Tear Jerker / Lassie

• The original Lassie. The dealbreaker was a sequence in the middle of the film where a kindly old traveling tinsmith takes Lassie in for a while. The old man has a fluffy little dog, Toots that is his only companion. When thieves attack him, Lassie and Toots rush to his defense and Toots is brutally killed. And then Lassie LEAVES THE OLD MAN! Although she had to—otherwise we wouldn't have had the even bigger TJ at the end when a depressed Joe comes out of school, and looks up to see a beat-up Lassie waiting under the same tree she has always been.