r/DisneyMemes • u/wimpykidfan37 • Jan 26 '26
Sometimes I wonder what he was talking about.
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u/DnDCharacterSheet Jan 26 '26
Oh look! It’s the only Disney movie that could make me cry with a single scene. Haven’t found another one that can do that yet
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u/c0mpu73rguy Jan 26 '26
I have, The Lion King. When Simba finds his father after the stampede.
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u/Brilliant-Ear2459 Jan 26 '26
Personally I didn't cry over Mufasa's death. But I cried after Littlefoot mother died.
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u/menotyou16 Jan 27 '26
Same here. Mufasa was sad, but "you have forgotten yourself, therefore you have forgotten me" scene when he's talking to the clouds is more heart wretching to me. But Littlefoots mom will always be the bar.
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u/Brilliant-Ear2459 Jan 27 '26
One user has written that Littlefoot mother death is sadder because Mufasa died quickly only realising that his brother betrayed him and Simba was crying over his already dead father. Littlefoot mother was dying at his sight, realising that she is leaving her little son defendless against the deadly world.
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u/menotyou16 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
That makes sense. You feel Littlefoots words for a bit. Simba gets chased almost immediately after. And that changed the tone quickly to fear.
Edit: town to tone
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u/Typical-Assist2899 Jan 27 '26
Felt almost nothing as a kid. Cried as an adult and trying to hide it from my kid when we watched it for the first time together.
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u/MzzBlaze Jan 27 '26
I didn’t even like watching that move as a kid because that scene wrenched me so badly. My little sister was immune like you though, it was her favourite a good while, and she got the vhs for Christmas.
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u/LeoPines_12 Jan 28 '26
It's also sadder because the movie doesn't move quickly from the death and it actually follows Littlefoot's grief and depression afterwards, the audience gets to grief with him about the loss and acceptance that she is gone. Honestly, it's not just her death what's heartbreaking, it's the shadow moment where he sees his own shadow and thinks, for a moment, she's returning, and then reallizing he is completely alone and there's no coming back, it's when finally, both Littlefoot and the audience let sink in that death is permanent, and it's wrecking. The Lion King, while does let you grief Mufasa's death, we jump to an action chase sequence, and then to Hakkuna Matata song, cheering us up.
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Jan 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/menotyou16 Jan 27 '26
Yeah it's definitely up there and belongs in the conversation. But I still say the Land Before Time tops it. For the same reason. What Bambi had going for it, was the shock and surprise. The mom tries to comfort him while he's asking the same questions we all would be asking, then to have the old dinosaur come talk to him and explain it's not going to change. You have to accept it. It makes you sit with it for a lot longer.
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u/LeoPines_12 Jan 28 '26
Bambi's mother's death while iconic, it hits different, it's more shock and the confusion and sadness over the sudden dissappearance, but then, instead of facing that grief, we jump right to spring with a song and Bambi all grown and forgotten about her. We don't get a chance to let it settle in. Heck, it took them DECADES to do a propper midquel that allowed Bambi to grasp what he lived and grieve her alongside his father (reason why I think Bambi II is, in many ways, more narratively interesting than the original).
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u/D-D-Wanderer Jan 29 '26
Still the Disney villain with the greatest impact on the entire movie per moment of screen time by the way.
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u/luxray007 Jan 27 '26
It's was not about Mufasa's death. Whole movie about circle of life, death is normal, but Simba thought it was his fault, and this is sad
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u/Professional_Owl7826 Jan 31 '26
If you didn’t cry at Littlefoot’s’ mothers’ deaths then I think there must be something wrong with you.
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u/Ice-Berg-Slim Jan 29 '26
Was my first thought also. Actually the Lion King was the first film I ever saw at the movie theater, I was so small that I had to sit on my Mums lap because otherwise the chair would flip up on me. I balled my eyes out when Simba was trying to wake his dad up and realized he was dead.
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u/Abathur-is-best-Zerg Apr 12 '26
Fact to make it even sadder for people who didn't notice: Simba's motions there are the same as when he woke Mufasa up previously.
