Cartoons that upset you as a kid?

[Stanislav]

Not "scared" you, in the sense of horror (like ghosts or skeletons, etc.). (I think that's been covered before.) I mean cartoons that unnerved you, made you uncomfortable, upset you emotionally maybe to the point of tears for some reason?

I thought about this when someone posted the "Tralfaz" thread. I remember that "Jetsons" epsode really upset me as a young child. I was genuinely sad over the prospect of Astro having to leave his family, and his sadness and the Jetsons' made me cry. I guess since I had a dog that I absolutely loved at the time, I was imagining how I would feel if someone came along and claimed that my Sheba was actually their dog, and then she would get taken away from me. A little too real, I guess.

Something else that upset me as a very young child were scenes in which "human" characters were transformed into something. I didn't mind when it was an anthropomorphic animal character like Bugs or Daffy or Tom and Jerry. Or even a human like Elmer, if the transformation was brief, and then back to normal. (Like the traditional gag of someone momentarily turning into a jackass when they realize they've done a dumb thing.) That, I could accept as just a gag, with no lasting effects.

Here's an example of what made me cry.....there was, I believe, a "Flintstones" episode (don't ask which one or what the overall plot was -- I don't recall) in which there is a scene in which a couple of cops in a precinct house are turned into little babies. (Maybe Gazoo was involved -- again, I don't recall). But they don't just become babies for a second or two, they apparently stay that way (it's not a temporary, fleeting thing). That made me very upset and uncomfortable -- I thought about how I wouldn't want to be changed back into a little baby again. And even at that age, I was thinking about the cops -- these are adult men, with families and jobs and everything -- what's going to happen to them now? Won't their wives and families be upset? It just seemed cruel and horrible to me at the time.

Any examples of what cartoons unnerved YOU as a kid?

[Cartman]

The only thing I can think of is the donkey scene in Dinsey's Pinocchio.

[JPox]

I used to get a little freaked out with the cartoons that ended with their characters as monsters.....
"Hyde and Hare" "Dr.Devil and Mr.Hare" "Hyde and Go Tweet" "Docter Jerkyl's Hide"...

[David Gerstein]

FALLING HARE traumatized me as a very little kid; I was afraid of flying then, and was too young to realize that Bugs' reactions to the plummeting plane were meant to be exaggeratedly over the top. I imagined I'd react the same way were I in a plane disaster (...and at that age, I might have!).

[Stanislav]

FALLING HARE traumatized me as a very little kid; I was afraid of flying then, and was too young to realize that Bugs' reactions to the plummeting plane were meant to be exaggeratedly over the top. I imagined I'd react the same way were I in a plane disaster (...and at that age, I might have!).

At my age, I STILL would!!! :eek:

[Timber Wolf]

Daffy used as a motor in "Boobs in the Woods". :daffy: :ham:

[FleischerFan]

Bambi's mother getting killed by the hunter...

The donkey sequence in "Pinocchio"

[Larry T]

That whole cartoon, "An Itch In Time" REALLY bothered me as a kid.

We had a dog... she had fleas... the thought of the fleas eating her alive, and doing it so inocuously and joyfully as to sing while pinching chunks of her flesh between two pieces of bread, adding mustard, and chomping down on it like a sandwich.... this was happening to my doggie too? :eek: will I call her to come play one day and all that will be left of her is a skeleton with a collar!!??

Another cartoon which really, REALLY freaked me out as a kid was Bruno Bozetto's "Self Service", probably along the same lines as "An Itch In Time". I saw it when I was 11 and it gave me nightmares. I guess the thought that while the guy slept, his blood was being drained from his body- and he awakens screaming probably due to the shock.... that was enough to unnerve me for years.

Also in "The Old Grey Hare".... hearing Bugs Bunny actually crying while he digs his grave was hard to handle too.... he was so serious!!

[Dell Comics Fan]

By the time I saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" for the first time, I was an adult. But had I seen the Queen's transformation scene as a child,
I imagine that would have been pretty disturbing.

[Mr. Semaj]

-The donkey scene from Pinocchio. Disturbed me for years, because they leave us to assume they stay as donkeys for the rest of their lives.

-There was one early 40's MGM cartoon with a hapless mule who was working as a tree doctor. By the end, he gets hit with tree plasma again, but this time, the termite he had trouble with finds out. The very ending has the termite about to take his first bite into the mule tree, as the mule screams for his life! :eek:

-Little Audrey's nightmare from Butterscotch & Soda. I kept wanting to save Audrey when she got stuck in the fudge road.

-Donald's fate in Out on a Limb. For some reason, I was creeped out when he looked like a leaf monster.

-The ending of The Simple Things. Felt like in Mickey and Pluto's last original cartoon, they were eaten alive by hungry seagulls. :(

[Brandon Panther]

Hitler's appearance at the end of Daffy the Commando use to scare me as a kid.

I guess that would be appropriate.

