Tear Jerker / Pinocchio

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. Read ahead only at your own risk! You Have Been Warned.

"I should have listened to you, Jiminy..."

• Disney has proved from the very beginning that it's good at getting the viewers to cry and Pinocchio is no exception, especially since none of the villains get punished for their actions.
• Geppetto's scene when he walks the raining streets in search of his puppet-son who never returned home from school is hard to watch. Geppetto wanted this little puppet boy to be real so he could have someone to love and care for, and after one day, he's already lost him.
  Geppetto: [agonizingly] What could have happened to him? Where could he be at this hour? [determinedly] I better go out again and look for him.
  • Geppetto walking through the pouring rain at night, his forlorn cry for his boy drowned out by a crack of thunder. He looks so helpless.
  Geppetto: [desperately]: Pinocchio ! Pinocchio !
  • The fact that he cooked a beautiful feast that was meant to celebrate Pinocchio's first day, and that they weren't supposed to start eating until he got home... Only to not find him for days, if not weeks. So either they had wasted all the food and Geppetto's hard work, or he eventually went back on his word and they ate the gone-cold celebratory meal in sadness and worry.
    • As soon as Geppetto leaves, Figaro tries to sneak a bite out of the fish in front of him, only to be fin wagged by Cleo, who herself is under the same rule. Figaro merely scowls at her, then considers trying it again, glancing longingly at the delicious-looking and smelling trout, going cold, butter melting over it. Instead, he shakes his head and pouts sulkily in submission. His frustration is clearly not at Cleo or Pinocchio's absence, but at the unfairness of the situation.
• When Pinocchio is locked in a cage in Stromboli's caravan and Jiminy fails to pick the lock, they lament their misfortunes, with Pinocchio crying for his father and even Jiminy getting tearful over leaving the little puppet. It's a good thing the Blue Fairy arrived when she did.
  Jiminy: A fine conscience I turned out to be.
  Pinocchio: I should've listened to you, Jiminy.
  Jiminy: No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have gone out on you.
  Pinocchio: [starts crying] Guess I'll never see my father again. [sobs]
  Jiminy: Oh, buck up, son. It could be worse. Be cheerful... [breaks down and cries] LIKE ME!!
  [Pinocchio begins to sob harder, causing a tear to fall on Jiminy's hat]
  Jiminy: Awwww, take it easy, son. [pulls out a handkerchief, and holds it onto Pinocchio's nose] Come on, blow. [Pinocchio obliges] Atta boy. [blows his own nose with the same handkerchief] Oh, well, it stopped raining anyway.
• Also when Jiminy discovers the pen where the Coachman keeps the donkeys that can still talk.
  • Made all the more hauntingly tragic since unlike so many examples here there is no uplifting conclusion to this. This is the last we see of those poor boys as they are likely sent to some horrible fate by the Coachman for the rest of their lives. The endearing designs and voices used for the donkeys doesn't help one bit.
    Alexander: [sobs] I wanna go home to my mama!!!
  • This line from Jiminy when he discovers this atrocity. He's abandoning Pinocchio and his duties as conscience, but when he see what the boys on Pleasure Island end up becoming, he rushes back to save Pinocchio.
    Jiminy: Boys? So that's what...PINOCCHIO!!! [later] I hope I'm not too late!
  • Lampwick's transformation. Especially the part where he begs Pinocchio for help, even telling him to call Jiminy not realizing that Jiminy, having learned of the island's curse, was already on his way but would not be there in time to save him. There's also the fact that Lampwick was nothing but nice to Pinocchio all the time they were on Pleasure Island (even if he was encouraging Pinocchio to be violent and destructive), which makes his transformation even sadder to watch.
  • Bit of Fridge Horror/Fridge Tear Jerker in it when you realize: those boys' parents will never know what happened to their sons. All they will ever know is that one day, their little boy didn't come home...
  • The boys being stripped of their humanity as their clothes are torn off and all they can do is bray helplessly, realizing that they are likely doomed to live the rest of their lives as otherwise ordinary working animals, with no way of turning back or of anyone ever realizing that they had once been human.
  • Lampwick crying for his mom. He may be a jerk, but still... poor kid.
  • The fact that Lampwick's fate is left completely ambiguous after he runs away from the pool hall. One must assume he was condemned to the same fate as the other boys. In the unlikely chance that he managed to escape, imagine how helpless he probably was forced to fend for himself as a donkey, without even Pinocchio to help him.
  • All the boys who can still talk pleading the Coachman to let them go and to change them back (especially Alexander), only for their pleas to fall on deaf ears.
    Alexander: [All the talking donkeys start protesting] Please, please! I don't wanna be a donkey! Let me out of here!
    Coachman: QUIET! You boys have had your fun, NOW PAY FOR IT!
  • In a Deleted Scene Pinocchio tries to take Lampwick with him, only for Lampwick to be caught and tied up, last seen urging Pinocchio to forget about him and save himself.
• After a long night, having been abducted twice and having narrowly escaped being turned into a donkey, Pinocchio and Jiminy finally return to Geppetto's workshop, only to find it deserted. Pinocchio sounds so disappointed when he sees his family gone, with no one waiting for him.
• Although small potatoes compared to the other examples on this page, when Geppetto see's Pinocchio's Donkey ears and tail and asks what happened to him, the brief moment when Pinocchio timidly tries to explain everything very likely resonates with many people's childhood moments when they had to try and tell their parents that they did something bad.
• "Pinocchio... Swim for shore! Swim for shore! Save... yourself..." Even sadder when after the wash up, a semi-conscious Geppetto mutters this line again along with "Don't mind me, son. Save yourself... Pinocchio. " You just feel so bad for him.
  • And then the audience, Geppetto, and the others find out about Pinocchio's whereabouts after the wash up.
  • Jiminy Cricket's reaction to discovering Pinocchio's lifeless body floating is just as heartbreaking. While Geppetto is half-conscious with Figaro showing concern to him, Jiminy is yelling out Pinocchio's name as he's desperately searching and hoping Pinocchio is alright... until the camera cuts to Pinocchio's body laying as the cricket lets out an audible gasp.
    Jiminy: Pinocchio? Oh, Pinocchio! (Beat) Pinochi— (gasps in utter shock)
  • A few children's book adaptations show an illustration of Geppetto regaining his consciousness and sadly carrying Pinocchio's dead body as he heads back to his home to mourn his death. Doubly sad when you remember how earlier in the movie Geppetto was determined to bring Pinocchio back home safely.
• Even decades after the ending became common knowledge, Pinocchio's apparent death scene still contributes handsomely to the well of tears Disney sought to reap from its audiences.
  Geppetto: [crying] My boy... My brave little boy.
  • The music that plays during Pinocchio's 'funeral' is an instrumental Dark Reprise of 'When You Wish Upon A Star'. It also counts as a Leitmotif upon Death.
  • Even Jiminy and Figaro are crying, with Jiminy silently weeping by the candlelight and Figaro shedding a Single Tear as Cleo swims closer to comfort him.
  • While we never get a concrete answer of how long everyone was mourning Pinocchio, we get the feeling it's been a few hours or so with how the candle that Jiminy is weeping by is melting on the ends.
• "When You Wish Upon A Star". So happy that it brings tears.
• This moment is likely to wring Tears of Joy: "Solid gold, too! Oh I think it's swell."