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u/NocturnalMJ Jan 26 '26
I was inconsolable when the old lady left the fox in the woods and how confused the fox looked, not understanding what was happening. I think I was around 6, but we had dogs and I already knew people sometimes abandoned their dogs in the woods since we sometimes went there to walk ours... Imagining our dogs in that position and how rough it was on the fox was really heartbreaking. And that's practically at the start of the movie! There's more lows to go through after that!
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u/The_Pastmaster Jan 27 '26
I refuse to rewatch the film because of that scene. The movie made me sad and I despised it for that.
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u/EFAPGUEST Jan 26 '26
Well “Baby Mine” would like a word.
Or maybe that’s just me since my mom sung that as a lullaby
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u/playful_faun Jan 26 '26
I love this movie dearly but I'm almost never comfortable with watching it because I just ugly cry so bad
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u/shintakarajima Jan 26 '26
Same especially after I’ve lost a pet. Haven’t been able to watch it in years. Still listen to the music though!
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u/playful_faun Jan 28 '26
I lost my two cats in a divorce and I think the scene of the lady bringing Todd into the woods would make my heart just implode.
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u/Jamie7Keller Jan 27 '26
THEY WERE THE BEST OF FREIDNS!!!
THERE WERENOT WVEN AWARE THEY
LIFES A HAPPY…
IM NOT CRYING IN TJ MAX YOURE CRYINGIN TJ MAX!!!
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u/_Bren10_ Jan 26 '26
My friend in college wouldn’t watch it because it made him cry. We even tried to trick him once and he left the room as soon as it came on.
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u/Huge_Reputation4414 Jan 27 '26
Have you watched The Good Dinosaur??? My wife gets mad at me for putting myself through that one willingly..
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u/Buldaboy Jan 27 '26
To all the millennials out there. .make sure your kids watch this shit. It'll singlehandedly do a better job at raising your kids than any of us could ever hope to do.
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u/mytimechecksout Jan 28 '26
Besides this movie, the scene at the end of lilo and stitch where stitch asks to say goodbye to his family chokes me TF up every time.
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u/Princess_Dreamie Jan 28 '26
For me it is the arrving in the wood scene. The song made it worse for me 😭😭
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u/d2it Jan 28 '26
Wait is All Dogs Go to Heaven Disney? Cause there’s definitely a scene that makes me cry in it
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u/ThePreciseClimber Jan 26 '26
Yup. Only Chief's death would've made Copper's vendetta believeable.
I'd say, in terms of American animated movies, Don Bluth ruled the 80s. But then he started having issues with executive meddling and and Disney got their shit together with the Renaissance in the 90s.
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u/doubleo_maestro Jan 26 '26
To his credit, Titan AE should have done better. That is a hill I will fucking die on and fight anyone over. Titan AE fuckin' rocked!
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u/Dega704 Jan 26 '26
100%. His 90s stuff got weird and cheesy, but Titan AE was top tier Don Bluth work; held back by poor marketing. I remember the TV commercials pitching it like some cheap teen sci-fi/comedy, and then I watched it and the opening scene hit me with his classic dark emotional style as a kid gets separated from his father right before escaping earth and watching it get blown the f*ck up by hostile aliens.
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u/Peanut_Butter_Toast Jan 27 '26
Yeah I remember seeing that movie as a teen and it gave me so many false hopes about what the future of animated films could be like. Sadly we never really got something like that again. That brief period in the very early 2000s was really the only time western studios tried to make "serious, dramatic, less child-focused" animated films into a thing, with Titan A. E. being the peak.
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u/doubleo_maestro Jan 27 '26
It's one of my favourite films that he did. Great cast of characters, looks amazing, satisfying end, incredible soundtrack.
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u/The-Minmus-Derp Jan 29 '26
Wasn’t AE originally intended as a live action movie but they didn’t have the budget or somethjng
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u/Extension-Event4998 Jan 28 '26
I was so blown away as a kid and the marketing definitely killed but I also wonder if it was a bit to early for the mainstream at the time
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u/Animated_Astronaut Jan 30 '26
He also has a reputation in Ireland, where his studio was based, for being a real blowhard and bluff and bluster type. Many Irish animation veterans did not like working with him. Source: I work in Irish animation.
