My son's bizarre Cars phobia

Hi everyone, newbie here.

Maybe you could help me out with a baffling

problem.
Pixar?s Cars should be my 3 year old son?s favourite movie-but he can?t watch it at all! In fact he

even cowers under the bed whenever I try to put it on. When you consider the following you?ll see why I?m so

confused.

  1. He loves cars, trains (anything with wheels basically) and has done so pretty much since

birth.
2. His favourite TV shows are Thomas the Tank Engine & Bob the Builder- both featuring vehicles

with ?faces & personalities’.
3. He has grown up with Pixar- Toy Story, Nemo (although he doesn?t

care much for Mosnters Inc) etc. The Incredibles really IS his favourite movie- he can pretty much quote it word

for word.
4. He loves all the Cars merchandise- his favourites are his die-cast McQueen, Chick Hicks and

Police Car. I spent last summer doing the cars sticker book with him and he LOVED the cars website.

I

bought Cars DVD for him at Christmas and he watched about half before leaving the room. Now whenever I put it in

the machine (just to have a break from The Incredibles or Teletubbies) he doesn?t get past the opening

credits.

Obviously I won?t force him to watch it if he doesn?t want to, but I wondered if it might be some

kind of weird phobia or something.

I’d love to watch the film with him (although I don’t think it’s

Pixar’s best ever). It makes no sense!! Help! :confused:

Sounds like he has trouble with cars coming to life. 3 can be a certain age where certain

things can set them off. Perhaps give him a few years and then pop the DVD in and watch it with him.

Could be- although I remember him being mesmerised by the trailer that came withn the Incredibles.

You could be right though- the car’s faces are a lot more animated than Thomas the Tank Engine! I

didn’t like the bit where McQueen sticks his tongue out. You could be onto something there!

Maybe I’ll

try again in a years’ time. It took him a good couple of years to start liking Pinnocio- and that is also now

one of his favourites.

Kids eh!

in

German cinemas, kids (age 3 - 4) were reported to react frightful, i. e. children fear especially the racing

scenes right at the beginning of the movie. the sound is too loud, the cutting is too fast, there’s to much

action (i.e. the crash scene) so that it is difficult for kids of this age to cope with.

don’t know

whether this is helpful for you… :unamused:

I must

admit I thought of that the last time I tried to watch it with him- It’s a very intense opening

scene.

Another good theory to bear in mind. Cheers buddy!

Well , halfway through the movie is the scene “Tractor Tipping” , and in

that scene is Frank , the massive , scary ( even to Lightning ) , fierce , and loud tractor . Not only could it

be the other reasons that people have already said , but Frank is a little frightning at some times , so he also

could be afraid of Frank and that particular scene as well .

First (and only) time he watched cars most of the way through he got scared of the

cow-tractors- so again, another sound theory. Although he likes both cows and tractors- just not in the same

space!!!

You guys are all on the money so far. Thanks for your thoughts.

There’s clearly a lot in

this film my son has issues with!

call me crazy but I had a Doc car and I showed my little

bro it and he was scared of it! Now he won’t watch Cars (that is scences with Doc) and if you even say Doc he

goes running inhis room and the strange part of it is he isn’t scared of anything else in the movie but i don’t

know he has issues.

It just sounds that right now, your

son is just a little too young to be able to enjoy Cars, even though it is considered a ‘family movie’. Some

children are a lot more sensitive to others, whether it be to loud noises and bright lights, or things that are

out of the ordinary- such as vehicles that talk. Hopefully this phobia won’t stick with him for too long, as

long as you just kind of leave it for a while and don’t let him watch the film until he’s a bit older.

Well,

maybe you can just show your son the parts that you think he will love, but limit it so that it can scare him.

Maybe something with Lightning and Mater would be something he might be able to watch with out being scared.

My friend’s kid

falls alseep during the movie right as the deliquents come out :slight_smile:

Sounds like

me at age 3. I never had patience for films. I’d either leave the room a lot or play with my toys in front of

the TV and glance at the screen occasionally.
It’s a lot to expect a kid to sit in front of a movie silently

for an hour or so. Unless it’s in a theatre. That either mesmorizes them or puts them to sleep, or if it’s a

restless little booger like my cousins they’ll scream and try to run up and down the aisles. ^^;

That,

and, as much as I love Cars … it’s not as exciting and funny and eye-catching for a young child. Doesn’t seem

the type for me to watch as a kid. Then again, I was always bouncing off the walls once someone started to sing,

and thankfully the cars do not sing. ^^

I’ll try watching it with him again in the future but not now as it just upsets him. Might

try him on Nemo again- he used to love that.

If not, luckily for me, I never get bored watching the

Incredibles…

or Pinnoccio…or Spongebob the Movie…or Thomas… :unamused:

I hope your son gets over his

little phobia. If not, then my suggestion is wait until he is a little older and much more braver.

Indeed. He’s a tough little character (reminds me a bit of Dash!!) not afraid

of very much and always getting into scrapes around the house- it’s just this one thing seems to freak him

out!

If not, maybe study your son a bit. Find out what is it

that he really is scared about in cars, then you can do one of two things. Skip that part, or channel his fear to

a minimun so the next time he watches it, he won’t be so afraid.

That’s wierd. Try asking him why he will not watch it. Or you could save the DVD for when he’s older.

I just burst out laughing…I dunno why that seems so funny to me…the Delinquents are all glowering at me

DHR: Man, that is funny. 8D :laugh: 8D :laugh: 8D The Delinquents are so awesome! At least they got names and places in the end credits! :smiley:

I can’t see how anyone can fall asleep during that part, unless bass-heavy rap music puts ya to sleep… :unamused: