Over the decades there have been a lot of kids’ movies, ranging from post-war Disney cartoons to modern 3D animation. Out of all these films, there are a few that stand out above the rest — not just in terms of success, but in the fact that they weren’t actually such great movies for kids to be watching in the first place. Now don’t get us wrong here; these aren’t necessarily bad movies. Some of them are among the very best kids’ flicks in film history — we’re just saying that if you look at them a bit critically, you’re going to see movies that teach some pretty terrible lessons to young impressionable kids. These are the top 10 worst offenders (and we still love just about all of them).



Home Alone

When Home Alone released in 1990, it was an instant hit. Looking back now, we should all probably be ashamed of ourselves, because holy crap is this movie terrible. Getting past that, it’s really scary to think that so many children watched this movie — with their parents’ blessings. It’s about a kid who gets left home alone by his family who left on Christmas vacation. That part isn’t so terrible, as unlikely as it may be, but what that kid does when he realizes he’s been left behind is beyond ridiculous. For starters, instead of promptly going to a neighbor’s house or the nearest police officer, he decides he’s going to make an adventure of it. He’s eight years old! When two violent criminals show up and try to rob his house, he takes it upon himself to actually attack them in ridiculous childish ways. Of course he wins in the end, but teaching young kids that this sort of behavior is a good thing is just asking for trouble.



Cinderella

Cinderella was Walt Disney’s first big hit after Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but came with a huge risk — it had been 13 years since Snow White, and Disney’s studios would have been shut down if Cinderella failed. Lucky for Disney, the movie was a big box office success, and propelled the studio on a path that would rocket through the 50′s. Cinderella was actually a charming movie, with cute little singing, tailoring mice and an awesome Fairy Godmother, but one can’t help notice the glaring flaw besides the protagonist’s weird name — Cinderella was convinced that if she looked rich and pretty, she could get her Prince Charming. So, not only did it condone materialism and superficiality, but that it wasn’t a bad thing to lie about who you really are in order to fool others into loving you.



The Parent Trap

Oh, the good old days when Lindsay Lohan looked normal and innocent. The Parent Trap was Lohan’s first foray into mainstream Hollywood — and we were so optimistic, despite how ridiculous this movie was. In the beginning, a couple wed, had twins and divorced, with each parent taking a twin to raise on their own (already an odd situation, but it worked the first time so why not keep it in the remake?). One ended up in London, the other in Napa Valley, but the crap hit the fan when the twins were coincidentally enrolled at the same summer camp. Isolated from the rest of camp, the girls discover they are in fact twins and agree to switch places in order to get their parents back together. This stuff just doesn’t work out in real life — people get divorced for good reason — and it teaches kids just the opposite.



Blank Check

It’s difficult to put into words just how bad of a movie Blank Check was. It was… unfathomably bad. That being said, it was also extremely popular, and likely played a role in the development of some of today’s most unsavory young business professionals. It’s about a young boy who is, for all intents and purposes, a horrible person. He has the moral IQ of a lemur, and he got his hands on a blank check (acquired from a very dangerous criminal). He uses an ancient Apple Mac 600 to reproduce the check to read for a payment of $1,000,000 and goes on a shopping spree so ridiculous that he manages to spend nearly every dollar of it in six days flat. Basically, the kid went around defrauding people for the entire movie. At one point he even bought a house, by fraudulently bidding on it over the phone. As if the fraud and theft wasn’t bad enough, the writers also thought it was acceptable to have him make out with a 33 year-old woman. Somebody call Chris Hansen.



Dennis the Menace

Much like Home Alone, even John Hughes and a reputable actor playing the chief villain couldn’t save this film from being utterly terrible. Again, like Home Alone, it was also extremely popular among little brats who were already in dire need of ADHD medication. This movie turned an innocent, fun, ancient comic strip into a film-travesty. Dennis, despite being the lovable hero who constantly causes mayhem by “accident,” manages to be so easily hated that adult viewers often find themselves wishing that Christopher Lloyd’s evil antagonist would win — and save the rest of humanity from the kid. The horrors this child inflicts upon those around him, chiefly Mr. Wilson played by Walter Matthau, are so bad that their real-life effects would be no less than hospitalization or death in a couple of instances. Making his “accidents” and “pranks” look cute and harmless should have been seen as a crime.



School of Rock

Musical comedy School of Rock wasn’t all that bad of a movie, but it was pretty ridiculous when it comes right down to it. A typical loser of a guy, pretending to be his roommate, fills in as a substitute teacher at a prestigious private school to make some extra cash. First of all, this just doesn’t happen — ever. Besides the obvious safety protocols that must be followed by schools regarding substitute teachers, there’s no way anyone would be abe to get away with secretly throwing away the regular curriculum and teaching kids rock and roll all day long instead. Jack Black’s character secretly substitutes for weeks with barely a blip. The movie glorifies rocking out to the point that kids get the impression that it’s OK to completely slack off at school without consequences, and we really don’t need any more of that.



Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is widely considered one of Disney’s masterpieces, and was the first of only two animated films ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film took home two other Oscars, and Disney won high marks all around because not only adults, but kids too, could enjoy the movie. Great music, top-notch animation, but wait, how did the story go again? Oh yeah, Belle was kept prisoner by the Beast, held against her will. After time, she grew to sympathize with her captor and she eventually fell in love with him. That’s called Stockholm Syndrome, by the way.



Casper

Casper was a great movie; it was a rare example of how an old hokey cartoon and comic strip can be made into a modern film, complete with just enough CGI and James Horner to make it really shine. It was also a 90′s centerpiece for young wannabe goth girls since it more or less made them want to die and haunt somebody (oh-so-romantically), or somehow come across an already-dead boyfriend who could haunt them. Younger kids watching this movie basically learned that people can die terribly only to come back from the dead, and that they make for great significant others. 



The Little Mermaid

Released in 1989, Disney’s The Little Mermaid breathed life back into the entire animated film genre, and began what is now known as the Disney Renaissance. The film won two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and is still loved today by children around the world. All was not rosy “under the sea” when controversy bubbled up surrounding some of the film’s artwork — an underwater tower resembling a penis, and a clergyman with an erection. On top of that, the lengths that Ariel went to get a man she barely knew basically taught little girls that it’s OK to drastically — and physically — change themselves for a love interest. Oh, and that it’s kosher to run off getting married to an older man at 16, after permanently altering your body to suit his needs.



Hook

Of all the movies on this list, Hook may be the worst offender of the bunch when it comes to bad lessons to teach children. Robin Williams’ character (adult Peter) actually voices them perfectly in the above video: These kids are living in a deranged Lord of the Flies scenario in which they’re all armed with knives and kill any adult they encounter. It doesn’t matter that the movie was really good, or that the original Peter Pan story is an absolute classic masterpiece of fantasy-fiction. If the wrong kid watches this movie, there may be a teacher just waiting to get stabbed afterwards. Speaking of originals, the decades-old Disney cartoon isn’t innocent either. Aside from having the same blade-wielding youths as its more modern counterpart, it’s been repeatedly lambasted for its blatant racial stereotyping. Apparently, native Americans in Never Never Land are always “blushing” red because they’re always hitting on women, and their constant asking of “how” has to do with their lust for education.