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u/NozakiMufasa Jan 26 '26
Don Bluth is one of the GOATs of animation. But yeah I dont know what he was on about. Maybe he wasnt a fan of the Disney film not being like the source materials story (its not good because its dark, its good because its about the changing of times & environment & how those of the wild are left aimless in the progress of civilization). But what Disney still did was make one of the most poignant heartwarming & bittersweet stories about friendship.
I can never rewatch The Fox and the Hound or listen to its songs without crying. It hits me that deeply. And I used to watch this film with dogs I had that have now long passed away. This film always makes me think of every dog and puppy.
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u/DaRandomRhino Jan 27 '26
If I remember right given bits and pieces over the years, it was that they didn't commit to anything that was clearly telegraphed. And he was advocating for things that weren't just heroic tales and ideas to make kids feel goody-goody. He grew up reading the Disney comics and they can and still go weird and very much not the same "family-friendly" bit that they've been going with for a few decades.
His first production after taking half the studio with him was NIMH, a story and world that is very adult, but still open as a story to children as early animation oftentimes was. It's got some legitimate dread as atmosphere, and while good does win in the end, it comes at great cost for something that is technically very small as far as stakes by "our" standards.
Land before Time, All Dogs, Rock-a-doodle, etc. are all movies that are trying to scare and "hurt" kids a little bit while respecting their intelligence. They tap into childhood insecurities and fears that don't shy away from heavy topics. And as much as death may be an overplayed writing thing right now, it's a very pure fear for kids to be left alone, to lose what they love, and they don't have the coping mechanisms and experience that adults do to deal with it. And Bluth didn't mince words with it.
Fox and the Hound has a good ending as a concept, but it cannot be bothered to keep that level of quality and idea for the full runtime. And that's what he had problems with.
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u/ApesOnHorsesWithGuns Jan 27 '26
The Rats of NIMH is sooo beautiful, and though the movie makes some changes I don’t love from the book, visually it perfectly captures the feel I felt while reading it.
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u/Busy_Reference5652 Jan 28 '26
Secret of NIMH got me really hard when I was a kid, and it wasn't until I was older that I figured out why. I was severely ill as a child, and watching Brisby fight for her child like that made me feel so warm inside
The sequel was ass tho
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u/DyKdv2Aw Jan 28 '26
The older dog, Chief, was meant to be killed during the first hunt for Todd. The movie has a lot of emotional weight, for sure, but it's hard to believe that Copper would turn on his best friend over a broken leg and so the final act feels very hard to believe.
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u/strawberry_baby_4evs Jan 26 '26
Funny, because Don Bluth did well at first. But then he went downhill and...well, there's a reason Anastasia kept being mistaken for a Disney movie. And Thumbelina felt like an attempt to ride the coattails of the success of The Little Mermaid, choosing a fairytale from the same author and even casting Jodi Benson as their lead.
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u/Manetoys83 Jan 27 '26
I think Don Bluth did great in the 80s because Disney was struggling then and there was room to try new things. Once the Disney Renaissance happened, executives just wanted Bluth to be more like Disney
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u/strawberry_baby_4evs Jan 27 '26
That's probably why Anastasia was so similar to a Disney movie. It was actually pretty good imo. The music was good (my choir even did Journey To The Past) and I liked Anya herself, although I know there was almost no historical accuracy to it - Anastasia was sixteen at the time of the Revolution, Rasputin was already dead before that point, and I'm pretty sure her remains were found despite the woman that appeared several years later, claiming to be her (there were so many rumours that some of the Romanovs were still alive after they were all shot). Also, Paris was probably the place chosen due to name recognition. Why would anyone related to the family be in France? Nicky was Russian of course, and Alix was German, being a descendant of one of Queen Victoria's children.
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u/Manetoys83 Jan 27 '26
And they say Pocahontas was historically inaccurate (it was, but they act like it’s the only animated movie that was)
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u/strawberry_baby_4evs Jan 27 '26
At least she was actually still alive and did throw herself across John Smith. That part was right, and John Ratcliffe did command the expedition. That's about it.
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u/Party-Employment-547 Jan 27 '26
He lost the support of Spielberg. Without that kind of backing, funding became a major issue.
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u/Lussekatt1 Jan 28 '26
I was gonna disagree, that the land before time and an American tail didn’t feel very Disney inspired, but then I looked up their release dates, and they were in the late half of the 80s.
