It's a universally accepted truth: Pixar movies make you cry. Those masters of animation in Emeryville have such command of their craft that they can elicit tears with a twitch of a lip here, a raised eyebrow there; not to mention the exquisite musical score typically playing in the background. Randy Newman, Thomas Newman – the Newmans know what they're doing.
Pixar has been making films for over 20 years now, and while it's faltered a couple of times along the way (Cars 2 remains a blemish on its record), when you pop any Pixar movie on, it's a safe bet you'll be spiking Kleenex shares. But which of these tear-rending moments are the saddest?
As you'd probably imagine, many of the saddest Pixar moments take place during the climax or ending of their respective films. Therefore, essentially every entry in our list is a spoiler . You've been warned!
Updated June 23, 2024 by Bobby Mills: Inside Out 2 has hit theaters and is absolutely eating the box office alive. It seems audiences can't get enough of seeing what goes on in Riley's head – so in commemoration of this grand comeback by Pixar, we figured we'd polish up our list of their most eye-misting moments. You may even spot some new entries through the tears!
14 Spot Finds His Family – The Good Dinosaur
Sometimes Your Own Kind Is What's Best
The Good Dinosaur, riddled with production issues though it may be, gets its core theme of family right. Throughout the film, we see all manner of family groups, from Arlo's docile clan, to the T-rex ranchers and the vicious cult-like pterodactyls. Which makes it sting all the more when Arlo encounters Spot, a human child who's feral and all alone.
Bonding over the course of their perilous journey home, Spot is able to communicate to Arlo (by way of sticks and lines in the sand) that he has lost his old family. Luckily, in a real eye-moistener of a finale, the duo happen upon one of the sole remaining human tribes – and Arlo uses the same sand circles to indicate Spot should stay with them. It's all done without dialogue, and it'll have you bawling.
13 Wade Evaporates – Elemental
Getting A Bit Too Steamy
Elemental is a personal story for its director that tells a tale of forbidden love between Ember, a fire woman, and Wade, a lad made of H2O. Throughout the film, the duo have been tasked with mending a dam in the city that risks flooding Fire Town (and thus extinguishing all its residents), becoming smitten with one another in the process.
As tensions between Ember and Wade broil at the climax, the dam spies an opportunity to be a visual metaphor and bursts open, ravaging Fire Town with a flash flood. The couple become trapped in the cellar of Ember's shop – but it isn't long before her worst fears are realised and the heat of her flames causes her beau to evaporate. Water is wet, and so are our eyes.
12 Luca Leaves – Luca
The One Kid Who Gets Excited For School
Luca is a sweet, Ghibli-esque charmer about a young sea monster who ventures onto land, only to find he's been living next to a gorgeous little hamlet on the Italian Riviera. The film tells the story of his first summer with friends, doing all the stuff kids do – until his new pal, Alberto, starts to get a bit too clingy.
Against Alberto's wishes, Luca bonds with local girl Giulia, who inspires him to go to school and pursue astronomy. As it's miles away by train, lonely Alberto's having none of it; tempers flare, and arguments are had. In the end, Alberto gets over himself and sells his prized Vespa to pay for Luca's train ticket, and the two separating is a heartbreaker.
11 Mei Accepts Her Inner Self – Turning Red
Don't Push Away The Bad Parts, Just Make Room For Them
Mei Lee is a model student. She turns in straight As, has a loyal band of friends, and even makes time to help her mom clean the family temple. However, that all changes, quite literally overnight, when she turns 13 and an ancient family curse kicks in that transforms her into an oversized red panda at inconvenient moments.
Her newfound fluffiness brings her fame (and fortune) at school, but her parents are none too pleased by the change in Mei's personality and plan to use an upcoming ritual to separate Mei's panda from her soul. During the ceremony, things go awry and Mei discovers all her relatives and ancestors went through the same dilemma: do we accept the less socially acceptable parts of ourselves, or suppress them entirely? The film's answer is a highly moving one.
10 WALL-E Forgets EVE – WALL-E
You Will Believe A Robot Can Love
WALL-E is a harrowing look at what our consumerist society might look like in a couple hundred years. Earth has been rendered uninhabitable by trash and pollution, and an army of junkbots has been tasked with cleaning it while the humans slob it up in space. Flash forward 700 years, and only one remains functioning: curious WALL-E.
Through a series of bizarre events, he becomes enamoured with the sleek probe droid EVE, and the two must deliver proof of a living plant specimen to the humans. WALL-E ends up severely damaged in the quest, and EVE hurries him home to his truck to make repairs – but it's too late. The robot's memory has been wiped, and he reverts to his default trash-compacting programming.
9 Marlin Loses His Family – Finding Nemo
A Barracuda To Rival Jaws
Finding Nemo is notorious for getting its child-traumatising out of the way in its very first scene. We meet plucky clownfish couple Marlin and Coral, alongside their vast clutch of eggs. Marlin is chuffed that they've secured an anemone so to the edge of the reef – but that picturesque view proves to be their downfall.
When a hungry barracuda comes calling, they're totally exposed. Marlin tries to fight it off, but it's no use; he's knocked unconscious, and when he awakes, both his wife and children (barring Nemo) have become its supper. It's an effective opener that firmly establishes why Marlin goes on to be such a controlling parent.
8 Jessie's Backstory – Toy Story 2
When She Loved Me
For all its technological accomplishments, the first Toy Story movie was less concerned with making you cry than simply being a darn good buddy movie. Its sequel addresses this by delivering one of the most gutwrenching sequences in Pixar history, as vintage cowgirl doll Jessie recounts her past.
