Disney and Horror Make for Perfect Partners!

Are you one of us? Do you enjoy #horror and/ or #disney? Do you think you should be one of us? I think that if you are here, then that means you'll make a great addition to our freaking awesome secret club?

Imagine if these were movies!

Horror movies and Disney movies have so much more in common. Way more than you may have imagined. If you are thinking part of those common threads are the fact that they both can be cute... well that is a long shot! But with that being said, let me say that there are definetely certain qualities that both genres have and that anyone can appreciate. Let's dig in! Shall we?

Disney's Crowning Horror Outings

What Makes a Great Balance in Horror and Disney?

#thewaltdisneystudios is great at creating classical animated features that flirt with horror and darkness. Hello #cinderella #sleepingbeauty #snowwhite and more recently #toystory saga, we are all looking at y'all! But, can they go full fledge horror? Well you bet! Look at these two classics that kids and families watch during #halloween season as a tradition at this point.

Most people are familiar with #hocuspocus and #thenightmarebeforechristmas . Imagine a Halloween without them? No, thank you! Even the most hardcore horror fans are familiar with these two. Some even started with the genre by being introduced to them. I was one of them to be sure. Loved both movies and I am not alone. Everybody seems to love them and definetely have a hard time deciding which is best. After all, they are truly original and entertaining. They even feature some awesome musical numbers and endearing characters that can also be quite scary.

Both movies have main scary characters that also tend to be funny. Hello awesome #sandersonsisters and #jackskellington. And if you don't think Jack is scary, just think about his motivations and his actions and you will see that he can be as scary as #oogieboogie himself.

Scary Stuff if You Think About It!

So Asides From These Classics, What Makes a Great Disney Horror Balance?

Disney usually features interesting multi layered #villains with some very interesting motivations. They usually are intent on #revenge or getting something to be fair for them. Disney has often been criticized because their villains seem to be more developed than their heroes or main characters.

Disney Villains are not all that makes a Disney film scary. If you think about it, most of their movies involve underaged characters who are going through some cathartic event that will push them to their limit and then teach them a lesson. Usually these characters go through scary events that test their personality and beliefs while usually putting them at odds with characters who do not believe them, their families included.

Think of Snow White being hunted by the Huntsman, Cinderella being abused by her stepmother and stepsisters, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty being kissed without giving consent by the Prince... Hello! There are plenty of scary moments in Disney without embracing full horror. And as discussed before, we could dig into the origins to these features, which only turns scarier!

Disney Horror in All Its Glory!

What About Horror Having Similarities with Disney?

Horror can have so much in common with Disney too and as said before, they balance each other perfectly. While we almost never get characters break into song in Horror (unless you look at #therockyhorrorpictureshow) more often than not, the Disney movies influence the horror genre in different ways.

The best horror movies usually include families and children who may be going through cathartic events (sounds familiar) that will push them to their limits. They usually have kids or child-like innocent characters who need someone's help in order to survive and most of those times, they are not even believed to begin with. Are we noticing a pattern here?

Horror Royalty

So how do you feel about this? Horror and Disney? Do you think they can be similar or do you think all those of us who see them as similar genres are wrong? I mean, they seem to use similar themes about families and young naïve characters at risk going through bad situations. That is scary if you think about it. If you are one of us, then YAY! And if you are not, I invite you to check this out. There are some very cool and interesting ideas here!