There was a Steven Spielberg movie some years back that wan't all that great, but it had a scene in it that I really liked and it stuck with me for years. I know he is a liberal weenie, and he uses a lot of formulaic hooks to get his watchers, but he has a knack for capturing kid experiences in his films.
In this one, a young girl has a pet canary that she is completely into (she wanted the canary more than anything) and the canary is found dead in the cage. The loss would be devastating to the little girl who is obviously not emotionally prepared for death, so he mother is going to flush the canary and swap in a new one from the pet store.
What I love is the camera work: The toilet bowl is shown, and the dead bird is lowered head first into the frame of view held by two adult fingers, descending slowly towards the inevitable flush into eternity.
As the camera slowly pans, you see the open mouthed girl who had come home early from school standing in the doorway open mouthed as shown below!
The scene immediately cuts to the entire family including the dog, complete with kneeled prayers, clasped hands, and bowed heads, with a little grave mound and cross marker!
Heh, as soon as they cross themselves, say "Amen" and stand solemnly up, the little girl looks up at her mom with a big smile and says exuberantly "Can we get a goldfish???"
As the scene ends, while the focus is on the little girl's face, in the background, you can see the family's Golden Retriever furiously excavating the newly dug grave in search of a dead canary snack!
I loved it...I thought it was a brilliantly done scene! Well...the anecdote is at least loosely related to goldfish!