My Girl and sad movie moments from our youth
Posted by NauticalPants@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 118 comments
It had been 33 years since I last watched My Girl…until last night. Whew boy!
My 11 year old daughter and I watched it together and bawled our eyes out during the Thomas J. funeral scene. “He can’t see without his glasses!” 😭😭😭
That got me wondering: is that the saddest single scene from any movie from our Xennial childhood / tween years?There are some biggies:
- Thomas J funeral (My Girl)
- Charlotte death (Charlotte’s Web)
- Artax death (Never Ending Story)
- Forrest reading letter to Jenny at her grave (Forrest Gump)
What else, my fellow 40-somethings?
dollheads@reddit
The whole “Somewhere Out There” part of An American Tail
NauticalPants@reddit (OP)
Oof yeah! Poor Fievel. 😢 America turned out to be a lot tougher than he thought. The roads were, in fact, NOT paved with cheese.
VisionrunV1@reddit
And there were cats in America.
mrmadchef@reddit
And there were, in fact, cats in America.
Anyone know if An American Tail is streaming anywhere?
rinky79@reddit
My otherwise lovely parents had a habit of forgetting me and leaving me places (usually die to a miscommunication about who had me/was supposed to pick me up) and to this day I cannot handle anything with the child-separated-from-parents plot line. Even Home Alone bothers me.
countofmoldycrisco@reddit
I love that episode of Community.
MajesticEmergency@reddit
That's my #1. Then "Part of Your World", and "A Whole New World" haha.
Highly honorable mention: When You Believe with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Like how is that not so fuckin' cool.
MajesticEmergency@reddit
That's my #1 Disney song. Then "Part of Your World", and "A Whole New World" haha.
Highly honerable mention: When You Believe with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Like how is that not so fuckin' cool.
tommy0guns@reddit
dmyze@reddit
Remember the reason for prime day. Till all are one.
djsynrgy@reddit
FOREVER TOO SOON
jaymoney1@reddit
AMugOfPeppermintTea@reddit
Probably not as wide of an audience but when Matthew Cuthbert dies in the Anne of Green Gables miniseries
Ok-Concert-6475@reddit
I have not thought about this miniseries in 15 years and now I am totally tearing up.
ButterscotchAware402@reddit
Ugh... my heart 💔
Lost-Wanderer-405@reddit
I love this series.
Bay-Area-Tanners@reddit
Even reading it in the book sets off the waterworks.
OkInspector7470@reddit
This is my top 3 cry. Just the other day we were rewatching the series. And stopped cuz we weren't sure we wanted a 'watch Matthew die' day.
gingerstarbuck08@reddit
This scene… I usually start uncontrollably crying about 10 minutes leading up to it…
OskeyBug@reddit
Harty and the Hendersons when they're trying to set him free and Lithgow punches him in the face ☹️
DrenAss@reddit
I was obsessed with this movie as a kid and it made me so sad every time!!
PuppyJakeKhakiCollar@reddit
Anyone else have to watch Stone Fox at school? I am tearing up right now just thinking about it.
The ant death in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Mufasa's death in Lion King, especially when Simba tries to wake him up. I saw that in a packed theater and it went totally silent during this scene.
DrenAss@reddit
OMG I just commented above about how freaking sad the book Stone Fox is.
Affectionate-Cut4828@reddit
The book and movie "Bridge to Terebithia". Gets me every time.
DrenAss@reddit
Jfc I never read it as a kid, but my friends all loved it. When my son and I started reading chapter books, I was like "Oh we should read this!" MISTAKE.
Never read Stone Fox.
WhatTheCluck802@reddit
Never saw the movie but yes the book makes me lose it. 😭
Affectionate-Cut4828@reddit
Watched the movie the first time in school of all places. I was NOT ready for that.
Chihlidog@reddit
Yes. Fucking gutted me.
rjcpl@reddit
Sad? The bees did us a favor taking out that psycho from The Good Son.
DrenAss@reddit
Omg I'm dying laughing but my eyes are all teary from reading these comments. I look like a psycho myself.
The Good Son was scary af.
TransportationOk657@reddit
They didn't finish him off! Poor Frodo had to do it!
