As some of you are well aware, I did a marathon a couple of months ago that contained reviewing all 51 Disney theatrical animated films. And there are a couple of lists that I've been meaning to do for a while. So I'm going to try to have at least one of them done right now with Disney's saddest moments. Now we all know what's truly the saddest moment Disney has done: the death of Bambi's mom.
Because...you know. It's his freaking mother! She was protecting him and raising him the way a mother should and some hunter kills her! I mean that's why Man is #20 in AFI's list of villains.
But there's plenty of other sad moments in Disney that have yet to be mentioned. Although to be honest, I actually close to never get sad when it comes to a Disney movie since it's no surprise that it all works out. So for me, none of these moments are exactly how I feel when it comes to stuff like the ending of The Color Purple or Toy Story 3, or when certain characters died in LOST. So my opinion is biased as I do this. But that doesn't mean there are scenes that I consider to be rather sad or just plain depressing at some points when I think about that particular concept that I think is worth mentioning. Most of these everyone knows, but there's a couple that people should know or ones that are at least a little sad to me personally. So I'm announcing what are my top 10 saddest Disney moments.
10) The end of Pocahontas
Now I know there's a lot of people who will disagree with this one, but that's why it's at the very bottom. What gave Pocahontas bad reviews was mostly considering how it's historically inaccurate, especially with the relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith. But as a kid, I liked the romance between them and I still do even though it's not even close to what historically happened. But with that comes the fact that they don't stay together at the end because Radcliffe shot Smith so he has to go back to England to be healed. And it ends that way so you're left with them being separated. What really helps make this sad aside from that is the music. The music to me is really powerful even though it kind of is set to be happy ish despite what is happening. You have the music building up when Pocahontas rushes to that cliff so she can see the ship from a distance, then we get the chorus 'ah'ing Colors of the Wind as Pocahontas and John Smith say good bye. I'm sure very few people relate to that, but to be this was depressing enough to at least be at the very bottom of the list.
9) Someone temporarily dies
Now sure, sometimes main characters actually die such as Bambi's mom and a couple other cases that I will get to as the list goes on. But just because there are characters that only temporarily die, doesn't mean we can't still be sad that they're dead even though we may very well know that they'll come to life in the end. The most known cases seem to mostly be the deaths of Snow White and The Beast. Baloo's death now that I think about it doesn't really count since he probably was just unconscious, but people probably did become sad the first time they saw this movie believing he was dead.
Now most of these I close to never felt sad about, but I'll admit that went I went to see Tangled in theaters, even though I knew full well I was watching a Disney movie, I didn't feel completely sure that Eugene's death was temporal. Therefore I was depressed on the possibility that he actually might be dead for good. So even though it goes without saying that these moments don't really last long, they were done well enough that some of us have become at least a little sad for these death however short they may be.
8) The ending of Pecos Bill a.k.a. the end of Melody Time
Now I'm very sure there's hardly as single one of you who have even heard of this scene or you maybe haven't even heard of let alone seen this movie. But considering what basically happens, it's at least a little sad. Pecos Bill is about a man who is raised by wolves and grows out to pretty much become one of the best cowboys in the west along with his horse who is also his best friend, Widowmaker. Eventually he falls in love with this cowgirl named Sue who agrees to marry him on the condition that she rides Widowmaker to the wedding. But Widowmaker is jealous so he bounces Sue off of him, and she lands on her bustle and begins to bounce higher and higher until she ends up on the moon and stays there and dies. So it's sad because that means we have a couple that actually doesn't live happily ever after due to either one of them dying. I find that sad not just because of that, but also because that means we actually have at least one Disney movie that actually doesn't fricking END at least a little happy!!!!!!
