History JerkWithAHeartOfGold / FIlm

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', while Foreman Spike is a massive bully to the Mario Bros., who left their original job specifically because he was a MeanBoss to them, he still remembers to pay as he's leaving the restaurant and [[spoiler:is the one who starts the cheers for them after they save Brooklyn]].

** Gogo is portrayed as a tough character who doesn't put up with anything and can come across as a jerk sometimes ("Don't mess it up."). However, we see that she genuinely cares for those close to her - she, along with the rest of the team, are interested in Hiro's microbots, she takes part in the video they send to Hiro [[spoiler: after Tadashi's death]], helps convince the others to capture Yokai for [[spoiler: Tadashi]], and even [[spoiler: gives Hiro a hug after Baymax shows him Tadashi's videos, something that is stated in the novelization as ''extremely'' unlike her]].

** General Posada is a bit of a jerk, being very strict with Maria and trying to make her decisions on who she'll marry for her, but he was sincerely saddened when [[spoiler: everyone thought Maria died and near the end of the film he accepted Manolo with open arms.]]

* Anastasia of ''{{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}}'' becomes this in the second and third films, especially after her HeelFaceTurn. She's ultimately forgiven by Cinderella because she believes her stepsister only mistreated her because she too has been verbally and emotionally abused by her mother and ultimately forced to mistreat Cinderella, solely as means of gaining access to the castle. In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk on]] [[ThePowerOfHate the other hand]], she [[spoiler: outright attempts [[MoralEventHorizon to]] [[CainAndAbel murder]] Cinderella, a ''[[LightIsGood Princess of Heart]]'',]] without ''any'' second thoughts.

* Kristoff in ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' is socially awkward and brutally honest with people, and when he helps Anna on her adventure, he becomes exasperated with her antics. After a while, he genuinely starts to care for her and even [[spoiler: falls in love with her]].

* ''Franchise/TheIncredibles''

** The Bog King is so much so that he comes across as the central antagonist for the first half of the movie. On top of being dark, ugly and generally terrifying to look at, he's grouchy and [[BadBoss cruel to his subjects]]. He even kidnaps a fairy princess! But then, he's a complete gentleman to said princess, and has his own reasons for his behavior. [[spoiler: And once he falls in love, he proves to be a very gentle and caring person]].

** Mr. Potato Head. In the first movie he is a big jerk to Woody, but he mellows out after being proven wrong about him...and getting married. In the [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory2 second]] and [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 third]] movies, he's much less of a jerkass.
** Woody himself is a rather [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example.]] He's an overall friendly, well-meaning guy but he has a tendency to be [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]], [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] and [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic.]]By the third movie however, he loses his selfish nature and [[NiceGuy the heart of gold has outgrown the jerk part.]]

[[AC:Live Action Films]]

** Ron is a sexist, egotistical jerk for much of the movie, but he is loyal to his friends, and ultimately [[spoiler: lets go of his sexism to fall in love with Veronica]].
** Wes Mantooth is Ron's arrogant, but [[SmallNameBigEgo less successful]] rival anchorman. He deeply loves his mother though, and while he hates Ron's guts, he respects him as a fellow journalist enough [[spoiler: to not push him into the bear pit, and to save his life in the sequel]].

-->'''Mel''': You divorce ''wives'', not children.

* In ''[[Film/DeadAir2009 Dead Air]]'', Radio DJ Logan Burnhardt and his on-air {{sidekick}} Gil enjoy teasing and even insulting their more [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} colorful]] callers, however both seek to do everything they can to help the citizens when the crisis starts, with Logan manning the airwaves to give advice to the survivors who are listening and Gil volunteering to venture out on his motorcycle to save Logan's wife.

** And Kong, who spent most of the movie antagonizing Francis. Upon seeing that [[spoiler: his mate was murdered horribly, he began to mourn for her and]] managed to stop being such an ass to Francis.