KonaJenn@reddit
I was 15 watching Lion King on the 4th of July and cried for 2 hours after (during fireworks). LOL
arnpjb@reddit
Add Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias to your list.
djsynrgy@reddit
I used to watch Steel Magnolias with my Mom.
Then Mom died young - sometime this year I'll be older than she ever got to be.
Suffice to say it absolutely guts me, every time.
Makes me feel all sorts of ways, that they don't make movies like this anymore.
arnpjb@reddit
So sorry about your mom!
Whatchab@reddit
Secrets in the sauce
Jessperado@reddit
Steel Magnolia's is truly amazing. Fantastic cast and you'll laugh just as hard as you'll cry.
snuffy_smith_@reddit
Where the red fern grows
Old yeller
The Cowboys
Maybe those aren’t from our youth…more childhood.
Youth era saddest moment for me…
8 Seconds
The scene when Kelly and Tuff are in the barn and Tuff admits he has a real shot at the title….
Then the freaking tears and goose bumps when he wins the world and rides an additional 8 seconds and Kelly says “He’s riding for Lane now”….damn made me choke up just writing this out.
MaeONays@reddit
We watched Where the Red Feen Grows in elementary school. Class full of kids bawling or pretending not to cry.
WhatTheCluck802@reddit
My early 20s kid asked for a copy of this book for Xmas and yes I bought it!
MaeONays@reddit
It’s a beautiful story
LazyMathlete@reddit
Made for TV movie.... I think it was called " I know my first name is Steven" or something like that. About a kidnapped kid getting abused and then helping the guy who kidnapped him kidnap another kid....based on a true story
MushroomAdjacent@reddit
NauticalPants@reddit (OP)
Yep! That deserves a spot on the Mount Rushmore of Sad Childhood Movie Moments.
maddhatter783@reddit
Let's not even get into the real life nightmare
Global-Jury8810@reddit
You can’t not man…we all know better now thanks to the internet.
Global-Jury8810@reddit
You talking about Duckie? Voiced by Judith Barsi? Who was also Anne Marie in All Dogs Go To Heaven? Where Burt Reynolds (voice of Charlie) admitted he had broken down crying while recording with the playback because by then her father shot her in bed?
😭💔🕊️
Asleep_Onion@reddit
Easily the 2nd saddest thing that ever happened to dinosaurs
Puffyfugu8@reddit
My girl awwww remember seeing it in the theater
Lost-Wanderer-405@reddit
Totally crushed me. I still listen to the Diana Ross song that plays for the credit and cry my eyes out.
tessathemurdervilles@reddit
Oh man this image made my stomach lurch
AMugOfPeppermintTea@reddit
Maybe sad isn't the write word but I was pretty distressed when I saw the poor shoe get killed in "the dip" when I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the theater
OtterGoodTopic@reddit
I should not have seen this movie as an eight year old, maybe if I was ten or eleven. But I loved it. My Dad said a few weeks ago he wanted to show this movie to my 8 year old nephew. I said "Dad, I don't want my nephew to be scarred for life by Judge Doom and the shoe scene. Do you?". As far as I know dad kept his word.
Global-Jury8810@reddit
Dad was okay with us watching Robocop, Terminator, Robocop vs. Terminator (I think that last one was an arcade game). Dad was okay with Jack watching Clan of the Cave Bear (and I quote from my brother, “bye bye head”)
i had nightmares for weeks, one of which involving Dad pulling my brother’s head off and watching my brother’s head bounce around like a ball and him saying “uh oh” while his head was bouncing around. Of course I never told anyone.
Global-Jury8810@reddit
Yeah that was weird..that was supposed to make me cry but I was traumatized instead.
TransportationOk657@reddit
Scenes from a couple of other movies that weren't sad but definitely distressing were:
A few scenes from Robocop: Murphy getting blown away, the executive who dropped the gun but Ed209 didn't register it and blew him away, and the toxic waste dude.
The escalator scene from Total Recall where Arnold uses the civilian as a human shield getting pelted with bullets.
NauticalPants@reddit (OP)
Yeah, traumatizing!!
Global-Jury8810@reddit
Scenes that made me cry include the obvious Ducky and Anne Marie, also when I got older, Daisy in Girl, Interrupted. I also looked back at the cryfest that was Terms of Endearment, which came out the year a lot of us were born…yeah that’ll do it.
