them.

So long as they're--uh--pretty and can fit into a size 2. The so-so's and outright homely ones are just flat-out chopped and screwed.






Thankfully Pirates of the Caribbean had the stones to let you know yes, this is gonna be scary. The skull in the movie logo was a very good clue!



.

johnnysannie said:

This is a little OT but a few years ago, at a "Safe Kids Fair" that I took my kids to, one of the displays was a horrible replica of a burned kid's room, complete with blackened bed, smoldering teddy bear, and such. My daughter Meg had nightmares for a long time over that and is still - at eleven - afraid of fire. I had to wonder what the hell kind of sadistic mind put that together and why no one thought about the adverse effects it might have on a child!!!

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They can't control the reactions of all the children. Mine, it developed within them a healthy respect of what fire can do.

But the news! Tornados. Hurricanes. Severe weather. My youngest is terrified of that stuff.

Gillhoughly said:

Yeah, let's remember that those old-time fairy tales by the Grimm boys and H.C. Anderson that Uncle Walt so freely plundered were originally for the grown-up market.

.

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Actually, I thought they were all moral allegories for children, designed to scare the bejeezus out of them, like the Boogieman.

I remember seeing Bambie as a child and I was devestated when the mom gets killed. Years later I tried to watch it with my daughter who was about five at the time. I'm sitting there sobbing and she's putting her arm around me telling me it will be ok. That's been 18 years ago and I'm not sure it won't be another 18 before I can watch it again. Yes, I know, I'm a sobbing sap when all the little animals get killed. Kill people and I'm ok, but start killing the animals and I'm crying. I'm a weenie when it comes to the animals.

Either my parents were too overprotective, or they were too cheap to take me to many of those films. So I was forced to watch television, and got my jollies by imagining Lassie pushing Timmy into the well, rather than trying to rescue him.

Shadow_Ferret said:

But the news! Tornados. Hurricanes. Severe weather. My youngest is terrified of that stuff.
n.

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Tornadoes are a fact of life here. Yeah, the kids are a little afraid but they don't have night terrors over them. The ice storm - that left us w/o power and out of our home for more than two weeks was also devasting but funny, the kids are not afraid of another one at all.

Now I know why Mac put me in this forum. I kill kittens in all my stories.

Bambi & Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat are the only truly bad entries (though they are near-unforgivably bad, and obviously reaching). Otherwise, it's a pretty average list, save for Men Behind the Sun, which I'm pretty surprised to see even acknowledged.