- [Strider] Howdy!
Let's check out some controversial,
unsettling episodes of cartoons
generally aimed at women,
sometimes getting disturbing,
or maybe just too real.
Interestingly,
these girls' cartoons often focus
more on psychological terrors
compared to cartoons aimed more at males.
(Tecna screaming) - [Robotic voice] No emotion.
- [Strider] There's also these
recurring themes of our heroes' minds
being dominated or controlled.
And those terrors going on within our own minds
are well worth talking about.
So let's check out
The Top 6 Darkest Girls Cartoon Episodes.
Just a note, I'll be breaking my "no anime" rule
to talk about a couple of exceptions,
such as Sailor Moon,
because hell,
we can't NOT talk about Sailor Moon's
death-filled ending.
Anyway, onto the countdown.
Number 10.
Minnie Mouse - Minnie "Takes Care" Of Pluto.
(tense music)
(Minnie laughing, thunder)
- [Strider] This is actually
the only Minnie OR Mickey Mouse cartoon episode I know
that has been outright banned in the USA.
The reason the episode was banned
were because of complaints of...
frightening moments.
(bells, objects popping into existence)
In fact,
the entire story revolves around
Pluto's paranoia that Minnie
is trying to murder him,
in various disturbing ways.
The episode starts
by Mickey dropping off Pluto at Minnie's house.
- Thanks, Minnie! Bye, see ya later--
- But, but Mickey, I...
- [Strider] But without any real consent from Minnie.
- Aw, phooey!
- [Strider] Which leads to Pluto's various nightmares
of being killed in...
highly creative ways by Minnie.
Like Minnie bludgeoning him to death
with a morning star.
(electric guitar music)
(Pluto yelping)
(metal clanging)
- [Strider] Leading to us watching
from his dead body's view
as his coffin is lowered into the ground
and he's buried.
But then,
Pluto outright snaps from the terror,
and he tries to REALLY murder Minnie!
(growling)
- [Strider] Fortunately,
he's too clumsy in his paranoia.
(stretching)
(hollow thunk)
- [Strider] And instead,
Pluto gets sent to hell...
uh, again.
He must be really getting
quite familiar with this place.
My favorite part of this episode
is Pluto's fantasies are all spurred on
by a very familiar-sounding demon.
- Don't listen to him!
You know what you gotta do.
- [Strider] Voiced by Penn Jillette,
my favorite magician.
Minnie Takes Care Of Pluto
is a surprisingly dark escapade for Minnie.
And for number nine...
Tangled: The Series - Painter's Block.
(cane tapping)
(monotone) - Making difficult choices is a part of life.
- [Strider] Originally,
I'd assumed Tangled: The Series
would mostly just be a...
fluff-filled prolonging
of the original movie's happily ever after.
But JEEBUS!
(echoing) - [Sugracha] Rapunzel...
It is time.
- [Strider] We can hear this unnerving hissing
and this strange, horror-like music
as Pavlovian conditioning is used
to enslave Rapunzel's mind.
There's something that makes my skin crawl
about how Rapunzel's mind
is dominated in this episode.
It even begins to blur the lines a bit
between Rapunzel's free will
and her mind-controlled state.
(fingers loudly drumming)
- Making difficult choices is a part of life.
Part of life?
- [Strider] In fact,
the use of...
outright classical conditioning here
is something I've almost never seen in a cartoon!
It's like the sorceress Sugracha
is a constant, subtle whisper in Rapunzel's mind.
It's just...
eugh!
Really unsettling
for what I THOUGHT
was a young girls' cartoon.
I particularly like the message behind this one,
when Rapunzel finally managed
to regain control of her mind.
(music building up)
(paintbrush clacking)
- Difficult choices
are what make us who we are.
- [Strider] In fact, I was really blown away by the soundtrack,
characters, and story of this series.
And I can now definitely recommend
giving Tangled: The Series a look.
And for number eight...
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Lesson Zero.
Ah, these female cartoons.
They have a real fondness for the concept of...
mind manipulation, don't they?
As you might have noticed,
I find mind control an...
uncomfortable subject in cartoons.
To me,
there's just something about seeing characters
we've grown to know and love for so long
suddenly losing all their humanity and ethics.
All with just a flick of magic.
In this infamous episode of My Little Pony,
Twilight's compulsive need to fix problems
spirals out of control.
She rapidly becomes completely mentally unstable,
hallucinate, and even talking to herself.
And begins toying with the minds of children,
all in the name of satisfying her compulsions.
In fact, Twilight
outright warps the minds of these children
from peacefully playing together
into physically attacking one another!
(Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle fighting) - The want-it-need-it spell.
Works every time!
