For most movie fans, animated films are synonymous with family-friendly flicks. Still, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule. As with live-action movies, filmmakers have pushed the boundaries of this art form throughout cinematic history. Several animated films have even managed to reach realms of terror usually reserved for R-rated live-action movies.
Studios created some of these animation wonders specifically for adults. Others presented themselves as kid-focused entertainment, only to catch audiences by surprise with their mature content. As a result, many of these films have caused some controversy. Such animated films are dark, disturbing, and/or filled with fright. While they may look suitable for children, they certainly are not.
Updated by Alexandra Locke on December 20, 2022: As animation grows in popularity with audiences of all ages, more animated movies with mature stories crop up. Whether they were initially marketed to children, or not, this article has been updated to include even more of animation's darkest tales.
20 9 Represents The Worst Future
9 is a surreal film about a post-apocalyptic world taken over by robots bent on destroying all signs of humanity. After all the humans are gone, the only shreds of their lives are the Stitchpunks – fragments of the soul of the Scientist who created the robots. This movie is a bizarre and chilling tale of humanity’s last hope.
Many of the main characters die in a rather terrifying way. Plus, the dystopian setting is unsettling in and of itself. While this movie can become confusing at times, it is also a sinister look at what might become of the world with unfettered power and technology.
19 Watership Down Is A Terrifying Tale That Proves Rabbits Aren't Always Adorable
Watership Down is the film that caused an entire generation of British children to grow up with an irrational fear of rabbits. At a glance, Martin Rosen's 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams's novel may look like family-friendly fun. However, this story of rabbits searching for a new home is hardly an adventure suitable for children.
From the haunting imagery of the Black Rabbit of death to the blood-soaked battlefields, Watership Down is packed with nightmare-inducing moments. Despite these graphic events, censors labeled the film as "suitable for all ages" upon its release. As a result, the BBFC has received complaints about Watership Down's disturbing content for over 40 years.
18 Corpse Bride Is A Fun, But Dark Look At Death
Corpse Bride follows Victor VanDoort, a young groom nervous about his impending arranged nuptials. However, after meeting his betrothed, Victor decides to practice vows in the woods – to disastrous results. Unlike a lot of movies, Corpse Bride makes the ghosts and ghouls the good guys as opposed to the villains.
That said, there are only two onscreen deaths, but the second one is the darkest. Hoping to marry Victoria and gain her wealth, Barkis Bittern inadvertently drinks from a poisoned goblet and succumbs. The rest of the dead then descend upon him as he was responsible for Emily’s death. The sinister way the dead welcome their newest member is chilling and a lot darker than most animated films.
17 Paranorman Shows People Are Not What They Seem
Paranorman is a unique film about a young boy named Norman who can see ghosts. Yet, things start to get out of hand when Norman begins getting flashes of the past, and he realizes the town might be in danger.
This oddly heartwarming film subverts many standard genre expectations, while also presenting a terrifying yet poignant story about being different. A lot of the imagery might be too frightening for some viewers, but the narrative and animation are beautiful in their frightening themes.
16 Grave Of The Fireflies Is A Heartbreaking Look At The Aftermath Of War
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Isao Takahata's 1988 masterpiece, Grave of the Fireflies, is widely renowned as one of the most heartbreaking and harrowing animated movies ever, as well as one of the greatest war films. Grave of Fireflies thrusts viewers into the late stages of World War II as it unfolds in Japan.
Watching the horrors of war unravel around adult characters is disturbing enough. But Grave of the Fireflies focuses on two young siblings struggling to stay alive, only amplifying the surrounding atrocities. Equal parts upsetting and engrossing, Grave of the Fireflies is an unforgettable watch, though perhaps not one many viewers are keen to sit through for a second time.
15 When The Wind Blows Imagines The U.K. After A Nuclear Disaster
Where Grave of the Fireflies explores the horrifying results of nuclear fallout from real-life incidents in Japan, When the Wind Blows imagines a similar but more fictionalized scenario. In this movie, the Soviet Union dropped a nuclear bomb on the United Kingdom during the mid-1980s.
When the Wind Blows follows an elderly couple struggling to carry on with their lives, initially oblivious to this disaster developing around them. The movie is as emotionally affecting as audiences would expect, but it also tells a tale of hope-inspiring, uplifting love.