Also, while it never "upset" me, but I have never liked the "toe" gag in Betty Boop's "Poor Cinderella". There's just something about the random contortionism that gives me a very uneasy feeling.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

When I was around 4 years old, the scene of Bugs Bunny imitating Frankenstein in What's Cookin' Doc? frightened me. Somehow it bothered me that Bugs could transform into a monster at will.

When I was a bit older the ending to Fresh Airedale upset me because I thought it was so unfair to the cat (of course that was the point of the cartoon, and the irony went over my head).

I also was bothered by Hare Brush. I hated seeing Bugs and Elmer switch roles, with Bugs on the receiving end of the jokes. The ending unnerved me the most, though, since Bugs stays convinced he is Elmer and goes to prison! While Elmer is revealed as a clever trickster. WTF!?

[Matt the Y]

I also was bothered by Hare Brush. I hated seeing Bugs and Elmer switch roles, with Bugs on the receiving end of the jokes. The ending unnerved me the most, though, since Bugs stays convinced he is Elmer and goes to prison! While Elmer is revealed as a clever trickster. WTF!?

You and me, both!!!!! I still hate "Hare Brush" even to this day. The role reversal, DESPITE what Will Friedwald claims in the 1989 LT/MM book, is one big mess and a COMPLETE misfire, IMHO. Friz never should have gone near that idea and, even if he did, definitely should have thought it through much more than "Hare Brush" implies. Friedwald's high praise for this cartoon in LT/MM is completely mysterious to me; it's almost the exact equivalent of him praising a post-1964 Daffy/Speedy cartoon in the same way to me..... He sees humor in Bugs being subjected to Elmer Fudd-type abuse and being hauled away to prison at the end of the cartoon while Fudd triumphs? To each his own, I guess..... but I just can't figure it..... :confused:

[Mac]

Here's an example of what made me cry.....there was, I believe, a "Flintstones" episode (don't ask which one or what the overall plot was -- I don't recall) in which there is a scene in which a couple of cops in a precinct house are turned into little babies. (Maybe Gazoo was involved -- again, I don't recall). But they don't just become babies for a second or two, they apparently stay that way (it's not a temporary, fleeting thing). That made me very upset and uncomfortable -- I thought about how I wouldn't want to be changed back into a little baby again. And even at that age, I was thinking about the cops -- these are adult men, with families and jobs and everything -- what's going to happen to them now? Won't their wives and families be upset? It just seemed cruel and horrible to me at the time.

I understand what you mean about this. In cartoons things that would be horrific to happen in real life occur and you laugh it off because the characters bounce back to normal in no time. However, sometimes the effect seems to be permanent an it's unnerving when you think of what the implications would be in real life. I once mentioned on this board about how, as a kid, I saw a Betty Boop cartoon where someone at a party falls into a stove and emerges, still dancing, as a figure of burnt ashes. It seemed to me he was stuck like that forever, probably just simply dying once the energy of the party had died down. He wasn't going home to his family and Betty was going to have to clean up the mess that used to be him. Had anyone even noticed he'd just burnt to death? Maybe they hadn't and he'd just be missing forever, his disappearance a mystery to everyone who knew him. I don't think the cartoon really upset me, but I certainly gave it some thought and I was definitely morbidly curious!

Other cartoons that left me 'morbidly curious' were cartoons where random things could come to life for no reason. I don't mean cartoons like 'Bottles' where everything of a certain kind of thing come to life, but rather ordinary cartoons about normal characters in which some random objects just have a face and life for no reason. Ub Iwerks did it a lot. I think what bothered me (actually it still bothers me a bit!) is where do you draw the line? Not everything can be alive so how come some things are? Imagine it was real life and amongst all the books on the shelf, you take one off and it has a face and it blows a raspberry at you. What?! I've just been suffocating that poor book by leaving it sandwiched between all the others – no wonder it's mad! I only take it off the shelf when I want a fact out of it! And what kind of a life does it have, it can't walk or anything. And that one hot dog. Why did it bark when I tried to eat it? My other food doesn't cry, well apart from that pineapple that time. I never should have cut it up, but it was freaking me out looking at me like that! It was just in the bowl with the other fruit, what was it doing having a face and being able to talk. And why does the door handle have human intelligence? It's just stuck there on the door. Should I remove it and replace it with a normal door handle? Then what would it to? Would that hurt it? Am I hurting it when I open the door. Am I even O.K going to the toilet? What perverted random objects in the bathroom could be watching me? The towel? The toilet roll holder? A droplet of water? Aw man droplets of water with faces – what happens to them?

So that's why I hate cartoons where random things can just be alive – it's just not a reality I want to suspend my disbelief for! Another thing I found the tiniest bit bothersome are freaks which exist for a single gag, but, in the world of the cartoon, according to the mind of a child, are doomed to be that deformed forever. The unfortunate 'half breed' gag in 'Jerky Turkey' would be an example of this. Luckily these were all just minor unnerving things for the over-thinking child me. I can't remember any Golden Age Cartoon properly upsetting me to the point of crying, losing sleep or feeling really sick.

[jonmayo15]

The monsters at the beginning of the (cut) "Have You Got Any Castles?" unerved me even though I love(ed) the short.

