What Do You Do When Your Toddler Is Scared of a Part of a Movie?

I probably would just skip the movies at this point and wait until he is older. My DD is 3.5 and there is plenty of stuff on TV (Nick Jr., Sprout, etc.) that keeps her entertained without any scary parts. She likes some movies but then really can't handle certain things - she will like them the first time through but then knows what to expect with the scary bits and doesn't want to watch the movie again at all. She'll say, "That was a great movie!" after the first time but then doesn't want you to put it on again if you ask. She doesn't even like Jafar from Alladin because "he's a mean guy!" She knows who all the Disney princesses and other characters are, loves Nemo, but won't actually watch the movies about them because of bad guys and scary stuff. For whatever reason, she is scared of Buzz Lightyear, even though I've told her he is a good guy and is Woody's friend. Even her cartoons that she watches all the time, she doesn't like certain episodes if it means one of the characters gets in trouble, and wants me to change it.

Kids that age often like to be scared, under controlled circumstances, like during a favorite movie when mom or dad is close by. At that age, my stepdaughter liked to watch the same cartoon EVERY day. At the same part of the movie, she would hide behind her dad's chair and peek around. She did this every time, but always insisted on watching this movie.

We all need this at times of our lives - like amusement park rides, scary movies, or risky sports.

I sit by my daughter and talk her thru the movie, letting her know it's just a movie, not real... that things usually turn out right in movies, etc. I don't want her to hide from her fears, but to confront them - with support if needed - in order to learn from them.

When mine were that age we had VHS and it was easy to edit out the offending part creating a new VHS and store the original one until they were older - you could probably do this with DVD's pretty easily. They were especially scared of the wicked octupus in The Little Mermaid.

A two year old is not going to reason why you fast forward the movie, they don't want to see that part, so facilitate that happening for them. Your justifying to them 'there is no reason to be scared' is undermining their feelings and abilities to decide what makes them feel what they feel.
What you may see as funny your child may see as scary or threatening, be considerate of their feelings and do not force them to be tortured by your neglect with this matter.

I also HIGHLY recommend you go to this site BEFORE you watch ANY movie with any child-teen and read up first if its a movie you even want your child to watch. You can type in the name of any movie and read every detail about it in advance, and then decide if its something you want your child to be exposed to.

www.kidsinmind.com

Mine at 2 couldn't watch any Disney movies.
We watched the Bear and Baby Einstein videos.
I also have a VHS tape of old Road Runner and Pepe Le Peu videos. My kids love them. Look for the Looney Toons dvds.

I would pass over the places that scare him or switch movies.

My son is a few months shy of 2. My first choice is to give him a video that is without any questionable content (violence, loud arguing, etc). My second choice is to fast forward over the scary or otherwise inappropriate parts. What you are teaching him is that not all things are appropriate for children watch - my son has never complained or questioned (or cared) when I fast forwarded through a movie.

This would happen with my son (Monsters Inc comes to mind) and we just let him handle it on his own. He would put his blankie over his face or we'd see him sitting where he couldn't see the TV. When the "scary" part was over, he'd start watching again. We thought it was kind of cute how he'd not watch, but listen for when it was done. I agree with what Sue W said when she equated it to adults at an amusement park or watching scary movies. I also think that fear, like sadness or happiness or anger, is just another emotion in which we need to learn how to express appropriately. Not a fun emotion, yet one we must learn to deal with.

You may try to get him interested in a few other movies for a while then come back to those in a few months or a year. Likely, the things that scare him now may be nothing to him later. When our daughter was about that age, she wanted to watch The Incredibles every single day for like a month. But she was really worried about the robot. She would ask us "What do I do about the robot?" even when the movie wasn't on. So we tried that tactic and now she's not scared of it.

We used to fast forward...now we let them watch them. If they end up with nightmares -- then we lay off any movies for a while. We usually only use them if one of them is sick or if we need to catch up on work over the weekend and keep them entertained (which we loathe to do). Our kids are almost 4 and 2.5.

My son asks me to sit by him so I do. Then he usually either watches it or hides his face against my arm (or covers his eyes) and asks me to tell him when it's over. If I think a movie has something in it that will scare him enough to give him bad dreams, we don't watch it.

My daughter couldn't (wouldn't) watch 'Elmo in Grouchland' until she was 5 or 6 - she was scared of the Mandy Patinkin character because he was too mean!

i suggest sitting with him like he asks. he will eventually grow out of it. and that way you're there to comfort him, explain what's going on in the movie if you need, and he trusts you to protect him.

i let my daughter watch movies as well, probably much more than i should. she hasn't found parts that scare her yet, but that's what i plan to do when she does.

I'd skip over the scary parts- he'll let you know when he feels like he can handle it :)