20 Sad Disney Movies That Will Have You Reaching for the Tissues

If ever there was a movie studio that should buy stock in Kleenex, it’s Disney. The studio produces so many tearjerkers that sad Disney movies are practically their own genre. And don’t even get us started on childhood trauma. Heartbreaking scenes from otherwise fun Disney movies are responsible for more therapy bills than divorce. 

Sometimes, however, a big ol’ ugly cry is just what the doctor ordered. If you feel like bawling your eyes out, but the tears just won’t come, hop on Disney+ and watch any of the movies on this list. We guarantee that the waterworks will start in no time at all!

Most parents agree that children need other kids to play with. Not Elsa and Anna’s. After accidentally freezing her younger sister, Elsa’s parents confine her to her bedroom for the duration of her childhood. Over the years, Anna tries to coax her big sister out of her room by goofing off and singing about snowmen, but Elsa remains hidden, consumed by guilt.

When she eventually leaves her room—following the death of her parents—Elsa’s unpredictable ice powers act up, causing her to flee the kingdom and isolate herself once more. For Elsa, “Let it go” means moving past a childhood spent in solitary confinement.

Whoever decided to take the bounciest, flounciest member of the Hundred Acre Wood crew and saddle him with an existential crisis was a genius. For years, Tigger bounced around, singing, “The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one!” But when he suddenly realizes that an only Tigger is a lonely Tigger, he sets out to find his long-lost family. When Tigger returns emptyhanded, Pooh and the gang must teach their friend that not all families are related.

Before he was Andy’s favorite toy, Buzz Lightyear was a Space Ranger stranded on a hostile planet. As his fellow Rangers attempt to build a colony, Buzz tests an experimental faster-than-light fuel, hoping to find a way for everyone to escape. Soon, Lightyear becomes Playskool’s My First Theory of Relativity as the effects of time dilation cause the people Buzz cares about to age at an accelerated rate. Eventually, Buzz outlives them in one of the most emotional Disney movies of the 2020s.

There are few sad Disney movies where one tragedy piles on top of another as in The Three Lives of Thomasina. When veterinarian Andrew MacDhui loses his wife, he turns his back on God, his seven-year-old daughter Mary, and her pet cat Thomasina. When Thomasina contracts tetanus, the now-callous Andrew euthanizes the pet without a second thought. Betrayed, Mary acts as if her father doesn’t exist and declares him dead. Luckily, Thomasina has more lives left and uses them to help Andrew and Mary heal as a family.

On its surface, Lilo & Stitch doesn’t look like it belongs on a list of saddest Disney movies. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find a film sad enough to cause a tear or two. At its core, Lilo & Stitch is about misfits. Lilo doesn’t fit in at school because she’s weird, while Stitch—an alien experiment literally created to sow chaos—poses as her dog to avoid being captured by space police. Both are outcasts but eventually learn that no matter how weird you are, you’re never alone as long as there’s another weirdo by your side.

Dumbo is an icon when it comes to sad Disney movies. Mother in peril? Check. Childhood trauma? Double check. Dumbo is born into a circus where everyone ridicules him for his big ears. Even the name “Dumbo” is a cruel nickname given to poor Jumbo Jr. by the other elephants. While Dumbo eventually learns to use his oversized ears to his advantage, you’ll be too busy bawling your eyes out over his earlier mistreatment to notice.

Poor Stanley Yelnats. Not only was he cursed with a ridiculous name, but thanks to an ancestor’s unkept promise, he’s also unlucky. The Yelnats’ bad luck gets Stanley sentenced to 18 months at a juvenile correction facility, where he’s forced to dig random holes in the desert. Along with the boiling sun, Stanley must contend with a desert full of venomous lizards. Holes may ultimately have a happy ending, but getting there is an emotional journey.

The Lion King is one of the few sad Disney movies in which tragedy befalls the protagonist’s father instead of their mother. Thrown into a stampede of wildebeests by his evil brother Scar, Mufasa is trampled to death as his son Simba looks on in horror. Just the visual of young Simba nudging his father’s motionless body is a guaranteed one-way ticket to Cry Town.

Coco is an emotional movie, even by Disney standards. The movie starts with the heaviest subject of all—death—and continues from there. Despite spending most of its runtime in the Land of the Dead, Coco’s saddest scene occurs here among the living. After the adventure of a lifetime, young Miguel vows to help Mama Coco remember her father, Hector, in an effort to save him from Final Death. With tears in his eyes, Miguel plays “Remember Me,” the song Coco’s father sang to her as a child. Hearing the tune doesn’t just fuel Coco’s childhood memories, but the waterworks too.

Return to Oz couldn’t be more different than its predecessor if it tried. The Wizard of Oz is a technicolor fantasy full of catchy songs, whereas Return to Oz is a bleak nightmare with head-swapping witches and evil gnomes. That’s not to say that Return to Oz is a bad movie—far from it. Just don’t go into it expecting “Over the Rainbow.”