"The Case Of The Stuttering Pig"

Anything redrawn-
http://www.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/images/toonfest/lowrez/daffy9213.jpg
just freaked me out.

[Scuzzbopper]

I will not watch the Toddle Tales 'Grandfather Clock.'

[J. A. Boschen]

That Casper cartoon There's Good Boos Tonight. That enitre sequence with Caspers fox friend getting shot at the end by the hunters and Casper Balling his eyes out holding the dead fox use to, and still sort of does in a way disturb me.

[ebrand11]

Mickey Mouses Mad Doctor (1933)
The gag in Betty Boops "Scared Crows" 1939 when the crow gets scalped by the fan, it stilll gives me the willies.
The Indians trying to scalp porky in a cartoon , iforget the title but theres a gold rush. It might've been wagon heels but Im not sure.
Thats it for now

[BloodyChamp]

I somehow lived comfortably with the Fox's deal at the end, even as a younger child, in "...Boos Tonight." I mean I GOT it. It was sad, but at the same time it was way more than that.

Definitely got upset with the donkeys in Pinocchio.

The abandoned baby ostrich in "Mother Was a Rooster" upset me because even though everybody was there at the end, the baby ostrich was as good as lost when it faded to black. That was unusually cute character for WB. I was, however, elated when it was proved that Foghorn's lil ostrich was ok in that made for TV special whose name escapes me :foggy:

I was also upset when a real baby tiger couldn't find his mom in one of the old live action bits from Muppet Babies :(

[Brandon Panther]

I always found the ending to "There's Good Boos Tonight" hilarious. I guess, it'd actually be heartwarming if not for the narrator's dull, unenthusiastic, "And they lived happily ever after" line at the end, making everything sound sarcastic.

[vsonic]

The mouseketeers cartoon where Tom gets his head cut off screen.

[nickramer]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse- Tom's constant shrinking evey time Jerry abuses him at the end.

Yankee Doodle Daffy- Sleepy La Goo's coughing fit at the end.

[Mr. Semaj]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse- Tom's constant shrinking evey time Jerry abuses him at the end.

Oh yeah. And the whole reason why Tom ever invented the tainted milk was to get Jerry to stop stealing it from him.

[Bugsy-Kun]

The cartoon "What's Opera,. Doc?" upset me as a kid when Bugs lookin dead by the storms and when Elmer realised his fault.

Disney's Dumbo makes me cry too when everyone makes fun of his long ears.

The clouds in "To Spring" makes me freaky ditto for Disney's Pinnochio with the donkeys.

[jonmayo15]

The Indians trying to scalp porky in a cartoon , iforget the title but theres a gold rush. It might've been wagon heels but Im not sure.
Thats it for nowThat was "Nothing But The Tooth", a Davis short from 1948.

[ThePeterNetwork]

This may not be classic cartoon related, but it is animation. I always thought that, in the opening titles of the 1966 Batman series with Adam West, the animated Batman and Robin running towards camera would run out of the TV set and trample all over me.

And looking back at the Marvel Super Hero "Hulk", the Hulk's face was definitely "unglamorase."

[Mibbitmaker]

One thing that spooked me as a kid, in various cartoons, was the gag where a character crashed through a wall or something, leaving a hole shaped just like the character. It was especially unnerving in one of the Road Runner cartoons where - twice - Wile E left a Wile E-shaped mark under the busted trampoline. Of course, no possible problem now!

Similarly, the episode of the Flintstones with both the Gruesomes and the Hatrocks on it had a scene where the It-like monster, inside a well, punched Fred's face into the top part. The way Fred's head looked there bothered me. Much later, in my early 20s during the early '80s, I watched that episode again, out of morbid curiosity. Of course it didn't bother me, but I could see how sensitive me could've felt like I did back in the day. If I'd had a chance to catch that one even later, I think I'd see how Clampett/Scribner/Tyer-like they were trying to be. I'm not sure, sight unseen, whether it was a successful attempt, though.

When I saw that episode in the '80s, the thing that did bother me, though in anger instead of irrational fear, was how mean and cruel a "parody" of the Beatles it all was! I'd finally become a fan by the early '80s, and with the interesting love-hate relationship the show had with rock 'n' roll in the '60s, it was especially unnerving how hateful the attitude was.

Oddly enough, the things I probably should've been afraid of as a kid, but surprisingly wasn't, were the very dark material in some of the cartoons I watched. Instead, stuff like "Finnegan's Flea" (!!), the end scene in "Happy Birthdaze", and the darker Jones and Freleng material, and any other bits like those I saw just set the stage for my own appreciation for dark humor, preparing me, it would seem, for Michael O'Donoghue humor on SNL and the like later on.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

You and me, both!!!!! I still hate "Hare Brush" even to this day. The role reversal, DESPITE what Will Friedwald claims in the 1989 LT/MM book, is one big mess and a COMPLETE misfire, IMHO. Friz never should have gone near that idea and, even if he did, definitely should have thought it through much more than "Hare Brush" implies. Friedwald's high praise for this cartoon in LT/MM is completely mysterious to me; it's almost the exact equivalent of him praising a post-1964 Daffy/Speedy cartoon in the same way to me..... He sees humor in Bugs being subjected to Elmer Fudd-type abuse and being hauled away to prison at the end of the cartoon while Fudd triumphs? To each his own, I guess..... but I just can't figure it..... :confused:
I wondered about that myself. Was Freleng tired of working with Bugs? How could he have gone so far astray with the role switching idea, especially that late in the rabbit's career? It seems like the entire cartoon was based on one joke from Freleng's The Hare Brained Hypnotist, where Elmer is hypnotized into thinking he's a rabbit and acts like Bugs Bunny.

