Falling overboard and the part that gets me

The part that really gets to me is at the very end when the bird is saying to Feivel, .. "That is more of America, ...you will see it some day....some day... ". Or it is something along those lines.

What is so touching about that moment is that in the background there is this music playing. It sounds like a choir making " ooohing " and "ahhhhing" sounds, or they might be humming. The music is sad and hopeful at the same time.

Hearing the bird say those lines to him and listening to that music at the same time, makes me reflect on everything Fievel and his family had gone through and how much worse it could have been.

Think about it. Leaving Russia had to have been sad and terrifying as it was. Then to lose a child in that manner.....falling overboard. I can't imagine how the parents felt immediately after that happened.

The father was probably beating himself up for not doing more. But what could he do? If he jumped overboard with him, then they would both be in danger and he would be abandoning the rest of his family.

I have spent a lot of time on boats and I know that if you fall overboard at night in seas that rough, there is no way anyone can help you unless they see you go over and never take their eyes off you. That is a much easier task when the water is calm enough, and it is light enough out. And the person who sees you has to be able to get the captain's attention while still keeping their eyes on you.

So this poor father was helpless. Imagine him going back and telling the mother. Imagine the shock and depression and horror they must have been feeling for the rest of the journey, especially when they realize nothing can be done about it or that they had missed their opportunity to even try. They were probably wondering..."what if we just stayed in Russia"...."what is the point of being excited about going to America now".

So when they reunite at the end and that sad powerful music plays as they are flying on the birds looking at "the rest of America" on the horizon, you feel happy for them but you are also sad, realizing how serious things could have been had they not found him. And I didn't even go into how terrifying things had to have been for Fievel, falling overboard, and then wondering around a large city, running into a lot of bad people (mice) who don't care about him, cats, having even more near death experiences etc....thinking he might not ever find his family again.

Anyways, when that chorus hums at the very end, I have always cried. As a 30-something I just watched this movie once again yesterday, and cried the rest of the day, more than ever before, with that sad music playing in my head. I started thinking about people in my own past who died, people I should have been nicer too, people in my own life now I don't appreciate enough and how awful it would be to lose them.

Why am I letting an animated film get to me like this?????