Mulan is still my favorite Disney movie, although I love Lilo and Stitch despite the dysfunctional family. Mulan has both parents and a grandmother, and I think that it's the best portrayal of a family in a Disney movie.
Also, I would like to point out that most undistilled fairy tales are pretty gruesome. The Little Mermaid, in the original version, has her tongue cut out by the evil sea witch, doesn't get to marry her prince, and turns into sea foam or something bizarre like that. And don't get me started on Hercules!
Disney could do a better job of making their movies more suitable for a young audience, but I don't remember being scarred for life by watching Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. I do remember watching (and loving) scary movies like Gremlins, The Rats of Nimh and The Last Unicorn, which are the first movies that I think of when I think of scary kid movies. My point is, kids like being scared to some degree. That degree probably varies from child to child, but it's the parents responsibility to evaulate the movies that their kids want to see before the kids see it. That's what we have the rating PG, parental guidance.
