8 Surprisingly Scary Animated Films That Scarred The Kids

1. Coraline

I don't know what it is about stop-motion, but there's something in the stylised movements that the medium lends its characters that translates well to the horror genre, and it is the perfect medium to tell the quirky and very much frightening story of Coraline, a selfish girl who allows boredom to get the better of her and confuses her parent's understated love for apathy. That allows Coraline's Other Mother to creep into her life, curling her awful spider-like fingers around the little girl, intent on keeping her to herself.

As the story unfolds and Coraline's world quickly unwinds of the coil of reality and becomes something different, more menacing and less bound by the rules and conventions of the real world, the film gets increasingly creepy. From the disintegrating Other world and its grotesque versions of real world characters to the all-powerful menace of the Other Mother and the revelation that she had already ensnared three other children, killing them and trapping their souls, despite her apparent intention to love and care for Coraline.

Aside from the visual horror of the film, its jarring Other World and nightmarish characters, there's also something more fundamentally scary going on under the skin - a perverse maternal villainy that turns the idea of motherly love on its head and in the process creates one of the most awful horror villains from a child's perspective. That's why the Other Mother gets under our skin so much - it isn't just the slightly wrong feeling her button eyes inspire...

What do you think? Did we miss any frightful animations that were marketed as for children - whether intentionally or otherwise? Share your thoughts below.