Tear Jerker / The Rescuers

Kid's got it rough.

• The song "The Journey" during the beginning credits. Penny is dropping bottles to be rescued, and that bottle makes it through the sea, past huge boats and storms, all alone, and then reaches New York... That brave, brave bottle... *sniffles* While the bottle isn't truly feeling, being an inanimate object, the song is from its point of view, personifying it with sad lyrics such as "I'm lost at sea without a friend".
• After Penny doesn't get adopted while other kids are, Rufus tries to comfort her with a poem called "Faith is a Bluebird", likening faith to a bluebird in that it's something which is present despite the fact that one can't touch it. She is convinced of her own homeliness nevertheless, making it all the more devastating that a child her age could have such heavy self-image issues.
  • When Madame Medusa exploits this, telling Penny "What makes you think anyone would want a homely little girl like you?". Poor Penny tears up afterwards. Ouch.
    • Cue "Someone's Waiting For You", which is a slow, mournful song that's reassuring Penny that even though she's currently crying sadly, somebody is waiting to love her.
    • Even Bernard is close to tears himself upon seeing her, as Bianca comforts him.
• Take a close look at the room Penny's staying in during her time in Devil's Bayou. There is a poster on the wall with stick figures, depicting her with a mom and dad. Don't cry, don't cry..
  • Could either be her actual mom and dad (if she remembers them), or an imagined drawing of the parents she wishes she had. The latter is a bit less heart-wrenching, but not much.
  • What makes it even more heart-wrenching is that if you really squint, the figures in question bear a slight resemblance to Medusa and Snoops. Poor little Penny probably thought that those two were the closest thing she would ever get to actual parents.
• Penny's tearful breakdown after she prays for someone to find her and get her out of that horrible position. Granted, she'd handled the situation admirably up until that point by trying to think positive. Then again, there's only so much one can take in such a situation.
  Penny: Please let someone find my bottle, there's a message in it. Because running away isn't working. Amen. [Addressing her bear] Don't worry, Teddy, we'll be... alright... [collapses into tears]
  • Fortunately, Bernard and Bianca have just made it to her room and are able to reassure her and help her to calm down.
• Medusa using Teddy as leverage to get Penny to go back into the cave—even beyond Penny's deep emotional connection to Teddy, and the total cruelty it takes to threaten a child with the destruction of a toy to which they're obviously deeply attached, the bear is quite literally everything that Penny has. And when Medusa gets what she wants, she plans to use Teddy as a way to smuggle the Devil's Eye out of the bayou, effectively separating the two for good!
• Now that you think about it, pretty much every scene involving Penny is a tearjerker due to just how much hell she goes through this movie. You just want to hug her...