Cartoon favourites Mike Wazowski and James P Sullivan return to cinemas as competing students in Monsters University, as the prequel to 2001’s Monsters Inc. is released today.
But will it have you reaching for the tissues and blaming your 'allergies' as cinematic moments from the House Of Mouse subsidiary have in the past?
Mirror Online takes a look at some at some of the most heartbreakingly emotional scenes from Pixar's finest - and we're not afraid to admit that real men can cry when it comes to the likes of Finding Nemo and Toy Story.
Remember to check out our reviews from film critics David Edwards and Mark Adams, too - do you agree with what they have to say about Monsters University?
1) Toy Story â€" Buzz realises he’s just a toy (1995)
Before he was a best-selling gift â€" and responsible for a Beyoncé lyric â€" Buzz Lightyear was simply a deluded toy.
It’s in evil Sid’s house, just after watching a commercial featuring himself, that Buzz’s whole world comes crashing down, as he tries to prove he’s a real Space Ranger. But, just like the majority of the hopes and dreams conjured up by human nature, he fails to reach the stars and slams back down to Earth with a soul-destroyingly painful thud.
He’s not the only person who will have been taken in by the false claims of advertising and by the end of the movie, he’s at peace with the fact he’s “just a toy†â€" and he’s OK with that.
2) Toy Story 2 â€" Jessie’s backstory (1999)
If the highest accolade the world can pay you is having a song covered by Steps, then Toy Story 2 composer Randy Newman can consider himself truly blessed.
Certainly more so than the subject of his Oscar-nominated song When She Loved Me, which reveals the true heartbreak of loss and the pain of watching someone grow up.Â
When they initially meet, you believe Woody and cowgirl Jessie are the perfect match, but her lingering resentment, born of the loss of “her†Andy and played out in front of our eyes means, for perhaps the first time, you properly side against Woody. Because just as Emily left Jessie, Woody will, too.
3) Monsters Inc â€" Kitty has to go (2001)
When the door to Boo’s world is finally put through the chipper, you’re glad: because it would be nigh on impossible to put yourself thorough this heartache once again.
Having been her father figure and teacher, Sulley has to learn the hardest lesson of all, in that sometimes, you have to let things go.
Despite the slightly cynical nature of the toys handed to her Kitty (a squeaky Nemo and Jessie from Toy Story 2), it would appear one small element of the original story idea remained: that each monster represented a fear, and as that was conquered, the monster would disappear.
For Sulley, that fear was putting someone else first.
4) Finding Nemo â€" Coral dies (2003)
Believe it or not, Finding Nemo is the best-selling DVD of all time.
Not only that, it was the first Pixar film to show blood on screen, which is used to great comic effect during the chase with “vegetarian†great white shark, Bruce (a nod to the mechanical shark used in Jaws, fact fans).
But it’s the bloodshed we don’t see which is the most poignant, as clown fish Marlin’s wife, Coral, sacrifices herself in the hope her eggs will survive.
This incident differed from the original story, which had young fish Nemo as part of the barracuda attack: by making him the only egg which survives not only gives rise to his “lucky finâ€, but also provides Marlin with his reasoning for being so over-protective of his only son.
5) The Incredibles â€" Insurance Inc (2004)
OK, this doesn’t tug on the heartstrings like a dead fish or giving up a life-long friend: no, this is included due to its frighteningly close proximity to reality.
The gigantic Bob Parr, over-worked, under-paid, stifled by “the manâ€, bound by red tape and trampled by the drudgery of his everyday life, snaps.
His face at the end â€" a mixture of horror at what he’s done and shame at who he’s let down â€" lets you know this isn’t the first time it’s happened, as his menial employment and descent into mediocrity â€" never befitting a hero â€" once more gets the better of him.
And while most of us physically can’t send our boss flying through several walls, who could prevent an evil smirk spreading across their face when someone as beaten down as them can â€" and does?
6) Wall-E â€" Wall-E and EVE dance
Pixar’s penchant for adorning inanimate objects with human characteristics is well versed through toys, monsters and fish, but Wall-E was slightly different, as he had no one to teach him human emotions.
The extent of the abandoned robot’s learning is perfectly captured when he and the object of his affections, EVE, partake in a beautifully choreographed, impromptu dance, tumbling in unison like the Red Arrows.
It had all the hallmarks of an old-fashioned grand Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers number, while delighting a more modern generation.
And â€" as a unique entrant here â€" it also proved Pixar doesn’t always cause you to well up because something’s sad. Quite the opposite.
7) Wall-E â€" Wall-E forgets EVE (2008)
The main storyline of Pixar’s ninth offering could have been very dark indeed: an abandoned planet inhabited by the one robot they forgot to turn off.
Their argument was this vision of Earth, rather than being a terrifying wasteland, was made a more childish imagining with piles of rubbish instead of the burned-out shells of buildings, but it’s the recurring theme of memory, characterised by the artifacts WALL-E picks up and his own loss of sentinel thought, which helps provide the film’s lip-trembling moment.
As EVE greets the revived waste-collecting robot, he turns away having returned to his original programming.
Yet the all-encompassing power of a kiss brings his memory back, proving that, just like the Earth, all is not yet lost.
8) Up â€" Opening credits (2009)
Even for a studio well versed in actively extracting tears from its audiences, Carl and Ellie’s story was something different.
Within the first few minutes, we witness more love and loss than a lot of people enjoy in a lifetime. Through a wordless flashback, beautifully constructed and rendered in stark contrast to the dark subject matter, we see Carl’s anchor fall apart as she’s told she can’t bear children, then re-live his transformation into the grumpy widower who’s utterly deflated as his soul mate passes away, all accompanied by an Osacar-winning score.
Carl literally suffers the lowest low, so he can experience the ultimate high.
9) Toy Story 3 â€" The Incinerator (2010)
In perhaps Pixar’s most tear-jerking entry to their pupil-moistening cannon, the near-death experience Andy’s toys go through at the hands of Lots-O-Huggin’ Bear (who’s own back story could easily be included as a stand-alone entry) is the most harrowing scene in the entire trilogy.
Sure, the toys have experienced peril before, but it has more often than not been mild and comically tinged: this time, there seems to be no escaping the inevitable as they slide relentlessly to their demise.
So, what lesson can Pixar be trying to teach? Perhaps, instead of kicking and screaming, as the toys slowly hold each other’s hands, they reveal there is a quiet and dignified way to accept the ultimate fate.
10) Toy Story 3 â€" Andy gives up his toys (2010)
“Now, you’ve gotta promise to take good care of these guys: they mean a lot to me.â€
In that one sentence, Pixar could well have been speaking to itself, as characters whom we’ve been through so much and grown up with, are handed down to a new generation. Because these toys don’t just mean a lot to college-bound Andy: they’re as much our property as they are his.
And despite his age, he still can’t quite let go all the way, protectively recoiling when Bonnie reaches for “her cowboyâ€, Woody.
And in true Pixar style bringing everything to the perfect conclusion, as the camera pans up, we see a gorgeous blue sky, punctuated by clouds in the exact shape and formation as the wallpaper in Andy’s bedroom.
Peerless.
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