Published on February 1, 2026 2:40 PM GMT
This post has spoilers for My Neighbor Totoro, Frozen, Bambi, and
the Lion King
People at different stages of development enjoy different things in
movies. Some of the best children’s movies are able to make things
scary or intense for the adults without being too much for little
kids.
For example, in My Neighbor
Totoro everyone is worried that a small child may have fallen in
the lake: she’s gone missing, they find a sandal floating in the pond,
you see people dredging the pond looking for her, and it’s very clear
to adults and older kids that the worry is she has drowned. But to a
little kid it’s much less obvious; the actual dialog only says that
they found a sandal. This gives a very intense and emotional scene,
but only for people who can handle it.
Similarly, many kids’ movies need to get the parents out of the way so
the kids can be put in situations of unusual responsibility. Some are
pretty blatant about this (ex: Bambi, The Lion King)
and just very clearly kill the parent on screen, but Frozen
handles it way better. You see,
wordlessly, the parents boarding a ship, the ship in a storm, a big
wave, no ship, a funeral, and then “Elsa gets to be queen!” Clear to
adults, who can put the hints together and know what a funeral looks
like, much less clear to kids.
There are lots of movies that manage this kind of differential
targeting with humor, since it’s relatively easy to add jokes
that will go over the kids’ heads, but I’d love to see more of this in
other areas.
(Another one that comes to mind is the way the opening sequence of Up is very
powerful to adults, while little kids just get “she got
old and isn’t around anymore.” I don’t think this one is handled
quite as well, though, because unlike the scenes in Totoro and Frozen,
it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the movie.)
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