The cute moment where Ray bids his relatives goodbye becomes Harsher in Hindsight when you realize this is also the last time they'll ever see him alive.
Tiana's ten-second reprise of "Almost There", when it looks as if the dream she has spent most of her life working toward has been anticlimactically shot down due to the fact she's a black woman in the Deep South before the Civil Rights era, and racism is rampant. It's arguably one of the movie's highlights.
Hell, the scene where she's told that "a woman of your...background" won't get the restaurant, and her reaction to it. She's bluntly told she won't get her dream, despite having worked hard for it, all because of her race.
Dr. Facilier's speech about Tiana's father; how hard he worked, how tired he was, and how he tried to hide this all from Tiana. It's even more tear jerking when you consider that he died during World War I before he could he even accomplish his own dreams.
Ironically it's this scene above all else that convinces Tiana that there's more to her dream than just business success. Her father never lived to see the dream they had been fighting for for so long, a silly little dream which "never got off the back porch", but that he still had the most important thing of all: his family.
Tiana: My daddy never did get what he wanted... But he had what he needed. He had love.
Despite having been prince-obsessed the entire movie, Charlotte instantly puts it on hold when she sees that Naveen and Tiana love each other, and offers the magic kiss with no strings attached so they can be human and happy together. And then it doesn't work, because midnight's passed and she's no longer the Mardi Gras princess. Just that quiet, "I'm so sorry" as she sets Naveen down, knowing there's nothing she can do to help her best friend at all, is crushing.
A heartbroken Tiana snaps at Ray and tells him that Evangeline is "just a star" and that wishes don't really come true, driving the poor bug to tears as Tiana leaves in despair, not before telling him to open his eyes to the truth or else he'll get hurt just like how she is.
But it's something else of a good tear-jerker afterwards, and a minor Heartwarming Moment. Despite being snapped at and told that Evangeline is "just" a star and can't love him back...Ray doesn't believe that. He's in tears, yes, but as Tiana hops off he turns to look up at Evangeline, and says "She don't mean that. She's just speakin' outta broken heart, that's all." Then he sniffs, pulls himself back together, and determinedly adds "C'mon, Evangline. We gotta show chere the truth!" He refuses to let someone tell him his feelings are wrong. And that's really amazing.
There's also a Fridge Tearjerker here, too. After Ray's death, a second star appears beside Evangeline—suggesting that Evangeline may have been a lightning bug in her lifetime, and Ray is still in love with her.
It's strangely touching when Naveen admits that he's had a wonderful, spoiled life where he was waited on hand and foot, and then sadly admits that "I don't know how to do anything." It's like he's realized that he finally wants to be independent but... he doesn't know how because everything was done for him all the time.
Not that he didn't deserve it, but Dr Facilier's fate can be pitiable. Facilier begging for his life, totally engulfed in panic and fear as he's dragged away by his patrons even makes Tiana look sympathetically at the horrifying carving of his screaming face on his grave. It's clear that while she did expect smashing his amulet would thwart his plans, she wasn't expecting that.
Considering that the movie is set in the 20s, a couple of years after Tiana's dad dies in World War I, World War II will occur about nineteen years after its events, in 1939. What then? What will happen to all the characters worked for?
While what Lawrence did, working for Shadow Man, was wrong, anyone who has been in his position can sympathize with his frustrations and need to lash out.
In Friends on the Other Side, Facilier lays everything bare for not only Lawrence but the audience after presenting Naveen with his "fortune"; "On you, little man, I don't wanna waste much time. You've been pushed around all your life. You've been pushed around by your mother and your sister and your brother. And if you was married..." Lawrence's face lights up in a brief Hope Spot before Facilier continues "...you'd be pushed around by your wife." And Naveen laughs.
