Yahoo Lifestyle 59 Kids' Movies That Are Just Unbearably Sad To Watch As An Adult
Over the past few months, I've shared a few lists of kids' movie scenes that are so sad that they're borderline unwatchable for parents (or any adults, for that matter), courtesy of r/Mommit and the BuzzFeed Community.
I've now compiled them all into one big list to be enjoyed on cozy holiday movie nights... or just with some tissues and comfort snacks. (How did we watch any of these as kids?!) Without further ado, all 59 scenes:
The original lists can be found here, here, and here. Enjoy!
1.The Incredibles (2004)
"We were watching The Incredibles tonight with my 2-year-old and my newborn. I watched that movie sooooo many times as a kid. The scene with the missiles hitting the airplane was intense/scary when I was a kid, but it’s legitimately hard to watch now that I have kids of my own.
Basically, Mr. Incredible is taken prisoner by Syndrome, and Elastigirl just found out he’s been lying to her, so she’s flying out to confront him. The kids snuck onboard the plane without her knowledge. Syndrome sees the plane nearing and sends out some missiles to destroy it — and Mr. Incredible listens helplessly to his wife, begging Syndrome to call off the attack. Elastigirl asks her daughter to put a force field around the plane, but she can’t do it under pressure. Elastigirl finally cries, “There are children aboard!” and Mr. Incredible is totally powerless to stop his entire family from being killed. (Side note: does anyone else feel like kids’ movies used to be more intense??)
At the last possible moment, Elastigirl stretches her whole body like a balloon to shield her kids, and the super-strong fabric of her super suit saves them all. Mr. Incredible, of course, doesn’t know this and only hears confirmation that the missiles hit their target.
Anyways, that entire scene is a cinematic masterpiece, but heartbreaking to watch as a parent! 😭"
2.The Last Unicorn (1982)
"The Last Unicorn!!! IYKYK. 💔💔🦄"
"The Last Unicorn got me bad as a kid and as an adult."
"Molly Grue. 😭"
3.The Rescuers (1977)
"The Rescuers! Even hearing the intro song reduces me to tears."
4.My Girl (1991)
"My Girl. Seeing Macauley Culkin get smoked by bees and Vada work through that loss is so hard. Great movie, and several colleagues of mine (we are funeral directors now) agree it was foundational for us."
—Julie, California
"Holy, how on earth was that considered a kid movie? I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it. 'Where’s his glasses? He needs his glasses.' And it was to get her mood ring. That’s why he died. 😢"
"That one definitely traumatized us. 😭 I watched it the other day, and that scene still destroys me every time."
5.Tarzan (1999)
"Tarzan, the very beginning. Where the parents die, and the leopard tries to eat baby Tarzan.
I watched that movie so many times with my younger brothers. I had no idea how incredibly violent it was until I turned it on for my 4-year-old, then promptly turned it off."
"For me, it's not the violence. It’s the idea of the fight those parents put in. That they tried like hell to save their baby and failed, and he was all alone. The thought of my baby being left just…alone. No one hearing her cries, no one to comfort her, DESTROYS ME. And top that with Phil Collins, and I’m a blubbering mess.
My toddler had the most "WTF" face when I was crying, and she was just excited to see the monkeys, LOL."
"I can’t listen to 'You'll Be in My Heart' without sobbing."
6.Lilo & Stitch (2002)
"Lilo & Stitch — an orphan singing 'Heartbreak Hotel' in the first 15 minutes. I cried the whole movie. My stepdaughter recommended I didn't watch cartoon movies after."
—Kathryn, Virginia
7.The Secret Garden (1993)
"The Secret Garden — the one with Maggie Smith. There's a part where Mary dreams of her mother in the garden, she's gotta be like 3 years old, and then the wind blows, and her mother runs away from her. Little Mary starts to cry and say bye bye. It hurt my feelings as a kid to think of my mom running from me, but as an adult with a 2-year-old, I absolutely cannot fathom it."
8.Bambi (1942)
"Obviously it’s sad when Bambi’s mom dies, but I also now tear up during the scene where she cannot find him in the big crowd. When they first go into the meadow, he’s off looking at the bucks, shots are fired from hunters, and he’s trying to find his mom, and she’s yelling for him. Hits different after you have a son, and you imagine not being able to find him in a mass panic."