[oceansoul]

There were a whole lot of them...

Tom and Jerry - every time when Tom got too much abuse from too much antagonist (Solid Serenade, Invisible Mouse, Dog House, Mouse Cleaning, Flirty Birdy and the infamous Two Mouseketeers)

And there are some many more cartoons:
The two Donkey cartoons - in a negative, disgusting way
Fish Tales - Christ, this is sooo disgusting
Sock A Doodle Do - the way the cartoon ended trully bothers me to this day
Feline Frame-Up - actually I felt sorry for Claude, just like for Tom in "Tom's Photo Finish"
Heavenly Puss - upset me as a kid, but in a positive way. This is IMO the series' all-time best entry
Zoom and Bored - I think this doesn't need any explanation
some more that doesn't come to my mind now.

[Dell Comics Fan]

I found "Heavenly Puss" to be interesting for another reason. Bill and Joe had remade it as a Pixie & Dixie cartoon ("Heavens to Jinksy"), which I had
seen years before the Tom & Jerry short that inspired it. The former was
even included on the Colpix TV soundtrack album Mr. Jinks, Pixie & Dixie
released in the early sixties. (I still have my copy.) Great storyline.

[doctoon]

I was frightened by the "Popeye" tv short Swee' Pea Soup from Snyder and Deitch. The way the characters were drawn and their movements gave me the creeps.

[BloodyChamp]

I knew I forgot one!

The Little Mole - I caught this on TNT's (holy crap TNT had some good cartoons...suprised that station's shows don't get mentioned here) Bugs Bunny morning show one morning before school. I didn't fisnish it and was so sad wondering what happenned to that little mole. Do not spoil it. I only got the name of the cartoon by posting info on it here way back in the day.

[Matthew Hunter]

"Rover's Rival". I still hate it.

[ferpme]

Tom Thumb in Trouble....yikes....
Sniffles Meets the Bookworm? (I think) with the Frankenstein monster coming out and Sniffles yelling "STOP!!".....

[Stanislav]

I was frightened by the "Popeye" tv short Swee' Pea Soup from Snyder and Deitch. The way the characters were drawn and their movements gave me the creeps.

Any Gene Deitch "Tom and Jerry" STILL gives me the creeps..... :eek:

[Surenity]

I didn't like seeing Bugs Bunny pull tricks on Daffy when I was a kid, and I still don't really like it. I loved Daffy's old cartoons and didn't like the Chuck Jones-era Daffy ones where everybody picked on him and he turned greedy.

[Surenity]

I knew I forgot one!

The Little Mole - I caught this on TNT's (holy crap TNT had some good cartoons...suprised that station's shows don't get mentioned here) Bugs Bunny morning show one morning before school. I didn't fisnish it and was so sad wondering what happenned to that little mole. Do not spoil it. I only got the name of the cartoon by posting info on it here way back in the day.


That one's on youtube somewhere if you're interested. I think the one you're talking about is an MGM Harman & Ising one.

[Bobby Bickert]

I wondered about that myself. Was Freleng tired of working with Bugs? How could he have gone so far astray with the role switching idea, especially that late in the rabbit's career?

A while back, J Lee made a post about how "Hare Brush", "Rabbit Rampage" and "Hyde and Hare" were Freleng's and Jones' "revenge" for the 3D shutdown.

[Mr. Semaj]

A while back, J Lee made a post about how "Hare Brush", "Rabbit Rampage" and "Hyde and Hare" were Freleng's and Jones' "revenge" for the 3D shutdown.

Link?

[Brandon Panther]

http://forums.goldenagecartoons.com/showpost.php?p=68721&postcount=15

[Mr. Semaj]

Also, I still tend to lose my appetite when I think of redrawn cartoons (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fu1X2-Tc_7U), probably because their picture and editing quality reminds me of soggy cereal. :(

[The "Chase"]

Also, I still tend to lose my appetite when I think of redrawn cartoons (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fu1X2-Tc_7U), probably because their picture and editing quality reminds me of soggy cereal. :(

Heh, only in Korea that trains, bulls, and almost everything is red!

Anywho, to answer the question, I don't recall ever crying over cartoons. However, I always get goosebumps at the end of What's Opera, Doc?, because of the music.

[Larry T]

I attended an animation screening once and they showed "Feed The Kitty".

