Favorite "Tough" Or Emotionally Raw Moments in Family Films - Page 4

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Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

 

More from The Iron Giant-If I didn't hate Kent Mansley before, I certainly hated him after the scene where he threatens to take Hogarth's mother away, and then knocks out a 10 year old boy with chloroform. That's a scene that could've come out of something like The Manchurian Candidate, for God's sake! With that action, Mansley becomes one of the most hateful villains in film history, not just animation.

Maybe I'm weird, but I always thought Kent Mansley was hilarious. A terrible person, for sure, but hilarious.

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Originally Posted by DamnDirtyApe 

 

Maybe I'm weird, but I always thought Kent Mansley was hilarious. A terrible person, for sure, but hilarious.

WHERE'S THE GIANT, MANSLEEEEEY?

You can be hilarious and a terrible asshole who should die. William Atherton in almost anything, for instance.
 

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Originally Posted by Greg Clark 

The really funny irony is that even though it's totally creepy in spots, it's never unacceptably terrifying for kids. I appreciate that the makers challenged rather than coddled their intended audience. Also, I guess the fact that it's actually a really good movie (and very faithful to Frank's novels) also helps counter balance the weirdness that populates the film.

 

I mean, it starts off with Dorothy getting wired for shock treatment because Auntie Em thinks she's crazy for always going on about Oz. Then she escapes from the sanatarium and watches a little girl drown. That's the first ten minutes! And it's a Disney movie to boot!

Indeed, kids should be exposed to the certainty of their own death, and the shrieking, pitiless, void that awaits.

Yeah, we're gonna need to have a Return To Oz watchalong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

The Secret of NIMH-A lot of moments could count, but I have a couple favorites. There's the fantastic Great Owl scene where there's a real tension and possibility that Mrs. Brisby will be eaten, especially since we see discarded bones, and the Owl introduces himself by crushing a spider and eating it ONSCREEN. There's also the moment where she discovers how her husband died, and the way Elizabeth Hartman stutters on the word "killed" always destroys me.

 

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Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather 

"I want my father back, you son of a bitch."
 

Raw AND triumphant.

Because these didn't need to die at the bottom of the last page.

Secret of NIMH was terrifying to me. The Owl!  But Ms. Brisby's final struggle to use the amulet to lift the stone house. I thought for sure that they weren't going to make it. That all this struggle was going to end in vain. Disney wouldn't do that to me, but a Bluth film?  It was very much possible that it could end badly.

As for Princess Bride, I was hanging with wee Savage. When the cut away to him and the grandfather, where the grandfather wants to stop reading because the boy is getting too wound up, I was also getting wound up.  That life lesson there about how sometimes things don't end as well as we would like. It is a great way to relieve the tension, but really say something. As an adult, I love that part of the film, because it is so true.

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Originally Posted by Martin Blank 

 

On that same note, Indy is pretty convincingly crushed in the bar with Belloq when he thinks Marion is dead. That look he gets when he says "You wanna talk to God? Let's go see him together, I've got nothing better to do" has always scared me a little. It's like this nihilistic glee.

 

 

I was reminded of it by Batman's line to Robin "Let's die" in The Dark Knight Strikes Back.

GREAT moment, and one of my favourite scenes of Ford's. That nihilistic/angry streak really elevated Indy from standard pulp hero to something special, IMO. You always knew that no matter how herioc he got, there was always that side to him that had done some really hardcore and not necessarily noble stuff, and would do it again if the need arose.

Frankenweenie: Sparky going to sleep at his grave.

You know it's just some silicone over a metal skeleton, but damn...

Say what you will about who filmed what and when, or whether the writing violates the original vision of someone or other, or the troubling implications of the 'amnesia kiss'. Margot Kidder's heartbroken monologue at the end of Superman II -- "Don't tell me I'll find someone else. You're kind of a hard act to follow..." is just amazing.