Tear Jerker / Pixar Shorts

• For a few moments in Partly Cloudy, it looks like the long-suffering stork has abandoned the storm cloud and his baby animals. The storm cloud takes this quite badly, first fuming and kicking up lightning storms then crying hysterically. Fortunately, the stork returns a few moments later with football gear that he got from one of the other clouds. Not that it helps him with his next delivery...
• The ending of "Red's Dream." There's a reason John Lasseter called it "Pixar's Blue Period." The moment with the unicycle just sitting in the shop waiting for someone to buy him really sells it.
• The majority of Lava, featuring star-crossed volcanoes. It does have a happy ending, though.
  • When the first Volcano realizes that the second one can't see him and that he may end up dying without being loved, we get this heartbreaking line:
  "He filled the sea with his tears...
  And watched his dreams disappear..."
• In Sanjay's Super Team, from the father's perspective, he tries his best to get his son interested in the family's Hindu traditions, only to see him using the meditations just to get his toy back. The disappointed look on the father's face as he lets his son go back to watching TV is heartbreaking. But then he sees Sanjay drawing the Hindu deities as his new superhero team, leading to a happy ending.
  • Earlier on, when the heroes are trying to take out the monster with the power of serenity, pay close attention to Sanjay's face. When the monster reaches for its weapons, there's a slight trace of recognition, like he knows all too well what it's like to disregard something spiritual for something else you want. Just like how he disregarded meditating with his father earlier on.
• Lou gives us J.J.'s Freudian Excuse: a bully had stolen his favorite plush toy when he was younger. One can only wonder how much time has passed since that toy was taken. Luckily, it turns out Lou was holding onto that toy until he found its owner.
• The scene in Bao in which the mother, during a particularly vicious argument with her dumpling son after he announces his plans to get married, eats him alive. Her reaction after that is nothing short of heartbreaking.
  • Just the process of her dumpling son growing more and more distant as time passes. It's saddening to feel second-hand what it's like for your child to outgrow you.
  • The reunion with the mother and her real son. It's obvious he wanted to live his life independently, but as a result, he just pushed her away and probably did/said something that hurt her emotionally.
    • Add that to the fact neither one says a word. It's just the mother and her son slowly making peace with each other, eating their baos and quietly crying. Then the mother slowly lays her head on his shoulder.
  • In the DVD commentary, it's stated that the whole thing was a metaphor for Empty Nest Syndrome.
• Kitbull has hit many right in the feels with how the two animals are basically homeless and how they long for warmth and love. The pitbull seeks out his owner's affection while the kitten sleeps in his makeshift cardboard box house nearby. The pitbull is then forced into dog fighting by his owner and is later seen being cruelly kicked out into the rain, covered in scratches. The kitten soon comes to realize he misjudged him and helps the pitbull escape his tormentors. Thankfully, after everything they go through, they finally find a kind person who adopts them and gives them a nice home, which is what they both wanted (and deserved).
• Throughout the entirety of Float, the boy's father is trying to keep his child's floating at bay due to the looks of judgement other people would give them both. After the boy frees himself from the weights placed on him and floats around a local playground, the father tries to pull him back home, with the child growing more and more fussy. It ultimately leads to the only line of spoken dialogue in the short: "Why can't you just be normal?!" The boy's silent tears and the look of regret on the father's face are especially gut-wrenching.
  • This story proves to be rather bittersweet if you think about it. Seeing the reactions of kids and parents who are weirded out or scared by the child, even after the story resolves itself, just drives home that not everybody automatically becomes accepting towards children who are 'different'. The only one who seems to accept the kid is his father. Its very sweet but they still had to go through an uphill battle just to get to this point.
• Wind is very bittersweet. The boy and his grandmother manage to build a rocket ship out of scrap found floating around in the sinkhole they live in. But upon realizing that the cockpit can only hold one person, the boy gives up as he does not want to leave his grandmother behind. The grandmother comes up with an alternative plan that involves the boy hauling her up with a tether cord tied to the ship. Upon reaching the top, he immediately realizes that something is off when he pulls on the tether cord. After spending almost the entire day pulling up the cord, he discovers that his grandmother instead tied their lunch basket of potatoes to the end. The boy can only cry as he clutches the basket and hugs it tight.
  • Even more so when you hear the story behind it. The director had made the film in honor of his grandmother, who was forcibly separated from her family during the Korean War and had to raise her children all on her own. Their story matches many other Korean- and Asian-American families, many of whom had to make many sacrifices (hence the grandmother sending the boy off with the potatoes instead of herself) in hopes that their children and grandchildren would not have to lead the life that they did.
• "Twenty Something" has a metaphor about a 21-year-old woman named Gia struggle with 'adulting' through life, despite being a kid at heart (and also a baby and a teenager). When the story climaxes with all three of Gia's personas exposed on the dance floor of the club her sister takes her to, all three sadly slink to the bathroom in humiliation. As the three Gias sulk in the bathroom, baby!Gia starts to cry, which grows poignant as the usually optimistic kid!Gia and eldest teen!Gia follow suit.
  • It also invokes a sobering Accidental Aesop: no matter what stage of life you're at or how old you are, you can't escape the simple fact that you're never too old to cry.
• While Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau is primarily comedic, one of Jean-Michel's final lines suggests that he feels like he's failed his father.
  "This would've never happened to papa."

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