Heartwarming / A Little Princess (1995)

• The movie's climax when Sara's amnesiac father meets his daughter as she is anxiously hiding from Miss Minchin. As Sara desperately tries to make him remember her, she is grabbed by the police, who believe Minchin's lies of Sara being an orphan and a thief. Ram Dass's influence helps restore her father's memory so at the last second, he charges outside and roars, "SARA!" to save the day.
  • Sara then holds out her arm to Becky, standing nearby, so she can run over and join in the hug.
• After Ram Dass's "magic", when Sara and Becky wake up, expecting a day of cold and hunger, only to find warm, soft blankets, hot food, and beautiful decorations. Their happiness is tangible.
• The friendships amongst the girls are also heartwarming to behold, particularly the arc between Sara and Becky. Sara starts out refusing to think of Becky as inferior because of their differing status, and reaches out to her in a charmingly childlike way. When Sara's fortunes are reversed, it is Becky who pulls her though the ordeal. By the end, they consider each other sisters, and it seems that Captain Crewe is happy to support this: in the movie's closing scene, Becky appears hand-in-hand with Sara, wearing clothes just as fine, and sits up alongside her in the pony-trap (whereas in the book Becky is only kept on as Sara's personal attendant after the latter's return to wealth). Almost equally heartwarming is the support of Sara's true friends among the pupils at the school as they gradually overcome their fear and confusion to reconnect with her.
• Sara teaches Ermengarde to speak a sentence of French, which she demonstrates to her father when he visits. The man starts proudly telling everyone about it.
• Sara and Lavinia burying the hatchet, culminating in a hug in the ending. What's more is that Lavinia also says goodbye to Becky, treating the girl like a friend instead of a servant, and takes Lottie by the hand - implying she'll look out for the girl like Sara did.
• In the 1995 film, the scene from the novel where Sara gives hot buns to a street urchin is replaced by Sara giving a Chelsea bun to a poor woman and her three children (one of whom is just a baby) selling flowers. In return, the girls give Sara a yellow rose, saying it's "for the Princess" as the mother bows.
  • Sara later anonymously gives the rose to Mr. Randolph next door, whose son has just been reported killed in battle.
• In the epilogue, Minchin is fired, and the new headmaster of the seminary is the kindly Mr. Randolph. There is also the implication of an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, considering that Captain Crewe must have shared some very choice words with Minchin over Sara's abusive treatment.
• Before departing, Captain Crewe takes a moment to thank Mr. Randolph for taking care of him during his amnesia. Mr. Randolph in turn thanks Captain Crewe for trying to save John in the trenches. While it doesn't bring his son back, at least Mr. Randolph can have the closure of knowing what happened and that someone tried to help John.
• It's extremely subtle but as Sara is making her escape from Minchin and the police across a thin wooden board in the pouring rain, Minchin is visibly horrified both times the girl slips and has a moment of clear relief when Sara manages to pull herself up to safety. For all Minchin detests Sara and wants her arrested, it is bizarrely heartwarming to see her, when push comes to shove, being genuinely concerned for Sara's safety if only because she doesn't want Sara's death on her conscience.
• The beautiful moment when Sara dances in the snow with Ram Dass.
• Before leaving the school at the end, Sara gives the Emily doll as a gift to the other girls, and says that if they speak to her, she'll "get the message" to them, and if they hug her then they'll really be getting a hug from Sara herself. Ermengarde declares "then we'll hug her every day" and gives Sara one big Glomp.