Not for Children


When I was a kid this movie completely wrecked me emotionally. Its, for me, the saddest movie ever made. I'm still wrecked for a week whenever I see this movie. Aren't Disney movies supposed to make you feel happy? This movie just makes me feel depressed........

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Ash saying goodbye to Butterfree, and him thinking that Pikachu would leave him, occured in two seperate episodes.

Ben Grimm forever!

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It is really sad, but I like watching extremely sad movies every once in awhile.

It sort of cools the ankles, doesn't it?

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This was before Disney sold out for happy endings to get loads of merchandising dollars. Disney movies like Dumbo, Fox and the Hound, and Bambi did have bitter sweet storylines. That was what I loved about these old classics. I'm still a Disney fan but I am a little disillusioned by the loss of soul of some of their new movies.

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But Bambi's mother was shot!!!!!
Sorry I felt the need to say that.
It doesn't matter if its real or not it can still hit you emotionally. I think I've always been at least on the verge of tears during Baby Mine.

"Help, help, I'm being repressed."

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Bambi's mom... she's... *bursts into tears*

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Potentially, the most depressing cartoon is Pinocchio (albeit my favorite Disney film). None of the bad guys get punished. The boys who get transformed into donkeys stay as donkeys, probably doomed to a life of toil and cruelty till the end of their days. Pretty friggin' depressing, eh?

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Oh my freaking God! That scene in Pinocchio scared me ssssoooooo bad when I was little. There is a major moral about that scene, but a scared-sh*tless 5 year old is not going to sit and calmly think about the message. I was traumatized by the donkey scene...I still get freaked watching it even at my age now. My heart breaks for those poor kids crying and being put into crates. There is a happy ending for our protagonist, but you are correct, the bad guys don't get put in their place. I think that is because the children (and Pinocchio) misbehaved and, in a sense, put themselves in that predicament. They were trying to tell kids to be good. But all it does is force children to run screaming from the room.

"We plunged into the corniucopia, quivering with desire, in the ecstasy of unbridled avarice."

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Depends on the age and emotional needs of the child.
This film had my 3 year old in tears, (mainly because of the mother-child seperation and scenes of crying, when all the crows started crying we had to turn it off.)

The mother-child seperation anguish, scenes of elephants being whipped and beaten, my 3 year old also found the scenes of men as sillohettes in the tent or as faceless shadows scary.

And we don't even need to jump up to the modern "politically non-correctness"
of the smoking and drunkenness or the racial overtones which others have mentioned on these boards.

"Not all my tricks ROOKIE!"
Paul Newman as Doc Hudson in Cars

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Well, yeah,it's all pretend but so are live-action feature films.

"They just don't make animated movies like they used to, which is a cryin' shame." Now, that I agree with. Pixar and sometimes DreamWorks do an excellent job with what they do, but it's more of a comedic genre than the old Disney flicks. Truly, nobody does the bedtime-story sort of cartoon anymore, or at least doesn't do it well. Disney gets knocked a lot, and apparently on type of being a complete fantasist and controlling type he was virulently right-wing and anti-Semitic, but I think the charges of him sugarcoating everything are a little overblown. I mean, come on, the early Disney films are full of darkness. I think most of the cartoons could be updated into adult-type modern films wihout losing much (except, granted, the sense of childlike wonder and fantasy, which I guess is a lot). Dumbo could be the tale of a deformed child whose overprotective mother is ripped from him by the state. Bambi could be about the coming-of-age of a young man in a time when his people are undergoing a selective genocide. Pinnochio could deal with the exploitation and abuse of children in society. I mean, think about, all these themes are there in kids' movies...these are things that a lot of "grown-up" films don't really deal with.

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Or we could just enjoy the original.

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I wouldn't say it wrecked me, but I do get a little weepy during that part where he visits his mother in her little cell.

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I think it is for children. I never understood how dark it was until I bought it the other day and watched it for the first time in years. I mean there is drunk clowns, Dumbo accidentaly gets intoxicated, Dumbo's mother is put in solitary confinement, and even adults (be they elephants or not) make fun of his deformities. Although this is all so, I would still approve it for any child and love this movie.

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Why not for children? Just because its not completley sugar coated doesn't mean children shouldn't be exposed to it. Imagine all the movies you would have missed growing up if your parents only had you watching happy happy things. I think a well rounded child would enjoy this, even though it is sad.

Even the most useless person can serve as a bad example.

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I'd say if you look at Disney's first 5 flms (Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and Dumbo) you'll see that they are of a tone that you don't usually find nowadays. Just look at those films and there were scenes that you could really scare you, and you can't get that nowadays.

Dumbo does have some rather heavy moments, notably when Dumbo is taken away from his mother, and she tries to go after him but they suddenly begin to throw the heavy chains on her and try to subdue her. Dumbo truly from the moment he's brought by the stork is in a constant state of being knocked down. He just wants to do good, but he's constantly ridiculed.

A-ha-ha-ha, you're really weird!-Willy Wonka

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Yeah, Disneys first films did have some dark moments. But I think it also is a reflection of the times. It was during the Great Depression and WWII. Pretty dark times in US history...

COME NOT BETWEEN THE DRAGON AND HIS WRATH

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I think this movie is fine for children. While it does have some somber moments, it has a happy ending and teaches kids that "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

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***...it has a happy ending and teaches kids that "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." ***

Ah, but what can you do when life hands you AIDS?

"A generous man is merely a fool in the eyes of a thief."

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I watched this so, so many times when I was a kid. It is a sad movie, but it didn't wreck me. It is easy to feel depressed in it, because of the cruelty to animals, and Dumbo's mother trying so hard to get to him and him her. All turns out fine in the end, though, and it does have some jolly moments in the movie, like where the crows are singing.

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Yeah, well, Bambi won a Disney DVD and Video Award for Films with Intense Moments.

My life depends on Neopets, Popcorn and Sprite or 7up, and Chicken Little.

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When I see those moments when Dumbo and little mouse drunk, I am a little off-railed

--- Bambi ---
Bambi board: http://bambi.myftp.org
- a fan board for Bambi masterpiece

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