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- Fans who delve into Disney's storied cinematic history will find no shortage of surprisingly dark twists and tales. These dark Disney movies often feature scenes, language, and characters that are not as family-friendly as initially advertised. As viewers eagerly wait for the premiere of the live-action The Little Mermaid (May 26), it's the perfect time to dive into some of Disney's darker films to prepare for Ariel's difficult journey.
Some audiences dismiss Disney movies as harmless kids’ films full of light-hearted magic and non-threatening whimsy. However, while the house of mouse prides itself on delivering great films for families, many of its animated and live-action classics go to darker places than many choose to give them credit for.
Whether dealing with terrifying villains, more complex themes and ideologies, or inescapable danger, the happiest place on earth has gone to certain extremes through the darkest Disney movies. Some of these often old Disney movies leave a bittersweet taste in the mouth, while others help make the happily ever after even more worthwhile. But, love them or not, they have all earned their place in the company’s more significant legacy.
Updated on May 11, 2023, by Hannah Saab:
Fans who delve into Disney's storied cinematic history will find no shortage of surprisingly dark twists and tales. These dark Disney movies often feature scenes, language, and characters that are not as family-friendly as initially advertised. As viewers eagerly wait for the premiere of the live-action The Little Mermaid (May 26), it's the perfect time to dive into some of Disney's darker films to prepare for Ariel's difficult journey.
15 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad' (1949)
While The Wind in the Willows sequence is reasonably light-hearted, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow sequence is a spooky delight. Ichabod Crane himself is not much of a sympathetic character, plotting to seduce a beautiful girl to get her father’s money.
Then there’s the infamously terrifying final sequence, where the Headless horseman chases Ichabod through the woods. The following day, Ichabod is missing, only a shattered pumpkin left nearby, giving Ichabod an uncertain fate. By the end, even the story’s narrator, Bing Crosby, remarks he needs to get out of here.
14 'The Rescuers' (1977)
While The Rescuers has a light-hearted story of mice coming to rescue a little girl, it is also quite bittersweet. The opening scene, where young Penny (Michelle Stacy) sets a message in a bottle off to the sea, and sails along the ocean, sets off a foreboding and melancholy tone.
Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page) quickly proves herself a pretty despicable Disney villain, kidnapping an orphaned child to steal a diamond and threatening her life if she refuses. While the girl, mice, and their new friends persevere, their lives are threatened numerous times from the likes of bats, floods, and Medusa’s two pet crocodiles.
13 'The Black Cauldron' (1985)
While touted by many as the point where Disney animation hit rock bottom, The Black Cauldron nevertheless has a notable place as a mature and dark film in the studio’s history. Young pig-keeper Taran (Grant Bardsley) discovers an evil demon-like creature known as the Horned King who seeks to use a titular black cauldron to raise an army of the dead to conquer the world.
It’s up to Taran and his new friends Princess Eilonwy (Susan Sheridan), Fflewddur Fflam (Nigel Hawthorne), and Gurgi (John Byner) to find the cauldron before he does. Unfortunately, when the cauldron’s power is revealed, it creates some genuinely ghastly sights, some of which had to be edited by the studio before release.
12 'James and the Giant Peach' (1996)
James and the Giant Peach is a stop-motion classic based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl and directed by Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick. A young boy, James (Paul Terry), raised by his abusive aunts after a ghostly rhino suddenly killed his parents, finds some magic and uses it to grow a gigantic peach.
But, while his aunts exploit it for profit, James finds a group of giant talking bugs living inside and ready to escape. On a whirlwind adventure to New York, they encounter evil shark robots, ghostly skeleton pirates (one of which has the head of Jack Skellington), and eventually the leviathan rhino itself.
11 'Fantasia' (1940)
Touted by many as Walt Disney’s masterpiece, each musical sequence in Fantasia is animated to perfection, though some are darker than others. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, while still having the charm and whimsy of a typical Mickey Mouse short, still has imagery and music straight out of a horror movie, with sentient brooms that multiply when chopped up. The Rite of Spring sequence follows the evolution of the earth, ending on a rather dour note with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
It all comes together in the climactic Night on Bald Mountain, where a scary demon named Chernabog awakens from his slumber to unleash his horde of nightmares, and the only thing that can keep him at bay is the sound of a choir singing Ave Maria.
10 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937)
There’s a reason the Disneyland ride labels the first fully animated film in history’s events as “Scary Adventures.” Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) herself is in nearly constant danger before she meets the dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The evil queen (Lucille La Verne), already somewhat unsettling, becomes terrifying when she uses a villainous facade.
She plots to kill Snow White multiple times, and with the poisoned apple, she actually succeeds. She almost manages to crush the dwarves with a boulder until the rock beneath her is struck by lightning, and she falls to her doom, with the disturbing implication the vultures watching nearby will feast on her corpse.
9 'Return to Oz' (1985)
The sequel to The Wizard of Oz brings a whole new meaning to the term “we’re not in Kansas anymore.” In Return to Oz, Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) tells everyone she knows about her adventure in Oz, and everyone thinks she’s making it up. She gets sent to a mental health facility that practices shock therapy before a storm destroys the place and brings her back to Oz.