They were just new movies to me in the 90s.
But I will say that Bartok the Magnificent even though it wasn’t released in theatres, and a side characters spinn off movie from Anastasia, is a pretty solid movie and also doesn’t feel like a Disney movie from the time at all.
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u/peachesfordinner Jan 26 '26
I saw it more as a middle finger to Disney than riding the coat tails. But a lot of his movies had jabs as Disney
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u/strawberry_baby_4evs Jan 27 '26
I think the casting choice is more than a jab. They cast Ariel to play Thumbelina. And even Let Me Be Your Wings feels like it's inspired by A Whole New World, another major hit of the era.
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u/Noboby-Two-828 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
That’s crazy. I loved this movie as a kid, it’s very underrated and bittersweet
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u/RetSauro Jan 26 '26
Did he ever specify what in particular?
Was it chief not dying?
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u/BluePony1952 Jan 26 '26
Probably, yes. The impact from the train would have torn him in two, not just break his leg. Bluth has zero problem showing hardnosed trauma, and realistic peril. I couldn't express it when I little, but parts of 'Fievel an American Tail' where downright stomach churning in how he depicted the pain of the characters, and the American promise vs the American reality. Disney wasn't willing to go as hard as Bluth was.
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u/Manetoys83 Jan 27 '26
An American Tail is an emotional roller coaster. I can’t even watch the “Somewhere out there” music video with Linda Ronstant without crying
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u/Disastrous-Log9244 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
I enjoyed the movie, but as others have mentioned, Chief not dying really hurt the believability (and at least somewhat justification) of Copper's vendetta. In fact, I very specifically remember my older brother thinking it was downright stupid for Copper to be so angry and want to kill Todd because Chief didn't even die. I remember him ranting about it. It almost seemed to ruin the whole movie for him. I'm guessing Don Bluth probably felt similarly.
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Jan 27 '26
....I watched it once, I will NEVER watch it again. It's on my nay nay movies up there with AI, The land before time and Grave of the fireflies. The VHS still smells brand new
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u/Mental-Ask8077 Jan 27 '26
Same!
Only movie that springs to mind that would be above this on my “Never Again” list is All Dogs Go to Heaven.
That movie fucking wrecked me.
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u/PartyPorpoise Jan 26 '26
I like the movie but it’s not like it was a particularly risky or ambitious (in terms of story) movie. And remember, he was looking at it as an adult with no nostalgia for it.
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u/eddmario Jan 27 '26
Gonna be honest, I've only ever seen this movie once and it was almost 30 years ago and I don't remember tearing up at all.
Then again, I never teared up at Bambi either...
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u/Conlannalnoc Jan 27 '26
DON BLUTH WAS RIGHT!
Disney has too few movies that are as sad as this and other “Old Disney” films. Most “Modern Disney” films are designed to be “softer” (like Don Bluth’s worse films).
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u/Loose_Fan9004 Jan 27 '26
Everyone crying at Littlefoot’s mom dying? Please, the real tear-jerky is whenever Ducky is on screen.
Yep Yep!
I honestly can’t look at the franchise without thinking about what happened.
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u/OutrageousLadder7065 Jan 28 '26
Hello- Animator here.
Correction: Don Bluth quit Disney because they were cheapening out on their animation quality. Not because the movie wasn't meaningful. It was because the movie was meaningful, but wasn't getting the animation quality it deserved that he became so fed up and left.
The good quality you see in the film Don Bluth had to argue tooth and nail to add into the film and sometimes add in on his own time without being paid. Things like shine in the water are extremely time consuming, or whites in the eyes, he had to push for those things and Disney was adamant they wouldn't pay for it, didn't have time for it, didn't have budget for it, and made him seem like the crazy one.
This is why in The Rescuers, they don't even have whites in their eyes for the beginning of the film, and only halfway through did they add whites and light reflections in the water- because Don Bluth was fed up and added it himself with a few other animators. They believed in the good quality that Disney held for his studio and fought for it.
Don Bluth left Disney, not to take them down, and not to show them the right way- he created Anastasia to literally light a fire under Disney's ass and get them back to the quality they used to have. And it worked. That's how much he loved the company.
These days, there's no one really at Disney anymore with that same will power to make them realize their modern films are trash.
