5 Huge Children's Movies That Teach Kids Horrifying Lessons

Tim Burton's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory serves as an allegory for how children are treated in the presence of a respected icon. While Johnny Depp denies it, there are clear parallels between his portrayal of Wonka and Michael Jackson. They're both wealthy, eccentric, and lonely. They both had weird hairdos and effeminate voices, were abused by their fathers, owned a massive property specifically designed to appeal to children, and made an army of deranged midgets do their bidding.

Now, aside from Charlie, the kids who get into Wonka's factory are little shits, but who can blame them? Kids are inherently annoying. Their parents should be the ones keeping them in line. Instead, they put the fame and fortune that would come with Wonka's prize above their offspring's own safety. From the moment Augustus Gloop is sucked away into a river of chocolate and nearly drowned, their first priority should be to get the hell out of Candy Dodge. But they all keep trudging along while their kids meet ironic fates. You can understand the kids not caring -- they're entranced, like they're in some kind of store that provides something kids are really into. A math store, maybe. But while a loving parent would no doubt sue and/or beat the shit out of a regular schmuck who turned their daughter into a giant blueberry, here they grin and bear it because of the potential reward. Even Grandpa Joe, who told Charlie not to sell his ticket because the experience would be worth more than money, is starstruck.

And not to dampen your spirits further, kids, but it's not only your parents who will neglect you. While the media is normally all over sad stories about children, they don't really care if you've been horrifically scarred by a celebrity. We see the other children leave the factory, and while two are just covered in crap, Violet appears to have permanently become a Japanese horror monster ...

... and Mike Teavee is now a freakishly tall two-dimensional being.

A ton of people are waiting outside, and everyone seems pretty chill about the parade of traumatized freak shows walking out of a multi-millionaire's factory.

The movie ends with Wonka suffering no punishment. He gets to enjoy dinner with Charlie and his family, who are now helping him run the factory. Either they somehow see zero issues with the man, or the giant piles of money they now sleep on help them get over it. Wonka has mentally and physically scarred four children and their parents, and is never brought to justice for it because his work is too beloved. Draw your own parallels.

Obviously, his only option is to fake drowning so that Wendy will rescue him. Then, as she performs CPR, he brings her in for a kiss. That's not a delightful shenanigan; that's a pickup artist technique. And Wendy reacts accordingly by banning him from the pool in disgust ... and then flirting with him whenever he walks by, and eventually marrying him.

If you're thinking something along the lines of "Don't be so sensitive. Kids do stupid stuff like that all the time!" then we absolutely agree. But elsewhere, the movie shows the consequences to irresponsibility. The kids try chewing tobacco, and it immediately makes them puke all over a carnival ride. Hell, it's even implied that the kid who stole the tobacco ends up ruining his life with drugs. If we never hear from Wendy again after she throws the little creep out, then it's funny, and Squints learns a valuable lesson about not risking your life to trick a girl into making out with you. Instead, the lesson is that girls secretly love romantic coercion, even if they say no at the time. We hear the seventh is the Rohypnol Anniversary.

George Clooney sees no problem with asking pre-pubescent children to go on dangerous espionage missions. Hell, he forms an entire division of child spies and has them compete against each other. Sure, the kids are willing, but that shouldn't matter -- kids are also willing to subsist entirely on whipped cream and adopt pet lions, because kids don't know what's good for them. It's up to adults to be responsible, and every adult in Spy Kids fails so spectacularly that we kind of want to see a fifth movie about a CPS sting operation.

The second and third movies are basically Carmen and Juni repeatedly almost meeting their maker through contrived slapstick, and their parents always go along with it. Then, in the fourth movie, the now-older Carmen and Juni revitalize the child spy division and mentor a new pair of pipsqueak agents who have to save the world from annihilation despite not yet having mastered long division. The film ends with Carmen and Juni tasking the new kids to recruit more children to the cause, because war is all they've known, know, and will ever know. Sure, child soldiers tend to have numerous mental and physical health problems as adults ... but these ones get to work with a talking dog, so it averages out, right?

Sure, someone eventually rescues Harry, but he did nothing to make that happen. He just had to wait his suffering out until someone handed him magical powers. But what if he had been a muggle? Or, you know, a real person? No friendly giant would ride in on a motorcycle to rescue him. He'd keep suffering until he finally worked up the nerve to tell someone. Or worse, never tell someone and grow up to be an emotionally stunted man incapable of functioning in polite society.

Hell, in Matilda the abuse spans generations. Her teacher, Ms. Honey, was raised by her abusive aunt and Matilda's principal, Ms. Trunchbull. Ms. Honey didn't do a damn thing about the abuse -- she just moved out, lived an isolated life, and got a job working alongside the woman who, oh yeah, murdered her father. It's only though Matilda's sudden, unexpected, and completely unexplained telekinetic powers that Trunchbull's reign of terror is stopped. In both cases, the lesson is clear: Don't do anything about your horrible childhood, kids. Tough it out until something miraculous happens. Like the sweet release of death, perhaps.

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There's plenty of bad lessons Hollywood is trying to shove down our throats. Do your children a favor and don't show them the movies in 8 Dark Life Lessons Kids Learn From Pixar Films and 5 Awful Lessons Disney Teaches You About Relationships.

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