- [Strider] And soon,
the entire town becomes ensnared
in Twilight's, uh...
stuffed... toy... mind-control tactic?
And a WAR begins over a
well-loved stuffed toy
with a... nice... mane?
- I really like her...
mane!
- [Strider] It's surprisingly uncomfortable
seeing the entire town
turn into mindless, out-of-control zombies
by Twilight's magic,
ruthlessly fighting one another
just for her well-loved doll!
It kinda shows,
if Twilight wanted,
she could take over the entire town.
While Celestia breaks it up in the end,
seeing Twilight show this darker side
was pretty confronting to some viewers.
(popping)
- Hi, girls!
(ear squeaking)
- [Strider] What could be called
the leader of the Mane Six ponies
inadvertently becomes the VILLAIN of the episode.
Not because she was corrupted or even tortured,
but because she got bored
and started to lose her mind!
Personally, I try to juggle when I'm bored.
It seems to help me process being alive better.
Number seven...
Winx Club - The Nightmare Monster.
Okay, first, I should warn you,
to me anyway,
this 4Kids dub is ungodly terrible.
It almost feels like half the conversations are there
just to fill the space with random gibberish.
- Movies about parents always bum me out.
- That movie scared me.
Can we please stop talking about it?
- [Strider] But fortunately,
even 4Kids's abysmal audio standards
could not negate the creepiness
of the Nightmare Gargoyle.
We watch this black creature from the abyss
silently breathing down sleeping Stella's neck.
(Stella whimpering)
(high-pitched growling)
Monsters invading the unconscious mind
of sleeping victims
is surprisingly dark for a Winx Club episode.
Only to then devour the Winx girls' nightmares,
leaving us with nothing but a sliver
and an ear-piercing scream.
(Stella screaming)
(tail swishing)
- [Strider] Although their nightmares
are pretty demure,
what disturbs me most
about this black entity
is nothing seems to stop it.
In the pitch of night,
when everyone's sleeping,
it sneaks through the walls and silently invades
the mind of every Winx member.
Like some sort of black, shape-changing mind parasite.
Eugh.
Even the music sounds kind of horror-like
as it scuttles after its victims.
It's always there,
lurking just out of view
as the victim sleeps.
Or as Stella so elegantly puts it,
(Kiko whimpering) - Something was watching me or, like,
actually crawling around in my brain or something!
- [Strider] Eventually,
the Winx girls do overcome
this nightmare horror,
but it still makes for
some surprisingly unsettling moments.
The Nightmare Gargoyle is certainly
the darkest Winx Club episode I've ever seen.
(roaring)
- [Flora] Alright, beastie, bring it on!
- [Strider] And for number six...
My Life as a Teenage Robot - Robot For All Seasons.
While Christmas episodes tend to have
a rule of being more sappy and saccharine
than regular episodes,
this is probably the bleakest holiday special
I've ever seen.
Our hero Jenny
is forcefully mind-controlled
by an evil dictator,
causing havoc to the town.
And when she finally
regains her control and escapes,
all her loved ones have turned against her.
Even her own mother
willfully tries to attack and trap her.
- Skyway Patrol, this is Mama Bird.
Baby Bird is in the nest.
- First Tuck, then Brad,
and now my own mother!
(laser surging)
(crashing)
- [Strider] Jenny later discovers
that for a full year,
she had lost all consciousness
and had become a mindless machine of destruction on the town.
In order to destroy the...
holidays.
Hell, a lot of her friends
seem determined to outright kill her!
- We've sat back while our so-called "friend"
has trashed every holiday this year.
- But not Christmas.
(gun cocks)
- [Strider] Soon,
it seems like there's no one left in the world
that cares about Jenny.
Even the colors are bleaker
as she's hunted down by everyone who once loved her.
But fortunately,
Sheldon, who's always been in love with Jenny,
never gave up on her.
- Sheldon!
Wait.
You're not scared of me?
- Of course not, Jenny, I--
- [Jenny] Oh, Sheldon!
It's so good to see a friendly face!
- [Strider] Robot For All Seasons is
simultaneously dark...
- Yahoo!
- [Strider] ...and very silly at the same time,
in true old-school Nickelodeon fashion.
Number five...
Bratz - Skeletons in the Closet.
Surprisingly enough,
even BRATZ had a dark episode about murder!
- You're next!
- Yeah, Burdine's, like,
going to slowly torture you until you're history!
- [Strider] After the Tweevils
find a skeleton in Burdine's closet,
the Bratz girls theorize
that Burdine murdered someone with an axe
before butchering and boxing up their remains.
This leads to a surprising amount of nightmare footage
about how the Bratz girls
are killed or tortured by Burdine themselves.
The Bratz girls might have their faces burned off
or might be forced to... (gasp)
dance forever!
