go, go, go not cry, cry, cry

**spoiler for the Simpson Movie and the Harry Potter series --be warned** [also, +10 points if you can get the title reference :D]

I won't be the first to admit it, but I am in fact a crier. When I get overwhelmed, way too tired, or lose something precious, I turn on the faucet for a few minutes and let loose a good relieving cry. And after that I'm fine.

However, real-life events aside, there are not many media that make me cry. I've read loads of books (no Nicholas Sparks, thank you) and the only one that's made me have a sniffle was The Amber Spyglass. I didn't even shed a tear for now out-of-the-closet** Dumbledore or Sirius Black when I read the Harry Potter books.

Non-animated TV shows and movies fail as tear-jerkers for me as well (again, I've never seen The Notebook, but that's okay). Even in the saddest of events my mind just acknowledges, "ooh, that sucks. Really hope that never happens to me," and continues to watch the rest of the melodrama play out.

But animated movies? Holy Kleenex, Batman, grab the tissue box. For some reason these get me. Not all of them, but there are a few that have made me fight back tears in fear of looking very silly in front of my friends.

Last night, I watched the Simpson Movie on DVD with my friends. I had seen it before in theater once, and I knew there was one part I needed to be wary of watery eyes--the scene where Marge and the family leave Homer and Marge tapes over their wedding video.

I remember almost letting a few tears leak in theater, but I had to discreetly blot my nearly overflowing eyes even the second time through. It's just so unbelievably sad (granted Homer really did screw up that time). The way Marge's voice sounds even more scratchy than usual because you know she's been crying her eyes out before she recorded over the tape. How purely happy Homer and Marge seem in the last, not-taped-over segment of their wedding video, and how dark things have turned out to be. The way Homer seems so lost without his family. Just the whole way the seen is presented and the terrible feelings of separation that come with it... for some reason, it seemed more real than any super-sob story Grey's Anatomy or the OC could come up with.

I also remember watching the South Park Movie and being so surprised at how it could tug at the heartstrings. I wasn't brought to tears, but I felt so incredibly sad when Gregory died during La Resistance's raid, croaking his final words of, "La Resistance lives on." I mean, this is South Park. The potty-humor, make-fun-of-everyone, silly satirical cartoon. I was supposed to be laughing and rolling my eyes at the crazy, culturally-pointed jokes, not feeling upset that Gregory died.

Maybe that's why animated media is more emotionally effective than non-animated media for me. I have some kind of subconscious expectation of funny so when the sad moments come around they're more effective than usual. But, realistic videogames make me feel for the characters and story way more than any non-animated TV show or movie, like Ocarina of Time, many a Final Fantasy game, and Shadow of the Colossus.

Or, who knows, maybe all of this is because I'm a girl and like to talk about those icky "feelings" things.