History Main / NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals

** By the present day of the film, Jupe [[IgnoredEpiphany has not learned from this tragic experience at all]] and unwisely tries to use a predatory alien as part of his show at a local tourist trap. [[spoiler:Predictably, history repeats and Jupe's actions accidentally provoke the alien - which has no instinct to avoid humans like most animals and, in fact, seems to consider them ''prey'' - into attacking the assembled crowd of tourists, leading to a horrific massacre that claims the lives of almost everyone present, Jupe included.]]

* In a scene from ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'', Thornhill (Creator/CaryGrant) is shot in the Mount Rushmore visitor center. After the scene was filmed, one could see that a little boy had put his hands on his ears ''before'' the gunfire. Creator/AlfredHitchcock proclaimed that after this, he'd just work with people who were either adult or deaf.

** Of course, in Columbus' case, he got the director's role because he has plenty of experience [[Film/AdventuresInBabysitting directing]] [[Film/HomeAlone1 young]] [[Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork children]].

* Creator/MamoruOshii's crew just couldn't get the performance they wanted out of the child actress who played the ghost in ''Film/Avalon2001''. They ended up faking it by morphing several of her performances together.
* The Dead End Kids terrorized the set of ''Film/AngelsWithDirtyFaces''. They threw other actors off with their ad-libbing, and once cornered Creator/HumphreyBogart and stole his trousers. They didn't figure on Creator/JamesCagney's street-bred toughness, however. The first time Leo Gorcey pulled an ad-lib on Cagney, the star stiff-armed the young actor right above the nose. From then on the gang behaved.
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'', the scene that kicked off the title character's HeelFaceTurn was when 2-year-old Aurora approached Maleficient in the woods and wasn't afraid, as the child's innocence still saw the good in her. Unfortunately, the toddler actresses they tested were too frightened by Creator/AngelinaJolie's costume to go near her. They found the perfect solution by getting [[RealLifeRelative Jolie's daughter Vivienne]] to play the part, since she still recognized her mother and they were able to practice at home.

* The opening scene of ''Film/TheSantaClause2'' had to be reshot several times because the actors playing the elves kept pinching and hitting each other. Eventually, Creator/TimAllen lost his temper and let out a PrecisionFStrike, shocking the kids.
* In the final scene of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', one of the child actors playing one of Doc's sons standing behind him is making pained faces, looks like he's about to cry and is subtly pointing at his crotch, [[PottyEmergency indicating he really needs to pee.]]
* In ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', there was supposed to be a scene where Sulu meets a child who turns out to be his ancestor. But the child actor's mother, whom Creator/WilliamShatner described in ''Star Trek Movie Memories'' as being the worst StageMom he had ever seen, got the poor kid so worked up that he couldn't do the scene, resulting in it being dropped.

* Creator/StephenColbert interviewing the oil industry on ''Series/TheDailyShow'' - it agreed to speak only if it could be represented by an eight-year-old girl. The girl was Madeleine Colbert, [[RealLifeRelative his daughter]], and [[http://www.dailymotion.com/zorse42/video/14238441 the outtakes are adorable.]]

* ''Series/DickAndDomInDaBungalow'' ran on getting a bunch of kids to play silly games and throw [[CoveredInGunge gunge]] over each other, live. It's not surprising they sometimes got a bit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM6J_P3APXk&t=0m25s overexcited.]] One boy, Raja, almost broke the hosts -- he wouldn't stop running round and hitting them. Dom stopped being an ExcitedKidsShowHost and started just telling him off and asking the producers what to do next; they even got him on the ClipShow DaDickAndDomDiaries, four years later, to explain himself. ("I'm a really nice guy when you get to know me".)

* During the production of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', the crew was having difficulty getting Boo's toddler voice actress to sit still in a booth and read her lines. They ended up just following her around the studio with a boom mike [[ThrowItIn and working with what they got]].

* [[CanadaEh Edmonton]] weatherman Mike Sobel learned this the hard way while trying to do [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ntWcpw0esE a live forecast featuring a dog named Ripple from the local animal shelter]]. The dog promptly chewed through its leash and proceeded to playfully jump all over him. {{Corpsing}} ensued.

* An InUniverse example: The DVD of ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' includes a set of HilariousOuttakes, 90% of which are the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter puppies]] ruining the shot by dancing. The ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' DVD supposedly had a deleted scene from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', but it was just another outtake of the puppies and a pegasus painting the titular castle.

* The DVD of ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' includes a set of HilariousOuttakes, 90% of which are the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter puppies]] ruining the shot by dancing. The ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' DVD supposedly had a deleted scene from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', but it was just another outtake of the puppies and a pegasus painting the titular castle.

* The DVD of ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' includes a set of HilariousOuttakes, 90% of which are the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter puppies]] ruining the shot by dancing. The ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' DVD supposedly had a deleted scene from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', but it was just another outtake of the puppies and a pegasus painting the titular castle.

