Jan Svankmajer is one of the best animation directors that most American audiences have never heard of, and his masterpiece might be this adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice in Wonderland. But whereas Disney made this escape into the imagination whimsical and fun, Svankmajer imagines a terrifying realm where the animals are taxidermy creatures who stare at you with dead eyes. It's eerie, it's breathtaking, and it would give almost any kid nightmares.

Several years after Robert Zemeckis's beloved family comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit? combined cartoons and live-action, Ralph Bakshi returned with Cool World, a neo-noir starring Brad Pitt, Gabriel Byrne and Kim Basinger, about a femme fatale cartoon who has sex with a human being and becomes human and invades our reality. It takes place in a strangely mature, off-putting realm that even adults might want to avoid.

Danny DeVito skewered the world of live-action kids entertainment when he directed this dark comedy, which stars Robin Williams as a corrupt TV show host, and Ed Norton as the cheerful new talent who replaces him. Subversiveness and murder abound, because this ain't Barney the Dinosaur. DeVito's film was released to dismal reviews upon its release but has developed a cult following in the years that followed.

Animated films about talking animals are always a hit with the kids, but Michael Schaack's Felidae is aimed squarely at adults. It's a disturbingly violent murder mystery about housecats solving serial animal murders, with a subplot about ritual suicide. It's fascinating and it's unique, but it's definitely not something you can watch with the whole family.

Ralph Bakshi was at the forefront of an American animation revolution in the 1970s, in which animated films for adults - some of them X-rated - briefly surged in popularity. His most famous film, Fritz the Cat, might look on the surface like just another talking animal flick, but it's actually an adaptation of R. Crumb's underground comic strip, and deals heavily with sexuality and politics in New York City.

Brian Henson, the son of Jim Henson himself, directs this raunchy R-rated comedy about a serial killer who murders puppets, in a world where puppets and people coexist. You'd be forgiven for thinking it looks family-friendly: the tagline "All Sesame. No Street." is such an on-the-nose reference to the all-ages series Sesame Street (which has nothing to do with Henson's film) that the team behind The Happytime Murders are being sued.

Brian Henson, the son of Jim Henson himself, directs this raunchy R-rated comedy about a serial killer who murders puppets, in a world where puppets and people coexist. You'd be forgiven for thinking it looks family-friendly: The tagline "All Sesame. No Street." is such an on-the-nose reference to the all-ages series Sesame Street (which has nothing to do with Henson's film) that the team behind The Happytime Murders are being sued.

Before Peter Jackson was the Oscar-winning director of Middle-earth fantasy movies, he was the low-budget director of ultra-violent cult horror movies. One of his most notorious films is Meet the Feebles, an ambitious motion picture about a quasi-Muppet Show, in which all the puppet characters engage in detestable behaviors like drug use, illicit sex and murder. It looks like it might be cute but it's anything but, and it's earned quite a reputation as a result.

What looks like an adorable family film about a young girl and her giant, Totoro-like animal friend takes a shocking and horrible turn halfway through, when the cute CGI creature gets abducted by a meat company and subjected to frightening, vivid torture. Okja intentionally subverts our expectations of children's programming to make a serious and disturbing point about the meat industry, and it's definitely the kind of film that would scar young kids.

Oh good, a PG-rated suburban ghost story from producer Steven Spielberg, the filmmaker who gave us E.T. and Hook. How scary could it be? IT COULD BE REALLY SCARY. Poltergeist features scenes of body mutilation, killer clowns and deadly skeletons. Don't fall into the trap parents fell into in the 1980s. Don't let kids see Poltergeist before they're ready for seriously scary movies.

VeggieTales this ain't. In the R-rated CGI-comedy Sausage Party, every product in the grocery store yearns to be selected by the "gods" to go to a better place, not knowing that they're being taken to their doom. When a hot dog learns the truth he tries to destroy everyone's religion in order to save them all. Sausage Party might look like a kids movie but it's not, in any way, shape or form.

Mark Wahlberg's teddy bear comes to life and helps him through life's biggest troubles. If it sounds like Christopher Robin, you must not have seen Seth MacFarlane's Ted movies, which are extremely foul-mouthed buddy comedies in which one of the buddies just happens to be cute and cuddly.

Everyone loves movies about kids and their dogs, but everyone in the Air Bud demographic best steer clear of Todd Solondz's Wiener Dog. The film is about a variety of people who come into possession of an adorable dachshund, but their stories are harrowing, violent, depressing and full of hopeless ennui.