14 Bambi Is The Disney Classic That Made Adults Cry And Gave Kids Nightmares
The House of Mouse remains the undisputed king of heartwarming, wholesome cinema, but many of Disney's early classics contain a dark side. This darkness is undoubtedly present in 1942's Bambi.
As unforgettable as the Oscar-nominated music in Bambi is, the heart-wrenching death of the titular deer's mother sticks in most viewers' minds. Similarly, this Disney classic is not without its feel-good moments, as Thumper is one of the studio's most beloved critters. Still, in Bambi, this lightness is weighed down by the terrors of the forest after the adorable fawn is left alone in the world.
13 The Last Unicorn Highlights The Tragedy Of Regret
The Last Unicorn is the somber tale of the eponymous character as she attempts to discover the fate of her kind. Along the way, she meets many humans who assist her on her journey to the castle where she learns the unicorns’ fates and transforms into a human woman to escape detection, but falls in love instead.
The movie ends with the Last Unicorn transforming back to her original form, but lamenting the fact that she is now an immortal being filled with regret. This dark message coupled with more mature animated scenes makes for a forlorn and somber animated movie.
12 The Secret Of NIMH Features All The Darkness Don Bluth's Films Became Famous For
Even with plenty of competition in his catalog, Don Bluth's directorial debut, The Secret of NIMH, remains one of his darkest pictures. This movie tells the story of a widowed field mouse who eventually learns the secrets of a nearby scientific facility and its experiments on other mice.
The subject of animal experimentation is unsurprisingly controversial for Bluth. Despite this subject, the film avoids depicting anything exceedingly traumatic to younger viewers. Although, that is not to say The Secret of NIMH does not have any disturbing moments. The 1982 classic contains multiple scenes likely to unsettle viewers of any age.
11 Waltz With Bashir Is A Hard-Hitting Anti-War Film
Waltz With Bashir is among the most unique animated films ever made. The movie serves as a self-reflection for its writer-director, Ari Folman, as it chronicles his attempts to recall experiences as a soldier in the Lebanon War.
Since its debut at Cannes Film Festival, Waltz With Bashir has received acclaim worldwide, including a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination. Part biographical film and part documentary, the movie leaves viewers feeling like they have been through the wringer. Through its raw emotional power, few films, animated or otherwise, make as successful a stance against war.
10 Animal Lovers Will Want To Skip The Plague Dogs
When it comes to Martin Rosen's animated films based on Richard Adams's novels, Watership Down may garner most of the attention. But his 1982 adventure, The Plague Dogs, is arguably an even more harrowing experience. The movie follows two perseverant pooches as they escape the cruelty of an animal research facility.
Rosen packed The Plague of Dogs with disturbing imagery and plenty of moments scary enough to have viewers watching from behind their sofas. Despite this excellent direction and John Hurt lending his vocal mastery to one of the lead roles, this is one movie animal lovers may want to steer clear of.
9 The Land Before Time Captures The Spirit Of Adventure And Heartbreak
Another Don Bluth classic, The Land Before Time, features an infectious warmth and sense of humor inside a timeless dinosaur adventure. Still, even with this tenderness, the movie is frequently brutally bleak for its lovable heroes. The Land Before Time follows an orphaned brontosaurus and his friends as they attempt to make it back to their families.
Additionally, The Land Before Time is made more gloomy by the tragic events surrounding one of the film's primary cast members. Immensely talented ten-year-old Judith Barsi (who played Ducky in the movie) was murdered by her father shortly after completing her iconic role.
8 An American Tail Is A Children's Movie With A Moving And Mature Message
In between The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time, Don Bluth released another staple of dark, animated films with An American Tail. This entry in the genre follows Fivel, a young mouse on a mission to emigrate to America.
An American Tail tracks Fivel's journey as he soon separates from his family and must go on a dangerous trip to reunite with them. The movie is a large-scale adventure that does not shy away from the despair that comes with loneliness. Fivel, like countless real-life immigrants, experiences many mental and physical perils during his introduction to his new home country.
7 Barefoot Gen Is Darker And More Disturbing Than Most Live-Action Movies
Barefoot Gen's depiction of the Hiroshima nuclear attack ranks as one of the most horrifying sequences ever put on film, live-action or animated. Mori Masaki's 1983 standard, depicts the effects of the nuclear bomb as seen through the eyes of a young boy.
