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Tear Jerker / Live Action Disney

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Notable Tearjerking moments in Disney live action. WARNING: Spoilers are ahead.

  • The end of Old Yeller.
  • Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.
    • Sassy meowing helplessly as she floats rapidly down river.
    • Shadow falling into the ditch and giving up hope.
    • Them all making it back home in the end.
    • Chance, Sassy, and Shadow's owners driving to the animal shelter to pick up their pets and just missing said pets on the road after they'd managed to escape from the shelter. As if that weren't bad enough, for a brief moment, Shadow had had a feeling that they should go back...
    • The little girl lost in the mountains, crying for her mommy.
    • Tough, anti-human dog Riley's backstory in the sequel: not only was he a Christmas present for a little boy who didn't want him, but the people who would have been his family ended up abandoning him on the side of the road. As a puppy!
    • The part where Shadow goes into the burning apartment building to save the little boy... and after he and the boy emerge safely, Sassy comes out too, having gone in to save the boy's pet kitten. Being a cat lover herself, she gets especially emotional at the boy's cry of "Tiger!" when he takes the kitten back.
  • When Uncle Remus told Johnny about the dog in Song of the South.
  • Anty's sacrifice against a scorpion in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
    • Not to mention Amy's near-drowning before Russ is able to resuscitate her with CPR. After she wakes up, Nick can't hold it in anymore, and he hugs her as tears start pouring down his eyes. Seeing how scared he was at how close his sister was to dying is enough to get anyone misty-eyed.
  • The flashback in TRON: Legacy when Kevin Flynn witnesses the genocide of the ISO population. The fact that he accepts that there's nothing he could do to save them makes it even worse.
    • And then Quorra is revealed to be the last ISO. When Sam asks her about how his father found her, she gives a heartbreaking comparison of herself to Sam's pet dog Marv...
      Quorra: "You could say... I was a rescue."
    • Flynn's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Finding out what really happened to Rinzler, a.k.a. Tron. And this line, which also counts as a Moment of Awesome.
    "I fight for the users!"
  • The first movie delivered a real gut-punch with Ram's death. He was an insurance program, not designed as a badass the way Tron was. He had done nothing wrong aside from still believe in the Users and enjoy helping them, and is the first to befriend and help Flynn. Then, he's dying painfully from his injuries despite Flynn's best efforts, and realizes Flynn is a User...
  • The Suite Life on Deck: "A London Carol". Anyone familiar with the story of A Christmas Carol should have an idea what's coming, but it doesn't make it any less heartbreaking. First is when London sees her younger self — just a little girl, and the child is told by Moseby that her father can't make it for Christmas. The previously cheerful little girl instantly sombers up. Moseby offers to take her to volunteer at the soup kitchen since "that always cheers you up!" and she snaps that she doesn't want to go this year. Then later London sees her future, herself as an old lady, shocked and sad that "Santa skipped me again?" She then calls Bailey, but is rejected, ...and then sits there, whispering "I'm...all alone," before she starts to cry. Even Present-London is near tears at the sight!
  • In The Three Lives of Thomasina, young Mary blames her father for the loss of her cat and refuses to acknowledge his existence. At one point, she even mentions that her father is dead, that she killed him and put him in a box. Her dad does everything he can to get her to even look at him, including getting her a puppy, but nothing works. Later, Mary gets incredibly sick after running out into the rain looking for Thomasina and is still so distraught over the cat that she doesn't respond to any treatment. Her father is watching her die and she still won't even look at him. ...this description doesn't do the movie justice, but it's rather heartbreaking to watch.
    • To make it worse, she's not the only one who blames him. A number of the townspeople disapprove of his actions, too.
    • The old lady who takes her 15-year old dog, her only companion since her husband died, to the vet for treatment. He has to bluntly tell her there's nothing he can do to alleviate his pain and, for his sake, it's much better to put him to sleep. Not only is this sad for dog owners who have had to put theirs down for the same reason, but also really hammers home the fact that the vet is not the miracle worker they expect him to be.
  • Darby O'Gill and the Little People: Katie has just found out that Lord Fitzpatrick is having her and her father relocated from the only home she's ever known and Michael knew the whole time. The scene where she angrily decries him for taking her father's position...
  • From Pete's Dragon (1977), when Pete and Elliot have to say good-bye. Yeah, it's a classic But Now I Must Go situation, but even so. On an intellectual level, Pete knows why Elliot has to leave, but that doesn't make him feel any better. He still manages to put on a brave face, though.
  • When Mr. Browne leaves for London, in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Sure, he technically doesn't leave and actually comes back to save them, but the music, the prolonged romantic tension between him and Miss Price, Carrie saying in mid-tears, "Must you really go?" It's practically asking for someone to bawl.
  • Leslie's death and every scene after that in Bridge to Terabithia is a tear jerker, but especially when Jess starts sobbing in his father's arms asking if she's going to Hell. After he says that would never happen, Jess then says he's going to Hell because he didn't invite her to go on a trip the day she died.
  • Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier has Davy getting the letter saying that his wife Polly had died.

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