History Main / DIsneyDeath

* ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'': Oded Fehr pulls a YouShallNotPass on an army of mummies. Cut to the end and he's alive somehow.

* Marian stays KilledOffForReal in the arcade version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon II'', but is revived in the NES version's RevisedEnding.

** Disney/{{Aladdin}} himself also experienced a DisneyDeath in one episode of [[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries the TV series]].

** In an interview with [[Creator/TetsuyaNomura Nomura]], he says that "there is no concept of death in Kingdom Hearts." If one's Heartless and one's Nobody is destroyed, then if the two halves meet in the Realm of Darkness, they become complete beings again. Which means that ''everyone'' in the KH universe gets a DisneyDeath. Even the [[AvertedTrope villans.]] Yes, even '''[[spoiler:Master Xehanort.]]'''

** Prior to that, there's the climax of the pilot, which is not only a DisneyDeath for Darkwing, but also, as later revealed in the second season, the episode's villain, Taurus Bulba.

** In ''Anime/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions'', [[spoiler: Zoroark]] get's a [[TearJerker truly heartrending one after]] [[spoiler: Kodai brutally electrocutes and mortally wounds her. After a PleaseWakeUp and lots of tears from her heartbroken son, Celebi manages to bring her back to life with the Time Ripple's power.]] DisneyDeath or not, it was well done and very emotional.
* [[spoiler:Mitsumi and Hareta]] have this happen to them in ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'', since they're trapped inside a falling building. Luckily one of their friends comes in and saves them. The formers DisneyDeath was [[spoiler:a suicidal version of RedemptionEqualsDeath, since she wanted to stay inside the building]].

* ''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'', seventh movie: [[spoiler: both Mikiya and Shiki. Mikiya's DisneyDeath (though Shiki and us did not know it was the case at the time) finally goads Shiki into killing Lio for vengeance, but she then lays down to die after losing Mikiya (and a large quantity of blood). We then see Mikiya still alive, limping, and then ''crawling his way to Shiki'', and find out that he arrived just in time.]]

* Played with in ''KissKissBangBang'' when Gay Perry stays alive after getting shot in the chest. [[LemonyNarrator Harry]] then [[LampshadeHanging comments how he hates it when]] [[ExecutiveMeddling movie studio executives]] change a death into a DisneyDeath to force [[FocusGroupEnding a happy ending]], and they might as well [[EverybodyLives bring back everyone who died]] (and then all of the dead characters, plus Elvis and Abraham Lincoln, walk into the hospital room), but [[ThisIsReality in this case]], Perry did survive.

* Valashu in the ''EaCycle'' narrates his own DisneyDeath in first person. He falls into afterlife for half a page or so and then gets promptly resurrected. After all, he couldn't very well write about his adventures if he remained dead.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" used a very cheap DisneyDeath, when Charlie was found strung up by the neck, not breathing, and with no pulse, but after a particularly protracted CPR session, Jack was able to revive him. Some fans decided to blame the unlikely event on the possibly magic island (similar to AWizardDidIt). Shannon suffered a similar death scene in "Hearts and Minds", but the sequence was shown to have been a hallucination suffered by her brother Boone under the influence of an unnamed drug prepared and administered without his knowledge by Locke.

* In the ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' finale, [[spoiler:Venjix breaks into Dr. K's lab, hacks her computers, and downloads everything to do with the Rangers. Using this data, he can not only "delete" megazords out of existence, but also the Rangers themselves. He finishes the first of the two episodes by "deleting" Gem and Gemma (Gold and Silver), but with help from Tenaya, Dr. K is able to retrieve their data and reassemble her first two friends to help defeat Venjix once and for all... [[TheEndOrIsIt or did they]]? The final scene of the series is one light on one of the Rangers' morphers lighting, red like the Venjix Eye, with the big V's theme music playing. One good DisneyDeath deserves another.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffy comes to find her mother unresponsive on the couch, not breathing. She calls 911, she performs CPR, her mother gasps. Cut to the ambulance taking them to the scene in the hospital where Buffy's mom is so glad that Buffy came home when she did, or else--wait, why are we cutting back to the CPR? Oh. Well, the paramedics have arrived, and so we get to see them bring her back to the... They call the coroner. Harshest subversion of DisneyDeath ever.
** JossWhedon LOVES those teeth-kicking subversions.

