What Sort Of Art Makes You Cry?
Mine is weird?
I have a friend who sobbed at the conclusion of Nobody Wants This. I know, I’ve already bored you with my thoughts about why this could never have been my experience. But in the case of this particular friend, her tears are entirely characteristic. She Cries About Romance. Anything within shooting distances of Bridges Of Madison County will undo her every single time.
This is - not me - lol. After making sure I had gathered all of my soggy tissues and felt solid enough to rise from my recliner movie seat following a viewing of Wild Robot, I reflected that nothing makes me cry harder than children’s movies.
Coco? Sobbing. Inside Out 2? Sobbing. ENCANTO?! Utterly hysterical.
Looking back, my history with violently emoting via kids’ movies began when I saw The Fox And The Hound in the theatres (it came out in 1981, which was the year I was born but it’s one of the first movies I saw in the theatres so it must’ve been a rerelease or something?) and truly was heaving crying when the old lady makes the little fox “go back to the wild.” Hell!!!! Um, and if you find yourself wanting to revisit a movie from your past and end up watching Fly Away Home with your children for family movie night, maybe arm yourself with a Xanax and a kid-friendly speech about the meaning of “happy tears” because holy shit those geese are not playing.
![Fly Away Home [DVD]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F21c45ed9-528b-4c88-9f0f-60090937f75d_708x1000.jpeg "Fly Away Home [DVD]")
As a self-described jaded asshole who finds it difficult to express earnest emotions IRL, it makes sense to me that kids’ movies are my particular emotional trigger. They drill into the most essential core of human experiences. And these human experiences aren’t made messy with contextual complications. A motherless child becoming a mama goose to motherless geese is beautiful and heartbreaking full stop. Even the most emotionally constipated among us can tap into FEELING FEELINGS when it comes to well made children’s movies, which is a wonderful thing! For children and their life-hardened grownups.
Thank you for normalising sobbing at children’s movies! Inside Out 2 at the cinema was brutal.
I even found myself welling up to the Moana soundtrack on the school run and trying to hide it from my bemused children. Those soaring, hopeful songs 😭
I get emotional every time I watch live theatre. Even if the play isn't particularly good, I always think about how this is literally a dream come true for the people on the stage. They worked so hard and they are getting to do the thing that they most want to do and are inviting people to watch them. It always makes me misty.