Unmarked spoilers are ahead, per Spoilers Off rule.
- It's a sobering moment to see Pollyanna snap at Mrs Snow for thinking only about dying all the time. Put yourself in the perspective of this young girl who's lost both her parents, who by all rights should have grown old and lived full lives; to see a fairly healthy old woman with more time thinking of nothing but her own death must be agonizing.
- It's low key but the way Pollyanna is treated when she first arrives in Harrington Falls; no one shows her any kindness and treats her more as an annoyance, all while Pollyanna is desperately trying to make the best of the situation (bear in mind she's here because she's lost her parents and has had to move across continents). It's not until she covers for Nancy that she gets her first friend.
- When Aunt Polly's façade breaks after Edmund has told her "you can give anything but love." It's the only time in the movie we see her cry.
- Not to mention Polly's Heel Realization after the accident. She even calls back to the above line."Hope? What that child really needed was love. And that's something I never gave her."
- Aunt Polly vainly tries to reach Pollyanna after her accident, declaring that she does love her as if she were her own child. But it's too little too late, and Pollyanna turns away from her aunt. Afterwards, Polly says in anguish to Reverend Ford that she wishes the girl had never come here. The guilt of how she mistreated her niece is crippling.
- The scene after the accident is quite sobering too. It's just a simple shot of Angelica slowly opening the curtains, but it's obvious even she's trying to hold it together.
- The look on Nancy's face when Polly gives everyone the news that Pollyanna's paralyzed. You can tell she's kicking herself for not bringing Pollyanna home herself or doing anything that might have prevented the accident. She was Pollyanna's first friend, and she's taking the accident the hardest.
- In the otherwise heartwarming finale, there are a couple of sad moments:
- Tilly the cook bids Pollyanna goodbye in tears, saying the house will be "miserable" without her.
- Mrs Snow does put on a show of calling everyone "a bunch of ninnies, thinking a person couldn't get well" but her face falls as soon as Pollyanna turns away from her - showing just how much this has affected her. And as noted above, all she has to hear about the accident is "she fell trying to grab her doll" and she'll be killing herself with guilt.
