10 Deceptively Innocent Movies With Incredibly Dark Moments
5. Up
Only the second animated feature to receive an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination upon release in 2009, Pete Docter's Up was universally acclaimed for the movie's stellar vocal performances and the emotional depth of its uplifting narrative.
However, despite the film's central themes of hope, resilience, and dealing with loss, Up is decidedly not all sunshine and rainbows - ironic stuff for a story featuring a bumbling "Wilderness Explorer" scout, a flightless bird named "Kevin", and a talking Golden Retriever.
The most obvious example of this contradictory status quo would be the backstory of Carl Fredricksen, with the late great Ed Asner's gruff protagonist undergoing heartbreak after heartbreak throughout the film. The devastating realisation that Carl and his wife Ellie cannot have children is compounded by her premature death from illness, and Carl then slides into reclusive isolation and is relentlessly harassed by a greedy development company - pretty harrowing material when juxtaposed with the whimsical notion of using balloons to fly an entire house to South America.
Factor in the slide of Carl's childhood hero Charles Muntz into murderous insanity, or young Russell's longing for connection in light of his parents' neglect, and viewers are left with a much darker story than a glance at the poster would have initially promised.