During the part where Marc Anthony thinks the cat has been ground up into feline cookies, I heard several people in the audience sniffling. :D

[larriva9/11]

Also, I still tend to lose my appetite when I think of redrawn cartoons (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fu1X2-Tc_7U), probably because their picture and editing quality reminds me of soggy cereal. :(

Though keep in mind that for me as a young'un, there was the virtue of not knowing what they were redrawn from--so they were more "odd" than "disgusting". And at least the core humor was intact, so a whole new generation could adopt "Silence Is Foo!" as a rally cry.

Another mitigating factor on my part: I watched them on a B&W set, so the eyesore color schemes didn't factor in...

Maybe that's something to consider--upsetting us *now*, vs upsetting us *as a kid*...

[Glowworm]

To be honest-as a child I had this bizarre hatred of cartoon characters' faces changing different colors. I think it was probably because I knew that in real life peoples faces DIDN'T change color and yet these characters were breaking some sort of rule. The one that upset me the most had to be "The Long Haired Hare." I was so traumatized at that part where Bugs made Giovanni Jones hold that ridiculously long note-forcing the poor man to change every hue of the rainbow. I clearly remember running into the other room one time when it was on-holding onto my ears so I wouldn't be able to hear that infamously long "Ah!" I think that's the real reason why I don't like opera... I am over that color phobia now and absolutely adore that cartoon now.


There was this Betty Boop cartoon that I saw part of in which Betty was dreaming that she was a mermaid being chased by a hideous sea monster. THese two saw fish came to her aid by cutting a square in the monster's belly-but alas-the monster was not dead! He was still chasing after her despite his obvious flesh wound. This disturbed me greatly as that monster should have been dead! Then again Betty Boop cartoons were rather sureal.

Then there was "Porky's Snooze Reel." There was a sequence in which a war mine was tossed into the ocean. A jellyfish gets too close to it and the narrator yells at it to scram. Not listening, he swallows it-and you can see the mine right through his face! It was frightening-especially because the colorized version left out the punchline in which the jellyfish explodes becoming at least 7 flavors of jelly. Instead-the jellyfish just explodes and the next gag began. I'm still quite glad that I haven't seen this short in years.

Also I wasn't satisfied with some of Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairy Tales because some of the endings were quite morbid-especially with a romance loving little kid in the room. The ones that come to my mind are the Magic Chicken in which the poor farm lad is left as a chicken because the magic chicken had flown the coop so to speak. Due to this problem his beloved dumps him. To me it was so sad-and even today as funny as the short is,it still leaves me saddened to see that the poor lad never did marry his sweetheart and was doomed to remain a chicken forever. Another that bothered me was "Snow White Meets Rapunzel" in which the son of Snow White and Prince Charming learns how to fly like a bird in order to rescue a bald Rapunzel from the tower-only to discover that he overlooked the obvious solution of using a ladder. Someone else had successfully rescued him and the poor prince was left flying around the tower which still makes me sad. To be honest though-because of that letter that Rapunzel left behind-as a kid I thought that she got tired of waiting and jumped out of the tower commiting suicide.:eek: Lastly there was "The Little Tinker." I find it hillarious now but when I was a kid that ending was rather disturbing because the poor lad was shot by a near-sighted hunter who thought he was a turkey! In fact I wasn't pleased by the whole idea that his parents sent him out because he was a growing boy and was eating everything they had. I mean-I don't think they were exactly poor either!

Lastly-when I was five my father left me inside watching "What's Buzzin' Buzzard." That is not a good cartoon to let a young child watch. For years I was disturbed by it-even though I had only seen it that once. I could clearly remember the Durante vulture jumping into the air after biting his own leg and landing inside his friend's mouth! Yipe!:eek:
Today-I love it-although as a kid I understandibly hated cartoon cannibalism because of that cartoon.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

To be honest-as a child I had this bizarre hatred of cartoon characters' faces changing different colors. I think it was probably because I knew that in real life peoples faces DIDN'T change color and yet these characters were breaking some sort of rule...
People's faces DO change color, though. People become red-faced when angry or yelling; others "blanch" when frightened. When people are seriously ill their skin tones don't look right -- sometimes it appears yellowish. Cartoons just exaggerate this real life effect.

[Glowworm]

People's faces DO change color, though. People become red-faced when angry or yelling; others "blanch" when frightened. When people are seriously ill their skin tones don't look right -- sometimes it appears yellowish. Cartoons just exaggerate this real life effect.


That is true-but they certainly don't turn bright blue or a really deep shade of purple!:DTruthfully I'm not entirely sure why I was so afraid of characters turning different colors as a kid-I just was.

[larriva9/11]

That is true-but they certainly don't turn bright blue or a really deep shade of purple!:D

Let alone plaid or polka-dotted or whatever Elmer became in Pre-Hysterical Hare. (The one moment in that toon where the "John Seely" tone of it all made surrealistic sense.)

[Fibber Fox]

Though keep in mind that for me as a young'un, there was the virtue of not knowing what they were redrawn from--so they were more "odd" than "disgusting". And at least the core humor was intact, so a whole new generation could adopt "Silence Is Foo!" as a rally cry.

