8 Times Pixar Got Really Fucking Dark

Whimsical animation for all the family - that's the reputation computerized 'toon mega-studio Pixar has cultivated in its 20 years of hitting cinema screens. The highest Pixar has ever reached in terms of classification is a soft PG; the studio's latest effort, The Good Dinosaur, earned the rating for no more than some mild, dino-based threat, with the film hardly containing the kind of stuff that's going to keep any children awake at night. The Good Dinosaur is actually, curiously, a rarity in that sense. You see, despite the animation house's frequent family-appealing ratings and its reputation as a peddler of child-friendly entertainment, Pixar's films have aired a fair share of unsettling material. Most of it's universal, but every so often Pixar will plumb the depths of darkness for some atypically distressing story beats. This list is for all the times that the people at Pixar temporarily lost their minds, forgot their target market and went out of their way to upset, disturb or generally unnerve the crowd. Without further ado, here are eight times that Pixar got really, fucking dark. 8) The Toys Threaten Sid In Toy Story One of Pixar's darkest moments came right at the very beginning, with Toy Story's depiction of formerly friendly toys turning on a human - a kid, no less - that happens to be threatening one of their own. Sid, one of Pixar's most monstrous villains, is a sadist with a penchant for surgically torturing toys. Around the midway mark he gets designs on blowing Buzz Lightyear up with a firework rocket. It's seriously not cool, but still... Sure, Sid is an animal, but he's also an actual child, with what appear to be some troubling emotional issues - does he really deserve the punishment that Woody has in store for him? Broken toys crawling out of the garden mud like zombies, heads turning 360 Exorcist-style, inanimate objects suddenly addressing their victim personally; it's enough to make Sid understandably crap his pants in fear. 7) Hopper Gets Fed To The Birds In A Bug's Life It's become something of a forgotten Pixar film, but A Bug's Life is an early example of how sweetly innocent the studio can be when it isn't telling stories about murderous sea creatures or toys dealing with existential questions of mortality. It's a simple tale of an ant named Flik, just trying to make his mark in the world, and a group of circus bugs hired to protect Flik's ant colony, Seven Samurai-style, from a tribe of grasshoppers. So far, so quaint. For the film's climax, however, things get a tad darker, as Flik is confronted by the head of the grasshopper gang, Hopper, for a final showdown. It's all set up for Flik's circus friends to happily save the day - then directors John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton decide to recognize the realities of the food chain, and have Hopper grabbed by a bird, which in turn feeds Hopper to its hungry children as he screams in agony. And so, the circle of life is - horribly - complete. 6) Jessie Gets Abandoned By Her Owner In Toy Story 2 Did you ever expect to feel such feelings for a rootin'-tootin' cowgirl doll? Toy Story 2, in many ways the more mature cousin to Toy Story, capitalizes on the emotion of the original film - about toys trying to find their way back to their owner after they become accidentally separated - by pondering what happens when the toys are abandoned permanently, by owners that are simply too old to care anymore. In preparation for an emotional A-bomb of a montage, Toy Story 2 briefly pauses the CGI-powered set-pieces and comedic leanings to tell Jessie's story. We see the sassy cowgirl in more content times, frolicking carefree with her owner as a young girl, before the owner grows up, becomes a young woman, and leaves Jessie to a donations truck, as though all the good times never meant anything. Very, very cold. 5) Fungus Gets The Scream Extractor Treatment In Monster's, Inc. Remember Fungus, the poor little wind bag assistant to Steve Buscemi's sly scarer Randall Boggs in Monster's Inc.? He's the three-eyed, put-upon wretch obediently handling the admin as the other guys get to have all the fun. He's also the one left drained, sallow, and apparently fighting for his already pitiful life after the film's ostensible heroes place him in Randall's nightmarish scream extractor machine. The darkest thing about the moment isn't that the scene's played for laughs, even though Fungus is a bullied innocent quite clearly in agonizing pain. No, the most sinister aspect of Fungus' scream extractor fate is that it's 'good guys' Mike and Sully who introduce him to the device, for no good reason (couldn't they just have tied him up somewhere?), in a move that in the real world would most definitely be considered a breach of the Geneva Convention. 4) Marlin's Wife And Kids Get Wiped Out In Finding Nemo A trio of vegetarian sharks; a ditzy, forgetful sidekick; a cabal of mindless seagulls chanting the word "mine" on vaguely annoying repeat. These are the things that fans of Finding Nemo tend to remember. Less fondly remembered is that, the first time Albert Brooks' neurotic clown fish Marlin actually 'finds' Nemo, he's abandoned at the bottom of the ocean, with his mother and thousands of siblings all callously devoured by a rogue barracuda. Before that, the film's a picture of domestic bliss, as Marlin and wife Coral simultaneously lovingly recall how they met and marvel at the prime piece of ocean real estate Marlin has found for the pair and their many, many children to float around in. Then the barracuda comes to eat all the joy away, leaving Marlin with nothing but regrets and a single, damaged egg to care for. 3) Carl's Wife Buys The Farm In Up One of Pixar's greatest moments is also its most unflinchingly, brutally emotional. It comes at the beginning of Up, and tells a story compacted into all of two minutes that may be Pixar's single greatest feat of storytelling. More a short film of its own than an integral component of what comes after, the tale of how octogenarian protagonist Carl came to tying balloons to his house and flying away on a South American adventure musters up more heartbreak in a few minutes than most live action features manage in two hours. Carl and wife Ellie start Up as young and vital newlyweds, staring up dreamily at the sky and contemplating beginning a family, before the reality of mortality and disappointment sets in. The pair grow old and frail, with their dreams of adventure and children running around the house left unrealized, before Ellie kicks the bucket and leaves Carl all alone in the world. The movie on the whole is lighthearted and fun; this gut-punch opening though, not so much. 2) Woody And Co. Almost Get Melted To Death In Toy Story 3 The Toy Story franchise is probably still Pixar's most popular (there's a reason there's a fourth film on the way), despite the fact that the Pixar brain trust are consistently trying to scare/upset younger viewers away from it. After the horror of Sid in the first movie and the pain of Jessie's abandonment in the second, the third instalment is the most difficult to watch Toy Story of all. First of all you have the sheer misery of Woody and the gang being dumped on the curb for destruction, followed by their relocation to Sunnyside daycare, a kind of Great Escape-style POW camp for toys run by evil cuddly overlord Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear. Then comes the most horrifying moment, as heroes we've grown to love over 15 years face incineration in a giant trash-destroying furnace. As the gang hold hands in solidarity, all you can do is cast your mind back to 1995, and try remember the better times when the toys weren't all facing termination. 1) Bing Bong Fades Into Nothingness In Inside Out The Good Dinosaur - a Pixar effort that's more obviously geared towards children than most of the movies the studio puts out - may not be troubling anyone's sleep, but Pixar's other 2015 effort had more than its fair share of moments made for adult viewers. The very premise of Inside Out - the emotions inside a pre-teen girl's head try to navigate her difficult years coming of age - makes the film so psychologically and thematically complex as to be more relevant to older viewers anyway. The single darkest moment of the film, however, comes when Riley's imaginary childhood friend Bing Bong - an outrageously adorable creature that's part elephant, part kitten, part dolphin, all cotton candy - fades away into being forgotten forever, after years spent wandering Riley's subconscious looking for ways to reconnect with her. It's another commentary on failing innocence and loss, something Pixar does all too well. You just wish they hadn't effectively killed off the loveable weird cat/elephant thing to make the lesson.