But all her friends are missing, her pet chicken can suddenly talk, and all the emeralds from the Emerald City have been taken. She then runs afoul of creepy minions called wheelers, a witch who steals the heads of beautiful girls and must fight the monstrous Nome King (Nicol Williamson) to free Oz from his control.
8 'Mulan' (1998)
Overall, Mulan is already one of Disney's most emotional films. It follows the experiences of the titular character (voiced by Ming-Na Wen), who takes her father's place in the military by disguising herself as a man. Alongside Mushu (Eddie Murphy), she helps with the battle against the Huns while forming a romantic connection with General Li Shang (BD Wong).
There are several dark moments in the animated Disney classic, which include Mulan's father's reaction to her leaving and the climactic fight against the Huns' leader. It's the village scene that takes the cake as the heaviest one, though. It depicts Shang and Mulan's group finding a burned village and learning that the soldiers they were sent to support (including Shang's father) had already died. Mulan even finds a child's doll and eventually places it next to Shang's father's helmet during an unbelievably harrowing moment.
7 'Tarzan' (1999)
While there are many aspects of Disney's Tarzan that haven't aged well, it's still worth watching for the nostalgic visuals, story and characters. It's centered on the titular protagonist (voiced by Tony Goldwyn) who is raised in the animal kingdom by gorillas. When humans arrive, Tarzan has to make a tough choice after he meets Jane (Minnie Driver).
Of course, it's the treacherous hunter Clayton (Brian Blessed) featured in the darkest scene of the Disney movie. After Tarzan gets the upper hand and points a gun at him, Clayton taunts him, saying "go ahead, shoot me" and "be a man." His fate is even worse, as he doesn't realize he's getting entangled when he frantically slashes the thick mass of vines in a futile attempt to kill Tarzan.
6 'Pinocchio' (1940)
On paper, Pinocchio seems like the enchanting story of a young wooden puppet (Dick Jones) who wants to become a real boy. But this kid is put through so much peril the real miracle is that he makes it out alive. First, he’s held hostage by a puppeteer who wants to exploit him for profit.
Then on Pleasure Island, a coachman lures him and other stupid kids into living out carefree destructiveness, only to turn them into donkeys and sell them to salt mines. After that, a giant whale swallows him alive and almost kills him. A classic moral from Disney films is that good will conquer evil, but this film shows that sometimes you can only escape from it, not necessarily defeat it.
5 'The Lion King' (1994)
Featuring one of the saddest moments in animation, The Lion King is clearly a dark Disney movie. Inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, the film depicts a kingdom's downfall following a usurper's plot to kill his own brother, the King of the Pride Lands. In the process, Scar (the traitor voiced by Jeremy Irons) uses Simba (Matthew Broderick) as bait, creating an unbelievably traumatizing situation now remembered as the infamous cliff scene.
What makes the movie so dark is that Simba carries that guilt around with him as he grows older, masking his pain with "hakuna matata." And when he finally gets to confront his past and treacherous uncle, there are some creepy hyenas to keep audiences feeling unsettled, too.
4 'Dumbo' (1941)
The harshness of the circus and the way animals are mistreated are highlighted in the classic Disney movie, Dumbo. It tells the story of the titular character, a young elephant born with ridiculously large ears. When he learns he can use them to fly, life changes for him in the circus.
Before he reaches his happily ever after, though, Dumbo is first subject to ridicule and pretty much bullied. This is what leads to his mother's rage at one point, and then to one of the saddest scenes where he's separated from her. It's a lot for such a young adorable elephant to bear, and viewers who rewatch this 1941 movie may just find themselves getting emotional over the story all over again.
3 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1996)
Based on an extremely dark book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has a reputation for having a darker tone than the typical fairy tale. Much of this darkness comes from the film’s cruel and iconic Disney villain, Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay). He kills a woman within his first two minutes of screen time.
He then raises her son Quasimodo (Tom Hulce) in secret, undermining his confidence every chance he gets, then begins to lust after his new friend Esmeralda (Demi Moore). He then starts burning Paris down to pursue her, feeling if he can’t have her, no one can. He commits despicable actions while proclaiming that he is a man of God, using his power to persecute those he deems unholy.
2 'The Fox and the Hound' (1981)
The Fox and the Hound begins as a story of friendship between two orphaned animals; a fox named Tod (Mickey Rooney) and a dog named Copper (Kurt Russell). They play together, but societal pressures force the two apart until they grow up in separate environments. One in the free and resourceful wilderness, the other raised to hunt. Soon, the two find themselves as bitter enemies.
Then, when a large and scary bear tries to kill them both, this isn’t enough for Copper’s owner to stop trying to shoot Tod. Finally, after a tense moment, the two leave Tod alone, with only a tiny smile between the former friends hinting at reconciliation.
1 'Bambi' (1942)
A Disney classic unlike any other, Bambi revolves around the titular character's experiences in the forest as the young deer tries to make new friends. Voiced by numerous talented artists, Bambi soon meets charming animals like the rabbit Thumper and the skunk Flower. The beautifully animated film follows Bambi's growth and depicts the ways he learns some hard lessons about the forest, life and the wide world out there.
If there's one scene fans who watched the film as kids will forever remember, it's the tear-jerking event that sparked Bambi's misadventures in the first place. Bambi and his mother are shown grazing and having a peaceful day out, which is interrupted by the sound of bullets. Bambi runs deep into the forest, with his mom following closely – or so he thought.