10 More Important Movie Characters Who Were Killed Off Screen
5. Ellie - Up
Despite producing movies primarily aimed at kids, Disney and in particular its Pixar branch has no problem with soul-crushing, heart-breaking scenes. The opening 10 minutes of Up are at the very top of this list as the film went in way harder than anyone could have expected it to.
Throughout the bulk of the story of Up, Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) is a grumpy old man, but the opening sequence showing his life from youth through to his later years proves that he wasn't always this way. He was happy with his childhood sweetheart Ellie, his best friend from when they met as infants to when she died when they were old and grey.
Throughout the montage, which by showing how happy Carl once was informed why he was now so unhappy in the present, he and his wife went through a lot. In particular, the couple struggled with infertility, and ultimately Ellie's failing health.
In one frame she is reminiscing with Carl in her hospital bed, and in the next, he is sitting by her coffin following her funeral. This has to go down as one of the saddest moments in Pixar history.