Bittersweet Ending/Animated Films

• The ending of Pom Poko. Their attempts at driving off the housing development unsucessful, the surviving Tanuki who can transform do so and join the human world, leaving those who can't to a short life of scavenging. However, the public televised appeal some of Tanuki made to humanity at least kept the situation from becoming much worse. The final scene sees a small group of them singing and dancing joyfully on an empty golf-course, all that remains of their forest home. Even the song that plays over the credits is bittersweet.
• Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka (permanently healed of The Corruption) and San fall in love, but they do not get together because San is unable to forgive other humans. Ashitaka promises to stay close enough to see San on a regular basis. Oh, and Irontown and the forest are both destroyed (though the forest is getting better...).
  • Despite Irontown being destroyed. The inhabitants decide to start anew, this time being closer to nature rather then opposing it.
• Cars: McQueen is beaten by Chick Hicks and fails to win the final race, the Radiator Springs residents redeem themselves, and Strip Weathers is off the track. McQueen, the now-repaired Strip, and his wife move into Radiator Springs for the rest of their lives.
• Spirited Away: It's implied that Chihiro won't remember her adventures in the Spirit world, just like she didn't really remember Kohaku, or already thinks it was All Just a Dream. The English dub either leaves that part out or implies that she has kept the strength she gained over the course of her adventure. (There is a limit to how much bittersweetness Disney will tolerate.)
  • Even in the Japanese version, there's a possibility that her memories could be unlocked given the right stimulus, just as Haku's were when she told him his real name. This looks especially likely when you remember that Haku promised her that he'd look for her, and that the family appear to have lost several days if not weeks by the time they return to the car.
• Sky Blue. Sure, Ecoban falls, but Jay will almost certainly die, and Woody isn't in great shape either. Oh, and they were wrong about Gibraltar.
• Once Upon a Forest: The Furlings manage to make it back in time to save Michelle, some humans clean away the remaining poison, the inhabitants of Dapplewood come back and the Furlings are reunited with their families. However, the plantlife of Dapplewood is still damaged , and some of the animals had been killed by the poisonous gas (including Michelle's parents).
• Genesis of Aquarion: Apollo and Silvia finally resolve their series-long bout of Will They or Won't They?... only for Apollo to then go and sacrifice himself to save the world. At least the promise of Reincarnation Romance gives it a more hopeful spin than other such endings...though it will take around 12000 years for that to happen, apparently.
• Final Fantasy the Spirits Within ends with the world saved, and the Phantoms at peace, but the entire cast save for two characters dead.
  • Also consider the Epileptic Trees regarding the fate of Aki's child, whose life may or may not have been forfeit in order to create the Eighth Spirit.
• Disney:
  • Pinocchio: Pinocchio becomes a real boy, but how about all the kids that became donkeys? They're still donkeys.
    • The film seems to forget them.
  • Make Mine Music: In the final segment Willie the Whale is harpooned, but now he's in heaven, FREE to sing to his heart's content.
  • In The Jungle Book, Mowgli leaves for the man-village, and is now with his people. Baloo is absolutely heartbroken, with Bagheera reassuring him that Mowgli is safer now. In the end, Baloo and Bagheera stroll away into the sunset, singing a reprise of "The Bare Necessities".
  • In The Fox and the Hound (film), Todd and Copper manage to resolve a grievance fierce enough for the hound and his hunter guardian to trespass into a nature preserve to kill Todd. However, the two childhood friends will never be able to see each other again, but at least Todd has Vixey to console him. And to make the ending sadder, they play audio clips of young Tod and Copper over the scene.
    • This is softened a bit by the sequel 'cause, well, he does see them again.
  • Pocahontas: The conflict between the Powhatan tribe and British settlers has died down. Chief Powhatan has accepted his daughter's love for an outsider. The British settlers come to see that Governor Ratcliffe was the only one really in the wrong. But also, John Smith was shot trying to protect Chief Powhatan from Ratcliffe, forcing him to return to England and leave Pocahontas behind. The lovers wave goodbye to each other with the strong possibility they may never see each other again.
    • They eventually do see each other again in the direct-to-video sequel. John Smith is well. But by that point, Pocahontas has fallen IN LOVE with someone else.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo didn't win Esmeralda's heart, but Esmeralda survived and is happy with Phoebus. And, of course, the people of Paris finally accept Quasimodo as one of their own.
  • The Princess and the Frog: Ray is Killed Off for Real, but he is Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, as he's seen appearing as a new star next to his star lover Evangeline. And at least Tiana and Naveen get together.
• 9 ends with The Fabrication Machine finally being destroyed, and 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8's souls being released from the Talisman, so they're finally at peace. But the world is still badly messed up, and the remaining Stitchpunks aren't sure what's left. And the microbe-like creatures in the rain imply that they might've somehow restored life. Probably.
• Toy Story 3: The toys now have a new owner, but they have lost many of their friends to yard sales, donations, and breaking, and will probably never see Andy again
  • Toy Story 4 ends with Woody deciding to stay with Bo Peep...because Bonnie had outgrown him by that point. Everyone else gets to stay with Bonnie though, however.
• The old Rankin Bass christmas special |Jack Frost. It's about the titular magic spirit trying to become human because he fell in love with a girl. But to be human he needs a horse, a home, gold, and a wife. He manages to find all of those in the process of freeing the town from the evil tyrant, but couldn't get the girl to fall in love with him, and she ends up marrying someone else. It ends with him simply returning to the heavens and abandoning becoming a human.
• In The Secret of Kells, the wall did not manage to keep the Vikings out, and there were numerous casualties. Brendan, Pangur, and Brother Aidan managed to escape the carnage and the Book of Kells was finished years later, but during this time Brother Aidan died of old age, and the Abbot believed Brendan was dead for several years. He and Brendan are finally reunited in the last scene of the movie, however, but despite the fact that Aisling may or may not be able to return to her human form, it's quite likely she and Brendan will never see each other again.
  • ...Except that she did turn into her human form when Brenden returned.
• In The Last Unicorn, the last unicorn (Amalthea) finds and frees her fellows, but at a price. As a human, the Lady Amalthea falls in love with Prince Lír. Returned to her immortal form, she can no longer stay with him (or even feel love anymore), so she leaves both her love and her two human friends behind to return to her home in the lilac wood. Even sadder, however, because she has experienced love, aging, and regret—experiences foreign to "pure" unicorns—she is no longer as innocent and aloof as others of her kind, separating her even from her own species. And yet, as sad as these things may be, she thanks Schmendrick for them. It is a good thing to have known love.
• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon: Lu-La the alien puppy is successfully returned to her parents...but going back with them means saying goodbye to Shaun the Sheep and his friends who helped her get back home in the first place. Of course, considering how easily her parents were able to return the farmer back home after he made the mistake of entering their ship to use the restroom, it wouldn't exactly be hard for Lu-La to see her friends again...but it's still bittersweet.