What cartoon characters scared you the most as a kid

[Sage Ninja]

when I was little I used to love watching cartoons (heh, I still do) I watched everything from Care Bears, My Little Pony, Gummey Bears, Chip N Dale The Rescue Rangers, Ghostbusters, The Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles (of course ), Duck Tales...you name it I probably watched it

Most of these cartoons where very child friendly that had great story telling and good moral messages. I enjoyed them. But I was generally very young when I watched these and I have to say there was at least once or twice where an intence situation would arise or a particularly threatening villan would come up in one of my favorite cartoons, and I would get a little scared. Not full on gasp-out-loud or scream my head off scared, but one of those silent currents of fear that come over you and the fine hairs on the back of your neck tickle and you get goos flesh when you might see or hear something disturbing, and you get that slight hot cold feel. These instance never really bothered me and most of the time added to the appeal of what I watching and made me respect it more for pulling me into it so much that it would give me that reaction. Althoug there where sometimes where when I knew something was coming I couldn't watch it with my eyes open.

for me these are some of the scarest moments/characters in cartoons that scared me as a child:

I the cartoon Duck Tales there was an episode where Uncle Scrooge goes back to Scotland to visit his parents home and take the boys with him along with WebbyGail. I do not recall the exact events but fr some reason there was these druid like acult memebers that where trying to run people off with a ghostly hound that glowed in the dark. The whole plot was a little freaky for me because at one point WebbyGail gets seperated from every one else and gets lost behind a trapped door all by herself. There is one scene in particual that really scared me was when you finnally see the Ghostly hound for the first time as it creeps out of a passage door in a semi dark and it looks ferousious with it fur sticking up menacingly and it glowing and walks quitely after WebbyGail stalking her. I haven't seen this show in years and yet I remember that scene vividly. And it freaked me out.

Another instance was from the Care Bears Movie. I was very itty bitty when I saw these movies and there times in this genuanly scared. In the first Care Bear Movie it took place in a circus /carnival with sone loser kid with no friends named...can't remember his name, but he gets a freaky looking book with the head of a bald lady in the middle that was some kind of demon (I remeber she changed colors ) who manipulated the poor kid into using magic to hurt people. And thouyght this book chick was freaky and one thing that scared me was this evil cloud demon that could shape shift and posses things. One seen that disturbed was when it turned into a shark and tryed to drown the care bears by spinning around their boat , then I rember it turning into a giant bird attacking from the sky at these two terrified kids. Gosh I'll never forget the way that bird circled around in the sky and the kept swooping down trying to attack these two kids, and the freaky noise it made when it circled them. Also I thought the whole ending scene where they are wresting with the demon book to close it and it kept trying to open it self was intense. I rember sitting very rigid when theI first saw that.

In the second Care Bears Movie I thought Dark Heart was a scarey villan. Everything about him I just thought was scarey. Especially this one scene where he is spying on a girl up in a tree disgiused as a red fox, and then when he drops down into the bushes and stratles the girl. And basically any time he would be transformed into some red colored animal. I thought he was so scarey. Also I rememeber a scene where two car bears where chasing a black version of him (is the best way to describe it) in a foggy cave.

I have more but these are the one that come to mind right now. How about any one else? What characters or moments in cartoons scared you as a kid?

[Cure]

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. She was creepy.

[JaffleMan]

The blockheads off of Gumby.

[Ra]

Hexxus from Ferngully scared the crap outta me when I first saw him...

[Masked Ninja]

Gotta agree on the Hexus... yikes.

Also I always ran out of the room when Ursula gets impaled in The Little Mermaid... too much for a four-year-old, I guess.

[Brodie]

I too agree with Hexxus...And Shar Kahn from the Jungle Book.

[DrSpengler]

The Boogieman from the Real Ghostbusters messed me up pretty bad when I was little.

[Fledermaus]

When I was four-sevenish... these were the characters that gave me nightmares or had me turning off the TV or switching channels or running out the room.