Another mitigating factor on my part: I watched them on a B&W set, so the eyesore color schemes didn't factor in...

Maybe that's something to consider--upsetting us *now*, vs upsetting us *as a kid*...

The redrawns were just coming on TV when I was going into high school. You could—well, I could—easily tell something was wrong with them because they were jerky and bits of things would just vanish. That, and they had the god-awful opening and closing titles. "Disgusting" pretty well describes hearing a drum tear then Porky saying "that's all folks" over some googly Os. Blecch!

The only scene in a cartoon that unnerved me as a kid was Popeye's The Ace of Space, especially when Popeye's being erased. And I'm not much on Winston Sharples' scores, but the one he did for this cartoon was very effective.

Otoh, I get very emotional at those 1970s Woody cartoons, and have known to yell things about Paul J. Smith at the TV when they're on.

F. Fox

[larriva9/11]

"Disgusting" pretty well describes hearing a drum tear then Porky saying "that's all folks" over some googly Os. Blecch!

Then again, the inherent crudity of the W7 opening/closing credits somehow suited the redraws better than they suited whatever "new" fare the studio was producing at the time. (In fact, for those of us who didn't see the shorts in the cinema, this was our first experience of 60s-style MM/LT credits--after all, the Larriva RRs and whatever else sported generic BB/RR TV title cards at this time.)

I was puzzled as a kid by the googly O's as well; wasn't sure whether it related to the closing woo-woos in "Porky's Duck Hunt" or whatever...

[larriva9/11]

The redrawns were just coming on TV when I was going into high school.

Keeping the thread title in mind, maybe another issue is if "going into high school" is getting a little too old (and naturally savvy) to be a "kid". I know for myself that I perceived Saturday mornings differently by that stage of my life, and was wondering why there wasn't more of that Mad or Wacky Packages sensibility in its fare...

[Marty26]

Donald's fate in a lot of his cartoons always kind of bothered me as a kid. For example, his fate at the end of Donald's Snow Fight (where he was frozen into an ice sculpture, with his nephews not caring at all about what happened to their poor uncle). Also, the ending for The Clock Watcher kind of disturbed me as a kid (although I don't really remember it well enough to remember why, other than that I believe Donald violently ripped apart his boss's speakerphone, with his boss screaming in agony over it). Donald honestly starred in some of the most sadistic cartoons.

Foghorn Leghorn's fate at the end of Leghorn Swoggled also kind of disturbed me as a kid, although after watching it again for the first time in quite a while last summer, it isn't so bad. Ditto to Giovanni's fate at the end of Long-Haired Hare (although whether you could call either case "fate" is a little debatable since neither character was actually killed - one was knocked unconscious and the other had an entire stage set collapse on him).

[CueBallCat79]

Here's one that may or may not qualify for a couple of reasons.

I used to have a copy of the old Disney VHS tape "Scary Tales". The second cartoon on the tape was "Duck Pimples", which was followed by "The Skeleton Dance". Now I don't know if it was a problem with the cartoon print or the VHS tape mastering itself but the very end of "Duck Pimples" was cut off abruptly just as the ending theme started and went immediately into the black and white silent opening for "Skeleton Dance". Add the fact that the ending of "Duck Pimples" - with it's creepy "all in your imagination voice over and organ music - was unnerving enough and I have to say I got my fair share of goosebumbs watching that tape, though not in the way the filmmakers intended.

I dunno. I'm weird.

[Buttmunker]

I always felt bad for Tom at the end of The Mouse Comes To Dinner, when Tom (utterly defeated sans white flag) takes the plunge into the punch bowl as "SS Drip."

All Tom wanted to do was have dinner with his girl friend cat, right? Meanwhile, the girl cat is slipping Tom's advances, won't even give him a kiss for his efforts, then finally smashes Tom's head with a big ole "wolf pacifer" hammer. Very nice (typical). http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GYCj0HxRmrM/2.jpg

I didn't feel so bad that Tom slipped into oblivion in the punch bowl as I was that the girl friend encouraged the act, and was happy about it! Jerry's glee was expected, but felt bad for Tom all the same.


****
Another one I didn't like was The Invisible Mouse, where Tom wound up getting whacked with the golf club repeatedly, even after the fade-out. That was plain abuse, and mean!

[Thad]

Tom must have the bluest balls in cartoonland. Save maybe Pepé. :lepew::tomcat:

[HassanChop!]

I grew up in the ninties and only had looney tunes on TV and a few VHS's and a few Disney VHS's. Bigfoot in A Goofy Movie scarred me for some reason, as did the wagon from hell in Grinch Night and all of the Nightmare Before Christmas. The Disney toon "Moose Hunters scarred me for some reason. Probably that male moose charging at the characters.

[Matt the Y]

Tom must have the bluest balls in cartoonland. Save maybe Pepé. :lepew::tomcat:

You may want to add Bluto to that list as well.

[LooneyFan]

Any fate Sylvester had in a Tweety cartoon.

