While studying the history of animation, I've tried to seek out the widest variety of animated films to watch. During the process, I've seen a few that left a significant impact on me. My definition of "disturbing" is basically anything that leaves a significant impact on you in an unsettling way, so it's not just shocking violence, but a wide variety of things.

Anyway, I wanted to bring them up here to hopefully open a discussion. What animated films/shorts/shows have you seen that "disturbed" you? This is all stuff I would recommend. If anything, it's just nice to see more adult animation that's not stuck in the "animation is for kids" mentality. Notably, none of these are from North America.

Fantastic Planet (1973)


This movie was disturbing in that it was just straight up WEIRD. It's about another planet where humans are kept by giant aliens as pets. It was directed by René Laloux, one of his three animated French sci-fi movies. This is my favorite of the three just because it's the most bizarre. It really feels like it was made on another planet.

Watership Down (1978)


The violence in this movie just caught me off guard. If you think you're going to sit down and watch a nice movie about cute cartoon bunnies, you're gonna have a bad time.

The Plague Dogs (1982)


There was nothing happy about this movie. From the first scene of dogs being repeatedly drowned and resuscitated in an animal testing facility, you know this movie is going to be hard to watch. I wouldn't recommend this for dog lovers, but it really is a powerful film.

Barefoot Gen (1983)


What can you say about this movie? It's a record of the Hiroshima bombing through the eyes of a young boy. Based off the stories of an actual Hiroshima survivor, this is probably one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. The scene of the actual bombing was almost too much for me to handle, as the animators held back nothing in depicting the horror of what actually happened. Strongly recommended, but only if you can handle this type of stuff.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)


After watching this film, I felt rather depressed for a while. Its similar to Barefoot Gen as it's the story of kids in Japan trying to make it through the effects of WWII. I think this is Isao Takahata's best film by far.

Alice (1988)


Jan Svankmajer really has a way of making extremely unsettling stop-motion animation. I wouldn't consider his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland necessarily a good movie, since it has some major flaws (one in particular is the repetition he uses, which works well in his short films but gets extremely annoying in a feature film). But the strength of the movie is in its imagery. Truly creepy.

Angel's Egg (1985)


This film has some pretty heavy symbolism that most people will find hard to decipher. It's also a really slow-paced film, which is the opposite of what you usually get in American features. But the imagery and mood of this movie is really something else.

Darkness Light Darkness (1990, short film)


What more do I have to say after that image? Another stop-motion by Jan Svankmajer.

Felidae (1994)


I don't remember ever having to literally stop a movie in order to hold on to my sanity, until this film. This film is basically a film noir murder mystery with cats. It's also shockingly dark. The dream sequences in particular are really hard to watch, and you'll probably know the point I had to stop the movie for a while if you watch it.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999)


One of the most realistically animated anime I've seen. IMDB's summary is "A traumatized member of an elite para-military police force falls for the sister of a female terrorist courier who died in front of him on duty." This movie is pretty dark, and depicts the struggle between what someone wants to be, and the reality of who they are. Sounds confusing probably, but it's a really interesting film.

Cat Soup (2001)


Another bizarre, bleak movie with heavy symbolism, like Angel's Egg. I absolutely love this film, though. It's only 30ish minutes long, and the whole thing is on YouTube. Worth the watch.

Honorable mentions:
Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Balance (1989 short film)
Perfect Blue (1987)
Salad Fingers (2004 web series)

Last edited by Jonah Sidhom (07-11-2012 3:10 pm)