Top 20 Darkest Moments in Children's Movies

The darkest moments in children's movies still scare us as adults. Our countdown includes "All Dogs Go to Heaven," "The Dark Crystal," "Return to Oz," and more! What children's movie moment freaked YOU out the most? Let us know in the comments!

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[sweetandsourdish]

The donkey transformation scene in Pinocchio terrified me as a child. Even as an adult, it still terrifies me. 😱😱😱😱😱

[alllittlethingzz]

Disney was so dark in the 40s and 50s but we love Caroline song even though Other Father was warning Caroline

[LittleMadameofSorts]

So for Coraline's moment, y'all just cited the whole movie?

[lilsauce]

When that poor horse goes into the sad quicksand in “The Neverending Story” always got me

[umxavs]

i feel like rasputin’s scene from anastasia should’ve been in here

[aidanhever]

Here are some more honorable mentions:

- Heffalumps and Woozles (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh): Talk about another bad trip.
- James' Nightmare (James and the Giant Peach): You will never watch any segment of Monty Python's Flying Circus for quite a while.
- Hellfire (The Hunchback of Notre Dame): A song about lust, damnation, sin, and Hell itself.
- The Incinerator (Toy Story 3): Woody learned a valuable lesson: Never trust a backstabbing psycho like Lotso.
- The Massacre of the Innocents (The Prince of Egypt): Like Miriam said: Ask the man that you called father.

PS: Charlie's dream about Hell is even scarier than his first death.

[princesslilyfromtheisleoft]

I think that the darkest moment in a kid's movie was, Hellfire in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. Frollo's singing about his lust for Esmeralda, the animation style, the tone of the music, is all so creepy and dark. He's basically saying (or singing), he wants Esmeralda as his own personal property, he wants total control of her body and of her. It always creeped me out. It got worse when he sang, "She will be mine or she will burn!", she either has to be his and his alone or she'll die. It makes me so sad to know that there are people like Frollo in real life. Thankfuly Esmeralda denied his offer and spat in his face (you go girl!), who knows what would have happened to this poor girl if she went with Frollo.

[TheCommenterDragon]

These moments maybe dark, but they are also sadly on some level the most memorable.

[itsjustbrandy]

A scene that always struck fear into me as a kid was in Annie where Tim Curry's character was actively trying to kill Annie. It was such a dark turn when Carol Burnett says "he's really gonna kill her". He truly was trying to throw her off the tower she climbed and it was just too real.

[jamalvargas]

The Black Bear Attack from Balto scared the crap out of me when I Younger but still Balto is a Hidden gem and one of my favorite animated films

[jillianmyerly]

Honestly, pretty much everything about Coraline is dark.

[sebastiansilva]

the entire watership down movie is one of the darkest moments in childrens movies.

[matwar]

when the car from who framed roger rabbit drove through a spilled drum of dip he was feeling immense pain in his tyres and hobbling. Imagine how much pain the shoe was in when it got dipped very slowly.

[julianrodriguez]

The Darkest Moment In A Children’s Movie to me is Ichabod’s disappearance in The Tales Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad.

[prestonestes]

What about the scene from “The Rugrats Movie” where Tommy was so angry with Dill that he was about to pour banana baby food on him so the monkeys would take him away. That scene got really dark and scary; it’s was the first time that Tommy scared me more than Angelica.

[linda]

An even better example of horror in All Dogs Go to Heaven would be when Charlie has a nightmare that the boat he's on is burning in lava and that demon thing is waiting for him.

[itscherylplayz]

I don't think it was scary when Coraline met her other parents it was scary when she finds out the disturbing truth

[thatsjustgreat]

Secret of Nimh didn't even get an honorable mention? The whole movie was creepy af.

[diegoperezcotto]

The witch leader in the movie Witches 1990 is the horrifying and disturbing witch character ever in the movie and this witch became famous to become the horrifying and scariest monster ever in the movie

[redmondpeters]

Judge Doom scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. That poor shoe 😢