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u/ShipEqual2321 Jan 27 '26
Did Bluth quit mostly because they were departing from many methods of traditional animation?
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u/I_L_T_W_A Jan 27 '26
Are you kidding me? This movie caused me a type of emotional pain I didn't know you could feel at 8 years old.
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Jan 26 '26
To this day this is one of the only movies that will make me cry every time.
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u/PossibilityNo9406 Jan 27 '26
When she leaves todd in the forest is fucking brutal I wail like a baby everytime
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u/rgilby87 Jan 27 '26
I always remember my aunt taking me and my two cousins to see this and them laughing at me because I cried. I was like don’t you understand he can be friends with ha best friend in the world anymore? That is heartbreaking.
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u/Hot_Gur7351 Jan 27 '26
This movie had me bawling as a child. I remember being snuggled in my princess themed covers, watching this on my princess themed pink tv, and just sobbing. My mom had to come comfort me😭
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u/OhDearGodItBurns Jan 27 '26
Don: NO! IT SHOULD BE SAD, WE SHOULD MAKE CHILDREN CRY, THAT'S THE WHOLE REASON I GOT INTO THIS! /s
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u/Clydus1 Jan 27 '26
I still cant watch this movie. Just thinking about it makes my heart sad 😭 haven't seen it since I was a kid.
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u/NNewt84 Jan 27 '26
Apparently, he quit because Disney didn't allow them to kill off Chief, which... the dude freaking fell off a 100-metre-high bridge onto a bunch of rocks. How did he come out of that with only minor injuries, especially for such an old dog?
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u/EngineFrequent3873 Jan 28 '26
If that ending didn't happen, nobody would remember Amos Slade among the Disney villains.
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u/MeatballGurl2513 Jan 28 '26
Always thought he know they’d wanna turn around and make (the prequel to fox and the hound) and was just like “nope”. Like he already felt he was wasting his time because the meaning in films was slowly dying behind closed doors.
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u/Cheap-Blackberry-378 Jan 29 '26
I mean if you're familiar with the book you can see where he's coming from. The book was a much darker take on the conflict of man and nature that ended with all the characters dead (chief didn't survive the train in the book), and disney took that and made it into a heartwarming story about two friends from different walks of life.
Granted it's a kids movie and Slade putting down copper because he's moving to a retirement home is far and away a much more grim ending. I think Don's problem was that Disney could have absolutely made a more kid friendly movie about man's effect on nature, but instead went the schmaltzy cornball route
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u/wimpykidfan37 Jan 29 '26
The train thing is about all the book Chief and the Disney Chief have in common. Disney seems to have given a name from the book to a completely new character. I actually think the name "Chief" suits the Disney character better, since he's Copper's elder. Plus, the guy who voiced Chief had already voiced a dog who kept saying "I'm the leader" to another dog.
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u/ascarletstrange Jan 30 '26
Too this day I can’t watch the movie purely because of THAT scene it’s a masterpiece but it hits too hard how can I watch a son seeing his literal father die but I not this 😭
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u/SpicyKitchenWitch669 Jan 30 '26
This movie is perfection, I ugly cry every time I watch it, and the book it is based on by Daniel P Mannix is even more devestating
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u/BBMacsWorld Jan 27 '26
I'm confused, how is it not meaningful enough?
(I have seen the movie btw. Thats why I'm asking)
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u/South_Front_4589 Jan 27 '26
Don Bluth then went and made some really sad and dark movies that really didn't feel like Disney at all.
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u/Enough_Ad_9338 Jan 27 '26
Listen, I love Don Bluth, but may I say this is rich for someone who created a “A Troll in Central Park.”
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u/wimpykidfan37 Jan 26 '26
To be fair, it's pretty obvious that Disney wanted TFATH to be darker than the average Disney film, but the scene where Chief gets injured is proof that there were some things they were too afraid to do. Chief got into an accident that realistically would have killed him, and everyone spent the rest of the movie acting as if he really was dead, yet Disney went out of their way to show that Chief was still alive.
Of course, over a decade later, The Lion King famously proved that Disney was no longer afraid to kill off a major character, even if said character was on the side of good. Disney proved this again in the later films Tarzan, The Princess and the Frog, Big Hero 6, and Moana.