8 Surprisingly Scary Animated Films That Scarred The Kids

7. The BFG

It was a sorry day in 2011 when I learned that DreamWorks had bought the rights to Roald Dahl's beloved The BFG, with the intention of adapting the children's classic for the big screen, because of the affection I have for the original and its lolloping, charming lumix of a hero. However they adapt it in future, it had better not spoil the legacy of the first adaptation, or trample the source in any way in favour of more modern fancies.

But my love of the original was tempered by a very real fear of the other giants in the animated classic - the ones who committed grisly crimes against innocent sleeping children, leaving nothing but a pile of bones beneath their window sills. They violated the safety of sleep - something that Freddy Krueger made a career out of after he was initially killed - snatching their young prey away precisely when they are at their most vulnerable, pricking the primal fears of every child who saw the classic animation.

Roald Dahl was of course fascinated with grotesque characters, and the character designs of the vilainous giants in The BFG fit the author's imagination perfectly, all hulking masses of gnarled flesh and toothless, snarling mouths. In short, the stuff of nightmares for young audiences.