There is a very good reason why parents should be vigilant with everything their children watch. You never know what hidden mysteries are easter egged in the stories. I remember "The Little Mermaid" scandal about the.... phallic nature of one of the castle towers. Shocking. Remember adults are creating these shows. And every once and awhile something a little more.... PG rated gets slipped in.
Redditor u/Animeking1108 wanted to discuss the several times children's entertainment has been a bit on the edge by asking.... What dark moment in a kid show threw you off-guard?Puffed
powerpuff girls animation GIFGiphyThe episode of the Power Puff Girls where they go into the future and the entire world was taken over by Him. It was just so dark and creepy, and the tone was completely different from the rest of the show. The episode was called Speed Demon.
Alexander...
Pinocchio the Disney version, I haven't watched it in over 20 years. There is a scene after the boys have turned into donkeys. The guy grabs one of the donkeys and asks its name. "My name's Oliver and I want my mother!" "This one can still talk! It's not ready yet!" Then he throws it into the back of the pen and the poor thing whimpers and cowers into the corner. That scene messed me up man.
Edit: The donkey/boy was named Alexander and I also fixed some grammar.
To Hell
That Hey Arnold episode where they got stuck on the train to the steal mill and the kids were sure they were going to Hell. After all the coincidences are explained and the episode pretty much ends the ghost train to Hell makes an appearance in an outro song sung by the ghost conductor.
The Innards....
angry GIF by NickSplatGiphyThere was an episode of Cat-Dog where they went inside out? Or one of them inverted or something so you could see their insides? Freaked me out as a kid.
ZIM
Plenty of moments from Invader Zim, but the one that always seems to stand out is the one where Zim systematically hunts down the kids at his school to steal their organs, so that he'd appear more "human."
Thing is, Zim is a dumba** and has no concept of which organs a human should have, or how many, so he just takes whatever he feels like and ends up a bloated mass of alien flesh filled with multiple human hearts, livers, spleens, etc. It's messed up.
Unholy Matrimony
Remember the 'Hey Arnold' episode about the Ghost Bride?! Holy cow that one was creepy as hell.
Gerald tells a story about a bride who wanted to get married to the love of her life more than anything. But on her wedding day the groom never showed up because it turned out he ran off to marry her sister. So later that night she put on her wedding dress and grabbed an axe from the shed.
She walked into the newlyweds bedroom and hacked them both to death. When the police got there she was sitting in a rocking chair still holding the axe and humming The Wedding March. She killed herself by jumping out the window. 😳
The Treehouse....
This might not have been dark, but it was downright scary to 2-6 year old me. Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends was a little kiddie show on Treehouse. About a lady spider and her kids in a garden like area. Some people might remember the James Charles looking spider who was the villain.
There were times when it zoomed in on his face with reddish black backlighting for him plotting something, (again my memory is blurred of this) this scared the cookies of me every time he went on screen. Damn guy looked like those skull spiders from ocarina of time and crappy late 90s early 2000s 3d animation clowns.
Oh Chucky....
chuckie finster nicksplat GIFGiphyThe scene from Rugrats in Paris when all the kids are dancing with their mommies and Chucky just stands and cries in the corner. Broke my heart. 💔
T & J
Watching Tom & Jerry as a kid. One episode where Tom's love life turns into crap while Jerry makes fun of him because his love life is great. Right at the end Tom is sitting on train tracks looking like crap and Jerry sees his girlfriend drive by in a car with another mouse. Jerry then joins Tom on the track. Tom scoots over and you hear a train whistle and a bright light from behind. This was on a kids show back in the day!
Slender....
lonely slender man GIF by Animation Domination High-DefGiphyOne particular Courage the Cowardly Dog episode with that Senderman looking figure.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.