Tear Jerker / Balto

Balto

• Balto's isolation and mistreatment, to anyone who has experienced the same thing, is heart-wrenching. During the scene in which he and Jenna briefly have a "date", Steele interrupts, chewing on a stolen link of sausages. While Jenna tries to put him in his place, Steele manages to catch up to them and throw the link over Balto, causing the men investigating the ruckus to blame him. The moments that follow of the men praising the real culprit while insulting Balto, who runs off before Jenna can say a thing, is painful in its unfairness.
• The look on Balto’s face when Rosie’s father shoo’s him away. Her parents are understandably protective of Rosie, it doesn’t make it any less sad how hurt he looks. Then as Balto sadly walks away…Steele comes to flirt with Jenna…
• Steele himself gets one after they lose control of the sled and the handler is knocked out cold. All of the dogs turn to Steele and ask what they should do. The cocky and arrogant mask Steele has been wearing slips away and you see just how helpless and scared he really is.
• The diphtheria epidemic:
  • The carpenter who so happily made Rosie's sled earlier in the film starts making tiny coffins. His expressions make it clear that he is not enjoying this at all. The music doesn't help.
  • After the sled team goes missing, Balto eavesdrops on the town dogs, who are discussing the situation. One of them suggests they should send another team to save "the little ones". One of the older dogs solemnly replies that it's just too dangerous for that; Nome is going to lose their children.
  • The sheer hopelessness of the situation regarding the illness. 18 children or more are sick with a deadly disease and all the town is able to do is watch their kids die. The grim depression that grips everyone is hard to watch.
  • The adults losing hope of the medicine arriving and putting the lights out, one by one. Rosie's mother reacts in fear and shock at the thought that she will lose her little girl. When the dog team left Nome, the sled driver was told by the telegraph office worker, "As long as there's hope for our children, I'll keep this lantern lit," with said lantern being hung outside the office as a signal so the dog team could find the town if they got back at a time all the other lights were out. The lantern is snuffed when the telegraph worker fears the team won't make it in time, implying the residents don't think the dog team will be returning.
    • However, once the town hears Balto's howls and realize the team made it in time, the telegraph worker immediately rushes out of his office and reignites the lantern full blast to symbolize that the town's hope to save Rosie and the other children has been restored. A very happy Tear Jerker moment.
• A brief moment after Balto fell off the cliff and pulls himself out of the snow. He doesn't try to climb back up; he just lies down, mutters Rosie's name, covers his face and cries and you can see he's given up. In those few moments, he thinks he's failed Rosie. Thankfully, the white wolf appears.
• The white wolf scene itself is initially a Tear Jerker. Balto's spent the entire film trying to ignore his wolf half, and when he meets an actual wolf (for possibly the first time since he was a puppy), he turns away.
• At the end, when the children are starting to recover, the townsfolk crowd around Balto, thanking him. When they start reaching towards him, he looks scared for a moment, as if he expects them to hit him.
• One that doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Balto is let in to see Rosie after she's given the antitoxin. Her first words to him? "Balto! I would've been lost without you."
• The ending, where a now adult Rosie looks upon Balto's statue in Central Park, repeating the aforementioned line as she pays her respects to her friend. It's both heartwarming and sad, because, well... Balto is dead, and implicitly so are all the other animal characters, as many decades have passed beyond their natural lifespans.

Balto 2

• The scene where Balto and Jenna's pups all get adopted except for Aleu, and the song only makes matters WORSE.
  • From that same scene, by the time more than half of their puppies have been adopted, Jenna can't avoid to cry for them leaving their side while Balto comforts her.
• Aleu and Balto's goodbye at the end also merits this. While they're assuring they will never forget each other, it's still a father saying goodbye to his daughter while knowing he will never see her again. It gets worse when you realize that Jenna, her mother, Never Got to Say Goodbye.
• This exchange between Luk and Muk, after they tell Balto that Aleu is missing:
  Balto: I was sure she'd come home... she must be at her mother's.
  (After Balto runs off to find Aleu, Luk starts crying)
  Muk: (also tears up) I know. I wish we had a mum too. (both hug and cry)

Balto 3

• Scrappy or not, Stella's freak-out when she realizes Boris could potentially be lost and dead is sad in itself.
• The sled dogs' initial refusal to join Balto in rescuing the pilot leaves him feeling quite depressed with how his fellow canines are acting. Kodi's refusal hits him the hardest, and it's mutual, given how Kodi is visibly saddened and hesitates to respond to his father.

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