Movies and cinema have many ways to make you cry. Even when movies have “good” endings, some dramas have heartbreaking scenes that are sure to bring tears to your eyes. This obviously involves action, music with violins, or even the use of elements that are familiar to us, such as animals. The latter are more fragile than humans, must be protected and offer us absolute confidence. Inevitably, their death is all the more shocking as it is never their fault. But fortunately, the films we are going to talk about do not all need to come to such extremes to drain all the salt from our bodies.
#1 marley & me
We start slowly with a dramatic comedy. The film is rather joyful with some sad passages on the counter. The ending, however, will leave audiences in tears since anyone who’s ever had a pet identifies with the characters. It’s hard to see an animal leave, especially when you have to make the decision yourself to have it stung to avoid more suffering. Take out the tissues.
#2 Charlie (All dogs go to heaven)
Largely forgotten animation films, charlie is a film created by a former Disney, Don Bluth, but whose the theatrical release was made at the same time as The little Mermaid. No luck for him. We follow the story of a trickster dog casino manager named Charlie, murdered by his best friend Carface but managing to escape from Paradise to return to Earth and protect a little girl named Anne-Marie. It is an animated film that does not take children for idiots, and which offers a critical look at the mourning of your animals, because all dogs go to Heaven.
#3 Rox and Rouky
For once, we can thank Disney for having changed the original story of Rox and Rouky, because this one is even sadder than the animated film. The end of this film is bittersweet, working for the separation of the two friends rather than the inevitable death of one of them, as was the case. in the original story, in which Rouky dies, killed by Rox, and knowing that his children want to take him to a retirement home where dogs are not allowed, the hunter unhooks his gun from the wall, drags his dog outside. The latter licks his hand, unaware of the fate that awaits him.
#4 War Horse
Let’s leave our canine companions aside to focus on horses. Steven Spielberg knows how to convey emotions through animals. War Horse is an emotional rollercoaster based on the relationship between Albert and his horse Joey during the First World War. If the animal survives at the end, it is the human relationships that are sublimated in the film, linking your sadness to endless melancholy about the fate of the horse’s original owner.
#5 The Horse Whisperer
This film will not disappoint you. In the movie, Pilgrim, Annie and Grace’s horse is injured; Annie, already amputated with a leg, gradually loses her taste for life until she meets Tom, a horse whisperer. As often, the animal is here a lever in order to bring the tension not on him but on the human relations surrounding him, with heartbreaking farewell scenes between the two protagonists.
#6 Antarctica, prisoners of the cold
Do you like sled dogs? Antarctica prisoners of the cold plenty. Or rather, at the beginning. Because because of a snowstorm, Jerry Shepard is forced to abandon his dogs at a science base. The latter will have to fight alone, in the cold, for 6 months. When he returns there, he finds the body of Old Jack, one of his lead dogs. Disney obliges, Jerry manages to (almost) save them all. The film ends on two tombstones, those of his two favorite dogs, including that of Jack. The film is a cover of another Japanese film, Antarctica released in 1983. The latter has a much sadder ending than this half-hearted happy ending.
#7 Hatchi
Hatchi (Where Hachi: A Dog’s Tale) is inspired by the true story of Hachiko, an akita who, despite the death of his master, continued to wait for his return from work in front of Shibuya station in Tokyo for 9 years. The story is very popular in Japan and a statue is even dedicated to him in front of this station. Even if the film moves its story to Rhode Island, the emotion remains intact concerning the relationship between the dog and its master. If the movies often show us the pain for a human to lose his dog, here we are shown the pain for an animal to lose its master.
#8 Plague Dogs
Plague Dogs, THE animated film that doesn’t mean you any good. Directed by Martin Rosen and released in 1982, the celluloid cartoon tells how two dogs manage to escape from an experimental laboratory practicing vivisection. They will do anything to find a place to live a better life. Except that these two animals would be carriers of the Plague virus, condemning them by time, and by the tracking of humans, soldiers, scientists and the media. It is a heartbreaking film, very dark and infinitely sad.
We could have included other films that had emotional scenes with animals. I Am Legend, The Green Line, Balto, White Fang, Isle of Dogs, White Godand even Kung Fu Panda 2 (when the mother panda dies), we accept. Do not hesitate to tell us which are the movies with animals that made you cry the most. If you like our articles dedicated to species other than humans, you will have to find your happiness here.
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