21 Movies That Broke Our Hearts As Kids And As Adults
Nostalgia isn't always a walk down a rosy path full of happy memories and sunshine. If you're a 90s kid or born in the early noughties you'll know how some of these movies have impacted your world.
After years of trauma, we're ready to revisit the past and conduct a list of movies that shook us to our core:
1. The Lion King
The Lion King is loosely inspired by Hamlet, a Shakespeare play. Not even Shakespeare could've imagined the brutality of this stampede scene.
2. Up
Old people's struggles never fail to make us cry.
3. Homeward Bound
The scene when Shadow nearly drowns in a pit after breaking his leg can still bring us to tears. Eventually, he makes it home to Peter - queue more tears.
4. The Witches
Emotionally charged and visually disturbing, The Witches is how every child should be eased into the genre of horror.
5. Pokemon: The First Movie
Remember when Mew Two essentially wipes out every Pokémon, even Pikachu? Yes, we've suppressed that memory too:
6. Bridge To Terabithia
Terabithia deals with grief in the most beautiful of ways. Think A Monster Calls but for children. Both are as equally traumatic.
7. Hook
Growing old never felt like any child's destiny but yet, strangely enough, even after years of being warned, it happened. Hook is about an older Peter Pan who has lost his childhood wonder and curiosity. Anyone remember Rufio's traumatic death?:
8. The Secret of Nimh
A forgotten classic, Nimh was released the same weekend as ET. A single mother, who's also a mouse, searches for medicine to help her dying son. Not only is it a masterpiece, its beautiful tragedy overrode our simple childhood brains.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)
Although the Harry Potter series came into some of our lives much later, children witnessed the traumatic deaths of some incredible characters including the one and only Dobby - "Dobby has been given a sock, Dobby is free" - *tears*:
10. Fly Away Home
A flock of adorable geese trying to find their way home in terrifying conditions? Pass the tissues.
11. Oliver Twist
An orphan child trying to find his way in the world means you checked your privilege for nearly three hours, in kid times this meant promising your parents you'd eat all your food in future, and clean your room.
12. The Fox and the Hound
A movie about two enemies becoming friends. What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Damn you, Disney.
13. Jack
Take Robin Williams trying to be a child in a grown man's body and aging at a rapid pace and you have the recipe for heartbreak:
14. The Land Before Time
When Littlefoot is separated from his Mam it brought back all our separation anxiety. We never lost our Mams in the shop again.
15. Inside Out
With a character called Sadness and an adorable elephant who dies, this kids movie isn't for the faint of heart.
16. Stuart Little
George being separated from Stuart, his adopted mouse brother, is gut-wrenchingly sad:
17. Toy Story 2
Not only is Jessie being left behind by her own one of the saddest moments in cinematic history, it's doubled with Sarah McLachlan's tearjerker of a song 'When She Loved Me':
18. Casper
Casper is like any young adolescent trying to make his way in the world, only he's dead and everyone's afraid of him. Enter Christina Ricci and the beginnings of a heartbreaking romance:
19. The Iron Giant
If you want a movie about self-sacrifice, look no further than this movie about a boy who makes friends with an alien robot. We're warning you, whip out the man-sized tissues for this emotional rollercoaster.
20. All Dogs Go To Heaven
Pair up the ghost of a streetwise dog with an orphan girl and you have the recipe for tears, lots of tears.
21. My Girl
Don't watch this one hungover/ if you're afraid of bees.