I never found this film scary, but rather cruel...

I get that point. But you're missing something very important. Spirits are not people. Their norms are not our norms. What you consider cruel, they consider acceptable.

Can't stop the signal.

Sorry if you took it the wrong way, my post was not meant to be aggressive but to explain to you that it is a common thing with those spirits. It's just a deep cultural thing that most Japanese people have known since childhood through their comics, their cartoons and their grand/parents. And I only know about it because I'm really interested in this part of the culture.

No need to be an expert or Japanese to enjoy this film, far from it, but it helps knowing a bit more about certain aspects to understand and appreciate it even more. Like the "name" part, very important in the yôkai mythology (and many other aspects of different culture), because it holds its power and its life itself. Which is why it's a big deal when Chihiro is called "Sen" by the witch Yubaba (because the name of human is also very important power wise) when she signs the contract and why Haku is like "liberated" when Chihiro remembers his name when they are flying, or why Faceless is so unstable.

Definitly check Pompoko (also from Ghibli) if you are interested in yôkai, and it illustrates pretty well your last point about yôkai retaliation against humans.

Ah, alright then. I had actually misunderstood your original post as I thought that you meant "cruel" in a bad way, instead of just stating a fact. I agree, this movie is rather cruel in parts, yet as a connoiseur of fairy tales I've always recognised that as one of the many core elements of such stories. But you know, sometimes it's pretty hard to tell what a person is thinking on this boards, since many posters are Americans who are completely unfamiliar with the original versions. That, and they seem to be influenced by the whole "new age psychiatry" bollocks about children being unable to handle serious thematics such as violence, cruelty and death, because somehow exposing them to the "heavy stuff" would scar them for life instead of helping them mature. This kind of nonsense has been gaining in popularity since the turn of the century, along with the preposterous positive thinking theory, to the point where people in their forties and fifties in my country have started coming out with supposed traumas they've experienced that left them broken inside forevermore. But everytime I hear what they consider traumatic, I'm almost tempted to burst out laughing, for, to put it in my generation's terms, it would be akin to saying: "I'm emotionaly crippled because my parents didn't buy me the Super NES, when all the cool kids had one". In other words, I took you for one of those "Think of the children!" people who need to permanently be bothered about something, protesting against it out of fear that it will end society as we know it. Thus, I'd like to appologize for coming off as aggressive in my post.

Indeed, Handersen's Little Mermaid is pretty dark, though like many of his fairy tales it ends on a bittersweet note, which is undoubtedly due to his Protestant upbringing. I liked the Disney version when it came out (I must have been nine or ten back then), but what bothered me the most as an adult was Disney's obsession with having to insert a villain into each and every one of their films, thereby reducing their stories to a binary good vs. evil plot and defacto negating the possibility to explore other thematics.

Oh, don't get me started on Frozen! I was appalled throughout the whole movie by what I saw. I just couldn't believe how low Disney had sinked with that one, to the point that I started wondering if it would have even managed to hold my attention at all had I seen it as a lad. But I was actually completely dumbfounded when I read in the credits that it was based on The Ice Queen. Way to miss the point by a mile and then some, Disney dear!

In fact, the only recent film of theirs I've enjoyed in any capacity, since Don Bluth left the company, was The Frog Princess, because they managed to put an interesting spin on the original tale without it feeling forced, and they also managed not to go over the top or wander into unfunny territory with their jokes and gags. The fact that it was traditionnaly animated played a big part, too, because I can't really stand the CGI they use, it gives the characters a plastic look that I find distracting and a little irritating.

Since you seem to like classic fairy tales, I'd suggest you to see The Tale of Tales film if you haven't yet.

You're complaining that this movie is being cruel to kids and I'm the one who needs to get over themselves? Yeah, no. I'm pretty sure you just took my line.