Scariest Animated Moments...as a Kid-Animated Critic Homecoming Day 1

Hello my name is Evan A.K.A. The Animated Critic. Well this week is Homecoming week for me and my high school. I'm sure by now most of you have already had your homecoming, it's happening the same time as mine, or it's coming real soon. I'd thought it'd be fun to do something on the blog to celebrate my homecoming week. Get into the school spirit. Every day this week my school is having a dress up day with a specific theme. For example today is Holiday Day. So everyday this week I'm going to review/discuss something that relates to said theme. That's right. A whole week of filler content. Aren't you just so happy about that. Either way we should probably just begin. 

Today, Monday February 6th was Holiday Day. Every class got a different holiday to dress up as. 

Seniors got Christmas

Juniors got Halloween

Sophomores got July 4th 

and Freshmen got Valentine's Day. 

So instead of reviewing a cartoon featuring every holiday listed I'll instead just do something related to the holiday my grade got. Halloween. Seems Toon-O-Ween is early this year. Instead of doing a review though I'd like to discuss something. Things that scared me as a kid. Especially in the medium of animation. Imagine yourself as a five, six, seven year old child in front of the TV. You just want to waste the entire day away watching those silly, wacky cartoons that give you so much enjoyment. Then BAM something unexpected comes and turns the colorful animated landscape into a land of nightmares. Of course none of these things scare me any more. Well....ok most of these things don't scare me anymore. I think it's just best we begin. You are about to hear 3 chilling tales from my

own childhood. So sit back and cringe at how much of a scaredy cat I was, because some of these things are actually quite embarrassing. 

Monster House.

It's been awhile since I've seen this movie, but man as a kid did it terrify me. I couldn't get through it in one sitting. I had to watch it again all the through much later on. I don't know why it scared me so. I mean a house that comes to life is a bit of a silly idea. I don't know, but man did it get to me. It's weird though that I could sit through Coraline in one sitting (which is far creepier) but this took two. What was it about this house that scared me so. Albeit it wasn't the most terrifying thing I've seen. It
didn't keep me up at night, tossing and turning. I didn't develop a crippling fear of houses. It was just something I just couldn't watch until I was older and less of a little brat about it. Oh well, it's a funny story nonetheless.

The tall paw print from Blue's Clues.

Oh boy this is embarrassing. I swear I'm not making this up. This giant paw print use to scare me. Yes, a show made for preschoolers legitimately scared me at one point. Like Monster House, I don't know why. All it was was just a taller clue that hopped around. Maybe that's why it scared me. Just the way it moved, hopping and creeping around Joe. Maybe it was because it was significantly taller than Joe as well. Again it's really silly, but when you look back at the past a lot of it is like that. Still most people don't have something as silly as being scared by Blue's Clues in their past. 

In case you haven't figured out by now, I love SpongeBob. Especially seasons 1-3. Season 4 is kind of where the show took a turning point though. The shows staff was almost completely changed, and the creator left the show. Luckily he's back now and the show is beginning a reform, but still for 

awhile you never knew what you were going to get with the sponge. In season 1-3 you could always expect a good episode. (Not all episodes from that era were good, mind you, but still whenever a new episode premiered there was always high expectations that it'd be good, and most of the time it lived up to those expectations). With season 4-early season 9 you didn't know what to expect. The episode could be Good, Bad, or just meh. It wasn't consistent with quality. Most of the time though episodes were bad. That's not what I'm here to talk about though. The new writers decided to throw a bunch of new stuff withen the world of SpongeBob. Things like more Squidward Torture.

Grossout

And of course horrible, nightmare,  creations from the depths of hell itself. 

That's what I'm talking about now. There's 4 times SponegBob has scared me. 

1 time during the original movie, and another 3 in the post-movie episodes. 

I'll go from least scariest to most scariest. 

1-Face Freeze (The Entire Episode)

Face Freeze is a season 8 episode. It has one joke. Terryfing faces. 

The plot is that Spongebob and Patrick want to make funny faces, but Mr. Krabs warns them not to as their faces could get frozen like tht forever. Pretty much it's the same deal as when your mom tells you not to stick your toungue out or smile for too long cause somehow your face is going to freeze up like that. Spongebob and Patrick of course don't listen and get their faces frozen. It ends with them not being able to fix the problem and the somehow Squidward and Mr. Krabs end up with frozen faces as well. Because....who knows. 

