What's That Girl? The Bridge Is Out?

[rejectomorph]

So, I watched a Lassie movie. I might have seen it on a big screen when I was a little kid, but if so, I don't remember it. Our neighborhood movie theater used to show this sort of thing at Saturday matinees whenever the regular movie for that week seemed inappropriate for kids, so I saw a lot of movies that dated back as far as the mid-1930s. I know I saw at least one Lassie movie then, but I don't remember any details about it. In fact, the supposedly kid-friendly movies I remember best were the ones that scared the hell out of me- Disney movies, mostly. Oh, the horrifying things old uncle Walt put in his movies! Bambi's mom! The scary face in the witch's talking mirror! Pinocchio turning into a donkey! Ichabod Crane being chased by the headless horseman! The multiplying walking brooms trying to drown Mickey! I don't think I ever saw a Disney movie then that didn't give me nightmares. I don't think there was ever anything in a Lassie movie that would give a kid nightmares. That's probably why I don't remember them. Terror is more easily recalled than sentiment. It's unlikely I'll have bad dreams today.

Comments

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

You know what freaked me out? Other than abundant white peaches, obviously. Watership Down. I seem to recall it was about rabbits, and a bunch of them got killed. But it was a cartoon, and I suppose meant for kids. I was so beyond traumatized.

[rejectomorph]

Were you twice-traumatized? Fist, the rabbits are abundant, and then the property developers decimate them when destroying their warren.

I have only vague memories of that movie, though I later read the book. It has some very grim elements. Richard Adams is an odd man. I read two of his later books, Shardik, and Maia, and they had a lot of S&M-ish violence in them. Having then known Adams only as the author of the bucolic (if somewhat dark) environmentalist fantasy about the bunnies, I was a bit surprised when, just a few pages into Maia, the young peasant girl who is the title character is giving guys blow jobs. Not at all what I'd expected.

[marseille.livejournal.com]

I think it was Darby O'Gill & the Little People that had a scary carriage ride in it. Terrifying, plus an all-round awful movie. (shudder)

I think the Disney movies were accidentally scary--just sloppy, clumsy filmmaking. All kinds of unnecessary scenes that don't advance the plot. The ones that aren't scary are often mind-numbing. Ever sit through Johnny Tremain? The movie takes WAY longer to watch than the book takes to read. They could use April Morning for an anesthetic and do surgery. Not sure if that's Disney, but one of his usual child actors was in it, so I suppose so. They just plain stop and lecture on democracy, for heaven's sake.

[rejectomorph]

I don't think I've ever been frightened by anything in a Disney live-action movie-- well, "Treasure Island" had some scary moments, though nothing that would give me nightmares. It was his animated movies that scared me.