Top 10 Scariest
Disney Movie Moments
When you think of Walt Disney Pictures, you probably picture
happy, feature length cartoons filled with colourful characters singing and
dancing and living happily ever after. Well, maybe you used to.
But think harder, and you will probably realize many of your
childhood favourite Disney films have scenes or images that left you disturbed and
perhaps mentally scarred for life. Among those musical numbers and young
characters learning valuable life lessons, there was likely a main antagonist
with a nasty agenda or a macabre environment threatening the survival of those
characters we were rooting for.
Though most of the films notable for containing mature
content and even flat out horror motifs are from the studios’ earlier
productions, even modern features targeted at young audiences like the Pixar
films contain visuals that will spur some parents into shielding their child’s
eyes or hitting fast forward on the remote.
With Disney’s thrillingly/frighteningly realistic-looking
live-action remake of The Jungle Book
hitting theaters next week, It’s time to count down the ten most unnerving,
bizarre, and straight up scary moments from movies by Disney. The studio may
offer family friendly fare for the most part, but sometimes a scene will come
along in a film targeted at children that will prove emotionally jolting,
nightmare inducing, and genuinely frightening. These ten have haunted the minds
of children and adults alike for years. Yes, there are SPOILERS ahead.
10. Carnotaur Attack,
Dinosaur (2000)
The flesh-eating Carnotaurs may not have been as scary as Jurassic Park’s T-rex, but they still proved
to be formidable villains, and made children appreciate the extinction of dinos
all those millions of years ago. Known to paleontologists as Carnotaurus (Latin
for meat-eating bull), they were portrayed as larger and faster than what
fossils suggested, which made them even more harrowing. The opening scene of
the film shows a Carnotaur ambushing a herd of dinosaurs and taking one down. Though
the carnage they are capable of isn’t explicitly shown, their presence is
enough to send chills down the spines of the biggest childhood dinosaur
enthusiasts.
9. Cruella de Vil’s Evil Face, 101 Dalmatians (1961)
This cute animated adventure is about a bunch of Dalmatian
pups wanted by Cruella de Vil, a materialistic woman who’s obsessed with the
fur of the spotted canines, and wants them so she can make coats. It’s easy to
love the talking dogs and their caring owners, and easier yet to dislike
Cruella for her cruel intentions. She’s considered one of the great Disney
villains, and that’s due in part to the climactic scene where she’s chasing
down the pups in her car. She’s all over the road, speeding, crashing into things,
and there’s one frame where it zooms in on her crazy face. Her eyes are orange
and face contorted. She stares directly at the screen and into your soul. It lasts
only a couple seconds, but is beyond unsettling.
8. Ursula’s Unlimited
Power, The Little Mermaid (1989)
When watching an animated movie about a mermaid who falls in
love with a man and has happy fish friends that like to sing, would you ever
expect it to have a horrifying climax involving the onscreen murder of the main
villain? Until the final showdown, principle antagonist Ursula is entertaining
but not particularly evil. It’s shocking to see her take Neptune’s crown and
transform into a giant sea monster that could easily have been The Kraken’s
wife. Her horrific rule of the sea is cut short when the prow of a ship impales
her. The tip poking out her back is clearly visible. Maybe that’s why The
Kraken was so pissed off in Pirates of
the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
7. Sid’s Scary Toys, Toy Story (1995)
Though plenty of viewers had their heartstrings yanked by
the nail biting garbage compactor scene in the third act of Toy Story 3, it was the original
animated feature by Pixar which proved most unsettling. When Woody and Buzz are
taken by evil next door neighbour Sid, a toy murderer with a disturbing agenda,
they meet all the other toys unfortunate enough to have come into Sid’s
possession. After seeing the happy, quirky, fun toys in Andy’s room, it’s
utterly shocking and appalling to see Sid’s collection of “mutant toys”, the
most unsettling of all being a shaved baby doll’s head with mechanical legs
attached at the neck. They’re made less scary as the movie progresses and
eventually you can root for them, but upon first reveal, Sid’s toys scare the crap
out of you, and that baby head is still hard for me to look at to this day.
