Is it illegal to have a bad ending to a kids movie?

Answer 1

I assume you mean a sad or tragic ending. It is not illegal, but it is very questionable, especially if it involves a child. The Disney film Old Yeller ( not about a noisy mutt!) alienated a certain part of the audience when in the conclusion, the Father Figure or Uncle shot the dog as he had become rabid. in any word, tragic. The Animal-sacrifice theme was not unknown in some juvenile dramas, I emphasize drama, but deliberately killing off a juvenile character was Rare. One exception was the environmentally-oriented tragedy The Christmas Tree. a child dies, eventually , of Leukemia brought on by exposure to toxic fumes from a freak accident. ( a bomber dumped toxic chemicals into a lake where a child and his father were fishing) Dad is not affected, Kid eventually dies. That is the rarest exception. Nothing is more jolting than the unexpected death of a child, and this plot device is rarely used. This may explain the absence of juvenile Ghosts in supernatural tales, one has to die first to become a ghost, right/