WARNING: Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to Heartwarming Moments pages.
Previews
- The first official still of Freddy Freeman and Billy Batson/Shazam happily chugging sodas together is almost too adorable for words. Even when turned into an adult superhero, Billy is still a young boy inside.
The Film
"All hands on deck."
- Billy comes off as a snarky loner, but the moment he transforms the goofy, pure-hearted kid he really is comes out. Being Shazam allows Billy to be himself.
- While part of it comes from the fact that he is still a kid who isn’t aware yet of the dangers, stress, and sometimes Being Good Sucks that comes with being a hero it’s a nice change of pace to see Billy be absolutely stoked to become a superhero.
- Darla immediately views Billy as her brother and greets him with a hug.
- Heck, Darla herself is a walking CMOH. In a world full of troubled heroes and people full of snark she's the sweetest, most genuinely kindhearted girl in perhaps the entire DCEU.
- One of the cutest moments in the movie is the part where she congratulates herself after the other siblings find out Billy is Shazam because she kept his secret and they found out without her telling.Darla: I'm a good sister!
- When Billy tells Darla that he's not her brother on the first day of school, Freddy immediately goes to console Darla and walks her to class. Just another example of how close the Vasquez foster kids have gotten with one another, and how kind-hearted Freddy is under the Deadpan Snarker exterior.
- What's more, when Freddy is being bullied, his foster siblings do their best to come to his aid.
- Billy clearly feels bad about what he said to Darla, but it's somewhat heartwarming when you realize this was his way of protecting her. He didn't want her to get too attached to him before he left.
- The Vasquez couple is "foster parenting done right" incarnate. The foster home Billy is sent to appears to be a great place. The parents are friendly, supportive, encouraging and understanding, and all of the kids there seem relatively happy. It probably doesn't hurt that both of the parents grew up in the foster system, and so understand what the kids are going through.
- Victor comforts Rosa when the latter fears Billy's run away for good. Not only are they "foster parenting done right", they are "marriage done right".
- Freddy is a Hero-Worshipper, with all the Superman (and some Batman) memorabilia he has at home. It shows once more how Superman (and to an extension the Justice League) has become a beacon to the world.
- It's hard not to notice that the superpower Freddy, who can barely walk, is most fixated on is flight.
- Superman's sacrifice then the Justice League's actions have had the most positive outcomes on the population. Well-intentioned superbeings like Billy-as-Shazam don't face suspicion or rejection anymore, quite the contrary with him showing off his powers to amazed crowds in the open and becoming Philadelphia's new celebrity.
- After Brett and Burke hit Freddy with their truck, they make fun of Freddy and start beating him up. Cue Billy jumping in to defend his new foster brother. Not Shazam. Billy.
- And it's partly this reason why Wizard Shazam to choose him out of everyone else.
- Quite a bit later, as Billy and Freddy bicker while walking down the school hallways, the Breyers show up and start menacing Freddy again, with Burke even grabbing him by the shirt. In a very quick moment that's easy to miss, Billy instantly steps up next to Freddy and in their faces, looking ready to jump in and fight back if Burke punches Freddy. It shows that, for all Billy tries to act like a loner and keep his distance, his first instinct—even before going through Character Development, and even when they're arguing—is to defend his best friend when he needs it.
- When before Shazam, who claims he's been searching for good people to receive his powers, a heavy-hearted Billy could've said there were no more good people. But instead, he says he's not a hero. This indicates he knows there are still good people out there, and without saying it, he's acknowledging his foster family are such people.
- Kind of subtle, but the fact that Billy immediately goes to Freddy for help when he first transforms, not only proving that he trusts his new foster brother to keep his secret, but that he also trusts Freddy to be enough of a "hero fan" to know what to do.
- Before that, Freddy screams when he sees Shazam. Hearing this, Victor wonders what's going on. To cover for him, Freddy claims he feels it was his fault Billy ran away. Believing this, Victor consoles his foster son that it's not his fault. Awwww!
- When Freddy places his hand on the lighting bolt directly over Shazam's heart, aww...