Also, I was a little creeped out with the wooden head of The Headless Spector in Scooby-Doo Where Are You? episode "The Haunted House Hang-Up"

[zavkram]

Someone else here had mentioned George Gordon's "The Tree Surgeon" (MGM, 1944). I remember I was disturbed by the ending of the cartoon as well... I was only about 6 or 7 when I saw it on TV.

Personally I find any sight-gags (in movies, TV shows and cartoons) involving hypodermic needles and someone's derriere to be distasteful and unnerving. As I child I had to receive bi-weekly allergy shots and I was always afraid of needles after having seen cartoons and movies like that one.

I re-watched the cartoon on DailyMotion about a year ago and surprisingly it didn't bother me as much...

One other MGM cartoon that freaked me out was Harman & Ising's "Bottles" (1934). The very last scene shows the chemist trapped in a large beaker of liquid, trying to keep from being dissected by this weird-looking, tube-like creature that was brandishing a pair of scissors. To this day, I can't figure out what the heck that thing is!

[oceansoul]

Next to the ones I've already mentioned, something that REALLY upset me as a kid

"Tom and Jerry in Hollywood Bowl" the bus scene. Every time, I watched that cartoon (and watched it a lot) that scene literally gave me death fears. It was the ultimate death scene for me, and even cried sometimes I saw it.

There was a Pink Panther cartoon, with some train scene, that had the same effect, but the title (and the actual cartoon itself) completely escaped my mind.

[Buttmunker]

I always felt bad for Tom at the end of The Mouse Comes To Dinner, when Tom (utterly defeated sans white flag) takes the plunge into the punch bowl as "SS Drip."

All Tom wanted to do was have dinner with his girl friend cat, right? Meanwhile, the girl cat is slipping Tom's advances, won't even give him a kiss for his efforts, then finally smashes Tom's head with a big ole "wolf pacifer" hammer. Very nice (typical). http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GYCj0HxRmrM/2.jpg

I didn't feel so bad that Tom slipped into oblivion in the punch bowl as I was that the girl friend encouraged the act, and was happy about it! Jerry's glee was expected, but felt bad for Tom all the same.


I was watching The Mouse Comes To Dinner with my 7-year old son, and I told him I felt bad for Tom........and he comes back and says he doesn't feel bad for Tom, because Tom is always "messin' with him." I was like, oh man!

[Marty26]

Long-Haired Hare also bothered me as a kid, because it seemed like Giovanni died at the end (just look at Bugs's evil facial expression when he strums "Good Night, Friends" on his banjo after that last piece of the Hollywood Bowl clobbers Giovanni - notice, too, that this is the last we see of the singer in a WB cartoon). His changed hair color after crawling out of the ruins of the bowl, despite not being blown up or anything, also seemed disturbing for some reason (I know it was probably just supposed to represent the dust and dirt that got on him).

[L00nE2n]

A few gags that bothered me as a kid:

Porky's Preview, where the ticket taker rips off a character's whole arm. Just doesn't really seem like a typical WB gag - especially for an extra character.

Porky's Picnic (or maybe it was Naughty Nephew - forgot off the top of my head), where a mother duck eats her young to try and win a race.

The ending of Little Blabbermouse. Granted I found the W.C. Fields mouse and the little kid mouse sort of obnoxious, but IMO they didn't deserve to be killed by the cat either (which of course probably happens after the iris out.)

[Bugsy-Kun]

Long-Haired Hare also bothered me as a kid, because it seemed like Giovanni died at the end (just look at Bugs's evil facial expression when he strums "Good Night, Friends" on his banjo after that last piece of the Hollywood Bowl clobbers Giovanni - notice, too, that this is the last we see of the singer in a WB cartoon). His changed hair color after crawling out of the ruins of the bowl, despite not being blown up or anything, also seemed disturbing for some reason (I know it was probably just supposed to represent the dust and dirt that got on him).

I having this feeling too as a kid. I go the same for the What's Opera, Doc? beginnings. The shadows makes look the short scarier.

[Glowworm]

A few gags that bothered me as a kid:

Porky's Preview, where the ticket taker rips off a character's whole arm. Just doesn't really seem like a typical WB gag - especially for an extra character.

Yeah-that part definately bothered me as a child. The cartoon itself was cute--but that was really morbid. I was especially bothered when the kangaroo put the arm in his pouch and it bulged out. Even weirder--the ticket taker was a male kangaroo--with a pouch! Now I think it's hillarious.

Also--mainly because of that said color changing phobia earlier-- I was frightened when I first saw "What's Opera Doc?" when Elmer turned crimson and said in a very serious and evil tone--"I'll kill the wabbit!" then conjured up an extremely powerful storm.

I might have been a bit frightened by storms as a child because I remember being uncomfortable watching the scene in Fantasia where Zeus causes a big thunder storm and throws his lightening bolts.