Okay, that one's just silly.
- Can I stop now?
- I'll keep you dancing forever.
You'll even be dancing on your grave!
(evil laughter)
- [Strider] There's this weird, frequent portrayal
of creepy-looking, uncanny,
chattering skeletons in this one.
giving us some really unsettling scenes
of skeletons in Bratz's already creepy-looking
bad CG animation style.
There's even a scene
where Kaycee and Kirstee's carcasses
are boxed up and turned to bones!
Chattering away at Jade
until their skulls are
shattered into pieces by Burdine.
- You don't have to fall apart over it.
(baseball bat cracking)
(rattling)
- Aww, Heather went all to pieces!
(laughter)
- [Strider] On the subject of Burdine,
has anyone else noticed
the lovely Wendie Malick
is just loving her role as the villain?
She just LIVES the role,
and really helps to bring some
"so bad it's good" charm
to this mostly bad girls' cartoon.
(Burdine laughing)
- [Strider] Skeletons in the Closet leaves us with
a good, strong message about
doing what you think is right,
even in the face of prejudice.
For as lousy a role model
as the Bratz girls could be,
this series did often have some fun quirks.
And for number four...
As Told By Ginger - And She Was Gone.
This is one of those rare times we see
depression and suicide being the primary discussion
in a cartoon episode.
After Ginger writes a poem she made up,
it's interpreted as a suicide letter
by her teachers and friends.
So everyone starts assuming she's depressed.
- If you ever DID want to go away,
we just hope...
- ...that you tell us.
- You guys...
- [Strider] But as to be expected from As Told By Ginger,
it's discussed in an intelligent, thoughtful,
considerate manner.
Giving the perspective of the person affected
and their peers and family.
And the perspective of how different people
respond to this extra attention.
Something I like is,
this episode lightly addresses labelling theory,
where basically,
if a person is labelled as "good" or "bad" by society,
they can begin to conform to this label.
So if Ginger is labelled as "depressed",
she may begin to BECOME more depressed
to fit that label.
This episode is important
because this is something
that absolutely happens in schools,
home life, or work life.
So I'm glad to see
subjects like depression and suicide
being respectfully and thoughtfully discussed to kids.
And the final speech given
is so beautiful,
that I wish I was able to compress it
into my short review format.
But instead,
I recommend you check this episode out for yourself.
- How do you do that?
- Listen, kid.
You don't have to be afraid of your feelings.
Ever.
No matter what they are.
And no one knows you better than ya know yourself.
- [Strider] And the third-darkest girls' cartoon episode is...
Sailor Moon - Death of the Sailor Guardians: The Tragic Final Battle.
(record scratch)
Well, I could end the review
right there with that title, couldn't I?
Yeah, let's see you talk your way
out of all the main characters DYING,
DiC animation!
How do you censor THIS for kids?
(cheery fanfare)
They were "trapped"...
Oh, come on!
Really?
(cheery fanfare)
Are kids even gonna buy that--
(cheery fanfare)
Fine! Have it your way...
It's like saying the Saiyans
are all sent to "another dimension"
whenever they die of blood loss!
In fact,
this episode's senes were so butchered
in the English dub,
that they managed to fit
their freakishly-deformed censored version
into one episode,
cutting major plot points
like the death of each individual Sailor Scout.
Hell, they even cut
Tuxedo Mask outright dying in Sailor Moon's arms
in a very powerful, emotional scene.
(somber music)
(cheery fanfare)
- [Strider] Can't have that emotionally gripping
and beautiful moment for the kids!
It has that troublesome little
factor of the universe that applies to all living things!
Can't have THAT.
We even get the death of the VILLAIN
cut from the episode!
The villain?
Really?
DiC Animation,
you're making Disney look controversial!
But anyway,
Death of the Sailor Guardians wasn't just a surprise episode,
it was an emotional gut punch
to so many Sailor Scout fans
as they watch all the characters they've grown to love
dying before their eyes.
In fact, the entire battleground of the Negaverse
is shattered from within,
and we see...
EVERYONE in the Negaverse is killed!
Just...
Jeebus.
But then,
it's okay because
apparently they're in another... dimension now?
Where they don't remember the Negaverse?
Oh that's just a last-minute cop-out!
People aren't zombies,
they're allowed to stay dead.
And I'm sorry if people grew up with this, but...
looking back,
holy HELL did this English dub stink!
- No! You can't!
Serena, don't!
(Serena screaming) SERENAAAAAAAAA!
- [Strider] It doesn't make sense,
it's illogically-structured,
it's just BAD.
But yes, heavily-censored death and mayhem.
And the second-darkest girls' cartoon episode is...
Braceface - The controversial episodes.