** ''Film/GodzillaVsSpacegodzilla'': Akira Yuki, who is driven to kill Godzilla and isn't the most sociable of people. However, he rescues one of the protagonists from a deadly spider and is part of the raid in freeing Miki. After Godzilla loses Little Godzilla in a crystal prison Yuki puts his revenge plan on hold since 'he's had enough of a bad day.'

* Lloyd Abbott in ''Film/InventingTheAbbotts'' is an almost comically stereotypical 1950s dad: callous, emotionless, with little respect for his wife and none for his daughters, and also a shameless snob although (or perhaps because) it's implied that he came of modest means himself. But when Doug stands up to him with respect and [[spoiler: lets him know he's in love with his daughter, Lloyd lets him know where to find her (and also reveals that he is innocent of the long-ago wrongdoing that Doug and his brother always thought had destroyed their family)]].

* Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/TheLadyVanishes'' has Gilbert Redman (film debut of Sir Creator/MichaelRedgrave), a good-humoured but arrogant young [[GentlemanAndAScholar scholar]] who is so committed to music that he thinks he is perfectly entitled to make a ruckus in his hotel room at the middle of the night and then threaten to ruin the heroine's reputation when she has him thrown out of his room. However, he is genuinely concerned when the heroine later claims that a fellow passenger has vanished from the train and helps her find the passenger, becoming FireForgedFriends with her in the process and [[spoiler: eventually [[RelationshipUpgrade falling in love]]]].

** Though all the members of the ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' are this to a certain degree, Rocket takes the grand prize. He starts out mocking the Xandarians and basically telling everybody how much of a rip he doesn't give about them, but when things get bleak he ultimately puts his life on the line to save all the people he said he didn't care about. Also, there's his friendship with Groot, which culminates in him [[spoiler: sobbing over Groot's apparent death]].

* Rachel Cooper from ''Film/{{TheNightOfTheHunter}}'' is an extremely strict and rough-around-the-edges woman who is outright shown ''spanking'' the children that she's recently adopted after they misbehave. Despite this, she is a deeply caring and protective mother figure for the children she's taken into her orphanage, and ''will not'' hesitate to pull her shotgun out on anybody who's threatened them; SinisterMinister Harry Powell learns this the hard way ''twice''.
* James, Martin's best friend in ''Nightwatch'' is a perfect example. He constantly gets Martin in trouble, [[spoiler: even getting him thrown out of a restaurant for receiving a handjob from a prostitute ]], but in the end [[spoiler: James gets handcuffed to a pipe and ends up sawing his thumb off to free himself and save Martin and Katherine ]].

* In ''Film/TheWaterboy'', Bobby Boucher's mother, Helen, spends most of the film being a jerk, convincing Bobby that everyone and everything around him is the devil. It turns out she was doing this [[spoiler: because her husband, Bobby's father, abandoned them years ago.]] When she realizes that keeping him from going to college and playing football is only self-destructive to him and the entire town, she lets up, tells Bobby the truth about his father, and accompanies him to the final game of the season.

** On a more extreme note, R.K. Maroon, who hires Eddie to take scandalous pictures of Jessica Rabbit with Marvin Acme to rile up Roger. [[spoiler: Only he really wanted to pictures to blackmail Acme into selling his warehouse so Maroon could also sell his studio to Cloverleaf. Once Maroon realized that doing so would result in the destruction of Toontown and the slaughter of Toons, he tries to make things right [[RedemptionEqualsDeath and gets killed for it]].]]

* The Venom Symbiote from ''Film/Venom2018'' is violent, aggressive, sadistic, and was using its host Eddie at first to bring its kind to Earth so that it can help them take over the planet with killing the people there or taking control of them over as hosts but however while spending time there it slowly sees that it prefers Earth because of its beauty and sees that Eddie along with the homeless people that it took over before are like it which is being seen as losers just like it is back on its homeworld that is most likely due to the fact that Venom rather have their hosts remain in control of their own bodies rather then taking them over which gets it to help Eddie stop the {{Big Bad}} from bringing its kind to Earth.