- When explaining to Darla why she has to keep Billy's superhero identity a secret, Billy offers that keeping secrets is what "good little sisters do". The heartwarming part comes when one realizes it's his way of reconciling with Darla and making up for his earlier remark about not being her brother.
- She keeps her promise, not on a bribe, but on the principle of being a good sister. Can you ask for a sweeter, more pure motivation to keep a secret?
- Her absolute delight at having kept her promise and not tell when her other foster siblings (sans Freddy) figures out Billy is Shazam.
- A minor detail but Billy casually and randomly using his lightning powers to charge people's phones (even if he overdoes them and causes them to explode) shows how genuinely good-hearted he is and how enthusiastic he is about being a hero.
- The fact that Freddy wants Shazam's lair to have seven bedrooms, one for each of his foster siblings. He might be Secretly Selfish but it speaks volumes how immediate it is that he thinks of his brothers and sisters when given the opportunity to improve their lives.
- Count them again: Billy, Freddy, Darla, Mary, Eugene, Pedro. There's a room for each kid, but the seventh room? He wanted a room for Victor and Rosa. He wasn't going to leave anyone behind.
- Freddy rescues the Bryer Brothers from the falling Ferris Wheel. Granted, he does it by giving them suitcase wedgies. But still...
- When Sivana searches for Shazam/Billy, Freddy calls out for Billy amidst the chaos. It may not have been the smartest move (and it got him captured by Sivana), but given he had just recently had an argument with Billy, it's nice to see Freddy put all that aside to make sure Billy was okay.
- Billy (as Shazam) saving Mary's life when she crosses a street without looking, showing some brotherly instincts to protect her. He realizes that she's crying for some reason and takes the time to hear out her sorrows about how conflicted she is between an out-of-state college and staying with her foster home. His advice may be misguided at best, but even under the guise of Shazam, it's surprisingly human of Billy to talk with her like any brother to a sister.
- Mary feeling sad about leaving the Vasquez's Foster home speaks volumes of how loving and caring they've been towards her.
- Billy even saved her before he realized it was Mary. His first instinct upon seeing someone, anyone obliviously walk into danger is to rush in and save them. Despite all his cynicism, no matter how he might not believe it himself, Billy is a genuine hero at heart.
- After Pedro finds Billy's annotations, Eugene successfully hacks a government database to find Billy's biological parents.
- After the disappointing reunion with his biological mother, Billy refers to his foster family as his real family.
- Also, Billy always had trouble flying as Shazam. As soon as he lets go of his mother and relies on himself and his "real family", he's able to do it without any trouble whatsoever, complete with the iconic Wham Shot as he takes off from the roof. It means he's finally found closure.
- Although an overall sobering and heartbreaking scene, it's still nice when Billy gives his biological mother his compass.
- The first thing Billy does when he answers Freddie's call, before finding out that it's Sivanna, is apologize for yelling at him and admit that he was right.
- The Shazam family. During the battle with Thaddeus, Billy is coerced numerous times to place his hand on Shazam's staff and speak his name. What does he do instead? He remembers Shazam's speech that his siblings await him and the thrones. So he knocks Thaddeus off, has his adoptive siblings hold the staff and gives them Shazam's powers.
- Imagine this especially from Freddy's point of view. He's disabled, is constantly bullied, has a love of superheroes, watched his newfound foster brother become one but also given in to the more narcissistic side... then has seen him redeem himself. Then his brother gives him his powers. It's intensely funny AND satisfying to watch him have so much fun as Hero Freddy in the climax.
- Elvis Presley's favorite superhero as a child was Captain Marvel Junior. When Freddie shows up as the character in question, he sports a pompadour just like the King's.
- How Billy signals his siblings to grab the staff: "All hands on deck."
- And remember where Billy's mother abandoned him: at a fairground. Now where does Billy join the Vasquez family and make them into the Shazam family?
- When the siblings all transform, we see the portly Pedro and scrawny Eugene admiring their macho bodies and the handicapped Freddy is floating.
- The pure joy in Freddy's voice when he realizes he's flying is absolutely adorable.
