History TearJerker / TheWildThornberrys

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ezeebzywoau_bjx_9.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:DarkAndTroubledPast indeed.[[note]]Donnie's parents are laying to rest under the sheets of the two canoes.[[/note]].]]

!!The Movie
* The movie itself had a few tear-jerking moments.
** Akela the cheetah was almost completely helpless as she watched one of her cubs get taken away by a poacher. Even when she latched onto the human, it still did nothing to help her son.
** The tone of absolute defeat in Eliza's voice when she reveals to the {{Evil Poacher}}s that she can talk to animals. She knows that she'll lose her powers, but at that point, it was all she could do to save her sister.
** Eliza feeling PartingWordsRegret when her powers are taken away and the fact that the last thing she said to Darwin in his language was basically screaming at him to shut up.
** Boko, the native boy whom Debbie befriended, getting knocked out by Sloan and Debbie's reaction.
** The climax of the movie was pretty sad, considering that Eliza was unable to tell the herd that they were in danger. Had Eliza not remembered how to physically communicate with them, they would have run into the fence and been killed.
** The song "Father and Daughter" by Music/PaulSimon. Especially when it plays when Eliza says goodbye to her family as she's taken away to live in London. You can see it on their faces that the whole family is broken up by this.
** Eliza and Donnie find a trapped rhino at one point who claims that a poacher tried to catch him and take his horn. Eliza flags down some people to help and the authorities show up to bring him to a sanctuary. Sadly, [[TruthInTelevision this kind of thing happens in the wild all the time thanks to poachers, and there are no Elizas there to help.]]

** Eliza and Donnie find a trapped rhino at one point who claims that a poacher tried to catch him and take his horn. Elise flags down some people to help and the authorities show up to bring him to a sanctuary. Sadly, [[TruthInTelevision this kind of thing happens in the wild all the time thanks to poachers, and there are no Elizas there to help.]]

* In the series finale, Marianne and Nigel film the sad sight a mother bear chasing away her cub (due to the cub being old enough strike out on its own) and it causes Marianne to break down in tears as she confesses her fears of her daughters no longer needing her after noticing how close they are now (due to Debbie being Eliza's SecretKeeper). Even when Nigel assures her that it means they will no longer fight, Marianne is still sad about the thought of losing her children as they grow up.

** Eliza and Donnie find a trapped rhino at one point who claims that a poacher tried to catch him and take his horn. Elise flags down some people to help and the authorities show up to bring him to a sanctuary. Sadly, [[TruthInTelevision this kind of thing happens in the wild all the time thanks to poachers, and there are no Eliza's there to help.]]

* The episode with the Galapagos tortoises, "Two's Company", had a part where the tortoises (said to be the last of their kind) were about to mate, but Eliza, thinking that one was hurting the other by biting their neck and not realizing it was normal, broke them up. Once she realizes what was really going on, she was horrified at herself, thinking that she had just wiped out a species. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the tortoises successfully mate with each other near the end of the episode.]] This one's particularly painful in the aftermath of Lonesome George's death and the resulting extinction of the Pinta Island tortoise.

* "Forget Me Not", which has Eliza meeting an old elephant that her father befriended as a young man. Rebecca (the elephant) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC1rhA2FpM dies peacefully]] of natural causes at the end of the episode. After they share a tender moment, Nigel has Eliza look at Rebecca's daughter, who has now become the new patriarch. "Look, Eliza. It appears the torch has been passed."

* ''The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie''. To specify, [[spoiler: when viewers discover that his birth parents were killed by poachers, and near the end where the whole family had gotten too torn up to say anything.]]

** Eliza and Donnie find a trapped rhino at one point who claims that a poacher tried to catch him and take his horn. Elise flags down some people to help and the authorities show up to bring him to a sanctuary. Sadly, [[TruthInTelevision this kind of thing happens in the wild all the time thanks to poachers, and there are no Eliza's there to help.]]

* "Forget Me Not", which has Eliza meeting an old elephant that her father befriended as a young man. Rebecca (the elephant) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC1rhA2FpM dies peacefully]] of natural causes at the end of the episode. After they share a tender moment, Nigel has Eliza look at Rebecca's daughter, who has now become the new patriarch. "Look Eliza. It appears the torch has been passed."

* "Forget Me Not", which has Eliza meeting an old elephant that her father befriended as a young man. Rebecca (the elephant) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC1rhA2FpM dies peacefully]] of natural causes at the end of the episode.

** Eliza and Donnie find a trapped rhino at one point who claims that a poacher tried to catch him and take his horn. Elise flags down some people to help and the authorities show up to bring him to a sanctuary. Sadly, this kind of thing happens in the wild all the time thanks to poachers, and there are no Eliza's there to help.

* ''The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie''. To specify, [[spoiler: when viewers discover that his real parents were killed by poachers, and near the end where the whole family had gotten too torn up to say anything.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:DarkAndTroubledPast indeed.[[note]]Donnie's parents are laying to rest under the sheets of the two boats.[[/note]].]]