THS IS NOT A KIDS MOVIE

I honestly don't think that Walt Disney in 1940 intended this to be strictly a kid's movie at all (of course not to say that kids wouldn't necessarily enjoy it). And yes, I have to admit that the Night on Bald Mountain sequence is pretty frightening, but I love it anyways, the animation in it is incredible, and the "Ave Maria" sequence immediately after it presents a fitting, remarkable contrast. I'm 24 but to me this is an excellent movie.

I LOVED this movie as a child. I might even go so far as to say that it was my favorite movie. For some reason, this was the movie I'd always watch with my grandma whenever I went to her house. We'd stay up past midnight and watch the whole thing, while my brother never stayed awake past the opening credits. :P

Overall, it didn't really scare me. I LOVED the Nutcracker/faerie sequence. Now that I watch the movie again, it sometimes makes me cry because the whole film is so beautiful. If I had to name one movie that influenced me the most, I'd have to say Fantasia. It truly helped me develop a profound appreciation for music, which is why I've been involved in bands/ensembles/orchestras since I was first able to be in them (5th grade).

I think that children should watch movies that are being made now, but they still need to see such wonderful films as Fantasia. I don't see how it could hurt them (although it may bore them. It really depends on the child).

"Know what I mean, know what I mean, nudge nudge, nudge nudge, say no more?"

I remember seeing Night on Bald Mountain on the Sunday night Walt Disney program, on TV, when my family and I were visiting some friends for dinner. This was when I was in the 4th grade, as a kid of not quite ten years old. Far from being scared of Night on Bald Mountain, I really enjoyed it. My younger sister, who was only 7 and in the second grade, on the other hand, didn't enjoy it, and was quite scared of it.

I loved the movie Fantasia from the minute I saw it for the first time, as a seventh grader, and as I pointed out on another thread on this board, the Night on Bald Mountain section was my favorite part of this whole movie.

As for Fantasia on the whole not being a kids' movie, it's hard to really tell, although, since there are some other pretty intense parts of it, it's easy to see why Fantasia wouldn't be considered a kids' movie in some circles of people, if one gets the drift.

I've totally forgotten the Chernabog and I don't remember being scared by it. I must say the only part which I found pretty scary and brutal was the one with the dinosaurs, first the fight with the T.-Rex and then seeing them all slowly die, that's pretty hard to watch. But as a kid I mainly enjoyed the colours and the vivid ideas.

I think it's alright for children (of course parents should be able to know what their kids can handle, if they tend to have nightmares from scary things they've seen on TV, they should wait a little bit), but it's not just a children's movie, there are quite a lot of things in it which you'll only understand better or enjoy more as a grown up.

Although people like to complain how much more violent movies and TV shows for children have become, and how nice and "harmless" they used to be. I think there have been a fair amount of children's movies which contain some quite scary or brutal stuff. Movies like "The Secret of NIMH", "The Last Unicorn", "Valhalla", "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1974), "The Land Before Time" or "The Little Fox" spring to mind. Or if you go further back in time I think it was even more common, just look at some scenes in Disney's earliest films like "Dumbo", "Bambi", "Pinocchio", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and of course "Fantasia" - that's not all cosy, happy, fluffy kid's stuff.
And if you go even further back and take a look at the original version of Grimm's fairy tales, there are many stories in there which nobody would ever turn into a movie for children ("How Children Played Butcher With Each Other", "The Robber Bridegroom", "The Girl Without Hands", "The Death of the Little Hen", "The Murder Castle", "Fitcher's Bird").
Nevertheless all of these were (also) intended for children.

But there are of course also people who seem to think that all animated movies are for (small) children, which of course isn't true. I know some people who were quite scared or disturbed by some movies they've seen as children, and parents who bought "just some kids movie" and then were shocked by what the saw. "Watership Down", "The Plague Dogs", "Animal Farm", "Heavy Metal, "Fritz the Cat", "Felidae" or even Bakshi's "The Lord of The Rings" aren't movies made for children.