This article was inspired by the short film Borrowed Time which was created by two Pixar animators (You can view the film here). Although the animated short resembled the aesthetic nature of any familiar Pixar film, the depth and darkness of the story that was summed up in five minutes was far from pleasing childlike heart's. In five short minutes, the film made me gasp and tear up when it would take a whole feature length film to get me to cry. However, Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney all have a knack of pulling tear jerkers, so onward we go with all the times animated kids movies made you cry.
In no particular order of sadness, the list goes:
1. The Good Dinosaur
I distinctly remember seeing this movie in theaters and breaking down into tears at least twice, if not three times. There were just all these sad little things that added up into making this move a happy sad by the end. If you're looking for a punch to the heart, be sure to watch the Good Dinosaur.
2. The Lion King
I grew up watching The Lion King and have probably seen it over a hundred times and I've got to admit that every single time Mufasa falls to his demise, I can't stop the small tears from rolling down my cheeks.
3. Up
I'm positive the first ten minutes of this movie made your eyes well with tears during Carl and Ellie's life montage. Don't try to deny it. It happens to me still. Every. Time.
4. Big Hero 6
If the beginning of the movie didn't have you crying, I'm sure right at the end you went from sad crying to happy laughing and crying by the outcome. This was another one of those movies I sat through in theaters and walked out with mascara stains down my cheeks.
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2
Before I saw the movie I knew there was going to be some heavy stuff happening, but little did I know how heavy it was ultimately going to be. I was so shaken up by parts of this movie that my mini travel size kleenex ran out and my younger brother made fun of me. It's safe to say I never took him to see another animated movie with me again.
To quickly add more animated heartwrencher's to the list: Home, Kung Fu Panda 2, Toy Story 3, Wall-E, Finding Dory, Monster's Inc.. the list is endless.
Maybe you and I are softies, or maybe Disney, Pixar and Dreamwork's really know how to work the heart strings because most of the time I cried at the fact of losing a loved one-- you think that live action movies with the similar feeling of loss would make you cry too, right? Wrong. Animators have found the perfect execution to break our hearts time and time again.
