Dreamworks Animation/Tear Jerker

For all the flak Dreamworks Animation gets for not being Disney or Pixar, it can't be denied that when they strive to tug at the heartstrings, they manage it just as effectivly as their rivals can.

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The Prince of Egypt

• After the final plague (death of the firstborn) has wracked Egypt, Moses goes one last time to confront Ramses and tell him to let his people go. Ramses, in mourning after his own son was claimed by the plague, finally says yes; Moses, instead of celebrating, heads back outside, drops his staff, and grieves.
• Two words: "Goodbye, brother..."
• In the prologue, when Jocheved sends baby Moses away in the basket, shedding a Single Tear.
• In "The Plagues," seeing the innocent Egyptian civilians panicked and terrified is worth a few tears...two images that deserve special mention are a pair of siblings cowering in the corner as their family are covered in boils, and a mother attempting to shield her child from the raining fire.

Shrek

• The Twist Ending of Shrek, which this troper had always wanted to see in this sort of fairy tale: "...I'm supposed to be beautiful..." "But you are beautiful."
  • And don't forget the scene after Shrek and Fiona split up, and everything's going as planned, but both are completely miserable. What really pushes it into tearjerker territory is the heartbreaking "Hallelujah" playing in the background.
    • That particular version of "Hallelujah" gets my tear ducts going like no other song ever recorded.
  • This troper still finds the misunderstanding where Shrek overhears Fiona saying, "Who could ever love a beast so hideous and ugly?" painfully hard to watch.
• The climax of Shrek 2, where Shrek and his allies all raid the castle. Mostly, it's just full of the crowner moments for nearly every character but it's the giant Gingerbread Man that gets the tearducts flowing during this scene. His "be good" line was especially tearjerker-worthy...
  • Why'd you say that? I cried as a child when he fell. I kept saying, "Get up buddy..." You've made this unbreakable troper cry now...
• At the end of Shrek Forever After, there's an extended amount of time where it appears that Shrek failed. And, technically speaking, he was dead for a while. This movie being Darker and Edgier than the others, it wasn't unbelievable that they'd do it.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

• The boxcar scene, where Spirit sees phantoms of his herd in the swirling snow, calling him home and helping him regain his will to live. Especially when combined with the song "Sound The Bugle".
• The ending, courtesy of Adams/Zimmer's "I Will Always Return".
• Spirit whinnying to his mother to run away when she sees him captured, the Eagle that Spirit races seeing Spirit captured and calling to him, when Rain is injured and Spirit gives up his chance to run away before the men capture him just to stay by her side...

Madagascar / The Penguins of Madagascar

• The entire opening of Madagascar 2. As a cub, Alex is captured by poachers and his father, Zuba, desperately tries to save him, then the crate Alex is trapped in gets knocked into a river, and he desperately cries for his father.
  • The whole Gloria/Melman subplot is full of this. Melman learns that he has come down with a terminal illness, and becomes too depressed to tell any of his friends. When Melman finally gathers enough courage to tell her how he feels, he finds her on a date with Moto Moto, who only loves Gloria for her large build. He indirectly reveals his feelings to her when he tells Moto Moto to treat Gloria properly, for his sake.
  • Later when the watering hole dries up, King Julien manages to convince the animals of the reserve that a volcanic sacrifice to the water gods is needed to bring it back, and Melman offers himself, and tells Gloria that he's already dying when the other animals carry him off the volcano. The look on her face when she hears this is absolutely heartbreaking.

Gloria: "This is crazy. I had to go halfway around the world to find out the perfect guy for me lived right next door."

• Skipper being eaten alive in Snakehead was particularly hard hitting.

Over the Hedge

• For some, Hammy's quiet and heartbroken "I'm not stupid..." is pretty hard-hitting. Hasn't everyone had moments like that before, thinking that just because they're fun-loving and simple doesn't mean they're stupid.

Kung Fu Panda

• Kung Fu Panda when Po tries to leave, only to be stopped by Shifu who realizes he has to train him. The scene where Po confesses he endured all the abuse Shifu and the Five shoved at him because he is ashamed at being seemingly a fat, useless failure and could not abandon his one chance to become something more gives the film such heart while Shifu struggles to find a way to help the panda.
  • This editor, surprisingly, found himself tearing up a little when Tai Lung confronts Shifu. The snow leopard's first line, "I have come home, Master," is oddly sincere, even regretful. This of course is followed by Shifu's visibly painful reply: "This is no longer your home... and I am no longer your master." But even during the fight itself, there were moments which tugged the heartstrings. The raw pain and anguish in Tai Lung as he cried out how he only wanted to make Shifu proud of him could only be equaled by Shifu's brokenly whispered reply that he was always proud of him. And that moment, that one tiny moment, when after Shifu apologized for having failed him, Tai Lung almost, almost relented and did a Heel Face Turn -- seeing him reject it almost broke my heart. The relationship between these two has to be one of the most deep, complex, and sad that I've seen in a long time, especially in an animated movie.
  • For that matter, Oogway's ascension and the moment, in flashback, when Shifu could not attack Tai Lung because he in turn flashbacked to him as a cub, were also poignant and emotional.
  • Oogway's talk to Po (and later Shifu) underneath the Peach Tree of Wisdom.
  • Similar to Tai Lung, Tigress' backstory could also be considered this. Especially since her past actions made her the jerk she was in the movie.
    • Tigress' backstory is made worse by the reveal in Secrets of the Furious Five that she was raised in an orphanage where she was the only predator, and Shifu was the first person who wasn't afraid of her.

