As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Kirikou and the Sorceress has soon became a Cult Classic among animation fans and not just them. With its compelling plot, it's unique setting, characters and deep moments, it keeps charming children from 1998 until today. That said, this movie surely isn't free of dark, scary and creepy moments and ideas.
- Karaba as a character in general. A dreaded Wicked Witch who has been terrorizing the village for no one knows how long. We don't know how far her powers can get, and even though she doesn't attack directly the village people, it's rather obvious that she only waits for the right moment and the right excuse (from her viewpoint) to do so. She enjoys making them miserable although we never see any sign of pleasure on her face: she does what she does for pure unadultereted hate towards humanity. Her Kubrick Stare, especially when the camera goes on extreme close-up as shown in the picture above, then...
- Karaba's introduction. The ominous song sung by her army of fetisches, the eerie, barren and apocalyptic envoiroment that sorrounds her hut, the way she stands on her house's threshold still as a statue, as she spends her days in that position waiting for her next victim, and the hut's hellish red internal, all contribute to make Karaba resemble a satanic apparition.
- The fetishes. Good Lord the fetishes... Although some of them have a rather silly look due to their strange proportions and features, you can't deny they are a very creepy presence. Their demonic red eyes, their jerky and soulless movements as they creep towards the village people...
- The Fetish on the Roof is the one who stands out the most. A creepy ball-eyed wooden abomination who keeps watching and stalking you even from miles of distance, and the only way not to be under his watch is to keep hiding in your house or behind something. Consider this fetish to be this movie's equivalent of what the Eye of Sauron was for Middle Earth.
- Karaba sending her fetishes to inspect the village and make sure none of the women kept some jewel. The clear tension and silent terror in the air are very unnerving, and the moment where the golden-nosed fetish smells the jewel La Femme Forte hid in her hut surely is allarming for an adult and heart-stopping for a kid, especially after all the build-up Karaba received as a menace not to mess with. The way the big-handed fetish throws carelessly away the woman's pottery before finding the necklace she tried to hide shows the complete lack of empathy of these creatures (and, by extension, Karaba). The woman's desperate ear-piercing screams as the fetishes set her house on fire end this chilling sequence. Now both the audience and Kirikou know that Karaba IS a living nightmare indeed.
- Karaba trying to kidnap the kids TWICE in a row. We don't even know what kind of "plans" she had for them. Was she going to turn them in fetishes like she previously did with all the village men, or did she have something else in mind? Something even worse? Later in the movie it's stated she isn't a cannibal as the village people think, okay, but then what were exactly the plans for the children? The hopelessness that skinny lady nearby the river shows when the witch's pirogue speeds on the river (followed by a Dramatic Drop) is another confirmation of Karaba's grip on them all.
- The children bullying and ostracizing Kirikou might be this for some viewers, especially for those who had to endure bullism not so differently than Kirikou. Kids Are Cruel indeed, especially considering just how they are probably imitating the behaviour they saw in the adults around them. It's a very messed-up world...
- Kirikou nearly dying by killing the weird monster-animal that was drinking all the water in the water spring. What makes that scene so scary is the complete lack of active presence of Karaba. It's just a terrible and deadly situation to be in and Kirikou doesn't die just for a true miracle. The cave filling with water squirting out of the monster (which was a rather unnerving presence to begin with, especially for the creepy sucking noise he produced) and Kirikou helplessly trying to gasp for air delivered us some of the most intense shots of the entire movie, complete with the heart-wrenching shot of a presumambly dead Kirikou floating under all the village people's eyes (his mother most of all).
- Kirikou digging his way under the ground to reach the Mountain might be quiet unnerving for some claustrophobic viewers, especially for those terrorized by the idea of being Buried Alive. His whole underground adventure counts as this, especially his encounter with that skunk-like animal.
- Karaba's backstory. Putting aside all its rape allegory, the scene where Kirikou's Grandfather tells his nephew what happened to Karaba before she became a witch, complete with an Art Shift, looks like a child's nightmare captured on screen. The hellish red background (not so different from Karaba's house) and the monstrous black silhouettes of those who were supposed to be people but that are distorted into demonish figures (complete with horns, twisted Slasher Smiles) will be impressed in everyone's memory. As the simple idea of human beings doing something so heinous and cruel and enjoying it isn't enough, it seems.
- KARABA'S SCREAM. Probably the scariest and most blood-curdling scream to ever be heard in an animated movie. You are supposed to know that Karaba's isn't going to enjoy that moment at all, the Grandfather told him (and us) about that. But WOW... No one saw that Jump Scare coming. Her face contorted in a look of absolute pain does a good chunk of the job.
- The village people walking towards Kirikou and Karaba (not a witch anymore) more than willing to lynch the latter and refusing to listen to Kirikou's explication, even after he proved them wrong for the umpteenth time. Once again the movie proves us just how much of a pack of monsters human beings can be. Luckly the Grandfather and all the village men stopped them in time.
