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Aside from Nightmare Fuel, Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics is known for its many scenes which can be quite saddening, especially considering its target audience.
- The series' rendition of "Rapunzel" has the aftermath of Rapunzel and the Prince's separation, with the now blinded Prince searching for his lost love non-stop for several years. The poor guy is seen leaning on a walking stick, his injured eyes perpetually closed, calling out to Rapunzel in despair... which makes their reunion, the Prince being healed by Rapunzel's Swiss-Army Tears, his meeting his and Rapunzel's son where he immediately acknowledges the kid as such and the three's return to the Prince's kingdom among the cheers of the crowds as sweet as possible.
- Brother and Sister is made of this from the start to the end, including: Rose/Sister trying to protect Rudolph/Brother from their Wicked Stepmother by shielding him from the whippings, Rose hugging Rudolf when he's transformed into a stag, Rose's kidnapping by the Wicked Stepmother, Rose using what's all but stated to be Astral Projection (somehow) to breastfeed her child, the King's Anguished Declaration of Love to Rose's soul...
- About that first part, there's something heartbreaking about the implications that the cruel stepmother starves her children and whips them as punishment for taking food they need. And when the Sister tries to appeal to her for mercy by bringing up the memory of their kindly late father, her words are shot down when the Stepmother sneers "Kindness is for the weak!" and proceeds to whip both of the poor, helpless children.
- "The Coat of Many Colors" is about a princess whose father went mad after his wife died and attemped to marry his daughter due to the Strong Family Resemblance. Aleia seemed to be a Daddy's Girl up until her dad went nuts, and she's traumatized by the events to the point where she is constantly reminded of it. Especially to the point it gets in the way of her love life with the prince, because every time the prince expresses his love for her, it reminds her of her father's advances.
- The scene in "Beauty and the Beast" where Beast looks at himself in a water pond, then lets out a strangled sob and throws a stone at the refection of his horrible face before leaving in despair. Maria watches over him from a window and is quite depressed at the sight. From the same story, there's the death of Maria's father, something that doesn't happen in the original fairy tale.
- It's hard to point out at a specific sad moment in "The Six Swans" since there are so many... but Elise and her brothers' fall from grace, Elise panicking to a near Heroic BSoD when the Wicked Stepmother first appears in her castle and then corners and threatens both her and her newborn child, the reveal that her stepmother killed her father, her horror when her baby son disappears and her near execution via being burned at the stake for an infanticide she never commited are among the biggest ones. Before she and the Swan Princes earn their happy endings anyway.
- "Godfather Death" ends with the protagonist giving up his life for the princess. After tricking Death once more, Death kills the protagonist in retaliation, explaining that everyone is equal in death, but as the protagonist is dying, he retorts that he knew the risk and did it anyway, and said that Death couldn't understand why he would do that, then proceeds to die. Godfather Death's remorseful expression seals it.
- In "The Magic Heart" Lisbeth and the Old Witch are transformed into donkeys by Frederick as revenge for casting him out in the desert. He then sells them to a farmer who agrees to work the Witch to her full strength even though she's physically frail, and then breaks his promise not to work Lisbeth when the Witch ends up dying from being worked too hard. Evil as she was, working a frail old woman in her state to the point of death is a cruel fate even for her, and even Frederick wonders if he was too hard on her before learning of her fate. When he returns to the farm, he is furious to find the farmer whipping Lisbeth nonstop until she collapses in pain, only whipping her harder as she squeals helplessly. Luckily Frederick immediately intervenes and realizes Lisbeth has suffered enough, eventually restoring her to human form.
- Before all this, there's something sobering about Frederick (if ever so slightly) losing his faith in Lisbeth after she tricks him into giving his magic cape and stranding himself in the desert. And no less to a request to help her escape her "abusive" mother. The worst part is, even Lizbeth doesn't enjoy that she had to betray someone she was growing so fond of, just to please her mother.
- Lisbeth's backstory in the English dub is pretty sad too, as she was a child when the Witch kidnapped her from her real home and she had been made to do the Witch's bidding her entire life while under the influence of her dark magic. She clearly regrets all of her actions and pleads for Frederick's forgiveness once she is returned to normal. In the original Japanese, however, she actually appears to be the witch's daughter.
- Cinderella is locked up in a room after her stepmother caught her. The stepmother had recognized that Cinderella was the one who danced with the prince. After a few seconds, the stepmother gets a woodcutter to chop the tree, that gave her dress, down. Cinderella, sobbing, protests and begs the woodcutter not to cut the tree down. It’s hard not to feel sad to see something Cinderella loves destroyed. Even worse is the fact that the tree could talk – it's not just a tree being destroyed, but a character being Killed Off for Real!
- This is somewhat downplayed in the original Japanese, where the birds assure Cinderella that the tree will grow back.
- "The Man of Iron" has a moment where our young prince comes to the sobering conclusion that his royal upbringings has done his a great disservice: he doesn't know how to do anything for himself, to the point where if he does try, it's with automatic failure. Anyone who's ever felt they weren't good at much can relate to our protagonist.
- "The Spirit in the Bottle" having a pretty awful ending when you bear in mind our focal character wasn't always such a scoundrel. He began his story as a promising young boy who promised his woodsman father he would work hard and use his education to better himself so he could retire. For all his corruption from the demon in the bottle, you can't help but feel sorry as all his hopes of helping his father live a long life all slip away when he falls ill.
- "Bear Skin" as both the protagonist and his love interest suffering. On his side, he's had to endure seven years as a stinking vagabond and outsider who can only procure shelter on the occasion he can convince them he can indeed pay for lodging. Meanwhile, from the moment they were engaged, Christine seemingly has it well. But her sisters make it hard enough by not only mocking her love for her bear-skin-wearing beloved, but also breaking her heart with the possibility he's dead.
- Towards the ending of "The Water of Life", the princess comes all the way to see Joseph to offer her hand in marriage for saving her life. But unfortunately, she has come too late, as she learns from his distraught father that his deceptive elder son Franz tricked him into killing Joseph on the grounds of mistakenly believing he's the treacherous son who wants his throne. While her arriving with contradictory evidence Joseph brought the water of life does oust Franz as a fraud, it's cold comfort for her when the King sobs how his had Joseph assassinated, causing the distraught princess to faint at hearing her hero is apparently dead. It breaks her heart so badly that it physically weakens her on the way home. Thankfully, she learns that Joseph faked his death and reunites with him.
- The ending of "Bluebeard". Although the titular antagonist nearly killed our female protagonist Josephine, it's sobering that in the process of defeating him, his grand house and all his priceless artifacts go up in flames, like Josephine's hopes of happily marrying a prince.
- The Japanese dub is even sadder, as opposed to the English dub where the narrator exposits that Josephine at least came out of the experience wiser, with an understanding about humility and marital trust. Here? Nothing. No narration, no dialogue from anyone, just Josephine and her brothers standing in the rain as they solemnly watch Bluebeard's castle burn to the ground. And all Josephine can do is quietly clasp her hands in reverence, as though either praying for the souls of Bluebeard's previous wives. And there's no confirmation she didn't come out of the experience with trust issues.
- There's also Josephine's tone when she finds the corpses of her husband's past brides and wonders "Did they marry him too?" It's one part scared, but it's also one part distraught, almost as though she's wondering if she's just another in a long line of unworthy brides he tossed aside.