Also--"Catch as Cats Can" never sat right with me.Besides Sylvester not even sounding like Sylvester and of course the color changing scene in which Sylvester swallows the soap decoy, I was disturbed by the gun powder sequence with the magnent and the part in which Sylvester is turned into a vaccum cleaner. Both gags looked extremely painful rather than funny--not to mention rather frightening.

[looneyboy]

The Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom hides in a box, and Jerry sticks 12 needles all the way through the box, and you can hear Tom screaming and crying very loudly. One of the needles even got stuck, just like it actually went through Tom.

[Mr. Semaj]

The ending of Little Blabbermouse. Granted I found the W.C. Fields mouse and the little kid mouse sort of obnoxious, but IMO they didn't deserve to be killed by the cat either (which of course probably happens after the iris out.)

That ain't the way I seen it, Johnny!

[L00nE2n]

That ain't the way I seen it, Johnny!

Well then at the risk of taking this thread OT, how is the cartoon supposed to end? I just figured since neither character seems to have a plan to defeat the cat. Sort of like the endings of Fresh Hare and Wise Quacking Duck where Bugs and Daffy manage to stall their punishments with a final gag, but it just doesn't seem like enough to save them from their eventual fates (Elmer probably remembered to shoot Bugs after the song and Mr. Meek probably just put Daffy right back in the oven.)

[Studio Toledo]

The Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom hides in a box, and Jerry sticks 12 needles all the way through the box, and you can hear Tom screaming and crying very loudly. One of the needles even got stuck, just like it actually went through Tom.
I always loved that part!

[vsonic]

It was a Beany and Cecil, Someone was reading and they put down a book the person had Alfred E Neuman face end of cartoon. Sound familer to any one?

[Glowworm]

I remember being rather uncomfortable watching Bugs being trapped in Dr. I C Spots' pressure cooker--especially when Bugs' head pokes up through the contraption.

[captchucky]

Old Glory is a little spooky. I've always found the fife and drummer guys from the Revolutionary War as slightly ghost-like, and a little nightmare-ish. They are especially frightening in this film.
Uncle Sam (who I generally like) is also a little odd in this film. He seems a bit resentful of the boyish Porky.

[Philo & Gunge]

Porky Pig's Feat. When I was a kid, I didn't really understand that they were flat-out trying to get out of paying for their hotel bill but the ending that not only has Porky and Daffy in jail but Bugs Bunny is with them too, it was upsetting to see three of your childhood heroes all apparently in jail with no chance of getting out.

I always used to feel bad for Tom even though I never really wanted him to catch Jerry I always felt bad that he was always getting hurt. But I never felt bad for Sylvester or Wile E. Coyote. :p

[larriva9/11]

Porky Pig's Feat. When I was a kid, I didn't really understand that they were flat-out trying to get out of paying for their hotel bill but the ending that not only has Porky and Daffy in jail but Bugs Bunny is with them too, it was upsetting to see three of your childhood heroes all apparently in jail with no chance of getting out.

Not precisely in *jail*; more of a "house arrest" situation...

[sumnernor]

By the time I saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" for the first time, I was an adult. But had I seen the Queen's transformation scene as a child,
I imagine that would have been pretty disturbing.
You are right. I was scared to death with that scene:eek:

[Studio Toledo]

Yeah-that part definately bothered me as a child. The cartoon itself was cute--but that was really morbid. I was especially bothered when the kangaroo put the arm in his pouch and it bulged out.
Just imagine a typical gory action film where some robot or alien creature did that some guy and had the courtesy to say "thank you" despite not really using the arm much besides beating the man senselessly with it! :p

[quote]Even weirder--the ticket taker was a male kangaroo--with a pouch! Now I think it's hillarious.
i wonder if it was more a thing that most people didn't know that only females have pouches back then, or is it just one of those convenient things to stick in cartoons since it's a kangaroo and we associate pouches on them as always. You decide!

[Glowworm]

i wonder if it was more a thing that most people didn't know that only females have pouches back then, or is it just one of those convenient things to stick in cartoons since it's a kangaroo and we associate pouches on them as always. You decide!
In an animated Sesame Street clip-a kangaroo, an alligator and a snake break free from their cage--the kangaroo is male--but has a pouch. Most likely it was for convenience.

[DaffyDave]

"Snoopy Come Home" used to really upset me as a kid. To this day I steer my kids away from watching it when it's aired.

[janiepooh34]

"Wearing of the Grin"--those shoes are creepy and to this day--I really dislike that cartoon.

[HorseFeathers]

Also, I still tend to lose my appetite when I think of redrawn cartoons (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fu1X2-Tc_7U), probably because their picture and editing quality reminds me of soggy cereal. :(

They almost reminded me of certain TerryToons, only worse.

[Don59]

I used to run and hide everytime "Matinee Idol Popeye" from Gene Deitch used to come on. Something about the way Olive Oyl's eyes looked in that cartoon used to scare me, along with the Olive "dummy" Popeye carried in one scene. Another Deitch Popeye that scared me was "Witch Is Witch", although since I haven't seen that one in over 40 years, I really can't pinpoint why. Once again, I think it was because there was a fake Olive, this time a robot. Her eyes just creeped me out.