Accio_Diet_Coke@reddit
All dogs go to heaven.
Whatchab@reddit
YOU'RE COMING BACK RIGHT, CHARLIE?!
Global-Jury8810@reddit
😭💔🕊️
schadenfrau@reddit
My dad took me to see it because neither of us really invested in finding out more than “animated movie + dog.” More so shame on him because I was 5 but man…. We both had a 1,000 yard stare coming out of that one. The most silent McDonald’s dinner capped off with “don’t tell your mother.”
Accio_Diet_Coke@reddit
It’s so horrible knowing what happened to the little girl. That makes it the worst of these movies for me.
schadenfrau@reddit
Oh absolutely! That poor little doll baby.
sal101010@reddit
I won't watch My Girl 'cause I'm sad enough anyway! I didn't watch Bambi til I was 26 and felt that I would cope with it (I did!) I've also never finished Dumbo.
I'm still too wary of the Neverending Story too!
Also? The Rescuers was the first movie I didn't automatically cry at the end of. I was 11.
And yes, I was actually born on a Wednesday!
Sugadip@reddit
Where the red fern grows
Ghost
Shawshank redemption
Fox and the hound
dandelion_galah@reddit
It's a TV show, but the end of Dinosaurs.
BugEquivalents@reddit
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the final episode
Puffyfugu8@reddit
Basically it’s the end of dinosaurs, period.
Farahild@reddit
Not sure what his name is in English but the mother dying in the Land Before Time 😭
And Mufasa of course.
_Mitch_Please@reddit
Little Foot
Farahild@reddit
Ah yeah! He’s Platvoet in Dutch (flat foot).
Chihlidog@reddit
Dances With Wolves.
Incredible movie but the end .....fuck me. Two Socks, and then all of them saying goodbye to Costner and we know the tribe is going to get wiped out...
Horrendous.
ButterscotchAware402@reddit
Gab83IMO@reddit
'Little Women' 1994 (Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Bale, Clair Danes, Susan Sarandon...Come on!), 'Titanic' 1997 (1st she hogs the floating wood and then later she threw it in the damn ocean!), 'Saving Private Ryan' 1998 (He died, wtf! I cried like a baby), 'Free Willy' 1993 (The begining was the saddest), 'The Lion King' 1994 (Every time the dad dies...its a cryfest).
autricia@reddit
Earn this....
autricia@reddit
:(
GuiltyStrike1@reddit
The Fox and The Hound. Tod being left in the forest. Jesus Christ. I sobbed my eyes out as a child and again as adult.
Dear-Purpose6129@reddit
I've watched the movie once. Literally cried from the second the mom fox put Todd by the fence post until the end of the movie. I can't bring myself to watch it again.
wheres_the_revolt@reddit
Court dying in The Man in The Moon
aitch79@reddit
‘Baby Mine’ scene from Dumbo 😭
schadenfrau@reddit
I am tearing up just at your mention of it. That song and movie wreck me.
No_Olive_3310@reddit
I have never been stung by a bee and to this day, I’m terrified of them because of this movie 😂
katie_cat_eyes@reddit
The end of Homeward Bound.
But yeah, Thomas Jay… I am looking forward to showing it to my daughter. Pass on the trauma.
Golden_Enby@reddit
I skipped past the part where Shadow says goodbye many times in my youth. I hate seeing unhappy animals.
katie_cat_eyes@reddit
The ending was posted somewhere here around Thanksgiving and there I was crying all over again. I refuse to watch the entire movie again!
Ok_Evening2804@reddit
The Man in the Moon with Reese Witherspoon 😭
youshantnome@reddit
That scene traumatized me
Whatchab@reddit
Deep cut but maybe y’all have seen this? I've always been the only one but it really traumatized me as a kid.
It's called. "Bear." Zero dialog and it was real live bears. The mom died and then the baby had to rough it on its own. Later baby bear trips mushrooms.
This movie was so incredibly sad to me as a kid, yet captivating like I was peeking in on the life of a real orphan bear.
I only saw it once but it's burning into my memory.
Golden_Enby@reddit
Green Mile. All of it. Soul crushing. I honestly can't get through it. It slaughters me.