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* During the production of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', the crew was having difficulty getting Boo's toddler voice actress to sit still in a booth and read her lines. They ended up just following her around the studio with a boom mike [[ThrowItIn and working with what they got]].

* There is a reason you never see hyenas (such as ComicBook/HarleyQuinn's pets Bud and Lou) in scripted live action: they are notoriously difficult to tame (and their bite force, powerful enough to crack bone, is ''higher than a lion's''). ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}'' managed to get around this by using a CGI hyena (and only one due to budget constraints) played by a German shepherd via MotionCapture. In Creator/MargotRobbie's own words:

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* The DVD of ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' includes a set of HilariousOuttakes, 90% of which are the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter puppies]] ruining the shot by dancing. The ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' DVD supposedly had a deleted scene from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', but it was just another outtake of the puppies and a pegasus painting the titular castle.

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
** An InUniverse example: Ms. Carol always comes up with a new fun phrase for a child to repeat as part of her popular children's show. Angelica sneaks backstage and overhears Carol exclaim that she thinks all children are little...(DiscretionShot). Angelica gleefully concludes that it's some sort of secret fun phrase and that she'll definitely be rewarded when Ms Carol asks her the question because she's the only one that knows the answer. Needless to say, HilarityEnsues and Ms. Carol is ruined.
** Another InUniverse example occurs in a season one episode where Phil and Lil recall how they appeared in a diaper commercial. Problems first arise when Phil doesn't do what the director wants, then Lil wanders off onto the scaffolding chasing after her toy car when the Best Boy was supposed to be watching her. The set ends up getting wrecked by the both of them. Oddly enough, the camera was recording everything, and the producers loved the footage that they saw. Even so, Betty, understandably, refused to let her kids do another commercial despite the director's plea.

* ''Film/ALoudHouseChristmas'' and ''Series/TheReallyLoudHouse'': In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', the titular Louds have a dog, cat, bird, and hamster, in addition to the large abundance of pets resident AnimalLover Lana has. The jump to live-action means that most of the animals have been axed out for pragmatic reasons. Some of them get off-screen appearances or allusions, like Charles the dog having a leash as a background prop and the Christmas movie having a scene where Lincoln scoops dog poop, or Cliff the cat being an off-screen character in the ''Really Loud House'' episode "Heart and Soul". The animals that do appear, however, are usually easy to work with (like Lana's frog Hops), plushes (like a raccoon that attacks Lynn Sr. in "The Princess and the Everlasting Emerald"), or CGI characters (like Lana's snake El Diablo). Geo is a special case because he appears on a poster, but doesn't ever have on-screen references, although a Guinea pig named Sprinks ''does'' appear on-screen.

* ''Film/ALoudHouseChristmas'' and ''Series/TheReallyLoudHouse'': In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', the titular Louds have a dog, cat, bird, and hamster, in addition to the large abundance of pets resident AnimalLover Lana has. The jump to live-action means that most of the animals have been axed out for pragmatic reasons. Some of them get off-screen appearances or allusions, like Charles the dog having a leash as a background prop and the Christmas movie having a scene where Lincoln scoops dog poop, or Cliff the cat being an off-screen character in the ''Really Loud House'' episode "Heart and Soul". The animals that do appear, however, are usually easy to work with (like Lana's frog Hops), plushes (like a raccoon that attacks Lynn Sr. in "The Princess and the Everlasting Emerald"), or CGI characters (like Lana's snake El Diablo).

* In ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', a large bird walked on to the set during the filming of one of the scenes, and at one point, it's clearly visible extending its wing. However, it was a silhouette, and it was hard to tell it was a bird as opposed to, say... the hanging corpse of a Munchkin. This gave birth to the famous, yet totally bogus, "Munchkin Suicide" urban legend.
** That large bird is a crane, and can in fact be seen prominentely earlier in the scene where Dorothy and Scarecrow first meet the Tinman, so its appearance is likely intentional. Other exotic birds are used as props in other scenes as well, so that crane probably didn't just walk on set and be allowed to roam around in the background.

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* Once again with the ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' team: the photography for the book ''Barney & BJ Go to the Zoo'' ran into this trope. The book was set to feature rhinoceroses, however the rhinoceroses at the zoo the photo shoot was done at turned out to be ''terrified'' of the dinosaur costumes, so as a result the rhinoceroses were [=photoshopped=] in for the page featuring them.

* InUniverse, this is a major theme in ''Film/{{Nope}}''. It's shown several times in the film that getting animals to cooperate on a camera is difficult, and can result in chaos and destruction when mistreated or disrespected.

** Jupe's backstory involves [[spoiler:the cast and crew of a sitcom he starred in as a child getting brutally mauled by their chimpanzee costar (who, in a meta example, is [[SerkisFolk played by a human]] through MotionCapture for this exact reason). By the present, he's trying to use a predatory alien as part of his show, but ends up victim to it himself.]]