Disney has developed a well-earned reputation for being The Happiest Place On Earth: the Mouse House production line churns out movies that are saccharine sweet, squeaky clean and fluffier than candy floss. To have light, however, you must also have dark, so every once in a while Disney - and sister studio Pixar - sneak spectacularly dark moments into their movies, inadvertently terrifying a generation of children as a result. The following are IGN's 10 darkest Disney moments: look our for, let us know your personal 'favourites' or alternate selections in the comments, and feel free to gather your closest stuffed friends for emotional support...

Jessie's Song in Toy Story 2

9. Hopper Pecked to Death in A Bug's Life

8. Old Yeller Dies

7. Clayton Dies in Tarzan

6. Toy Story 3's Furnace Meltdown

5. A Shoe Gets Dipped in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

4. Up's Opening Montage

3. Dumbo's Trip

2. Mufasa's Death in The Lion King

1. Bambi's Mother Dies

'When She Loved Me' is one of Disney's most affecting tear-jerkers: a song – and sequence – that taps into a primal sense of attachment and belonging. When cowgirl Jessie is pushed to share her back story, she reveals she once had an owner of her own, who loved her more than anything. If you learn anything from this list, however, it's that Pixar like nothing more than jerking with your emotions, so owner Emily eventually outgrows her doll and donates her to charity, explaining Jessie's bleak world view. It's another reminder of our own mortality and touches on issues of abandonment and disassociation – pretty dark themes for a kids' cartoon, eh?When Pixar started making fully-animated CG movies in the '90s, their characters felt like they had an extra dimension – it made the action all the more exciting and all the more real. Pixar's most forgettable movie, A Bug's Life , actually has one of its best villains in Hopper, a straight-up evil grasshopper voiced by Kevin Spacey, and one of Pixar's most memorable deaths to boot. Just as he prepares to strangle hero Flik to death (itself quite the distressing act), Hopper is plucked from the ground by a bird, who proceeds to feed him to her baby chicks. Alive. Somewhere in the Disney vault, there is an 18-rated version of this grisly death that rivals even Spacey's death scene from Se7en.What's worse than watching a man die? How about watching man's best friend kick the bucket? Or rather, more accurately, get shot in the face? Old Yeller does not hold back from its devastating conclusion: family Labrador Old Yeller contracts rabies during a wolf attack and has to be put down for the good of the household. This was before 24-hour vet surgeries and humane injections, back in the 'good old days' when all pet-care related problems were solved by the business end of a shotgun. The lesson here is this: Hey kids, you know that darn dog you love so much? Sooner or later, it and everything else you love will die. Time for bed now, don't have nightmares!Villains usually get what they deserve in Disney movies – that or they get a star-studded live-action prequel starring Angelina Jolie – and Tarzan is no exception. Heartless hunter Clayton (Brian Blessed) meets his end in the most horrendous way possible – not by listening to the music of Phil Collins, but by hanging himself with a vine around his neck. Most Disney deaths happen off-screen to protect the innocence of the little ones watching, but Tarzan features a split-second shadow of Clayton's lifeless body hanging limply during a lightning storm. There's no mistaking the brutality of that inclusion: Disney wanted you to know that this guy wouldn't be back for a sequel.The Toy Story series has always grappled with loftier themes than 'How many toys can we sell off the back of this?': the first movie sees Buzz come to terms with the fact he's been living a lie, while the second movie sees he and Woody realise their own mortality. Toy Story 3, however, has them facing the Grim Reaper head on in a TERRIFYING MOLTEN ARENA OF DEATH. Tossed onto a pile of garbage like so many of yesterday's Furbies, the gang stare into the abyss – a flaming hot furnace that will surely consume them. It's not the fact that they are definitely going to die that puts a lump in the throat, but their grim acceptance of that fact. Shut up, kids. You're not mature enough to cry at this bit.Disney's amazing live-action/animation crossover was already pretty near the knuckle when it came to placating their family audience – crude babies, giant cleavage and so on – but Christopher Lloyd's demonstration of 'Dip' definitely strays into nightmare induction territory. Judge Doom picks up a squeaking red and white shoe from the floor and dunks it into his toxic vat of sludge: the way it struggles uselessly in his grasp is upsetting enough, but the sound it makes – like someone drowning a puppy – is horrendous. The red ink that drips from Doom's gloves in the aftermath must have given execs in Disney's Cuteness Department severe heart palpitations.A character death is usually a quick and nasty way to tug on the heartstrings, but it's almost always a plot device to create a villain or set a story of revenge in motion. In Pixar's Up, however, the opening montage tells the story of Carl and Ellie and ends with the former mourning the latter – not because she was killed by a sneering baddie or trampled by wild beasts, but because it was just her time. It's a tremendously bold way to open a movie – by emotionally hobbling your hero – but Pixar, surprise surprise, know what they are doing: Carl eventually finds his happy place, and Ellie's memories are honoured. Put simply, it's not the kind of storyline you'll find in a Kung Fu Panda movie.A sneaky sip of champagne will usually give you a case of the chuckles or a spell of the burps, but in Disney's universe, it's the first taste of a road to ruin. When Dumbo and his rodent friend Timothy Q Mouse drink from a bucket that's accidentally been spiked with fizz, they begin to hallucinate a quite frightening sight: an LSD-inspired parade of pink elephants, dancing to a sinister oompah soundtrack and smiling demonically. The final vision – a sort of elephantine transformer, with smiling faces for arms and legs – is almost enough to put you off the sparkling stuff forever.Mufasa's passing is easily the most distressing modern Disney death – it's our generation's Bambi's mother (see below). Again, the character's demise is not seen explicitly on screen (it's pretty clear he meets his end under a thousand wildebeest hooves) but it's how Simba processes the loss of his father that kicks up the dust in your eye. Devious lions based on characters from Hamlet are one thing, but a cuddly little lion cub snuggling into the cold embrace of his dear departed daddy is too much sad to handle. Can we fast-forward to the bits with the farting warthog now please?BAM. We're not pulling any punches with the finale here: a dead deer, in with a bullet at #1. It's been over 70 years since audiences first recoiled at the (off-screen) death of Bambi's mother and as emotional suckerpunches go, it's one of the suckiest. It's not so much the manner of his death that's distressing – although that blood spatter always has our bottom lip wobbling – as it is Bambi's heartbreaking reaction to his mother's passing. For many parents, it prompted an awkward discussion with their children on mortality ("Why is Bambi's mum asleep in jam, Mummy?"), but Disney doesn't get much darker than this.So those were the moments that psychologically scarred us the most, but what scenes ruined you? As ever, let us know your picks in the comments below...