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Inside The Writers Studio – Right in the animated feels

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irongiant1

We’d be pretty happy individuals, if it weren’t for animated movies. All ages my magnificent ass, the films back in the day didn’t just contain two-dimensional art, it featured angiush porn as well. Whether it was a king falling, a mother dying or knowledge that your dog was going to hell, there was plenty of mental trauma hiding behind that all ages banner. And no matter what your age is, movies can still reduce you to a tearful wreck. Here’s a list of the movies which made us secrete the eye-juices which kept that industry motivated.

Darryn – All Star Superman

If you haven’t seen All Star Superman yet, then tough, you’ve had enough time to do so. Right at the end of the film, everything comes to a head. Superman starts to feel the effects of being overloaded with too much solar energy after falling for another Lex Luthor plot, with only minutes left to live. Luthor has escaped from prison, recreated a serum which gives him superpowers similar to the man of steel and has run amok. Eventually defeating him, Superman realises that he has mere minutes left, bids farewell to Lois Lane and once again saves the day, for the last time.

But dammit, I was tearing up. That entire final act was just perfect. The animation, the music, the battle. Superman doesn’t only physically beat Luthor, he outsmarts him, deconstructs him and leaves just enough pieces for Luthor to finally redeem himself. But that final kiss with Lois, that immortal line of Superman only having once chance to save the world and Lois telling him “That’s all you’ve ever needed”, before it’s up, up and away and flying into the sun…Now that’s the real Man of Steel.

James – Watership Down

Well, it’s obvious – isn’t it? Watership Down! That movie traumatised a generation of movie viewers – so much so that everyone talks about it, but nobody wants to see it again. It’s not just that rabbits die. It’s that stupid Art Garfunkel song that makes you want to crawl under a bed and eat a box of Kleenex. Even tough guys have to swallow it back or risk looking droopy-eyed when the chorus of Bright Eyes comes on. Just writing this leaves a lump in my throat – and I haven’t seen the film since I was something like ten. The only animated films that came close to rendering such emotional scarring were Grave of the Fireflies and When the Wind Blows.

Kervyn – Watership Down

I’m with James on this one. I’m a manly man, who eats slightly warm cow backside with my bare teeth and have even drunk strong alcohol through my eyeball (true story), but Watership Down reduced me to a soppy, whimpering mess. You may have noticed that I never added “as a child” to that previous sentence, and that’s because this happened only a few years ago. See, I was sure that I had seen the movie as a kid, but my brain had obviously deleted that memory for fear that I would spend all of primary school being beaten up for crying over bunny rabbits. So I went and watched it all over again to remind myself what the fuss was about.

Two lines into “Bright Eyes” and all the holes in my face were doing Niagara Falls impersonations.

Tracy – The Incredibles

Oddly enough, the one scene that will make me cry without fail isn’t a sad one. The scene that always brings me to tears is from The Incredibles, where Mrs. Incredible is flying to the island and the bad guys shoot missiles at the aeroplane. It’s one of the most emotionally charged scenes I’ve ever watched.

You have a superhero, who is used to being invincible, suddenly in a situation that she can’t control. Missiles have been fired at her plane, her children are with her and she can’t escape. The missiles are bearing down and her evasive manoeuvres fail. Her pleading to call them off falls on deaf ears. Her daughter is too scared to put a force field around the plane. She gets more and more panicked until she does the only thing she can, she sacrifices herself to protect her children as the aeroplane explodes.

Holly Hunter’s voice acting in that scene is just amazing. I think the reason I will always cry in that scene is that she makes it so real. It’s scary and hectic, and she puts her character through so many emotions, from her attempts to stay calm to losing her cool at Violet, and then the rising panic as she realises that there’s no way out. It brings a serious lump to my throat every time.

Nick – Up

I challenge anyone to find a movie that can better stir juices up that should be otherwise left buried, under a rock, preferably in a steel coffin. The 2009 movie Up by Pixar/Walt Disney will have you weeping and laughing as you are taken on a roller-coaster journey. It is also one of the few movies that STILL elicits the same response years later. I remember being brought to tears when I watched Artax the horse die in the Swamp of Sadness in the NeverEnding Story (1984), but on watching it again it seems to have dated. Also, it’s a horse, not an old granny who has spent her life with her best friend… Either way Up, with its old grumpy lead did what very few CGI movies can do: made the person sitting next to me cry, because I wouldn’t as a MAN. (Sniff).

Last Updated: March 18, 2014

13 Comments

  1. Holly Hunter is the voice of the mother in incredibles, not Helen Hunt

    Reply

    • Tracy Benson

      March 18, 2014 at 15:18

      You are correct, my apologies.

      Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    March 18, 2014 at 15:14

    You are all wrong.

    Reply

    • RinceIsIngwer

      March 18, 2014 at 15:17

      Is this a ‘refresh’ moment? Or do you care to be a ‘little’ bit more specific? 😛

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 18, 2014 at 15:36

        Refresh for image. Then weep at your loss.

        Reply

    • RinceIsIngwer

      March 18, 2014 at 15:41

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 18, 2014 at 15:45

        IT’S NOT FUNNY YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!

        Reply

        • RinceIsIngwer

          March 18, 2014 at 15:52

          Oh come now…

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 18, 2014 at 16:01

            I find you… guilty. Of distastefulness in the first degree.
            Sentence is… death. To be carried out immediately.

          • RinceIsIngwer

            March 18, 2014 at 16:05

            Which reminds me I still have your DVD… Demands will be sent soon…

  3. elysium

    March 18, 2014 at 18:33

    Ho boy, you guys think Watership Down is depressing? You can’t even begin to understand how much worse The Plague Dogs was. Same studio, same director, also based on a book by Richard Adams. Granted, it’s a lot more obscure, and finding a DVD is almost impossible, but someone was kind and put the whole thing on YouTube. Legal? Probably not, but it sure is convenient.

    And let’s also talk about Felidae. Also obscure, also rare as hell on DVD, also incredibly graphically violent, and right in the feels too – the feels of absolute, sheer horror, that is. Be forewarned though – this is quite NSFW – aside from the violence, there’s plenty of cursing and even some sex. And, thanks to the magic of friendsh-… er… internets, now streaming on YouTube too.

    Reply

    • James Francis

      March 19, 2014 at 12:20

      Nice! Not that I want to see these now – it sounds too depressing – but I love finding obscure animations.

      Reply

  4. Kromas

    March 19, 2014 at 07:34

    Have to agree with Nick. With the music slowing down just enough to convey the loneliness and sadness it is right up there.

    Reply

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