Death is a normal part of life that’s important for kids to learn about eventually, so it’s no surprise it would appear so often in family films. But what’s shocking is how intense or over the top it can sometimes be. Of course, being so young, we often don’t realize how gruesome the ends in kid movies really are until we get older and see them with a more experienced perspective, so here are some of the worst. Do they hit harder in retrospect? Did they always traumatize you? Either way, let us know by voting up the most gruesome ones!
Toon Shoe, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’
- Photo:
- Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The horrific “Dip” engineered by Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the only thing capable of ending the lives of otherwise invulnerable toons. The first look we get at it comes in the form of the torment of a totally innocent and helpless cartoon shoe. He can’t even scream for help since his mouth is the first thing to start melting. It’s unwarranted and awful, but it really helps you understand just how evil the antagonist really is, and probably gave a few kids nightmares in the process.
Tarzan’s Parents (And A Baby Gorilla), ‘Tarzan’
- Photo:
- Buena Vista Pictures
Kids and parents alike might have to do a double-take at this scene. At first it appears we’re only seeing the mess left behind after a strike on Tarzan’s parents’ treehouse by Sabor, the evil leopard. There are feathers scattered about, bloody pawprints on the floor, a pile of clothes in the corner… wait… those clothes are on a pair of cadavers! A mess isn’t all Sabor left behind afterward. This tells us it wasn’t just a matter of hungry animals looking for lunch. This was pure malice. And it’s not just Tarzan’s parents that suffer this fate. His adoptive mother, Kala, loses her first child to a similarly terrible end.
Mufasa, ‘The Lion King’
- Photo:
- Buena Vista Pictures
Being based on a Shakespearean play, of course The Lion King was going to have more than one untimely end. It’s strange to actually hope that Mufasa’s fall was high enough and damaging enough that it’s ultimately what took him, because the alternative is that he lived through that much only to be trampled beneath the hooves of a thousand heavy animals, battering him to the bitter end. The grimmest part is when his child cuddles his cadaver.
Bambi’s Mother, ‘Bambi’
- Photo:
- RKO Radio Pictures
Although it appears off-screen, hearing the gunshot ring out across the meadow, signaling the loss of Bambi’s mother, probably hits harder than a lot of the more bloody ends on this list. But this isn’t gruesome just because it essentially orphans Bambi (his father isn’t around a lot), it’s gruesome because of the probable aftermath. Bambi’s mom was taken by a hunter, which means she has a few options for her ultimate fate: skinned for her pelt, chopped up and sold or eaten for her meat, or taxidermied as a trophy head to hang unblinkingly in the hunter’s home forevermore.
Charlie B. Barkin, ‘All Dogs Go To Heaven’
- Photo:
- MGM/UA Communications Co.
There’s a lot of unfortunate ends in this film, and even our main character dies not once, but twice! But the reason this is the worst is because it happens so early on in the film, and since it is the main character, it’s a pretty jarring turn of events. When Charlie B. Barkin is struck by a car as a result of his nemesis Carface’s scheming, he isn’t just hit. We see the car careen off the road and into a lake, but the dog’s body doesn’t seem to fly in with it. Which only means one thing: He’s still lying there, totally flattened across ground, possibly with a tire print in his back.
Ray, ‘The Princess and the Frog’
The Princess and the Frog was one of the final nails in the coffin for Disney’s hand-drawn animated films, which is a shame both for the art form and for the fact that it’s a solid film with incredibly likable characters. The firefly Ray is one of them. After illuminating the night alongside our heroes for much of their journey, his ends beneath the foot of Facilier. We even hear the sound of his exoskeleton cracking beneath the weight of the shadowman.
His end is tragic, but at least he gets to join the love of his life, the star Evangeline, up in the heavens.
Clayton, ‘Tarzan’
We see Clayton’s untimely end coming from a mile away, as he angrily hacks at vines against Tarzan’s desperate warnings until he cuts the very one that was keeping him aloft. He plunges down to the jungle floor, and we perhaps expect a cutaway and implied perishing-by-fall. But then the vine around his neck tightens with a snap.
A moment later and the shadow of his dangling feet appear illuminated by lightning against a backdrop of pouring rain, and it’s horror movie levels of disturbing. They never show the actual body, but somehow, this feels even more explicit.
Blender, ‘The Brave Little Toaster’
Everything in this scene aims for maximum terror – the creepy, crescendoing score, the suggestive shadows on the wall, and, of course, our heroes’ helpless expressions. They can only watch as the man from the bargain store dismembers an old blender. He takes it apart, rips out its power chord, jabs it with tools, and eventually pulls out the part he wants to sell (the motor) and trashes the rest. It’s straight-up framed like a scene from Dexter, and sure to make you feel at least a little guilty the next time you’re doing work on some household appliances or taking apart a machine for scrap.
Coral (And Many Baby Fish), ‘Finding Nemo’
In some ways, this is just nature taking its course. Fish gotta swim, barracudas gotta eat. But it’s the fact that the film sets us up with this happy set of expecting parents, and makes us care for them before the tragedy strikes. Then not only does the mother get eaten, but so do almost all her children – likely hundreds of eggs. It’s a double whammy for Marlin to lose everything like that. Even Nemo is injured in the scene. But, luckily, they do still have each other.
Frollo, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
On the surface, Frollo’s demise is already slow and painful enough. He is either burned or melted alive after falling into the ocean of molten lava that Quasimodo poured all around Notre Dame only moments before as a makeshift defensive moat against an angry swarm. But if you look at the scene on a symbolic level – the licking flames, gargoyle head come to life and following him down, and the Bible verse about plunging into “the fiery pits” which he uttered before he fell – the true meaning is clear: Frollo went to Hell, where he’ll be tormented for all eternity.