If you subtract the big issue here that I'm about to discuss it's a boring episode, with a thin plot that rips off a previous episode known as Hooky. Not many funny jokes, and not much enjoyment to be found. The big issue though is this....

 


They make faces like that practically throughout the entire episode. It's pretty unsettling. Somehow this was supposed to be funny. Well newsflash. Even if the faces weren't so scary making funny faces at the camera is not a joke. Even if it was funny the first time it would wear out its welcome eventually, but they stretch this one joke out throughout most of the 11 minutes. So yeah, bad episode. Let's talk about these scary creations though. 

I swear every time I watch this episode I feel the need to banish and repent the demons that haunt these hellish creations. 

Oh and that's the least horrifying scary thing I've seen on SpongeBob. Tells you a lot about what's coming up. Next we have Puffy Fluffy from the infamous A Pal for Gary. A season 7 episode.

I know that he looks cute, but just you wait.

In this episode Spongebob gets a new pet so Gary will have a friend to keep him company while he's at work. A nice thoughtful thing to do. The thing is this adorable creature you see doesn't like other animals very much. That means he acts like a complete douche to Gary. SponegBob doesn't notice it though so he just blames Gary. It's one of the most annoying things in the entire series. Moreso then Good Neighbors. This keeps happening and eventually Gary is forced to share a bed with the monster that hates him so. Said monster eventually sheds his skin to reveal....

OH MY GOD!!!!!!
Do I even have to explain.

Look at that thing. And he's actively trying to kill Gary. Who's the SpongeBob equivalent of a common house cat. Its pretty scary. You actually do root for Gary though as he kicks that monster's butt in a rather awesome way. Oh, but guess what. SponegBob comes in while Puffy Fluffy is about to eat Gary and tells Gary off, as if he's in the wrong. HEY MORON, YOUR SNAIL IS IN THE MOUTH OF A GIANT FISH MONSTER. STOP BEING SO THICK SKULLED AND DO SOMETHING! Then guess what. Puffy Fluffy targets SponegBob. Gary luckily (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) saves him, and Puffy Fluffy runs off never to be seen again. Good riddance. Oh, but SpongeBob yells at Gary cause he bullied Puffy Fluffy into leaving.
....ha....ha ha ha ha.....ha ha ha....HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

HA HA HA HA HA

 
Come here you little....
 


I'll take care of this!


 
 
Ugh......why did you do this to me SpongeBob.

Poor Gary though.

Let me comfort you. 

But all in all Puffy Fluffy is really scary. He could've been in a good episode with high tensions and all that jazz, but nope. Had to put him in the episode with my least favorite characterization for SpongeBob. Listen I know the sponge isn't the brightest light out there, but he's not this dumb. It's just annoying to watch on so many levels. Even if he was that dumb normally it's still aggravating to sit through.

Either way moving on.
The next part comes from the movie. The original one.

This things is.....uh.....I don't even know what. It's a fish that baits people with a creepy fake old woman who sells icecream.

It also does this...

It also has a really unsettling voice, and, oh yeah, lives in an area filled to the brim with bones of other fish. Which is already scary enough,
Luckily we don't see it long as it gets eating rather quickly.

Again, good riddance.
This is a scary moment in a Spongebob episode/movie done right though. It raises the tension, isn't too scary for the little kids, oh, and SpongeBob doesn't bring it home so it can torture his pet snail.
Also I recently found out this things name is Frogfish. You're welcome for the useless tidbit. I'd also like to mention the boss battle with this guy in the video game adaptation.

Being able to beat this thing up, especially after all the trauma it gave me as a kid, is so satisfying. 

All those moments I just mentioned above did creep me out at one point or another. This one however still slightly gives me the creeps to this day. Ever since I saw it as a kid it's left a mental scar on my mind. I'm not even going to explain the context. It won't matter. Context or not it's horrifying.
Here you go the single moment in animation that scared me as a kid...and still scares me as a 17 year old boy.

"It all started when I was born."



You know I think that picture is more accurate now. After today I do feel like I've just been to the depths of hell. Ah, well we're done now. All I have to say is that otherwise the episode this happens in, SquidBob TentaclePants, is OK. If it wasn't for this one scene. Why'd they think it was OK to put this in a show for kids. Heck, kids or no kids it's not something I want to see. This thing scarred me when I saw it. Anyway I'm done talking now.

Tomorrow is Tourist day at my school. What will I review for that. Not even I know. So....I should probably figure that out.
Peace.