The Dark Kids Films of My Youth

[Archduke]

Originally Posted by tuukka

You specifically mentioned the 80's and early 90's in your opening post. So a 00's film like Chicken Run should count here. Or are we allowed to mention films only from the last year or two? That kinda obviously limits things down, as we would have a much more narrow pool to choose from.

In Chicken Run all the characters are prisoners who will be killed and eaten unless they manage to escape. One of the heroes gets her head cut off early on to demonstrate this danger.

In Nine all of mankind has been destroyed in a war and earth has turned into wasteland. The film follows a group of nine robotic puppets, several of whom die over the course of the film.

Coraline tells about a girl who is imprisoned by a witch, who captures little children and enslaves them forever by removing their eyes and sewing buttons on them. Several ghost-children in the film have already gone through this, and Coraline is going to be the latest victim.

Sounds pretty dark to me.

And Harry Potter films, even the later ones, are just as much family films as several other old movies mentioned in this thread.

I'm just playin around here you can bring up whatever counter examples you want. Yeah I take your point that there are still some dark kid films around but I think you gotta admit that there are certainly alot less of them.

And mostly I think the whole tone of things has certainly shifted. Even if some of these movies contain some slightly "dark" elements most of them the tone is just a lot lighter in general. Like you could say Wall-E is a post apocalyptic movie but the light tone of the movie totally changes how you perceive that.

The movies from that era I think were considerably more dark in the figurative and even more literal sense. I swear looking back at alot of those cartoons they look like Chiaroscuro.

So once again I stand by my statement that there are a lot less dark kids films and one of the reasons I think that is there are a lot less independent animation studios in the game anymore. And then the ones that are around are making stupid sh1t like Gnomeo and Juliet.

[tuukka]

Originally Posted by Archduke

I'm just playin around here you can bring up whatever counter examples you want. Yeah I take your point that there are still some dark kid films around but I think you gotta admit that there are certainly alot less of them.

Well, when it comes to older films, people were able to mention roughly 15 of them from a 15+ year period...

Originally Posted by Archduke

And mostly I think the whole tone of things has certainly shifted. Even if some of these movies contain some slightly "dark" elements most of them the tone is just a lot lighter in general. Like you could say Wall-E is a post apocalyptic movie but the light tone of the movie totally changes how you perceive that.

But I didn't even mention Wall-E. I agree that while a lot of Pixar movies have very dark thematic elements, the execution has a touch of lightness that makes them accessible to even the smallest children.

Which is why I didn't mention it.

Originally Posted by Archduke

The movies from that era I think were considerably more dark in the figurative and even more literal sense. I swear looking back at alot of those cartoons they look like Chiaroscuro.

So once again I stand by my statement that there are a lot less dark kids films and one of the reasons I think that is there are a lot less independent animation studios in the game anymore. And then the ones that are around are making stupid sh1t like Gnomeo and Juliet.

Well, by your own admittance, you haven't even seen even the big mainstream releases like Coraline and Nine. I think it makes it harder for you to accurately judge the difference between older and newer family films, if you don't even watch them.

I guess it's also it's worth mentioning that a lot of the films mentioned in this thread aren't American films. Plague Dogs, Watership Down, Time Bandits, All Dogs Go To Heaven and Big Friendly Giant are all British. Felidae is german. Some of them are TV-films that never got a proper theatrical release.

Granted, a lot of people would say that the way the British government handled their support for film industry back in the 90's killed a lot of the local companies.

But if you search for modern family films outside of USA, you are going to find a lot more dark material than just by browsing through the latest, big Hollywood films.

[Paradis]

^^ no dude, they were darker in the 80s. If you disagree, then clearly you didn't grow up in them.

[tuukka]

Originally Posted by Paradis

^^ no dude, they were darker in the 80s. If you disagree, then clearly you didn't grow up in them.

Actually, unlike some other people in this thread, including the OP, I grew up exactly then.

[Paradis]

Originally Posted by tuukka

Actually, unlike some other people in this thread, including the OP, I grew up exactly then.

Well then, i respectfully think you're just plain wrong.

[Optimus]

Definitely agree with Secret of NIMH, Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, and Transformers: The Movie.

Anyone remember Time Bandits? That one was pretty f-ed up, too, especially the end when the kid's parents explode.

[SkyPolynomial]

Originally Posted by Paradis

I'd toss in watership down too.

That movie was dark. And as a kid it was weird experiencing the depressing overtone...

I recall feeling quite bummed out after watching it.