Monsters vs. Aliens

• There's Link with Insectosaurus as he's shot... "Don't you close your eyes on me! Don't you dare!" and staying with his body from night till dawn.

How to Train Your Dragon

• One of the heaviest hitters is when Stoick finds out that Hiccup has actually befriended a dragon (who, by the way, has been locked up at this point) and Hiccup lets slip that dragons can lead one to the dragons' nest. Stoick, who has been looking for it for years, immediately goes out to use Toothless as a sort of compass to lead them there, but Hiccup, who knows that there's a giant dragon that could and would eat his father and the numerous other villagers (and Toothless) tries to stop him... only for Stoick to shove him to the ground. "You've thrown your lot in with them. You're not a Viking...you're not even my son." Cue heartbroken expressions from both Hiccup and his father, and waterworks from the audience.
  • This is hammered in even more just after Stoick tells Hiccup "You're not even my son." As he leaves the room and shouts "Ready the ships!" you can hear his voice wavering with pain. *sniffle*
  • "We finally have something to talk about!" [awkward pause] Produces equally awkward moments if you're watching it with a parent you aren't close to.
  • The explosion at the end and the minute or so where you just don't know if Hiccup or Toothless survived got me.
  • Speaking of the first moment listed for this movie, there's the scene immediately prior to it...Hiccup ends up nearly being killed by a Monstrous Nightmare, but Toothless (having heard him scream from miles away) has managed to pull himself out of his hiding place, something he'd never been able to do alone, charge/fly by himself to the arena and blast a hole in the roof to save Hiccup... And then Stoick, seeing Toothless as a dangerous dragon, starts attacking him. Toothless at first fights back, nearly attacking Stoick, but stops when Hiccup begs him to. He and Hiccup share a quick look--and then Toothless is overpowered by several other Vikings, pinned helplessly to the ground, refusing to do anything because his friend didn't want him to. And the entire time, Hiccup is in the background, unable to do anything himself, begging his father and the villagers to not hurt Toothless, please don't kill him...*sniff*
  • Those few moments when Stoick finds Toothless amongst the rubble, no Hiccup in sight, and says "I did this." Then, Toothless lifts his wing to show Hiccup, who Toothless'd wrapped in his wings to protect from the explosion. The look of utter joy when Stoick realizes Hiccup isn't dead and cries out, "My boy's alive!"...it's just...*sniffle*...I have something in my eye.
• When Hiccup wakes up, initially overjoyed to see that he and Toothless are both alive, then looks down and the smile runs away from his face. Cut to a shot of the floor next to the bed. Hiccup sits up and places a foot on the floor. His only foot.
• Toothless' first scene. The animators perfectly captured the movements of a wounded and terrified animal.

Megamind

• Megamind has been disguising himself as Bernard so he can have a relationship with Roxanne.Then, on one of their dates, she finds out thanks to her touching his disguise watch... the result isn't pretty, and then there's the look of hurt on Megamind's face when she completely rejects him, telling him she would never fall for him.
  • My God, you just can't control yourself when you see his face as he stares at Roxanne. That sad and lost frown like he would be a kicked puppy whimpering in a corner, those huge green eyes that basically scream "I'm sorry" while glinting as he would burst into tears at any second. But what really makes it the depressing moment ever, is this:

Roxanne: Did you think that I would ever be with you?
Megamind: (heartbroken whisper): No.

• Maybe it's just because of her own childhood, but the opening flashback to Megamind's childhood brought a few tears to this troper's eyes.
  • And the ending brings tears of the joyful kind, when after all the shit and rejection he's gone through, Megamind becomes the beloved hero of Metro City. *sniff*.
• The look on Megamind's face when Roxanne hugs him while he's disguised as Bernard. Certainly the first time he's ever been hugged in his life.
• For me, at least, the way Megamind reacts to finding out Metroman is still alive is pretty sad. His face...
• There's the time Minion leaves just before Megamind goes on his doomed date. Then, he goes on his date and you think "Well, at least he's happy now." WRONG! And he goes back to his lair and attempts to find comfort in Minion... who isn't there. Seriously, could they have made that bit any more tearjerking?
• Two moments:
  • First was right after Minion and Megamind have their fight. Megamind walks miserably to a broken mirror and changes into Bernard with a heartbreaking smile on his face.
  • Second was when he was disguised as Metroman. Roxanne holds his hand and he just looks so nervous about changing back, you wanna give the poor blue alien a hug.

Kung Fu Panda 2

• There is really only one tear-jerking moment: Po, after landing in his hometown, now in ruins from Lord Shen's invasion, finally completely remembers why he lost his parents. Filmed from Po's perspective, his mom, pursued by his soldiers, intentionally leaves him in a discarded pile of radish cartons so he would at least be spared and undetected, and it is implied that she sacrifices her own life instead. This is especially moving considering how, previously, Shen tries time and again to convince Po that his parent did not love him, just like he believes his own parents did not as well. The sweeping music, combined with the switch from 2D to 3D animation, and his mom's pained expression from giving up her baby, pulls at the heartstrings even more.
  • To make it more tear-jerking, this realization pulls Po out of his two-Act-long Heroic BSOD, and leads to him returning to bring Shen to justice!
• There's also the death of Master Thundering Rhino.
• "My son is alive" gets me for some reason