Last year, I reviewed three films that I loved as a
child only to find riddled with dark content and disturbing subtexts as an
adult. After reflecting upon my childhood viewing experiences, I have come to
realize that children’s movies, much like fairy-tales, often use exaggerated
and graphic imagery to instill important lessons in children. Even with this
common literary device in mind, however, I still cannot help but marvel at how
truly twisted even some of the most beloved children’s films are. This week I
will be putting the spotlight on three more films from my childhood that in
their own way were every bit as gritty, morally ambiguous, and cynical as films
marketed to adult audiences.
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| Damn it feels good to be a gangster...even with fur |
ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN: Despite its title, the gritty
adventures of this film’s canine protagonist are anything but heavenly. The
story begins with loveable con-man (or in this case dog) Charlie (Burt
Reynolds) escaping from death-row at the pound with the help of his loyal but
hapless best friend, Itchy (Dom Deluise). Upon tunneling their way to freedom
the pair celebrate with their friends by drinking and carousing at the local
rat-track, where Charlie is reunited with his former business partner, Carface.
It seems like old times until Carface calls out a mob hit on Charlie in order
to avoid having to share their joint profits. In a scheme straight out of The Godfather, Carface holds a party in
Charlie’s honor, where he makes sure that Charlie becomes thoroughly inebriated,
and lures Charlie out onto a fishing pier where two of his henchmen are
waiting. In a shockingly graphic scene the film then unflinchingly shows how
Carface’s thugs push a car over the pier and run a completely unsuspecting
Charlie down. When Charlie awakens, he is mortified to find that he has
literally died and gone to Heaven. Rather than appreciate his good fortune at
avoiding Hell after a life of crime, he immediately hatches a plot to escape
Heaven and return to Earth, even though the angels warn him that once he leaves
Heaven he can never return. As soon as he rejoins the living, he sets about
exacting his revenge on Carface by exploiting Anne Marie, a lonely orphan who
possesses the ability to talk to animals, to fix horse and rat races in an
effort to ruin Carface’s gambling enterprise. Eventually, Charlie does see the
error of his ways, but only after such less than kid-friendly adventures as pick-pocketing,
opening a casino (complete with what is implied to be a topless dog review), dodging
Carface’s raygun, and escaping cannibalistic sewer rats, all while consistently
manipulating Little Orphan Annie-esque Anne Marie (Judith Barsi). And then
there’s always Charlie’s doggy-Hell nightmare sequence which still haunts this
reviewer twenty years on. While the film can be viewed as an apt tribute to
classic gangster films of the 1930’s with charmingly scrappy crook, Charlie
(Burt Reynolds) standing in for James Cagney (whom Charlie even quotes at one
point) and his ruthless bulldog partner acting as an animated equivalent of
Edward G Robinson (cigar chomping and all), the question remains; what is the
purpose of making a gangster film for children? It could be argued that, much
like its classic counterparts, the film attempts to teach viewers that crime
does not pay through Charlie’s punishment and eventual redemption. This lesson
is undermined, however, by the film’s noirish sensibility which portrays Charlie’s
criminal lifestyle as a misguided attempt to find the American Dream amidst the
desperation of the Great Depression. Regardless of how and why this film made
it past the storyboard phase, one thing remains certain; director Don Bluth
took the children’s entertainment to a dark and complex place that it has
rarely gone before or since. For a journey into the back alleys of family
filmmaking look no further than All Dogs
Go To Heaven.
