Animation Source Forums

I doubt Felix Salten (author of the novel) was a sadist.

I'll agree with you all that my picks are extremely tame when paired next to even the most casual of manga or anime stuff. Certainly no blood or guts where I was at. But, for my money, mine are still the more disturbing to me because of the audience their aimed at. Multiple decapitations and amputations with fountains of blood are probably not (and shouldn't be) marketed towards children. My movies, without exception (except for perhaps Ren and Stimpy or the Simpsons, although both shows are relatively tame for the modern world, especially with regards to language and sexual situations), were given G ratings and designed especially for children. This makes them all the more disturbing and the violence all the more insidious.

I don't care, if you show a parent's death to a 4 year old, that's disturbing stuff. I know that the scenes of parental death stayed with me alot longer than any of the fun songs did. But, of course, I was (and still am) close with my parents and that sort of imagery, regardless of its veracity in real life, was disturbing for me.

Also, I find extreme blood and gore to be almost comical in its excess. Call me old fashioned, but I find it far too easy, whether in manga or anime or in horror flicks, to toss around buckets of blood. Scenes like Scar throwing Mufasa to his death is much more insidious and insights me to intense aversion to that character, without making my stomach queasy. Truly masterful use of disturbing imagery, without over the top graphics.

I dunno, I seem to be about the only one on this point of view.

Lion King - This movie would make any kid depressed. A young boy, heir to the throne, his father violently killed in a jealous rage by his own brother, almost eaten multiple times by hyenas, nearly trampled by a herd of wildebeast...
I'm beginning to think that the directors were trying to portray the actual life of a young lion cub. It's almost educational.

Land Before Time - I find this series hypocritical. It is aimed at children much younger than Disney's audience, and yet, it has almost double the violence. The death of Littlefoot's mother and the constant encounters when the carnivorous dinosaurs proves this.

Bambi - This was, again, trying to portray the actual life of a fawn.
The actual author of the book had no intention of turning his work into a children's movie (I've read the book, and it describes graphic things such as birth), and since the death of Bambi's mother was a part that could not be left out of a movie, the directors had almost no choice but to include it.
Think about how many fawns are made orphans everyday because their mothers are killed. It's almost impossible to have a story about deer without an encounter with humans.

Disney midquels. Now THAT is disturbing.

I just had a disturbing nightmare last night that disney made a midquel to The Rescuers, since they haven't already. That scared me...