Cirque du Soleil/Tear Jerker

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  • Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. Oh man, this one had several.
    • The second scene has "Childhood", set to images of happy animated fantasy lands, with another screen showing child MJ staring out the window, with a sad facial expression.
    • The "Ben" sequence is cute and very funny, but hearing his child voice is just heartbreaking.
    • "Gone Too Soon". The floating animal heads and colours, not to mention the protagonist with a desperate face reaching out to one of the dancers.
    • "Human Nature" counts as this, Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Visual Effects of Awesome all at once. The Sparkle Light Suits, the multicoloured twinklings, and the image of MJ staring out the window as a kid.
    • "Heal the World", oh man... his "you're always in my heart" speech said through sobs will incinerate you completely. just beautiful and tearjerking.
  • Episode 12 of Solstrom, entitled "Wind of Life" has the scene where the toy shop owner celebrates the birthday of his favourite toy. It may sound bizarre and a tad narmy, but it's an incredibly heartbreaking scene.
  • Amaluna has the Chinese pole scene, where Romeo and Miranda are separated and the Chinese pole climbing by Romeo represents his crossing into the Despair Event Horizon. The moving music doesn't help matters either.
    • Another moment in said show is when Romeo is sent back down to earth by the tight wire acrobats in purgatory, only to be trapped by Miranda's pet lizard.
  • After the "Battlefield" sequence in KA, the evil Counselor tries to comfort his equally wicked son, who has been blinded by his own explosives and is wailing in pain. The actors put so much emotion into it. It's telling that it's been dialed down since then, because it was probably Narm for other audience members.
  • The opening sequences of Quidam, "O", and Corteo have deeply moving music, and on top of that, in the last example it's for a gathering for the dead protagonist (the show is his deathdream as he ascends to Heaven).
  • The curtain call for Quidam: Most of the cast emerges as the Chienne Blanches -- who are perpetually dressed in white, with face-concealing cowls, as befits the title's Latin meaning of faceless passerby. And then they remove them.
  • Another "O" moment is the "wedding" transition: A bevy of cheery brides and grooms cavort onstage until the music to the melancholy "Nostalgie" kicks in, the lights change, and a woman pushing a laundry cart takes the veils from each bride and tosses them in the cart as the dancers grow still. Combined with the business in the foreground between the Little Dancer and the two men who have fallen for her -- Guifa and the slightly grotesque Eugen -- climaxing when Guifa gives Eugen back the flower he hopes to woo her with, it's so sad, leading to a most welcome bit of Mood Whiplash when the mood revives for the Russian Swings act for the couples.
  • "Ninkou Latora", the song from Dralion that plays during the double trapeze. Towards the end of the song (4:03), the music gets so intense and powerful that it just suddenly floods you with emotion before calming down. Its even more tearjerking when set to the visuals on the DVD.
  • The filmed performance of Alegria, the climax of the Russian Bars act has one of the acrobats taking Little Tamir into his arms and holding him as the acrobat is flipped into the air and executes a perfect landing on the bar. The sheer trust and tenderness in the moment, such as the acrobat giving the child a little encouraging hug beforehand, is poignant. (This moment appears in the opening credits of the dramatic film inspired by the show as well.)
  • The ending of KOOZA is both heartwarming and gutwrenching, as both the Innocent and the audience have to accept that the adventure must come to a close.
  • The very end of Love is a clip of John Lennon laughing and saying "This is Johnny Lennon just sayin' good night to ya's all, and God bless ya's." There's just something about it...