___God_________@reddit
Turner and Hooch
Golden_Enby@reddit
That physically hurt
ShutYourDumbUglyFace@reddit
I watched it with my kid a few years ago and she was MAD. These young kids don't have the appetite for drama that we had.
Jolly-Context-2697@reddit
A Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore 😭
AppropriateDream2903@reddit
This is the movie that got me the hardest when I was in my cynical teenage years. I hated it but every time it came on tv it had a chokehold on me, and I’d watch it from wherever I caught it to the end, and I’d be ugly crying about how unfair it was every time.
Jolly-Context-2697@reddit
And the soundtrack!
iputmytrustinyou@reddit
Fucking The Fox and the Hound makes me upset just thinking about it.
And Dumbo. Fuck that whole movie and whoever created it. I never cried so hard at how cruel cartoons were being to that cute little baby elephant ripped away from his Momma.
And I am sure this has been mentioned, but fucking Lion King. “Dad? dad! Get up dad! Dad, get up!”
Children’s movies don’t need to be so emotionally harrowing. Life is hard enough.
NauticalPants@reddit (OP)
Oh god!! Yes to every one of those 😢😭
HermioneMarch@reddit
Dead Poets, Swing Kids
instant_ramen_chef@reddit
Littlefoot's mom's death.
OkInspector7470@reddit
I never see this one brought up, Gorrillas In The Mist. I remember standing in front of the mirror inconsolably sobbing for an hour.
Pancake_Sunshine@reddit
i am still upset about My Girl (the movie) vs My Girl (the ads for the movie)
Muted-Menu-428@reddit
All dog go to heaven, I’m still recovering.
alien-1001@reddit
It's still little foot for me.
BritOnTheRocks@reddit
So you decided to pass on the trauma to the next generation? How about literally watching the light going out of Optimus Prime’s eyes?
Turbulent-Mind3120@reddit
Fried Green Tomatoes
kayla622@reddit
All Dogs Go to Heaven when the little girl says goodbye to Charlie.
ProperTwo5644@reddit
Alf Christmas Episode where the girl dies. Hypochondriac after this for the rest of my life
Accomplished_Book427@reddit
My inability to watch any movie with an animal as a central character was spurred by TLBT 😑
uberallez@reddit
Bambie.....
TooTallBrawl1919@reddit
Fried Green Tomatoes, Steel Magnolias and Stepmom
_NoleFan6@reddit
Radio Flyer and The Cure. Both sad af and ironically Joseph Mazzello was in both.
blewdleflewdle@reddit
A Muppet Christmas Carol.
I cry every time Kermit comes back from picking a grave site for Tiny Tim, on the hilltop where he could see the ducks and talks about life being a series of meetings and partings and that he expects they will all remember this first parting in their family for a long time.
I watch it with my kid every year, and it has me every single time.
ButtSluts9@reddit
E.T.
The final words are “Be good”, “Thank you”, and “I’ll be right here”.
MajesticEmergency@reddit
I don't know what's happening but I feel like I've suddenly seen so so so many posts about My Girl lately. I seriously think about this movie anytime a bee gets near me haha.
The Ninja Turtles movie is the most serious un-serious at the same time movie ever I have no idea how that was pulled off. Raphael in the bathtub was sad and weird at the same time.
Technically we were all probably over 18 at the time, but The Notebook seriously made me cry tears down my face. I caught my Uncle watching it crying with tears. I caught my roommate watching it with tears. People I had never seen cry for anything ever before. I don't think there is any movie like that one that I can think of that literally everyone I can think of cried full on tears than that one that I have no idea how it does to people what it does.
NauticalPants@reddit (OP)
Good call on The Notebook.
Yeah, regarding the My Girl recency, my daughter mentioned that a lot of kids at her school have been talking about it. So maybe it’s just “that time” in our Xennial lives: our kids are old enough to see it, they’re watching and talking about it, so we watch it again…and boom! Memories and feels.
MajesticEmergency@reddit
That's so cool! I'm missing out on kids, but my friends who have them, despite how stressed they are at times, I know are having such a good time being parents.
threefeetoffun-@reddit
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When Splinter all but says goodbye to his sons in the fire.