...Wait... Disney... What?

[Seil]

So I watched The Hunchback Of Notre Dame recently - still one of the greatest Disney flicks ever. And as I'm sitting along, singing along to The Bells Of Notre Dame, clapping along with Clopin and getting a hoot out of the show, I realize that holy crap, this is pretty heavy stuff. Have you ever sat there, just going along with the show, and suddenly had a... well, something a little less eye-opening than an epihany, but it's sort of like you were spaced out in history class and the teacher whaps the meter stick across your desk and you realize you're learning about what an asshole Hitler was.

Like... seriously - racism, facism, megalomania, cruelty, abuse, god-complexes, extortion, murder... At one point, Frollo traps a family in their house and lights the house on fire. Just... wow.

What about Toy Story? If you're a toy, and the only world you know is the room of your owner, the yard, and the sadistic creepy kid next door who'd like nothing better than to blow you up for fun... well. And the possibility of getting lost or damaged...

Tarzan - your family is a bunch of apes. A poacher wants to kill every member of your family one by one and sell them. Plus, there's all the prejudice that Tarzan suffered just 'cause he wasn't an actual ape.

Lion King - Hamlet. With lions. In Africa.

So, what's up Disney? I know they're taking previously written stories and adapting them to their needs, but even still. Frollo, singing the song "Hellfire," informing the audience that if the girl whose people he spent most of his adult life massacring doesn't love him, he'll burn her alive, all the while proclaiming himself to be a good and virtuous man. It's just... eally serious stuff for a 90 minute kids movie.