The cinematic fever dream makes the list for its somber undertones. Dorothy crumples into sobs after Scarecrow is accused of stealing emeralds. The Tin Man and Cowardly Lion have been turned to stone. Saddest of all might be Jack Pumpkinhead asking Dorothy, “May I call you Mom, even if it isn’t so?” The sour cherry on top is an Emerald City in ruins—a far cry from the once bright green metropolis.

Onward tells the tale of two brothers—Barley and Ian Lightfoot—and their adventures trying to bring their late father back to life for one last day. Despite the movie’s fun fantasy setting, Onward asks some heavy emotional questions. The heaviest? Which brother deserves to spend more time with their resurrected father. Ian, who never knew him, or Barley, who actually remembers his dad? It’s not exactly Sophie’s Choice, but bring some tissues anyway.

You know a family doesn’t deserve a kid when their biggest flex is showing everyone how much they paid for him. In Pete’s Dragon, the evil Gogan family does just that. After tracking down the runaway Pete, the Gogans immediately break into a song about having a “bill of sale” that proves they own him. Talk about bringing receipts!

The Madrigal family is known for their gifts like super strength or super hearing, and one Encanto character, Bruno, is ostracized due to his ability to see the future. Though it’s a scene about Alma’s past that will really have fighting back tears, as it reveals the origins of both the family’s miracle and their trauma. Encanto scratches that itch for sad Disney movies that include a sympathetic backstory to its most complex characters.

Inside Out earns distinction as one of the most emotional Disney movies for good reason: all the Inside Out characters are literal emotions. Joy, Disgust, Fear, and Anger do their best to ensure their host, Riley, has a wonderful, fulfilling life free of Sadness. However, Joy and the others end up doing more harm than good by not allowing Riley to feel negative emotions.

We never thought a Pixar movie would have us rooting for sadness, but that’s what Inside Out does by showing us just how dangerous ignoring your blues can be. It’s an incredibly mature and complex theme for a children’s movie that will have you reevaluating how you express your own emotions.

Chances are, even if it’s one of the sad Disney movies you’ve never seen, you still know how it ends. Old Yeller’s fate is so ingrained in pop culture that most people pick it up through osmosis without even seeing the film.

For those that don’t know, the movie ends with a young boy shooting his beloved dog, Old Yeller, after it contracts rabies. Just because you know what’s coming, though, doesn’t make it any less devastating. To this day, Old Yeller’s death is considered one of the most tearful moments in cinematic history. Even your Dad’s not walking away from this one with dry eyes.

The Fox and the Hound spends its first act setting up the friendship of a lifetime and the rest of its runtime tearing it apart. Tod (Fox) and Copper (Hound) are the best of buds as children, but when they get older, Copper’s hunting instincts kick in, and it quickly becomes apparent that their friendship was doomed from the start. Never has a movie done a better job tapping into the real-life melancholy of childhood friends growing slowly apart.

Almost as infamous as the end of Old Yeller is the soul-crushing accident that occurs three-quarters of the way through Bridge to Terabithia. Tween outcasts Jesse and Leslie use an old rope swing to get back and forth across a creek when visiting their secret imaginary land, Terabithia. Chances are you know where this is going. If not, picture an old rope worn with age and then think of the worst thing that could happen to a child hanging from it. This movie has ruined more childhoods than homework.

Toy Story 3 always makes the list of saddest Disney movies, and with good reason: the movie’s whole vibe is a bummer. However, Toy Story 3 doesn’t cross into full-blown tear-jerker territory until Buzz, Woody, and the others get trapped in an incinerator without hope of escape.

With only moments left before their utter destruction, Andy’s toys stop panicking and clasp each other’s hands as they calmly await the end. It’s one of the most powerful moments ever put on screen, and it takes place in a movie with a talking piggy bank. Go figure.

Do we even have to explain why Bambi is on a list of sad Disney movies? For years, “Bambi’s mom” has been shorthand for Disney’s habit of traumatizing young viewers. With a single gunshot, a cute, fun movie about forest creatures suddenly rips your heart out and stomps on it. Unlike Simba, Bambi doesn’t actually see his mom’s lifeless body, but the young fawn’s dawning realization of what happened is somehow worse. If you need the catharsis that only a good cry can bring, Bambi is one of the saddest Disney movies for the job.

Throughout Up, protagonist Carl Fredrikson proves to be one of the best old man cartoon characters in animation history. But Carl’s shenanigans—entertaining as they are—take a back seat to Up’s emotional beginning. The first 10 minutes of Up are so devastating there’s an entire Wikipedia entry dedicated to them.

In the latter half of Up‘s first 10 minutes, an emotionally crippling montage known as “Married Life,” will have you reaching for your hanky. The dialogue-free, four-minute-and-twenty-second sequence tells the story of Carl and his wife Ellie’s life together. From their first kiss as newlyweds to Ellie’s death, “Married Life” takes you on an emotional rollercoaster that culminates in Ellie’s heart-wrenching miscarriage. The movie might be called Up, but in less than five minutes, it will bring you down lower than any movie before or since.