What we never learned as children....

So, I've been thinking...dangerous I know, but stay with me on this one:

Disney movies and non-Disney movies, like "American Tail" and "Land Before Time" are incredibly messed up and even more so, SAD. How these movies are for children is beyond me. My reasoning, you ask? Well let me tell you...

Think about it, almost every Disney cartoon deals with parental loss or having NO parents at all. Case in point:
Cinderella - father died. Scary-ass step-mother.
Snow White - scary step-mother again...do we see a pattern?
Sleeping Beauty - the three crazy witch ladies take her AWAY from her parents...
Lion King - father dies...sad moment...while hanging from a cliff no less! Then Simba nearly gets run over...
Little Mermaid - no mother...where's the mother? Just a billion sisters...no wonder why the father carried the triton
Bambi - need I explain?
Peter Pan - about orphans...who cry for the mother...
Lady and the Tramp - Lady's parents don't love her anymore when the baby comes along and Tramp never got adopted...


I'm sitting in the doctor's office the other day with the baby and their playing Tarzan. Now, beyond the copyright issues at play in this picture, I was watching the beginning of the movie when the gorillas had their baby and they were so happy until a tiger chased it through the jungle and you can hear it screaming as the tiger killed it. I sat there with my mouth open...shocked...do children have selective knowledge of this shit?

The Land Before Time was on the other day and because it is a beloved movie of my childhood (made in '88...Tricia noted that she was graduating high school that year...I said I was five...) I was watching it and made her watch it too. And thank goodness that the mother had already died because I don't think I could have handled it. It's bad enough it's about these five year old dinosaurs who need to find the Great Valley with no adult help...let alone having to watch Little Foot cry about his mother...ugh! And American Tail...? Do I really need to go there? Cry like a baby every time.

I won't even go into Pinocchio...probably one of THE most FUBAR Disney movies of all time...children turn into donkeys, he gets eaten by a whale, he gets kidnapped....and this is a children's movie?!

Anyway, just thought I would make note...As children we never thought they were sad...as adults, I'm sucking my thumb and rocking back and forth...Oh how times have changed...

I'm thinking these movies will be contraband in my house...