Heartwarming Scenes in Cartoons

Talk about the scenes in cartoons that you found sweet or lovely, and what it was about them that made you like them.

The sweetest scene I've seen in pretty much anything is the chestnut pep talk in the Goof Troop episode, "O, R-V, I N-V U." PJ is having a rough time. Pete has decided that Max is the son he wished he had, gushing about how smart he is. And Max is too busy spending time with Pete to notice PJ. PJ is lonely and feels inferior, and when he does express displeasure with Max, Max shows him no sympathy. Enter Goofy, the only one to show concern for PJ's feelings. He sits down beside him and tells him, by comparing him to a chestnut, that he is a lot more valuable than he thinks he is.

This is sweet for a few reasons:

• Goofy has not only gone out of his way to comfort a child in another family, but has shown him more genuine and unconditional affection in a single scene than his real father has in the entire series.
• PJ is receptive towards Goofy's affection, and is smiling at the end of the pep talk, indicating it worked at cheering him up.
• PJ, while initially dismissive of the chestnut, picks up as many as he can find as soon as the talk is over, which indicates that he took Goofy's words to heart.

Disney used a very similar scene six years later in one of their canon movies. I'm talking of course about the cherry blossom pep talk in Mulan, which solidifies the strong bond between her and her father (and makes it obvious why she would want to go to war to protect him). Fa Zhou sees that Mulan is sad after failing her test with the matchmaker, and offers her consolation by, comparing her to a cherry blossom, telling her she is just a late bloomer, but that when she is ready she will be the most beautiful of all.

In general I find personalized pep talks very heartwarming because the person giving them obviously cares about the specific person they are talking to. In impersonal pep talks, it's far too easy for the people who need them the most to think to themselves, "Yeah, but that doesn't apply to me."

edited 9th Dec '13 10:47:46 AM by PPPSSC

This scene in particular comes to mind:

In fact I tend to find Jerkass Realizations as a whole very powerful and cathartic moments. Remorse is a very powerful emotion, it's basically what can make you forgive and sympathize with a character whose been a complete douche the majority of the story. It's especially effective in cases like this where the character realizes the target of their callousness actually is devoted and forgiving towards them regardless.

The ending to "Stimpy's Fan Club" in The Ren And Stimpy Show is similar. Ren reads through his one fan's letter, gloating and rubbing it into Stimpy's face in an insane fashion, before realizing he was the one who wrote it. Stimpy, not fazed the slightest, just looks at him sweetly and confirms every adoring thing he wrote about him is true. No wonder by this point Ren feels like a total rat.

edited 9th Dec '13 12:34:34 PM by Psi001

One cartoon that did have quite a few heartwarming moments, in my opinion, was Cat Dog. Regardless of what you can say about the show, in my opinion, it was one of the better shows that featured a sibling relationship.

Many of the heartwarming moments I liked were when Cat stands up for Dog, showing that even though his brother drags him around and sometimes gets him in trouble, he still cares for him.

But there is one that I thought was particularly heartwarming... In "Full Moon Fever," Dog turns into a wolf like creature during the full moon. Cat decides to let Dog get it out of his system, and he ends up joining the Greasers. He passes their initiation test, with Cat getting comically injured all the way, and they make him a member and give him a tail as a reward (placed firmly on Cat's head).

In the ending scene, Dog looks at Cat, sees what happened to him... And then turns back into his normal self, showing that he cares about his brother enough to not want him to suffer that badly. I actually tore up a little here.