* ''TheMiddleman'' episode "The Boyband Superfan Interrogation" plays the Robot DisneyDeath relatively straight (though with tongue firmly in cheek, as with everything on the show). RidiculouslyHumanRobot Ida is destroyed defeating the villain's scheme, given a hero's funeral -- and then Wendy finds a box with a brand-new Ida robot inside. It is never mentioned again.

** Also, as mentioned above Rufus's death gets {{retcon}}ned into a DisneyDeath because [[EvilIsCool he proved to be a]] [[EvilIsSexy fan-favorite villain]].

** Later, just before the FinalBoss, [[spoiler:Flonne is turned into a flower by Seraph Lamington for what appears to be an incredibly stupid reason.]] In some of the MultipleEndings, this death is for real; in others, it turns out to be a DisneyDeath.

** Another memorable moment has the GenreSavvy King of Swamp Castle actually managing to subvert the typical DisneyDeath and lampshade it at the same time by acknowledging that a man previously stabbed ''in the head'' by Lancelot is now suddenly on a road to recovery and then ads in that suddenly he died without explanation... and the man he describes proceeds to do just that!

*** It turns out, according to the ExpandedUniverse novellas that [[HandWaving there was some sort of secret "escape hatch" hidden under his desk]] that Rufus [[ChekhovsGun suggested be put in there in the first place]] while his father was still in charge of Shinra Inc.... Yeah, we're not buying it either.

* Alpha Centauri, the TricksterMentor from ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', appears to die heroically halfway through the movie, only to reappear with a HandWave at the end of the movie.

** Before that, done straight for about two seconds.

* Hilariously parodied in KungFuPanda:
-->"I'm not dying, you idiot!"

** Simba is presumed to be dead in ''Friends to the End''. He isn't, though, and gets his [[TheBigDamnKiss Big Damn Kiss]] with Nala.
** Nala does actually die in ''Darkness Falls''. Simba has her resurrected after dying himself.

* Played straight in ''MassEffect''. [[spoiler:The group, having just defeated Sovereign, is fleeing from an incoming chunk of Reaper. Cut to the two party members with you, as a C-Sec officer and Anderson pry open one of the chunks that was a near-miss to reveal them. Anderson asks where Shepard is, they shake their heads, and all parties involved get a crushed expression - cut to the side, where you see a form moving toward the group through the wreckage. Swell of music, Shepard mounting the top of the biggest chunk, with a huge [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu "I just punched out Cthulhu"]] grin on his/her face. Cut to final sequence.]]

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry is struck by a Killing Curse, but [[spoiler:does not really die due to unknowingly becoming an extra Horcrux. However, his friends back at Hogwarts do not know this at first and fear that their hero is gone for good.]]

** Ginny also gets this toward the end of ''HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' via [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness being imprisoned in the Chamber and having the life force sucked out of her]]. Harry manages to undo that by destroying [[spoiler:a Horcrux]].

* In ''RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime'', [[spoiler:Alistair Azimuth]] shoots [[spoiler:Ratchet]] in the chest. You can actually hear his heartbeat slowing to a stop before he plummets off the edge of the platform. However, it's reversed when [[spoiler:Clank uses the clock to turn time back six minutes]].

* In the final manga volume of GreatTeacherOnizuka, Onizuka was presumed dead in the hospital bed when his heart stopped beating. However, he later miraculously recovered and able to ride a bike to save the principal of his school from a fire.

* There is one from the first ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' sequel, ''The Return of Jafar'': Iago goes through this as part of his HeelFaceTurn coupled with a HeroicSacrifice.
** Disney/{{Aladdin}} himself also experienced a DisneyDeath in one episode of the TV series.