--> '''Harry:''' You have to admit, Ken's a hard man to like.\\

* Mike from ''WesternAnimation/{{MonstersInc}}'' was one. When Boo stepped into the Monster World, he acted rude to Sulley for being attatched to her (though the latter was actually trying to take her back to the human world) and even called him out once the two were banished and even fought with him rolling down a hill. Though later on, he did regret [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how he treated him]] and still cares about Sulley nonetheless.

** [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Mark Russell]] is cynical, HolierThanThou, impulsive and [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]]; and in his [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 first appearance]] he's nursing a spiteful grudge against Godzilla and a {{Tragic Bigot}}ry against Titans generally, and treats his ex-colleagues like shit with anti-Titan tirades when he sees them again. But he really does love his daughter Madison and his ex-wife Emma despite having been a crappy parent and a failure of a husband, and he's committed to getting Maddie and Emma [[spoiler:(before the latter's EvilAllAlong is revealed)]] back as well, as regretting his past mistakes and going out of his way to go back and rescue the G-Team from nigh-certain death in Antarctica.
** The tie-in graphic novel ''Godzilla Aftershock'' shows that [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Emma Russell]] was this before [[spoiler:her FaceHeelTurn]] but after her son Andrew's death. Miles Atherton accurately describes her as "singularly arrogant, condescending, and confrontational" during her time working with him and Tarkan, but she's also extremely committed to preventing the MUTO Prime from killing Godzilla and creating a MUTO ExplosiveBreeders extinction event.

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'': Astrid and Snotlout both fit this trope, even more in the series when their characters get more background information
* Manny and Diego from ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', while Foreman Spike is a massive bully to the Mario Bros., who left their original job specifically because he was a MeanBoss to them, he still remembers to pay as he's leaving the restaurant and [[spoiler:is the one who starts the cheers for them after they save Brooklyn]].

%%* Detective James Carter in ''Film/RushHour''.

* Gru of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' is a DiabolicalMastermind who revels in his status as a CardCarryingVillain. He's also a BenevolentBoss who treats his minions as individuals rather than FacelessMooks (though they are used as guinea pigs for experiments) and eventually becomes a true father to the girls he adopts as part of his plan, even going PapaWolf for them in the end.
* Encanto: Isabela is rude, uptight and abrasive towards her youngest sister Mirabel, but only acts this way due to her amount of pressure having to be perfect 24/7 thanks to Alma. Regardless if she never apologizes to Mirabel for her rudeness, she does at least [[TookALevelInKindness become nicer towards her later on]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'':
** The title character plays up his bad reputation to keep others off his land. But he ends up risking his life to help not only the DamselInDistress, but hundreds of refugees as well.
** To an extent, Snow White in the third film as well. She does come off as arrogant and lazy, but willingly joins Fiona and the rest of the princesses in battle against Prince Charming.

** [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Mark Russell]] is cynical, HolierThanThou, impulsive and [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]]; and in his [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 first appearance]] he's nursing a spiteful grudge against Godzilla and a {{Tragic Bigot}}ry against Titans generally, and treats his ex-colleagues like shit with anti-Titan tirades when he sees them again. But he really does love his daughter Madison and his ex-wife Emma despite having been a crappy parent and a failure of a husband, and he's committed to getting Maddie and Emma [[spoiler:(before the latter's EvilAllAlong is revealed)]] back as well, as regretting his past mistakes and going out of his way to go back and rescue the G-Team from nigh-certain death in Antarctica.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid''

* ''WesternAnimation/Encanto'': Isabela is rude, uptight and abrasive towards her youngest sister Mirabel, but only acts this way due to her amount of pressure having to be perfect 24/7 thanks to Alma. Regardless if she never apologizes to Mirabel for her rudeness, she does at least [[TookALevelInKindness become nicer towards her later on]].

* The Klumps in ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor'' are all crass louts who mortify Sherman with their uncouth behavior. But they love and care for Sherman and assure him he's wonderful the way he is.