True, Pocahontas didn't end happy per say, but while I find it sad, it
is bitter sweet at the same time. I mean even though they're separated,
their love is still there, there's the whole "I will always be with you"
stuff, and above all, NEITHER OF THEM DIED!!!!! But there's another reason why it's pretty low on this list besides the fact that very few of us have heard of it. While it is depressing, it's something in my point of view that we should be a little more pissed about then depressed. I mean an actual Disney animated film that doesn't end HAPPY!?!?!?! What the Frick!?!?!?! I mean yes we do have sad scenes aside form this. I mean that's mostly what this list is focused on. But it's outrageous that they actually give us a sad ending, ESPECIALLY since this is based off of something that doesn't have a happy ending. When it comes to the actual tale of Pecos Bill, there isn't a single version of it that ends happy. I mean there's this ending, of coarse, but there's also an ending where Bill rescues Sue but she ends the relationship while she's still traumatized from the experience. And there's even one where even when she reaches the moon she starts bouncing off there too, so Bill shoots her to put her out of her misery. SERIOUSLY!!! After all the happier versions they have given us throughout the years, mostly on stories where everyone (or close to everyone) dies such as Fox and the Hound, Hercules, Hunchback of Notre Dame, heck, even The Lion King trilogy which is based on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead which are all sad stories, it turns out that one of their earlier films has a story where they actually USE THE FREAKING SAD ENDING!!!! But anyway, as pissed as you may be, that doesn't make it less sad that we not only have a sad ending, but that we as Disney fans are faced with the fact that not all of our movies end as Disney happy as they usually are.
7) Beginning of The Great Mouse Detective
This isn't one of the moments that really make me sad, but I can certainly tell how it would be for quite a few people. This starts with this mouse toymaker named Hiram who is celebrating his young daughter Olivia's birthday. But then a bat named Fidget kidnaps Hiram leaving Olivia all alone. While this is not the saddest thing I've seen, I can find it depressing over how Olivia is all alone. Especially when she's calling out to her father afterwords and there's no one else but her and the fog as the camera slowly zooms out. And I do think it's stupid that this is also one of those Disney moments where it gets sad and then completely happy. Because as soon as this ends, they show the title of the movie with the theme music that is like, really happy. It generally just bursts in right in the middle of us feeling sad that Olivia's all alone. But even then, it still gives us a fairly sad moment because her birthday is ruined due to her father being kidnapped and ending up all alone.
6) Todd getting dumped
Now as I grew up, I only saw Fox and the Hound a couple of times since my family never owned it. But when I saw this again for my marathon, I have to admit that while watching this scene didn't make me emotional, it still was sad to watch. In this part of the movie, Widow Tweed who has raised Todd for most of his life after his mother died. But after things get a little more rough with Slade wanting to kill him and all that, she sends him out into the wild. And as she is doing this, you have this sad song playing and you see how she's really depressed about all of this. I mean need I say more? She's pretty much been a mother to him and now she's put him in the wild and is never going to see him again. so it goes without saying that this is a rather sad moment.
5) The Pound from Lady and the Tramp
This is easily the case if you really love dogs or animals all around. Why? BECAUSE IT'S THE FREAKING POUND!!!! This is a place where dogs without owners are imprisoned and are likely going to die!!!! And here we have these group of dogs doing a barber shop quartet that's mostly them just howling in a really sad way, and while that's happening, we are watching all these really sad dogs that are so adorable that you really want to do something to keep them from getting destroyed. I mean just look at them!
You can't tell me that that just makes you want to do something about these dogs. This is just a sad scene all around and...now I really want to pet my own dogs...SCOUTIE BEAR!!! SAIDERS!!!!
4) Some of the first half of The Rescuers
This is another one that I only saw a couple of times as I grew up and didn't realize how sad it was until recently. I last saw it, I realized how dark and even depressing this movie can be. I mean yes you have all the animal characters that are fun, and you have a happy ending, but there's a good portion of the first half of this movie where it's just downright depressing. I mean there's the beginning where Penny drops the message in a bottle into the river to ask someone for her help, and as we see pictures of the bottle sailing away we have the song "who will rescue me?" which is dramatic in a really depressing way, because that's giving us the all around gist that this girl needs to be rescued from this place. Now the concept of what's happening in itself is pretty sad and dark. I mean Penny was kidnapped from the orphanage, is taken hostage in this dark and depressing swamp, and is forced by the evil Medusa and her dimwitted sidekick Snoops to go down a really dark cave just to find this diamond called the Devil's Eye. I mean I knew that was bad deal going on with her before, but when I watched it just months ago, I realize how this is really fricking sad. I mean all of that is happening to a little girl! I mean how old is she? 7? 8? I'm going with 6 at the youngest and 8 at the oldest. I mean I can only imagine what kind of hell that would be for me at that age. And this is what makes Medusa really evil. I mean to top off the fact that she's doing to this to a sweet, innocent, little girl, she just likes to crush her dreams. Cause when Penny asks if Medusa will bring her back to the orphanage so she could be adopted by someone after she find's the Devil's Eye, Medusa just says " Adopted? What makes you think anyone would want a homely little girl like you?" AAAHHH!!! YOU EVIL UGLY BI- *restrains himself from saying it* *takes a big sigh* Ugh, it's times like this where I wish I can come up with a swear of my own that while is not as foul to say is just as effective. But anyway, a movie that contains it being about an innocent little girl having all of this happening to her, The Rescuers gives us some really sad moments that can really get you.