9.A Goofy Movie (1995)
"Obscure, but A Goofy Movie. A father and son moment that just hurts my heart."
"That’s a movie that guarantees a few tears for me. Watching it and realizing I did the same thing to my parents just because I was a bratty teenager and understating how sad they must have been now that I’m a parent. Such a great movie!"
10.Despicable Me (2010)
"Despicable Me hits different now that I’m a mom. The scene where Gru is telling Margo to jump to him from the plane and promises not to let her fall...yep, tearing up now just typing this out. Spoiler alert: He did catch her!"
—Lovey, 33, Florida
11.Now and Then (1995)
"Now and Then — when Christina Ricci learns how her mother really died, and then after, they make a pact to be friends forever."
—Anonymous
12.The Parent Trap (1998)
"All of The Parent Trap (Lindsey Lohan version) upsets me after becoming a parent. Who the hell splits up their twins and just pretends the other one doesn’t exist for 11 years?!? Those parents are so incredibly selfish that I just can’t stand to watch it anymore."
"My husband and I have 14-month-old twins, and we watched this a week or so ago. It was the first time we’d seen it since we had the babies and both of us couldn’t stop talking about how messed up it was. I used to love that movie as a kid, but now it just makes me angry and sad."
13.Hook (1991)
"My favorite movie as a kid was Hook, and I watched it so much I memorized it. But it hits differently as an adult. I can't watch it now. I'm a bawling mess from start to finish. I had a hard childhood and the story of Peter Pan just really gets to me."
"Rufio's last line always gets me. I love the movie so much, but that scene WRECKS me."
14.All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
"All Dogs Go to Heaven. Judith Barsi (who played the little girl in the film and Ducky in The Land Before Time) and her mother were killed in a murder-suicide by her alcoholic father. When Burt Reynolds went in to film his final lines, it took over 63 takes. The tears and sadness you hear in his voice in the final scene was genuine."
—Jen, 44, Florida
"The 'I’m sorry' at the end is literally so heartbreaking."
"Not a parent, but I’ll never show the nephews and nieces All Dogs Go to Heaven."
"All Dogs Go to Heaven completely destroyed me as a child."
15.Homeward Bound (1993)
"When the little girl is lost in the forest in Homeward Bound. The way I cried thinking of losing my own kids 😭."
"Yes! Specifically the reaction of the little girl’s parents when they find her. I last saw that movie maybe 7 years ago, but I’m crying now just thinking of that scene while holding my baby."
16.Dumbo (1941)
"My mom always cried during Dumbo, when mom has to rock baby Dumbo through the caged window."
"My dumb ass watched that movie during my maternity leave while I was sitting at home with my brand-new baby. It really caused some ugly crying because we had just come home from a two-week NICU stay where my opportunities to even hold her were very limited. Turned it off, will never watch again."
"I watched it with my 5-year-old, bawled, and then saw my little girl bawling too, saying, "He's just a baby, he needs his mama!" So yeah, we haven't rewatched it yet, and I doubt we will anytime soon!"
17.Matilda (1996)
"I agree with so many, but one that I can't watch anymore is Matilda. As a kid, I thought her throwing away the soup and making pancakes was so cool, but now it just makes me sad. All the neglect and abuse she goes through just breaks me."
18.The Land Before Time (1988)
"The Land Before Time! It was a staple in my life growing up. I put my little one down to watch it together and quickly remembered the mom’s death. And worse, Littlefoot just being miserable in the beginning! I had to skip it until he met his friends! Not that we won’t or don’t talk about death… it’s more thinking that I could die when she’s little, and she’d be in the world without her mom!"
"OMG, yes! When Littlefoot's mom is dying and says, 'I'll be with you, even if you can't see me,' that line of dialogue absolutely breaks me as a mom now."
19.Aladdin (1992)
"Just watched Aladdin with my kid for the first time (I watched it a ton when I was little)… when Aladdin and Abu make it to safety and sit down to enjoy their bread but find the two little kids searching for something to eat… Ugh, my heart shattered."
20.The NeverEnding Story (1984)
"The Neverending Story. That hits hard whether you're a kid or an adult. I mean, c’mon… Artax?!"