** The ''{{Disney/Aladdin}}'' series did it with Jasmine once. A HumanityOnTrial episode has the judging entity (responsible for sinking {{Atlantis}}!) rule that Agrabah must be destroyed. When Jasmine pushes a child out of the way of a falling chunk of building and is crushed herself, her sacrifice convinces the entity that Agrabah is worth sparing, and it reverses the damage... including un-squishing the princess. To ''Aladdin'' fans, the scene with Megara in ''Hercules'' seemed ''really'' familiar.

* Played straight and averted in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed''. Played straight when [[spoiler:the apprentice gets thrown out the window of a star destroyer]] and when something similar happens to [[spoiler:Rham Kota (sic)]] and adverted with [[spoiler:PROXY]] and [[spoiler:the actual death of The Apprentice]].

** In ''DragonQuestIV'', [[spoiler:Orin]] performs a HeroicSacrifice to help the girls escape. The game gives all indication that he is dead, with the standard "No response, seems to be a corpse" message. But later on, [[spoiler:you find him wounded at the inn in Frenor.]]

* ''{{Tron20}}'' zig-zags this a few times. Mercury makes a HeroicSacrifice [[YouShallNotPass fighting off a horde of corrupted Programs]] in order to get Jet, Ma3a, and Byte to safety, and is de-rezzed by a hard drive reformat. She is later restored from back-up, but her personality is completely gone to the point where she doesn't even recognize Jet, aside from knowing her User wants to talk to him. It's only later, after Alan restores her code, that [[HesBack she truly returns]]. Also zig-zagged (to an extent) is Lora (who was killed off in this timeline). It's heavily implied that part of her mind still lives in Ma3a. It's given a aversion with Byte and I-No however.

* In ''{{Wild Arms 2}}'', Brad was presumed dead by everyone half way through the game when he offered to sacrifice himself. Later on he was revealed to be alive and rescued his friends from danger by firing a railgun weapon at his enemy ship. He rejoins the party after that.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': interestingly enough, it's both parodied with [[spoiler:Bobbery]] and played sort of straight with [[spoiler:Grodus and TEC, the latter of which [[FinalDeath actually died in the plot]] but appeared in the [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue epilogue]] almost as if nothing ever happened.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snowwhitefakedeath_3041.jpg]]]]

Compare SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness (how likely this is to happen), OurHeroIsDead (when this is used as a CliffHanger), UnexplainedRecovery, WorldHealingWave (done on a massive scale), OnlyMostlyDead. Contrast KilledOffForReal. May involve NotNowWereTooBusyCryingOverYou.

* In ''TheLordOfTheRings'', Frodo is stabbed by an Orc and stung by Shelob, appearing dead both times, but is saved by his mithril armor and Shelob using paralytic poison instead of a fatal one, respectively. Gandalf dies from his exertions after killing the Balrog, but is sent back by the Valar to finish his task.
** A casual passage in ''TheSilmarillion'', coupled with a passage in ''TheLordOfTheRings'' where Gandalf lists (some of) the names he's been called in the past, reveals that not only is he the setting's equivalent of an angel, he used to hang out with the sister of Mandos, the Keeper of the Halls of the Dead. It's all in who you know.

* In the first ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' episode in which the Avengers fight [[KillerRobot Ultron]], Ultron appears to disintegrate [[spoiler: TheMightyThor]] during a battle, much to the shock of the other heroes. Actually, [[spoiler: [[DarkMagicalGirl Amora the Enchantress]] teleported Thor to Asgard less then a second before Ultron's beam could hit him]]. The next episode has the remaining Avengers hold a small funeral and swear to avenge [[spoiler: Thor]], although [[spoiler: he]] returns well before the episode's end.
** [[spoiler: BlackPanther]] also did this, to prevent the Kree from destroying the sun.

** This could be a reference to the [[SherlockHolmes source material]], as Holmes fell off Reichenbach Falls and was presumed dead (and was intended to be) along with Moriarty.