It deserves to be said,
Braceface is a BRAVE cartoon!
It covers menstruation,
racism, underage drinking,
underage smoking...
(dry coughing)
- [Sharon] Oh... Yuck!
- [Strider] Even anorexia gets addressed.
In fact, the body image episode known as Busted
was completely banned in the US.
Let's start with the anorexia episode,
as it personally hit me pretty deeply.
As the episode progresses,
we can actually see Sharon's body
slowly getting more emaciated.
Tiny details like seeing her collarbones more clearly,
the shadows on her eyes becoming more sunken
as she continues the OCD cycle of starving herself.
She begins losing energy, fainting.
If you've ever known
or ever been someone in this situation,
it's quite confronting.
- ...oh...
(thudding)
- [Strider] The episode on women's menstruation
covers, from an ignorant guy's perspective anyway,
a fairly realistic scenario
of Sharon's first menstruation.
The episode's titled,
The Worst Date Ever... Period!
(rimshot) (Strider quietly chuckling)
- [Strider] Oh, that's terrible...
There was also an openly gay character on Braceface
which is, fortunately,
something we get to see more nowadays.
(quiet kiss)
- [Strider] And because of his sexuality,
which we choose about as much
as we choose the color of our skin,
Dion is alienated from other students
and gets awful mistreatment.
Eventually,
even Sharon starts
to isolate herself from Dion,
all in the name of not being shunned herself.
In fact, Dion coming out about being gay
was the reason Season 3 didn't air in America.
And finally,
let's discuss the banned episode Busted.
Sharon is tired of being seen as a little girl,
and decides to enhance the look of her chest
with a pump bra.
And while a woman has every right
to express a little, uh...
titillation,
(rimshot)
Haha, sorry...
this didn't exactly attract the kind of guys
who wanted to get to know Sharon as a person.
And eventually,
she has a wardrobe malfunction at a party
that would make even a porn star cringe.
(air hissing)
(loud bursting)
(crowd laughing)
- Come on.
While Braceface can be
awkward and cringeworthy at times,
the cartoon should be applauded
for touching on so many controversial subjects.
- Sometimes they're big mistakes that...
(giggling)
...blow up in your face.
- [Strider] And just a quick Honourable Mention to...
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Party of One.
This episode is mainly remembered
for Pinkie's psychotic breakdown
as she starts hearing voices
and imagining her toys being alive.
She's talked down in the end,
but this was the first time I really
saw Pinkie Pie completely lose it.
Anyway,
onto number one.
And the number one darkest girls' cartoon episode is...
(theme music)
Earth Maiden Arjuna - The Death of a Nation.
Very few people will probably recognize this cartoon,
so I'll try and keep it brief.
but it is so dark and so powerful,
I just really wanted to talk about it.
Once again, I'm breaking my "no anime" rule.
But I've remembered this girls' cartoon episode
for 15 years now,
and it's certainly the darkest girls' cartoon episode
I've seen to this day.
Imagine if all of our modern society
was shattered in an instant.
All electricity,
all materials that have petrochemicals in them
were suddenly destroyed.
Plastic, adhesives,
anything related to petroleum...
gone.
We see one of the most realistic breakdowns
of modern civilization I've ever seen.
People scurrying to overcrowded shelters in dark cities,
clinging together in the cold,
slowly starving.
(whooshing)
- Faster! FASTER!
(magatama flashes)
- [Strider] And our hero Juna soon discovers
that the countries of the world
have quarantined Japan.
- [Juna] Does that mean you're gonna let everyone die?!
- [Strider] So Juna takes matters into her own hands.
racing to Japan to try and save the country.
This remains among the most potent,
beautiful, and eye-opening cartoons
I've ever watched.
And it's all done realistically, thoughtfully,
and all in 13 episodes!
While certain parts should be taken with a grain of salt,
I personally believe there's a lot to be learned
from Earth Maiden Arjuna.
And male or female,
I personally recommend this 13-episode series
to anyone who's curious...
if only so I have someone to talk to
about what these other episodes mean!
- [Juna] If one of us can change the way we think,
then all of us can change.
[Tokio] - What if you're the first one who changes?
[Mr Sakurai] - Why...
You become an outcast of society.
- [Strider] I definitely wanna make it clear,
I don't dislike any of these episodes.
As you know,
it's vitally important we be able to discuss these subjects
not with just the young,
but show it's okay to discuss them with adults too.
The greatest fear still comes from
that which we don't understand.
And whether it be prejudice, the human mind,
or just coping with being alive,
both our cartoons, and you and I should always know
it's okay to discuss these factors of life.
And if you think I missed
a particularly dark girls' cartoon episode,
feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments below.
And as always,
thanks for watching,
and I'll see you next time.