3) Mufasa's Death
Yeah this is a well known scene. Where Simba's father, Mufasa dies. I mean it's depressing because they killed or a main character, but what makes this worse than a lot of the good guy deaths is that it's happening to someone's parent, and just like Bambi, that someone is just a KID!!!! So this roughly falls in line similar to what happened to Penny but worse. Because she doesn't have parents that she could really morn for, but SIMBA CAN!!!! Now there's another reason that's particularly sad - and I want to point out that I didn't think about this myself, but I saw it someone's own list and had to really agree with them - part of where it's sad for Simba is because he thinks it's his fault. That because of that roar he was working on, there was the stampede, Scar, Zazu and Mufasa come to rescue him, and that ultimately results in getting Mufasa killed. So Simba thinks that he accidentally killed his own father. And how he reacts to it is emotional and the quite music works really well with what is happening, so it goes without saying that this is a really sad moment.
2) Baby Mine
This being mentioned as a REALLY sad moment is when I finally came to realize that Disney has quite a few of them. (again, never thought about all that when I was growing up) Because when Dumbo was brought up somehow during a conversation with a friend of mine from church a few months ago, she mentioned how she didn't like it too much because of how this particular scene makes her cry every single time she watches it. And while I love the movie to death (mostly just because of Casey Jr.), who could blame her? I mean it's bad enough that because of that incident with those kids that were making fun of Dumbo's ears, Mrs. Jumbo gets locked up and branded a mad elephant, so Dumbo is left all alone without his mother and his only friend is Timothy.
(and if you never knew that's the mouse's name, just look at this picture above from where he signed that contract at the very end. You'll see his full name is Timothy Q. Mouse)
Anyway, all that has happened to Dumbo, and he finally gets a chance to visit his mother. The rest is just moving. The song itself is a really touching lullaby, what probably makes it more sad is how while this is happening, we are getting these clips of all the other circus animals with the mothers sleeping with their kids, which makes it just as sad cause it just makes you think about Dumbo and his mother with everything that's happening to them, and heck, maybe you'll think about your own mother or your own children. So while it doesn't make me cry, this is an emotional scene to watch about innocent Dumbo who is kept away from his mother, giving us a scene of them making the most of their time from this brief, sad visit.
1) The death of Willie the Whale in Make Mine Music
You probably have never seen the movie, never heard of the character, and you probably will disagree with this choice as number 1, but this is a pretty sad moment. Willie is a friendly sperm whale that is capable of singing three different opera voices. His life long dream is to become a famous opera singer. The problem is that there's this professor named Tetti-Tatti who believes that he can't sing, but has three opera singers inside his belly. So he sails to find Willie and kill him in order to save the so-called opera singers that he supposedly ate. Now for most the time when he finally finds him, he gets easily stopped my the three sailors by his side who believe that Willie's singing talent is real and from there, they easily love to watch him sing. From here we are lead to believe that he eventually does succeed to sing in the opera and become famous, but suddenly Tetti-Tatti shoots him with the harpoon gun and he dies. Now to add to the drama that's happening in this scene, there's all of the sudden a storm, and the music is more suspenseful, an we see Willie still swimming and yanking the harpoon gun off the ship, and eventually it calms down and we see Willie's friend Whitey the seagull comes to mourn his friend's death.
Now again, keep in mind that I'm not the most emotional guy, so it's biased on how I feel about these scenes, but I think that even as a kid, even without being emotional, I thought this was really sad. I mean Willie's an innocent, friendly whale, and all he wants is to become famous through his musical talent. And that dream gets crushed by this jerk who doesn't believe that his talent is real. True he goes to heaven where he has even more voices and becomes a star there, which makes it good that the ending is at least bitter sweet, but still...while it worked out for the better, his dead is still sad. This scene is no match for the death of Bambi's mom, but I think it's sad enough to be at least one of the biggest, saddest scene in Disney.
And those are my top saddest Disney moments outside of Bambi's mom. I hope you enjoyed what I thought about all the sad moments the happiest place on earth gave us. I don't know if I'll do another Disney list, but until then, see you on my next movie review.