If only my parents knew what I was watching alone... I think to this day I am messed up because often times my parents assumed that, if it's a cartoon, then it's always appropriate for your four-year old.

-The Joker (dipping people in acid, laughing gas) - Batman TAS

- Scarecrow (the episode where he causes that guy to hallucinate he's turning into a skeleton) - Batman TAS

- Ra's Al Ghul (watching him crawl out of the fountain of youth, laughing like a possessed maniac.) - Batman TAS

- Hexxus from Ferngully, saw this when I was four, again... alone without my parents.

- The car smasher in "the brave little toaster"

- pretty much all Don Bluth films had some disturbing villain, or some extremely depressing plot point... I hate Don Bluth.

- All Carebear movie villains.

- The T-Rex from Fantasia

- Satan and all the demons of hell, from Fantasia (original) This scared the absolute s*** out of me, and I saw this movie when I was three... my parents left me to watch it alone. Thing is, I liked the rest of the movie, so I would watch it frequently. Problem was, I didn't know exactly how to eject the video so that creepy music kept playing while Satan's demons kept flashing me before I figured out how to turn off the TV.

EDIT: here's the first half of the scariest thing of all time from my childhood:

[Masked Ninja]

Originally Posted by Fledermaus

- Satan and all the demons of hell, from Fantasia (original) This scared the absolute s*** out of me, and I saw this movie when I was three... my parents left me to watch it alone. Thing is, I liked the rest of the movie, so I would watch it frequently. Problem was, I didn't know exactly how to eject the video so that creepy music kept playing while Satan's demons kept flashing me before I figured out how to turn off the TV.

Oh! I can't believe I didn't remember this! The first time I watched Fantasia was at a time where I was particularly afraid of skeletons. I think I just froze in this part, and didn't watch the movie for years afterward, even though there had been awesome dinosaurs earlier.

[KROW]

Originally Posted by TheCure

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. She was creepy.

I concur. When I was a little boy and saw her, I wasn't that scared. Then she talked and her voice, coupled with the beautiful animation used in her expressions, made me shiver.





Aside from her, Haggar from Voltron creeped me out something fierce.

[Sage Ninja]

Maleficent was indeed a scarey villianous, but she didn't really scare me in her human form, it was when she turned into a huge hell spawned black dragon with yellow eyes and teeth that freaked me out the most. And that line she spoke when she was calling down her powers to transform was freaky "Now you do battle with me oh, prince. And all the powers of Hell!" man the actress who voiced Maleficent delived that line so poefully. You wouldn't here any mention of hell powers being mentioned in a disney movie today. Man ust that scene where she tranforms into a Dragon was awsomely scarey especially when the cloud clear sand you see what she becomes. Yikes.

And how about that scene in the movie where all those demons or trolls where dancing around a bonfire as Maleficent watched with with a evil look on her face.

Also I thought that the cat named Dragon from the Secret of Nyme was scarey, because of this movie I have developed a sort of wariness with cats. But what I thought was really scarey was the scne where the Brisbee the mouse (was that her name) went to go talk to the "Great Owl", man just that owls voice when he told her: "Step inside my house" from deep inside that black opening in that tree was chilling. But that scene where she is wondering around inside his web infested tree home, and there is a spider who slowly comes down and starts creeping up behind her, and they show a close up of the spiders face with it dripping fangs, and then the Great Owl crushes him with his foot and his guts spill out. Ughhh, I hate and this disturbed me! And I know he was supposed to be a good guy but Nickademus the wise old rat was creepy too, especially his death scene.

I don't want toi even get into All Dogs Go to Heaven I love this movie and I watched all the time but the whole hell scnes and demons was just disturbing. But I loved it any way.

In the movie the last Unicorn the talking skeleton that kept laughing and making fun of the wizard. Gosh he scared me, especially in the scene where he drinks the wine and the then the demented laughter he makes after he thanks the wizard guy for giving it to him. But the part that bothered me the most was after he discovers that the girl is a unicorn in disguise and his eyes glow red, and he starts shrieking "Unicorn!" Unicorn!" unicoooooorn"!

