My child was inconsolable and heartbroken and sobbing at 5 when his grandparents took him to watch the Disney movie "Brave" for the first time in a theater - after a point, he got up and started walking in the dark towards the exit sign by himself because the bad guy (a bear) was being "rude, hurtful and abusive" to the mother bear in the movie. He has always been ultra sensitive - he cried when trains had accidents in his favorite Thomas the tank engine DVDs when he was 2 and 3. We don't do movies. We don't do screen time at all at our house. Our pediatrician told us that his insomnia was related to too much stimulation and emotional stress from watching any kind of video/screen based content - so out went all TV shows and movies.
We are OK with the so called "cultural gap" - he is a misfit amongst his Disney driven friends - but he also does not fit in with his buddies who watch violent cartoons either.
What we tell ourselves is that he has a whole different set of experiences in life that his friends who watch movies and TV shows do not experience - we do a lot of outdoorsy activities and field trips instead of movies.
And we take DS to Disneyland to see the characters he knows nothing about - but it is all good because he enjoys the rides and the excitement of meeting the characters - his favorite was Winnie the Pooh and Piglet last year!
