Why are Kids Movies So Dark?

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Parents often strive to protect their kids from frightening things. The MPAA works hard to create accurate ratings in order to help parents determine if a film is too intense for their child to handle, and many parents strive to follow this guidance as closely as possible, only to be shocked when they find these children's films filled with horrifying scenes which they worry might frighten their precious darlings. However, these scenes are nothing to be concerned about, after all, there's a reason that they're included in family films and it isn't due to the writers being cruel and callous bullies who love the idea of frightening strange children whom they have never met before. These scenes are included because children like them.

Dating as far back as to The Wizard of Oz, family films have been frightening kids. Many people even grow to recall that movie as one of the scariest they have seen simply because of the massive impact it had on them in their young age. Yet these same people often recall the film with fondness in their voice and a glimmer of light in their eyes. After all, these first experiences with fear aren't traumatizing events which leave them broken and dead inside, instead they give kids life and a newfound sense of adventure.

Do you remember the sort of games you played as a child? They were never void of conflict and filled with uninterrupted peace, instead they were wild adventures, filled with running from horrifying monsters and facing off against your deepest fears. Children love to feel brave, they like to feel strong and empowered, and that is exactly what these family films tap into. That's why even new releases such as Kubo and the Two Strings strive to include some elements of horror, not so much as to completely terrify a child into breaking down unable to continue watching the movie, but just enough so that a young one might feel brave for making it through those moments of darkness. After all, kids like to feel brave, they want to feel like they conquered something, and film is perhaps the safest environment for a child to feel as though they escaped a heinous villain or dove out of the way of something falling from above just in the nick of time.

Even Disney, perhaps the tamest and most child-friendly company in film that there is, has been churning out animated movies with instances of horror - dating all the way back to Snow White's terrifying moment of wandering lost through the unfamiliar woods where she finds herself surrounded by dense trees and intimidating unseen animals which watch her from the brush.

That being said, I ask that parents do not take their children to see the movie which seems the brightest and most colorful (like Trolls, for example), instead take them to see what they want to see (within reason, of course) because I assure you, they won't be bored when they're watching their new favorite hero survive the treacherous sort of action packed scenes that they play with their friends at recess. Don't coddle children, let them grow to appreciate art, and to appreciate the satisfaction that comes from facing off against the darker moments in life.