Randy Newman's sublime 'When She Loved Me' croons in the background as we see Jessie's owner Emily slowly outgrow her, before she finally slips under the bed. Then, a moment of hope: she's retrieved… only to be placed in a donations box and abandoned.
7 Bing Bong Is Forgotten – Inside Out
Never Forget Your Imaginary Friends
Inside Out gives us a peek into the head of tween girl Riley, and at the personified emotions that make her tick. Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger all take turns at the controls – but Sadness ruffles Joy's feathers when she makes Riley bawl her eyes out on her first day of school. The resultant bickering causes Joy and Sadness to be ejected far across Riley's brain.
On their quest to get home, the unlikely duo bump into Bing Bong, a pink, fluffy imaginary friend from Riley's childhood who's been dodging being 'forgotten' in the memory pit for years. His fate is perhaps inevitable: to save Joy from that same pit late in the film, he sacrifices himself to oblivion. We won't forget, Bing Bong.
6 Riley's New Sense Of Self – Inside Out 2
Being A Teenager Is Hard
Not to be outdone by its predecessor, Inside Out 2 delivers a gut-slam on par with Bing Bong's demise. Throughout Riley's early puberty, Joy has been suppressing all the girl's bad experiences and memories by flinging them to the 'back of the mind.' In doing so, her 'Sense of Self' is kept at a static, generic "I'm a good person." That seems fine on paper, but it leaves Riley an emotional wreck when new emotions Anxiety, Ennui, Embarassment and Envy arrive, and start introducing hormones to the equation.
Without those crucial bad memories to grow from, Riley develops a new, corrupted Sense of Self: "I'm not good enough." In the end, Joy accepts she can't decide who Riley becomes, and blows a hole in the back of the mind, allowing all Riley's memories to flood back and form a more nuanced, amorphous personality that has room to develop.
5 Sulley Leaves Boo – Monsters, Inc.
It's Scary How Sad This Is
Monstropolis is a city in crisis. Its energy levels are at an all-time low, and the only consistent source of power they can find is by popping into our world and harvesting the screams of children; but it isn't exactly ethical. One day, a young girl, nicknamed Boo, wanders into the factory and causes a world of trouble for our heroes Mike and Sulley.
Soon, a conspiratorial web involving the company's CEO unravels, with Boo at the centre of it. After dispatching the villains, Sulley is told by the CDA he must send Boo back home, despite the strong fatherly bond he's developed with her. If you don't well up at Boo refusing to let her 'kitty' go, you might be a monster yourself.
4 Miguel Sings To Coco – Coco
Music Can Stir Memories
Coco deals with some pretty heavy themes: death, loss, the afterlife. Young Miguel is thrust into the Land of the Dead when he attempts to rob a famous musician's grave, and only has so long to return before the living forget him altogether. He mingles with family members — both known and unknown — in his efforts to receive the blessing he needs.
Aiding him is Hector, a deceased songwriter who risks 'final death' as there's no one living who remembers him. No one, that is, except for Miguel's great-grandma Coco, as Miguel pieces together Hector was her father. Back in the land of the living, he sings her the song Hector did in her youth, and seeing her struggling to recall his face through her dementia is soul-destroying.
3 Joe Battles Existentialism – Soul
You Never Thought A Cartoon Could Make You Ponder Mortality
Soul is, without question, one of the most adult and sophisticated Pixar films in the lineup. Case in point: within the first ten minutes, the protagonist's dead. Joe Gardner, a music tutor, is dissatisfied with his lot in life – but an accident on his way to a make-or-break gig finds him on an elevator to the afterlife. Refusing to perish on the cusp of greatness, Joe wrestles free and winds up in the 'Great Before', where human souls are conceived.
Acting as a mentor to stubborn soul 22 (literally the 22nd soul ever created), Joe initially looks back on his life with misery and disdain. The only notable events on display in his 'Hall of Fame' are eating pie at a diner and teaching kids music. However, after 22 inadvertently gets a stint in Joe's body and comes to appreciate the small things in life, Joe re-evaluates his stance. We might not get to do everything we want during our time alive, but that doesn't mean the results aren't worth savouring.
2 Married Life – Up
The Part Everyone Remembers
The opening ten minutes of Up are so expertly, emotionally resonant that it almost makes the rest of the film (which deals with such silly vignettes as dogs flying planes) seem like a bit of a downgrade. It basically functions as a self-contained short: young Carl and Ellie, two likeminded adventurers, fall in love and tie the knot in rapturous bliss.
But then, presented with absolutely no dialogue, things start to go wrong. Carl and Ellie try to have a baby, but Ellie's informed she's infertile. Then, she falls sick, and is hospitalised. A last romantic walk ends with Ellie collapsing, and then it cuts to her funeral, leaving Carl a broken old man by the time the plot kicks off. Pixar took zero prisoners with this one.
1 Andy Goes To College – Toy Story 3
So Long, Partner
Toy Story 3 gets its tearjerking hooks in you from the word 'go' and never lets up til the credits roll. It's one kicker after another: Andy's mom coming to terms with her son being grown up; the toys feeling abandoned by their owner; Lotso's tragic backstory and him turning Sunnyside Daycare into a dictatorial prison; our heroes almost being incinerated at the dump; the list goes on.
But the film saves the best for last. Rather than putting them in the attic, Andy decides to donate the toys to little Bonnie, and it's truly tough to watch him hand them all over. If that didn't get you, then Woody, Buzz and the gang watching in sombre resignation as Andy drives off to his future certainly will.
