that safety film sounds like 'the ghastlycrumb tinies'.
I think you got the name right. I remember it, in any case.
It's hard to say how much of this dark and twisted material in kids' stories is geared towards adults, or just an oversight. Actually the first movies I remember seeing as a child are Fantastic Voyage and Dumbo (1964 or so?). I remember being terrified by the "pink elephants" hallucination in the latter.
Regarding intentional stuff, I remember reading about a 19th Century German child psychologist (I don't think it was Struwellpeter author H. Hoffman) who recommended a completely inconsistent punishment regimen - beat the child when s/he drops a pea off the table, and pay no attention when a priceless vase is broken - just so the child will always be kept on edge and paying attention. Again, I regret that I cannot remember the fellow's name.
Here's a true story - when I was a young child (kindergarten age) living in a very small town some kids invited me to a puppet show. It was in the local Pentacostal Church, and when I got there I was treated to a bunch of puppets telling me that if I died a sinner I would be thrown into a lake of fire and burn for all eternity.
I don't remember being freaked out by it - only that I thought they meant a leg-shaped pool of fire, because the lake of fire looked like a map of Italy.
After the show they gave us candy and told us to come back and bring more kids. I never returned.
Actually I first visited that censored comic site trying to find an old Popeye cartoon I remember seeing. Something about Popeye and OliveOyl fighting skeletons or ghosts on an old ship. At one point Olive Oyl winds up in spreadeagle bondage being tortured by a bunch of cats licking her toes.
They don't make kid's shows like that anymore. Unfortunately I never found it.