Barefoot Gen portrays how the bomb destroyed an entire city's infrastructure and its people, with a gruesome detail even big-budget disaster movies can rarely match. Loosely based on writer Keiji Nakazawa's personal experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, Barefoot Gen uses these actual events to imbue the film with tangible emotionality audiences can feel.
6 Persepolis Is An Award-Worthy Adaptation
Based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name, Persepolis is the semi-autobiographical story of Marjane as she grows up in Iran and her complex relationship with her home country. As a nine-year-old, Marji bares witness to the 1978 Iranian Revolution. Although this revolution does not bring about the change desired by her family, it does inspire a young Marji to begin a life of rebellion.
Throughout Persepolis, Marjane's defiance continually puts her at odds with the Iranian government's strict, fundamentalist laws. When Marji's parents send her to boarding school in Austria, it seems like a chance for her to start over. But Marji soon discovers the Western world is not all she had dreamed it up to be. Eventually, she returns and must come to terms with loving a country that does not love her back.
5 Coraline's Stop-Motion Style Enhances Its Creepiness
After directing The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, director Henry Selick had cemented his status as a stop-motion auteur. So, in the early 2000s, when he announced his next project would be an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, it seemed like a fantastic match of filmmaker and material.
Like Selick's earlier films, Coraline is a masterclass in macabre stop-motion movie-making. When Coraline and her parents move into a new home, she soon discovers a hidden passage that leads her to a sinister alternate reality. At first, this world seems better than Coraline's in every way. But the more time she spends in this alternate reality, the more she realizes it's hiding a menacing secret. Coraline takes full advantage of its animation style to create an atmosphere far creepier than its PG rating.
4 Animal Farm Is An Animated Allegory With Bite
Most students in the United States have either read or pretended to read George Orwell's expert parable, Animal Farm. For those in the latter group, one of the best supplementary materials is the 1954 animated adaptation. Although, this version of Animal Farm contains some notable changes from its source material.
Many of Animal Farm's changes are because the CIA helped fund the film's production to combat the rise of communism. The producers hired writers to create a new ending to make the film pro-capitalism. Already a dark movie featuring multiple murders, this new finale features a final round of revolutionary killings. Moreover, this ending undermines the primary message of Orwell's original work.
3 Pinocchio Is Somehow Not As Dark As Its Source Material
Disney's second animated feature film, Pinocchio, is an adaptation of Italian author Carlo Collodi's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio. The movie, released in 1940, is well-known for its bleak story of a wooden boy who a fairy magically brings to life. Before this fairy makes him a "real boy," Pinocchio must prove himself worthy.
Throughout Pinocchio, the titular puppet encounters various parties representing worldly temptations. During these adventures, Pinocchio lies, smokes, drinks, is imprisoned, sold into slave labor, and is swallowed by a whale. While none of these experiences are too graphic, its darkness far exceeds its G rating. Still, this version manages to be lighter than its source material. In the original novel, Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket with a hammer at the beginning of the book.
2 Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio Is A Darker Take On The Story
Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the Pinocchio tale is one of the darkest animated films. Set at different times in both World Wars, the movie does not shy away from the brutality of either time – choosing instead to highlight it as Pinocchio learns more about the world he came into.
The movie also sees Pinocchio die several times, and he eventually gives up his resurrection capabilities to save his father. The whole movie ends with Pinocchio living his life alone, having buried all his friends and family.
1 Few Animated Films Have Been As Prescient As A Scanner Darkly
Through movies like Slacker and Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater established himself as one of the brightest live-action directing talents, capable of mixing in-depth character development with an interesting narrative. Linklater seemed like a perfect fit to adapt Phillip K. Dick's 1977 book of the same name.
In A Scanner Darkly, Linklater creates a unique visual palette using interpolated rotoscope, an animation technique that animates over the film's original images, creating a distinctive but consistent appearance. This animation style also lends itself to the futuristic story. The narrative involves an undercover police officer investigating the source of a brain-damaging hallucinogen called Substance D. Regarding its themes of a totalitarian government and a widespread surveillance state, Scanner Darkly is quite prophetic. Given these weighty themes, despite its animated format, the movie is as far from family-friendly as possible.