—Anonymous
21.The Secret of NIMH (1982)
"The Secret of NIMH. I remember thinking some scenes were scary when I was a kid, but now I understand everything happening on so many more levels. I am also now a parent. The scene near the end, where the kids are in danger and everything the mother goes through, makes me have to hold back tears just thinking about it. It is a great movie, but it has no business being rated G. Someday, I will probably recommend it to my young son, but I’m not sure how long I’ll wait. Not anytime soon, that’s for sure."
—Jessica
22.The Sandlot (1993)
"When Benny invites the new kid to be his friend and stood up to the others when they protested. That hit REALLY different as a parent. What a sweet kid 🥺."
"Just watched The Sandlot, and after Smalls has his first good day playing baseball with new friends, he runs in the house and yells, “Hey, Mom! Guess what?!” And my eyes instantly filled with tears thinking about being the mom on the receiving end of that and how happy she must have been for him 💙."
23.The Little Mermaid (1989)
"When Ariel tells her dad that she is 16 and not a child."
"Ahahahaha definitely 😭 As a kid, 'Heck yes. Go off, queen, you are GROWN!' Now, '😳 sweetiiieee uhhhh…'"
24.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
![A distraught character holds another in their arms, surrounded by a concerned crowd. Text reads: "Let me through. That's my son. That's my boy! [sobs]"](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/sFn2FAHyFLHilfrG.5Hl5A--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTE3MDc-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/224427fced754fa22dd9def3e6b020a3)
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. As the mother of two boys, the scene when Cedric’s father yells, 'That’s my son. That’s my boy,' just kills me."
—Sandra, 65, Gainesville, FL
25.Oliver & Company (1988)
"The beginning of Oliver & Company, when he’s the only one left in the box after all his siblings get adopted and then a rain storm washes him out into the street. It never bothered me much as a kid until I watched it with my younger brother, and he asked me, 'Why doesn’t the kitty just go home?' I lost it and, while sobbing, told him, 'He doesn’t have a home.' I can’t even think about it now without tearing up."
26.Toy Story 2 (1999)
"Toy Story 2 — when Jessie is remembering when she was left in a box by the side of the road. I cry every time I watch that or hear 'When She Loved Me.'"
—Anonymous
27.The Fox and the Hound (1981)
"Can't believe no one mentioned The Fox and the Hound yet. I can't even watch the movie knowing how sad the ending is. 😭"
"And the scene where the widow is about to leave her pet in the woods, and he doesn't suspect anything..."
28.Up (2009)
"When I was younger, I used to love the opening of Up. Carl and Ellie were so cute together! But my dad passed away last year, my mom still feels sad, and I never watched it ever since. I think it would make me cry now."
29.The Rugrats Movie (1998)
"I watched The Rugrats Movie with my kids a while back (incidentally, shortly after my youngest was born), and HOLY COW, the scene where Tommy tries to leave Dil in the woods absolutely gutted me. When I watched it as a kid, I thought it was sad but also clearly ridiculous/unrealistic. But as a mom it broke my heart six ways from Sunday. 😭"
30.Mary Poppins (1964)
"Mary Poppins. The scene where Bert talks to Jane and Michael about their father and why he does the things he does."
31.Old Yeller (1957)
"Old Yeller, that movie scared me. As an adult, I logically get it, but damn, that movie made me cry."
32.Inside Out (2015)
"Inside Out, when they see the young memories Riley has forgotten. Watching it with my 3-year-old, I was sobbing, thinking of all the wonderful times we have had that he won't remember. It never bothered me before having a child."
"When they all started crumbling and realizing it was the end of one phase of childhood made me sob looking at my kids. That visual really put it perfectly of what it feels like to watch them grow up. I am so excited for them and also incredibly sad to watch them replace their core memories with others as they grow. It’s a movie that hits differently as a parent."
33.The Hunger Games (2012)
"I watch the reaping scene from the first Hunger Games movie differently now that I am a mom. I thought about Katniss and Prim's mom and how she must have felt when her daughter's name was called. My son was not even a year old at the time. I sobbed uncontrollably, thinking about the highly unlikely scenario of him being selected as a tribute for the Hunger Games."
34.An American Tail (1986)
"My dad moved to another country very far away for work, and we always bonded through the song 'Somewhere Out There' from An American Tail. We would play it whenever we were really missing each other. Many years later, they played it for the father-daughter dance at my wedding. My dad held it together, but I was a total mess, and by the end of the dance, my mascara ran all over the place."