6. Snow White’s
Satanic Woods, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves (1937)
For a lot of people, the Queen’s transformation from easy on
the eyes to horrendous and haggard is the most upsetting scene from Snow White, but for many others it’s the
scene earlier in the film where Snow White is just walking along, happy and
unassuming, then out of nowhere, she’s in a shadowy forest of floating eyes and
shrieking music and ghastly, unspeakable and indescribable nightmarish madness!
The haunted forest comes out of nowhere and it’s not even clear what’s going on
because of the gloominess. While it’s easy to understand what’s going on with
the Queen’s transformation, it’s never made clear what exactly happened in
those wacko woods, and the things we don’t understand are always the things
that scare us the most. 
5. Chernabog Raises Hell,
Fantasia (1940)
Fantasia’s series
of short animated sequences accompanied by classic orchestration have been much
celebrated since its release, including the unforgettable “Sorcerer’s
Apprentice” with Mickey Mouse performing magic and the rise and fall of the
dinosaurs. But the final sequence called “Night on Bald Mountain” takes a seriously
dark turn, following the satanic super demon Chernabog, who raises the spirits
of the dead and scares the hell out of any child watching. How can it go from a
cartoon mouse wearing a magician’s hat to a yellow-eyed devil resurrecting the deceased?
This shadowy, foreboding sequence ranks among the most disturbing scenes from a
family film ever.
4. The Horned King’s
Army Of Darkness, The Black Cauldron (1985)
The Black Cauldron
is a lesser-known Disney flick which performed poorly at the box office back in
the day, perhaps due to its PG rating and ominous material. If you thought “Night
on Bald Mountain” was scary, at least it was short. It’s a cake walk compared
to this feature-length dark fantasy tale. The Horned King, voiced by original Alien victim John Hurt, would make even Chernabog
want to sleep with a night light on. His voice is sinister, his face is
reminiscent of Skeletor’s, and he wears antlers on his head (lending to his
name). The most frightening moment of
all comes when he raises the spirits of the dead using the Black Cauldron.
Perhaps The Evil Dead sequels were
somewhat inspired by this film.
3. Bambi’s Mother Gets
Shot, Bambi (1942)
This moment is debatably more saddening or shocking than
scary, but in a film about happy talking deer, I think it can safely be
classified as pure terror. Halfway through the film, Bambi and his mom are just
eating some new spring grass, when all of a sudden they’re fleeing for their
lives from a poacher. Bambi escapes to the thicket as a gunshot rings out
across the silent forest. He quickly realizes his mother has been killed. Even
for adults, this is a disheartening moment. At least it wasn’t shown on screen
as was originally planned. Something tells me Disney wouldn’t have the balls to
kill a character like this in today’s animated films.
2. The Displeasure Of
Pleasure Island, Pinocchio (1940)
There are a number of frightening moments from Pinocchio—when the angry sperm whale
Monstro hunts Pinocchio and Geppetto down in the thrilling finale, or when the
Coachmen (who lures kids to Pleasure Island) tells the fox, “They never come
back as...BOYS!”, and his face turns bright pink, his eyes go green and wide,
and he makes a toothy grin. But scariest of all is what really happens on
Pleasure Island, a seemingly fun place for kids to do everything their parents
won’t let them. The bad part: they get turned into donkeys and forced into
slavery. The transformation of Pinocchio’s friend into a jittering jackass
looks as painful and distressing as becoming the Wolfman. It’s as weird,
shocking, and gut wrenching as any scene you will ever see in an animated
feature.
1. The Beast Bear, The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Damn Disney, you scary! Without a doubt the scariest Disney
moment for me is the climactic scene where a gigantic black bear comes out of the
woods with the intent to kill and devour the title animals. Its eyes are fire
red, it has huge sharp teeth and claws, it roars like a Tyrannosaurus, and it
stands upwards of fifteen feet tall at the shoulder. This colossal bear shows
up out of nowhere at the end for only a few minutes, but the sequence is nightmarish
enough to make any camping experiences in the near future filled with sleepless
nights and constant dread. It’s a safe assumption that many kids buried their
heads in the couch cushions when this monster popped up for the first time,
just like I did (and maybe I still do). 
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