The Forest is on Fire

Kids movies, at some level, all like to scare the crap out of kids. Maybe this comes from some desire on the film-makers' part to shake the kid out of the parent sanctioned bubble for a little while, in a film that parents think will do no such thing. The other explanation, is of course, that on some level kids like scary things, things that open up their world a little, letting in monsters or aliens. Some kids' movies are deeply weird films. Those appeal to how weird kids really are, a fact I think most adults don't like to think about.

Pixar presents a whole new level of scary in family entertainment. I'm going to put up a whole huge SPOILER tag on this one (think of River Song jauntily waving her handcuffs) before continuing. Feel free however, to list your favorite (or least favorite) scares in a movie you saw as a kid in the comments. Traumatizing or not.




Some of Disney's most well-loved films have scares like what Pixar has been putting on screen, but they're different in a salient way. When Bambi's forest is on fire or when Simba looks upon his father's body lying in the dust, that's frightening and sad. The fear of losing your parents is a prominent fear as a child, even if at times you would rather run away from them. Both Bambi and the Lion King play up this fear to its limits-- Bambi's home and mother are destroyed in one fell swoop, and even worse, Simba must watch his father fall into the stampede and struggle to save his life before being swept under hoof. These events are visceral and strike deep at a child's fears.

Pixar's scares play more on adult fears, however. These fears are still readable by younger audiences, for the most part, but they dig especially at the older audience. First and foremost, Pixar makes movies, and the way that these movie's stories unfold reveal a method that doesn't start with their target audience, but with the film makers themselves. The best Pixar movies seem to address various crises in life-- when to let go, when to hold on, who's important in your life. Some of Pixar's best and most heart-wrenching scares arise from these crises. In the Incredibles when the government plane is struck by surface to air missiles, Bob Parr faces the apparent death of his family as a consequence of his secret mid-life adventures gone horribly wrong. Eve, seeing the escape pod self-destruct before her cries "No!" for Wall-E, not her prime directive, the plant, though both were on board. These scenes are about the character suddenly and traumatically realizing what really matters to him or her.

Toy Story 3's entire story deals with this conflict. What matters to the toys? Being there for Andy or getting a new life somewhere else? Their hijinks allow them to see the advantages of staying with Andy, for all of the boredom that entails, still neither option seems ideal. Through small steps they come to recognize that they must be together no matter where their road takes them. And that road becomes scary indeed.
MAJOR SPOILERS (*shakes handcuffs*)
Pulled into the trash and sent to the landfill, the toys endure being crushed by trash and dumped onto a conveyor. The scene that plays out is reminiscent of the airport scene in Toy Story 2, but instead of a rescue mission it's pure survival. Lotso, like Stinky Pete, is there to stymie their progress and so effect their destruction. The atmosphere of the scene is masterfully tense, a very real sense of danger pervades everything. Second to the scene I'm about to describe next in terms of heart-wrenching is when Rex says, "Look, I see daylight! We're saved!" and Woody looks up into the glare and his face falls. Lotso does his duty as a villain and refuses to return the kindness that saved his life, sending every single one of our protagonists into a huge furnace. They struggle against an inexorable tide of shredded trash, subsiding slowly but surely into a pit of fire. It's a terrifying image regardless, and we're used, by Hollywood's terms, to seeing our heroes never give up, to keep fighting because that's what they're made for. I was flabbergasted to see each toy cease their struggle and turn to face the fire and then each other, putting hand in paw and paw in hand, silently against the roar of the flames. At the end of everything, all that mattered was that they were together. Pixar's philosophy boiled down into a dialogue free scene. Terrifying in aspect, so bittersweet at heart it's amazing. Probably the best scare ever put to film.