"Just thinking of that song makes me cry; I can't imagine it at my wedding!!"
35.E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
![Scene from a movie with a child and an alien in a medical setting, featuring dialogue: "I'll be right here" and "[weakly] Stay... Elliott. Stay."](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/PD8JXgNGz66LGjMJXlOMYw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTE3MDc-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/3b3e35e89c25d6d02e4ef2cbb7b404a7)
"E.T. is terrifying and sad. Saw it once when I was a kid, and will never watch it again. Very upsetting movie."
"I think it's worth watching again (or at least finishing it for those who didn't). it does end on a happy note. And I do still cry every time when E.T. is sick, so I get it, and I know it ends well, but I still cry, LOL, but that shows how good of a movie it is to me, that it still has that effect on me. JMO, of course, but I've seen it many, many times and still like it. it ends happily, so I guess it's worth the crying, LOL.I was 12 the first time I saw it, when it came out."
"I still remember being terrified during that scene where E.T. is sick, and the government scientists — or whatever they're supposed to be — are experimenting on him and Elliott. I was probably a preschooler when I saw it, and I've never seen that movie all the way through again!"
36.Finding Nemo (2003)
"My son loves Finding Nemo. He has never seen the beginning scene, though, because I cannot bear to watch it!"
"I got screamed at by my 2-year-old for skipping the beginning when Nemo gets taken, but I was like, "Mama does not want to cry at 7 a.m., please, let's get to the fun parts 😔."
37.The Bear (1988)
"All I am going to say is The Bear."
—Anonymous
38.Babe (1995)
"The beginning of Babe. 🥺😭"
39.Heidi (1937)
"When my daughter was about 5, we rented Heidi, starring Shirley Temple. At the beginning of the movie, Heidi’s dad has a terrible argument with her grandfather, and the grandfather kicks them out during a thunderstorm. A few minutes later, lightning strikes a tree, and it falls on her parents, killing both of them. What became of Heidi? She was sent back to live with her ill-tempered grandfather. This all happened in the first 5–10 minutes of the movie. My daughter was so upset that she became physically ill and threw up. Heidi was sent back to the video store, never to be seen again at our house."
40.The Croods (2013)
"The Croods — the scene when they are trying to get away from the eruption at the end, and they can't get across. The dad decides to throw his family across the gap so they'll survive, but they realize he won't be able to make it across. He's prepared to sacrifice himself for them. The moment between him and Eep (the daughter) especially hits me hard. I bawl every time just thinking about it."
—Jenna
41.Toy Story 3 (2010)
"Toy Story 3, when Andy is getting ready for college, and his mom starts to cry, it reminded me of my oldest son, who was 7 when we saw it together in theaters, and now he's in college too. I was bawling."
42.Rugrats in Paris (2000)
"For me, it's Rugrats in Paris, seeing the babies destroy Paris in Robo-Reptar, trying to get to the church to stop the wedding. I'm just sitting there like, 'They're lucky they don't hurt themselves or someone else doing that.'"
—Kelsey C., 31, Kentucky
43.Watership Down (1978)
"Watership Down upsets me too much now because it’s just so sad."
—Anonymous
44.A Little Princess (1995)
"My sister and I always loved A Little Princess, but watching as an adult had me gagging on my own tears a month ago when I decided to watch out of nostalgia. So much darker than I remembered, but still a great film."
"I remember sneakily reading the book during a summer school class and trying SO hard not to cry when I got to the part where Sara's trying to get her dad to remember her."
"I immediately thought of A Little Princess reading this list. Even as a child, it made me bawl!"
—ST33
45.Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
"Where the Red Fern Grows. I read it to my third-grade class, but I could never finish it without crying, so I would show the movie. It was a little easier that way."
—Anonymous
"It's a really old movie (though there's a more recent remake), but Where the Red Fern Grows. I remember seeing that and Old Yeller in the same year in school. It's a rough double feature."
46.Pinocchio (1940)
"I've said this before... Pinocchio, when the boys are all on Pleasure Island, and the boys turn into jackasses (donkeys). The one boy screaming for his Mama as he turns into a donkey just kills me."
"That scene gave me nightmares as a kid. I literally haven't watched it since that first time, and I will never show it to my kids."