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| Clearly the work of a troubled mind |
RETURN TO OZ: Easily the most disturbing entry on this
list, 1985’s Return to Oz takes
everything that we loved and thought we knew about the land of Oz and twists it
into a Tim Burton worthy nightmare. The film picks up where the 1939 classic
left off with Dorothy recovering from tornado induced head trauma as her aunt
and uncle struggle to rebuild their devastated farm. When Dorothy continues to
talk to her family about her adventuress in Oz the Gayle’s start to suspect
that their niece isn’t just a lonely child with an active imagination. Aunt Em
decides that Dorothy’s imaginings are the result of a mental disturbance
brought on by her recent head trauma and packs the unsuspecting girl up for a
trip to the local insane asylum. In keeping with the film’s 1800’s setting the
local psychiatrist determines that ‘new electric healing’ a/k/a electroshock treatment
is the best medicine. The film then descends into a phantasm of Kubrick-esque
horror with a nurse reminiscent of Nurse Ratched, deranged patients, terrifying
orderlies and some of the most barbaric medical equipment this side of the
Middle Ages. Her only hope seems to be another young girl who is also being
held as a patient against her will. Before young viewers can breathe a sigh of
relief, however, the film shatters this one glimmer of hope by implying that
the girl is a manifestation of Dorothy’s disassociated personality. Fortunately,
with the mysterious girl’s help Dorothy does escape to the supposed safety of
Oz only to find that it has become a deserted wasteland. Making matters worse,
the film employs the same literary device as the 1939 film by having the
characters in Oz mirrors those that she encounters in her waking life…which in
this instance leaves Oz populated with a mind stealing headless witch (the
nurse), gangs of her wheeled henchmen (the orderlies), and a rock giant known
as the Nome King (the psychiatrist). After such terrifying adventures as
exploring the witch’s head gallery and a deadly guessing game with the Nome
King, Dorothy finally restores freedom to Oz and returns to Kansas. Upon
returning home, she learns that the asylum caught fire after being struck by
lightning in a rain storm and that the psychiatrist was killed in the fire
while the nurse has since been arrested. At the film’s close she resumes her
former life with one exception; she has now learned to keep Oz and all of her
imaginings safely to herself. Part horror tale, and part examination of the disturbing
early days of psychiatric treatment Return
to Oz is a far cry from either Kansas or that land over the rainbow that we
thought we knew.
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| Don't be fooled by the sunshine and flowers... |
THE LAST UNICORN: Adapted from a fantasy novel written
for adults, The Last Unicorn was never
meant for young audiences, a fact that becomes painfully obvious as the 1982
animated film progresses. The film begins with a nameless unicorn setting out
on a quest to discover others of her kind after she overhears a group of
hunters discussing how unicorns have disappeared from the world. Shortly after
leaving the safety of her forest, she is captured by a traveling carnival run
by a witch called Mommy Fortuna, her hunchback assistant, Ruhk, and incompetent
aspiring magician Schmendrick. The carnival is populated by animals that
Fortuna disguises to look like magical creatures which she presents in a
sideshow to unsuspecting villagers as the real thing. The two exceptions in the
carnival are the unicorn and the harpy Celaeno; a half woman half bird creature
with three ample breasts which the film makes a point to consistently expose.
With the help of Schmendrick, the unicorn escapes the carnival, but in doing so
accidentally frees the harpy, leading to a particularly brutal scene in which
the harpy devours a resigned Fortuna. The duo then continue on their quest and
encounter Molly Grue, the common-law wife of a local outlaw who is seriously regretting
her life choices. After Molly rants at the unicorn, who she for some reason
seems to blame for her lackluster existence, she insists upon joining the
unicorn and Schmendrick on their journey. Before their travels can continue,
however, Schmendrick’s magic goes awry and accidentally brings a tree to life….prompting
the tree for no explained reason to grow human breasts and set about attempting
to seduce Schmendrick. Fortunately, he is able to resist the tree’s bizarre
charms and the quest resumes with the trio arriving at the castle of King
Haggard, who is using the mysterious monster known as the Red Bull to imprison
the world’s unicorns who he claims provide him with his only joy. Before they
can enter the castle, however, they are ambushed by the Red Bull, an utterly terrifying
creature who with hits white hot eyes, flamed hooves, and sharp fangs is a creature
straight out of Hell itself. In order to rescue the unicorn from the Red Bull’s
detection, Schmendrick is forced to transform her into a sultry…and completely
naked, young woman, and pretend that she is his orphan niece. Eventually, the
do reach the castle and Schmendrick is offered the position of court magician
for the morbidly depressed Haggard while Molly assumes work as castle cook.
Meanwhile, the king’s adopted son, Lir, sets about pursuing the unicorn, now
called Lady Amalthea, through such romantic gestures as slaying a dragon and
presenting her with its severed head. Over time the pair kindle a romance as
the unicorn begins to lose memory of her former life and her mission. The film
finally reaches a climax that is equal parts nonsensical and traumatizing. This
final act includes such less than child friendly episodes as tempting an
alcoholic skeleton with wine and Lir’s
brutal death after being stampeded by the Red Bull before the reappearance of
the unicorns (who apparently could have fought off the Red Bull themselves all
along by…just angrily pointing their horns at it?). Lir is fortunately revived
by the unicorn in the final scene and reluctantly lets the unicorn go to resume
her former life, though both are plagued by regret at what might have been.
Sexually charged, brutally violent, and morally ambiguous, The Last Unicorn makes for an excellent entry into cinema’s fantasy
cannon, so long as it is aimed at the adult audience it was originally written
for.
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