Disney has released dozens of animated movies over the years, but two of the most traumatizing movies to have come out of the company were both released in the same year, eight decades ago. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first-ever feature-length animated film, and after its massive success, these features became a prime business model for Disney. While they were aimed at children and families, many early Disney movies had elements that were terrifying, something that has mostly been lost by modern Disney.
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Much time has been dedicated to discussing some of Disney’s scariest scenes, with the Pink Elephants segment from Dumbo, “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the bear from The Fox and the Hound, and more constantly getting brought up. However, most don’t know that many kids got a one-two punch of Disney’s most horrifying movies when they had back-to-back releases 80 years ago.
Disney Released Pinocchio & Fantasia in 1940 (& They’re Both Terrifying)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was notable for many reasons, but one is its many scary moments. The Evil Queen’s transformation and Snow White’s experience in the forest are both pretty traumatizing, and Disney decided to double down on these scary elements with their next film. So, on February 7, 1940, Disney went on to release a traumatizing movie that would later become iconic: Pinocchio.
The second feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios was based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, which, like many classic fairy tales, had a lot of terrifying moments. Some of these were translated into Disney’s version, but by far the scariest adaptation is the Pleasure Island sequence. In it, a group of kids is brought to an amusement park where they can do anything, including drinking, smoking, playing pool, and more. Soon after their arrival, Pinocchio witnesses a boy magically turn into a donkey, with the scene being one of the most horrifying transformations in animation history. The children are then trafficked and turned into slaves, with Pinocchio barely escaping.
Not long after Pinocchio, children who were traumatized from the Pleasure Island sequence had to witness another horrifying moment from the creatives at Disney. On November 13, 1940, Disney released Fantasia. The musical anthology film is still Disney’s most experimental, with it containing several animated short films set to preexisting classical music. The final segment, set to Night on Bald Mountain, features a giant, Satan-like being named Chernabog awakening and bursting out of a mountain. He summons demons and spirits that fly around the screen, only for a group of monks to drive them back with the sound of a bell.
So, to recap, 1940 saw the release of one Disney movie that featured child slavery and forced therianthropy, while the other featured Disney’s version of Satan. Kids who loved Snow White probably had a rough time seeing these films back-to-back, and no year in the rest of Disney’s history has featured animated moments nearly as horrifying as these.
1940 Is Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strongest Year Ever
1940 isn’t just Walt Disney Animation Studios’ scariest year ever. It’s also their strongest year ever. Fantasia is often argued to be one of Disney’s best movies ever made, and Pinocchio is easily one of the company’s best classics. The fact that Disney released both of these movies within a year of each other is incredibly impressive, making the studio’s public success in the realm of animated features a lot more understandable.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has only six years in which they have released more than one movie, with 1940 being the first. The second was 1977, in which Disney released The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Rescuers. While both of these movies are good, neither of them is among Disney’s best. Next was 1999, which featured Tarzan and Fantasia 2000, the first of which is one of the weaker films from the Disney Renaissance and the latter of which doesn’t live up to the original Fantasia. The very next year saw Dinosaur and The Emperor’s New Groove hit theaters, with the former being one of Disney’s more forgotten films. Then, Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet hit theaters in 2002, both of which are good but not as good as the two films from 1940. In 2016, Zootopia and Moana both released, with this definitely being Disney’s second strongest year. Finally, 2021 saw the release of Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto, the first of which is typically considered to be one of Disney’s worst movies.
While some of these dual-release years are good, none of them are as incredible as 1940. Pinocchio and Fantasia are both masterpieces, even if they have given kids nightmares for decades.
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