47.Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)
"When the mothers are on the counter and panicked about the potassium medicine the boy needs, he's saved by a fellow kid who remembers bananas have potassium and basically forces bananas into the unconscious boy's mouth. A tough watch."
"I'd completely forgotten about this part!! It’s so stressful now as an adult whereas when I was a kid…didn't even register."
"Wow. I always say, "Bananas have potassium, lots of it!" with this movie in mind, but I haven't seen it in years and forgot how traumatic the situation was."
48.The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when they beat the poor humpback man on some type of circle-round torture device. As a child, I hated watching that, and as an adult, I still can’t stand the fact they allowed kids to watch it."
—Anonymous
49.Coco (2017)
"I watched my grandmother fade away from dementia. To this day, I struggle watching Coco."
"I made the mistake of watching it when my newborn was just weeks old. What got me is that even when the grandma was old, she was still someone’s little girl and would be reunited with her mom and dad waiting for her in the afterlife. I was sobbing."
50.Selena (1997)
"I have a friend who has littles who have never seen the end of Selena, she turns off the movie every time."
"That scene is SO hard to watch. 😭 R.I.P. Selena. 💜"
51.How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
"How to Train Your Dragon. I cry every time when Hiccup wakes up and realizes he’s lost a leg."
—Anonymous
52.Casper (1995)
"Casper…the live-action one from the '90s. Watched that last year when my daughter was about 10 months old. I watched it a bunch as a kid, but oh my god…when Casper is remembering how he died and how his dad was so sad and tried to bring him back…I lost my shit and could not stop crying for the rest of the film. Oof."
53.Balto (1995)
"The movie Balto is a great story (even though it's not historically accurate), but it does have some pretty sad spots in it. One of the most emotionally wrenching scenes is when Balto is wandering through the town and looks into the undertaker's shop, where he is building child-sized coffins. At that point, hope is running low that the medicine will arrive in time, and people fear that some of the town's children probably won't survive. And then there are all the sick kids in the hospital, with their exhausted parents next to them. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending, but those sad scenes really stick in my mind!"
"Oh definitely. When I went to Central Park and saw the statue, I started getting teary-eyed, and my then-boyfriend couldn't understand why. But he was super sweet and just hugged me and invited me to get a cup of hot chocolate (it was winter)."
54.Toy Story 4 (2019)
"I always cry when watching Toy Story 4, when the toys see the little lost girl at the carnival before Gabby Gabby finds her. The terror that the parents feel when they realize their child is missing and knowing it can easily happen to you, as a parent, always tears me up."
55.Jack Frost (1998)
"Jack Frost was already a bit of a tear-jerker. Yes, his dad (Michael Keaton) comes back as a snowman after dying, but man...after losing my dad, the movie is almost too much to bear."
—Tab, 44, Indiana
56.The Lion King (1994)
"Obviously, the bit when Mufasa dies, but on rewatching, I got really teary when Simba follows the monkey into the forest. The monkey shows Simba the lake and tells him to 'look harder' and 'he lives… in you.' 😢"
57.Encanto (2021)
"The last 20 minutes of Encanto. The way they animated Alma's silent scream and desperation as she watched her husband get cut down in front of her while holding her newborn triplets gets me every time. And I had a kid that had me watching it multiple times a day, and I still sobbed each time."
"'I think it’s everyone in town…' I’m done. Every. Time. Those townspeople come over the hill, and I am a gd mess."
"Encanto. My husband won’t even let me watch it anymore."
58.Pete's Dragon (1977)
"Pete’s Dragon. The original. Oh my god."
59.The Good Dinosaur (2015)
"The Good Dinosaur. My daughter is a toddler and wanted to watch only this movie for a solid month. Within the first 10 minutes, the dad dies. Then, Arlo gets separated from his newly widowed mother. Later, we find out that Spot is an orphan, and he and Arlo bond over how much they miss their parents. And near the end, Arlo has to say goodbye to his new best friend so he can go and live with the caveman family who will adopt him. I would cry during at least one of those parts (sometimes multiple) every time I would watch it with my daughter. I finally started to divert her interest to any other movie when she would ask to watch it. It’s honestly depressing. :("
—Anonymous, 34, West Virginia
You doing alright after that? OK, just checking. Even at 59 movies, I know this list is non-exhaustive, so drop whichever movies we missed in the comments or via this anonymous form.
