Yahoo Lifestyle "It's A Masterpiece, But Heartbreaking To Watch As A Parent": 19 Of The Most Heartbreaking Scenes From Children's Movies That Probably Went Right Over Your Head As A Kid
Life comes at you fast. One day you're playing in the sandbox, the next you're sobbing watching Max from A Goofy Movie tell his dad, "I'm not your little boy anymore!"
It's no secret that just about everything changes when you welcome a child into the world, and as the moms of r/Mommit have discovered, the same goes for watching movies. Member u/curlycattails recently asked other parents in the group: "What is a scene from a kids’ movie that hits different watching it as a parent?"
I don't have children, but I believe the same holds true for watching these movies once you're grown up and have more perspective on life. u/curlycattails's own answer was up first, followed by some that, if you're anything like me, will just tear you apart:
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 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…'"
3.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."
4.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. 😭"
5.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!"
6.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."
7.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."
8.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 💙."
9.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."
10.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!"
11.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."
12.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."
13.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."
14.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."
15.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 😔."
16.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."
17.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."
18.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.' 😢"
19.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."
...Oh, sorry, I was just wiping my tears. So, I must know: which movies tug at your heartstrings watching them as an adult, maybe even with kids of your own, in a way they didn't when you watched them as a kid? Let me know in the comments or with this anonymous Google form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