- During the final battle, Shazam pauses to give a scared little girl a stuffed tiger. When it is over and the citizens cheer the heroes, the girl is seen cuddling the tiger.
- Even more heartwarming when one recalls Billy wanted a stuffed tiger when he was a kid. He wanted to give the little girl the very thing he wanted as a child.
- While in her Shazam form, Darla tells the Mall Santa her name. And then adds she's been good all year.
- Upon defeating Sivana, Shazam Billy delivers a line that sums up his Character Development:"Here's the thing about power: What good's power if you got nobody to share it with?"
- Billy/Shazam decides he and his foster siblings should watch over the Rock of Eternity and make it their new superhero lair, in place of the Wizard Shazam and his brothers and sisters. This feels like the Rock of Eternity's fate is coming full circle, going from being a sad empty realm with one lonely wizard occupant left to being a promising new lair for 6 new heroes.
- Adding onto this, a deleted scene
featuring the Shazam family actually sitting on the thrones shows Mary pointing out that there's still one missing but Darla assures that no matter who fills that spot, they're an automatic part of the family.
- Adding onto this, a deleted scene
- Billy leading the family in their dinner ritual at the end.
- What makes it especially heartwarming is how Billy announces to his Foster Family he's come to finally accept them as his real family. Rosa Vasquez, who had been conflicted with the insecurity of being a good foster to Billy, tears up with joy and gratitude.
- Earlier in the movie, Billy let Freddy down by not showing up as Shazam at the school lunchroom. In the final scene, Freddy is sitting alone when the rest of his family joins him. Shazam then enters to wow the kids and announces "hope you don't mind but I invited a friend." Cue a gasp of shock from the kids as we see a certain caped figure enter, with a very familiar leitmotif playing.
- In between, he makes it known to the students that Freddy taught him everything he knows about being a hero, so they know what an awesome kid his foster brother is.
- This is one for Superman as well as Billy. While we don't know how Billy got him to agree, the mere fact he finds the time to visit Freddy just to be kind is extremely heartwarming.
- How does Billy know Superman and get him to agree to show up at the school? Well, considering Superman's job as Clark Kent the Reporter, he's probably among the first people to hear about the news of a new superhero and probably felt obligated to meet-and-greet him.
- So far in the DCEU, most of what we've seen of Superman is all business. Even when he's inspiring hope, he's doing so in a very grand, high-stakes kind of way. A common complaint throughout the decades - one it seems the DCEU has been trying to dodge since Man of Steel - is that Supes is too much of a "boy scout", but arguably the better way to counter that complaint than making him Darker and Edgier is to own it, make it genuine, and show him doing smaller and more personal good deeds like this.
- And taking it a step further, one of the biggest complaints about DCEU Superman is that he's never shown doing one of those "small things", like the famous strip where he happily talks a teenager out of suicide. And finally he does something very close. The fact that Freddy now has superpowers doesn't nullify it, especially when you consider how much Freddy idolizes Superman.
- Billy very well could have sought Superman out himself. In Superman Billy gains an experienced adult mentor with a similar power set who can help him learn to use his own powers most effectively. Superman in turn gains an ally with similar powers who can resist kryptonite and magic-based attacks—nullifying Superman's two main weaknesses. This is how the relationship between the two characters plays out in the comics on the occasions they encounter each other (although Superman did call out the Wizard for placing such a heavy burden on a young child). Bonus: if Billy needs an adult cosigner/witness who can back up his adult form in business deals, enter Clark Kent...
- Considering Clark was considered a bit of an outsider during his youth, being able to walk into a school and receive nothing but admiration must have made this moment special for him too.
- Another thing is that Freddy is perfectly aware of how divisive Superman's presence has been so far. He has articles about the fight in Metropolis and knows about how controversial his mere existence was. And yet he idolizes him anyway and sees him as a hero.
- A small one but when the kids are trying to escape the lair, Shazam!Billy is at the back of the group, saying things like, "Darla, stay in front! Freddy, keep up!" and making sure that nobody gets lost or left behind.
