Top 10 Hidden Themes in Movies You Totally Missed as a Kid

Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, Wizardry… and sexually transmitted infections? Yep, there seems to be more to the magic of Harry Potter’s world than we originally understood. ‘Lycanthropy’ is an incurable affliction that turns humans into werewolves through magical means during a full moon. Professor Remus Lupin has been infected with this malady, and werewolves are dealt with in wizard society in a strikingly similar manner to how HIV/AIDS was perceived when it first surfaced. Lycanthropy, much like AIDS in the 80s, is seen as a disease that needs to be controlled for fear that it will spread among the population like a pandemic. This is perhaps most evident in how Snape treats Lupin because of his condition.

That’s right, a movie about a bunch of chickens trying to escape a farm and their cruel captors is actually an allegory for the concentration camps of World War II. Shocked? We’ll break it down for you. Firstly, the Chicken houses share a remarkable resemblance in design to the living quarters at Auschwitz, especially with regards to their drab, grim appearance. Secondly, the chickens represent the Jewish prisoners and how they were forced into labor - if they refused, they were immediately executed, or in the case of Chicken Run, turned into a pie. Speaking of the pies, in the end Mrs. Tweedy decides to turn all the chickens into pies, mirroring Hitler’s “final solution.” Dark stuff.

He’s got radioactive blood…and a whole lot of hormones kicking in. This one shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to understand, as underneath the spandex and highflying super heroics, Peter Parker is just a mild mannered teenager going through the same growing pains any other pubescent youth would experience. At the start of the movie, Peter is tiny, timid and unbelievably awkward around girls. However, after a radioactive spider bites him, his body begins to undergo some very major transformations, particularly in his…uhhm, “muscles”. Peter then begins sprouting small hairs and producing a white, sticky substance that he can shoot out of his body. Superpowers or not, it’s a good idea to shut the door while *ahem* “exercising.”

When we meet young Kristoff and his pet reindeer Sven, they live among a group of ice pickers. Soon afterwards, Kristoff and Sven break off from their group to follow an ice path, which leads them to a troll colony. Since the pair’s so cute, the trolls decide to “adopt” them. We should mention here that in Scandinavian folklore, trolls have a tendency to kidnap, so this one’s even backed up by legend. Kristoff later introduces these trolls to Anna as his ‘family,’ so it doesn’t seem like the trolls kept these guys against their wills. But we’ll just chalk that up to Stockholm syndrome, and ask you this: can you imagine how his fellow ice cutters felt when they realized he was missing?

Did you ever realize that the colony of ants and Hopper’s grasshopper gang are actually representative of a repressed nation and its controlling government respectively? There have been comparisons made between how the grasshoppers make regular visits to collect food from the ants and how corrupt politicians do nothing but collect big paychecks and force the average citizen into subservient positions. The fact that the ants have to constantly gather food, coupled with Hopper’s big speeches about how ‘worthless’ they are, helps paint the picture of a dictatorship. Furthermore, when Flik and the rest of his colony rise up to take a stand against Hopper, it accurately characterizes a society sick of their government’s rules. Vive la revolution!

Another animated film about insects, “Antz” also had subliminal messages hidden within. It’s clearly established that the villain General Mandible is intent on wiping out the part of the colony that he deems weak, in order to rebuild it from the ground up. While we did not miss the part where Mandible sends a large group of said colony to their demise at the hands of a termite colony, we highly doubt that kids picked up on exactly how Mandible was planning to repopulate. Essentially holding Princess Bala against her wills, Mandible was going to force her into mating with him, believing that their combined genes would produce the ultimate race. Do ants have sexual harassment lawsuits?

This science fiction classic is full of excitement and wonder, so we completely understand why this detail would fly under the radar for many youngsters. Considering that the prime focus of the film is the touching friendship between Elliot and E.T., you’d be hard pressed to pick up on little hints that the mother is struggling with a divorce. But just because these details are in the background doesn’t mean they aren’t important, as the mother clearly exhibits signs of stress and sadness due to her current predicament. Fun fact: director Steven Spielberg actually modeled the plot for the movie on his own imaginary friend that he created as a child after his parents got divorced.

Can you feel the sexual tension tonight? When Nala finds her childhood friend Simba, the two are elated to be seeing each other again. However, once the reunion and introductory ‘hellos’ are made, Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” begins to play and things get really steamy, really fast. The lions bounce and skip around as their attraction to one another shifts from playful flirting to something more physical. If that’s not enough, the erotic atmosphere implied here hits a fever pitch when Nala gives Simba the googly eyes. As the scene fades from them lying together in the grass to Simba and Nala snuggling… we can’t help but feel the movie left out what happened in between.

After Marty McFly travels back in time thanks to Doc Brown’s wacky science experiment d, his mother takes care of him… a younger, less nun-like and “thin” version of his mother, that is. Things get uncomfortable when young Lorraine develops an unusually strong attraction towards him, and there’s tangible – albeit comedic – sexual tension between the two. That’s all fine and dandy until Marty realizes that his continued existence is in danger since he interfered with his parents’ meeting, and has to volunteer to get fresh with his mom to bring them back together, but we digress. Lorraine doesn’t realize Marty is her future son and the whole thing’s played for laughs, but Marty does lock lips with his own mother – that’d be traumatic for anyone.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few more honorable mentions…

- Anti-Gun Message
“The Iron Giant” (1999)

- Coming Out of the Closet
“X2: X-Men United” (2003)

- He’s in a Brothel
“Aladdin” (1992)

Frollo’s displays of attraction towards Esmeralda in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” range from mildly inappropriate to downright creepy, most often leaning towards the latter. We understand being attracted to someone, but the lengths to which Frollo goes just to be close to the gypsy beauty are extremely disturbing. Despite claiming to feel disgust for her kind, he doesn’t seem to mind getting cozy with her. Frollo’s sickening behavior includes manipulating Quasimodo into finding Esmeralda for him. He further amps up his creeper rating when he makes her choose between being with him or death. Frollo was already a scumbag, but his sexual advances towards Esmeralda cement him as your stereotypical “creepy old man” – but this one’s far from harmless.

Do you agree with our list? What movie themes and subplots completely flew over your head as a kid? For more unexpected Top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.