Originally Posted by DrSpengler

The Boogieman from the Real Ghostbusters messed me up pretty bad when I was little.

I agree on the Ghostbusters version of the boogiman. OMG he scared e when I was little. Not only was he one of the most badass ghosts the in the orginal Ghostbusters cartoons, but he had the most freaky character design. If you ever see still shots of the Boogiman you would think with his big over sized head and large ears and nose and the purple blazer is ridiculous, but man watching this guy while in motion was just freaky, it was just the way he was animated. He looked like a white devil, but his voice was really what made really scary, it just sent made me freeze sometimes.

Actually there where quite a few elements that and ghosts that appeared in the ald cartoon that freaked me out a little. That show was just great.

but the single most frightening cartoon character that scared me when I was little has got to be the Grundle from the Ghostbusters cartoon. I have to say that even now as an adult this charcter still scares me a bit. Just the way he was presented in the show as a evil spirit that hides outside childrens windows begging them to "come out and play with him" and begging to be invited in was creepy. He was scarey because he would exploit young children and corupt them by manpulating them into doing evil things and then slowly turning them into Grundles like him was scarey. This character character is really more suited for an adult content movie. I watched this episode recently on youtube, and I as all by my self at night, and it actually manged that uncomfertable hot/cold scared feeling while I was watching it. This is the first time in any cartoon that I have gone back to watch as an adult that has done this to me.

[Spawn Guy]

Lex Luthor from Superman TAS.

Those lips...

[AquaParade]

I'm not surprised that the two I was thinking of were already stated in this post: Ursula and Hexxus.

[JetsAndHeels]

I can't think of any cartoon characters that scared me, but I was absolutely terrified of the Hulk on the old 80's tv series. When he changed from Bruce Banner into the Hulk I had to cover my eyes or leave the room.

[Toonami Tom]

As a kid I was also afraid of Ursula and Hexxus. I also hated it when Jaffar in Aladdin turned into a giant snake. That was awful for me, sitting in the movie theatre. I had to look away.

Then I was a little afraid of Clayface in Batman: TAS.

Although not a cartoon, Jim Carrey wearing 'The Mask' scared the crap out of me.

[Spike Spiegel]

Maleficent was a VERY scary villian.

Also, when I was little, I thought Sid from Toy Story was creepy...also Judge Doom from Roger Rabbit and Jafar from Aladdin.

[Wanda]

I don't know if anyone here knows The Moomins. One character of the cartoon version, Mörkö or The Groke as they seem to translated it in to English, was the scariest character of all. And I never was afraid of anything when I was a kid. Execpt for the Groke.

E: Heh, just finished reading the Wiki-link I gave.

Wikipedia stated:
"The generation that grew up with the animated Moomin-series may remember the Groke from their childhood as something tremendously scary."

Exactly. Oh, by the way, the English Wiki refers to the Groke as she, but it is unknown, which sex the Groke is. It was pretty typical in Moominland, that there were characters, whos sex remained unclear.

E2: Here's a clip from the Moomin if anyone is interested in:



The scary Groke-part starts after 3:30 or something.

[Fledermaus]

The Groke reminds me of "My Neighbor Totoro."

[Machias Banshee]

Interesting topic.... I have to say, the most frightening Cartoon Character to me is (and still is) Ursula the Sea Witch. And I say still because she is just like my grandmother. I wish I was joking about it, but the only different between the two is Ursula had tentacles and lived under the water. Otherwise, you were seeing my Grandmother on my mom's size... and I STILL have a hard time watching it. If I had pictures I would post them..

[Fledermaus]

Ah... almost forgot...

Fidget from the Disney's The Great Mouse Detective scared me when he first burst through the window and kidnapped Mr. Flaversham -- and then the second time when he jumped out of the baby carriage and kidnapped Olivia.

And then there's this guy...

The Nightmare King from Little Nemo -- both as the black goo and his larger more demonic form.