Follow TV Tropes

Following

Animorphism

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animorphs_0.png
"Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."

A character is transformed into an animal, either completely or partially (as in Two Beings, One Body). There's always an accompanying trope, based on whether their transformation was Voluntary Shapeshifting or not, the latter meaning it's an example of Forced Transformation as well:

  • There are many characters whose ability to transform into animals is a special power. Several of these are Shapeshifters whose power is limited to animal forms, and oftentimes a set number at that. There are also quite a lot of shapeshifting characters who can turn into objects, a.k.a Objectshifting, in addition to this, but prefer to transform into animals, presumably because you can get more done in the shape of a living being than something inanimate. Our Werebeasts Are Different covers werebeasts.

  • Others are characters who underwent a Forced Transformation — i.e., unwillingly transformed into animals, usually as a punishment (ironic or otherwise) or curse, more often than not by the dark magic of the Big Bad. In any case, regardless of species, the target is none too happy about being an animal. (Indeed, for some reason, characters are often just as upset over being turned into swans as they would be if they were turned into worms. There is an intriguing amount of Cursed with Awesome associated with this trope.) The target may lose the ability to speak, and must work hard to get the message to their friends about what happened. This is sometimes combined with a "Freaky Friday" Flip, leaving the animal's mind trapped in the human character's body. This is frequently accompanied with some sort of time limit, after which it will be difficult or impossible to reverse the process.

In any case, a physical transformation into an animal may be accompanied by a mental transformation into that animal, more so if it was involuntary. It may also allow the character to use whatever skills and abilities (like a keen nose or ability to fly) are associated with that animal ... as well as whatever strange instincts or unhygienic behaviors may also be associated with that animal.

The transformation itself may be scientific in origin, or mystical. Popular mystical transformations include werewolves and other werebeasts, wolves (who may be confused for werewolves), vampires transforming into a singular wolf or bat or some other animal (transforming into a swarm is under One to Million to One), or such chestnuts as a witch turning people into toads. And who can forget such classic fairy tales such as swan maidens or The Frog Prince? In fact, Animorphism is Older Than Feudalism, with The Odyssey describing Circe turning Odysseus' sailors into pigs.

See Transflormation, another morphological shift. Contrast with Humanity Ensues, the rarer converse in which animals transform into humans.

Not to be confused with the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism. See also Beast Man, the more meta version to do with character design. If this character is a superhero or supervillain, then they are an Animal-Themed Superbeing.

Not to be confused with anamorphism, either kind.


Examples of Voluntary Animorphism

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A commercial for Chef Boyardee features a monster that breaks into a car, eats a can of Chef Boyardee, then turns into a boy.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Doraemon have more than one gadget which allows the user to become animals. Notably the "Animal Transformation Biscuits", debuting way back in the first manga and featured extensively in What Am I for Momotaro (when the gang have to transform into animals to escape from a horde of angry villagers).
  • The core element of Killing Bites. A procedure exists that allows humans to have their DNA altered with that of an animal, granting them enhanced strength/speed/stamina/senses and the ability to transform their body to more mimic these animals, sometimes resulting in a full transformation into a bipedal version of the animal in question.
  • In an arc of Gintama, Gintoki and Katsura gets turned into a white cat and a black cat because they piss and shit on cats' graves. Kondou for some reason gets turned into a gorilla instead.
  • All familiars, and Yuuno, in Lyrical Nanoha.
  • Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew is a borderline case. The intended effect of her cat genes is the ability to voluntarily transform into a Cat Girl; however, as her cat DNA starts to overtake her human DNA, she starts involuntarily growing cat ears and tail when excited, and eventually begins to fully transform into a cat. Another recurring character in the show can become a cat voluntarily, but only for a limited time.
  • Bungo Stray Dogs:
    • The protagonist Nakajima Atsushi's ability allows him to transform into a tiger, partially or fully.
    • In chapter 50, it's revealed that Mii-chan, agency clerk Haruno's calico cat, is Natsume Souseki in disguise.
  • Yoruichi in Bleach spends a lot of the series as a cat because she likes to. Most of her transformations to and from human are to mess with other members of the cast (like Ichigo).
  • One Piece has the Zoan variety of Devil Fruits, which allow the eaters to transform into a certain animal depending on what the fruit is, as well as a half-human hybrid of said animal (and yes, even humans are counted as an "animal"). Most fruits have a certain "model" for animals that are in the same family (EX: Dog-Dog fruit, Model Wolf), and some of them have an additional sub-class depending on the animal — "Carnivorous", which tend to be more ferocious; "Ancient", which are for prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs; and "Mythical", for creatures out of legend, such as a phoenix or dragon, which also grant the user special powers beyond the transformation (such as a phoenix's healing flames).
    • Any Zoan can also be "Awakened" with the effects depending on the sub-category of Zoan. Standard Zoan users will receive a brand new form with significantly enhanced physical abilities. Mythical Zoan users will receive the same enhancements alongside brand new superpowers they couldn't use before. Zoan users are at the risk of losing their personality upon Awakening their Devil Fruit, if it happens they lose sapience and have their minds overtaken by the Fruit's respective animal. Stronger willed individuals will maintain their personality however.
    • Even inanimate objects can "eat" a Zoan Devil Fruit: they gain characteristics of a living being and their corresponding animal's intelligence, and can also transform into the animal itself, a hybrid (in the absence of a better word) or their "original" object form.
    • If an animal eats a Zoan fruit corresponding to its own species, it apparently "enlightens" them. This case appears in Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who ate a Mythical Zoan, Human Human Fruit, Model: Great Buddha.
    • Post-timeskip, it was revealed that Dr. Vegapunk and later Caesar Clown had worked on creating artificial Zoan-type Fruits, Dr. Vegapunk creating a single known fruit using "Lineage Factor" from the user of the Mythical Zoan "Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon"; the resulting fruit was functionally identical, except for it turning the user into a pink dragon instead of a blue one, and was regarded as a failure by its perfectionist creator. Caesar Clown later created the mass-produced SMILES, which are grown on trees through absorption of a chemical called SAD, which contains "Lineage Factor" from all sorts of animals. Sadly, the results leave much to be desired, as 90% of all SMILES grant no powers, but afflict their consumer with two permanent curses; the Super Drowning Skills that plague all Devil Fruit users, and an inability to express any emotion other than smiles and laughter. For the other 10%, the consumer gets to roll on a Superpower Russian Roulette where they will, at best, get a lame knock-off version of the normal Zoan's power, and more likely suffer all manner of animal-related Body Horror, up to and including gaining a fully sentient animal as either a conjoined twin or a replacement for a limb. The lucky ones just get permanent mutations, which may or may not come with the Required Secondary Powers needed to use them effectively.
  • Early in the series, Kotaro of Negima! Magister Negi Magi with his powers sealed revealed the ability to become a small puppy. Later events show that he can, at full power, become a Super-Powered wolf.
  • In Studio Ghibli's Porco Rosso (The Crimson Pig) the main protagonist is a pig, or more exactly a "pig-headed" human as he has the complete anatomy of a stout person except for the head. It's stated that he somehow became a victim of a Forced Transformation, given that there are pictures (and a flashback) showing him in human form. While aware of his difference, he doesn't find it bizarre and sometimes openly points it out.
  • Super Pig is about a warrior style Magical Girl (think Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, or Pretty Cure) whose magical form is... a super powered pig. She does this willingly, but grudgingly, in order to earn pearls for good deeds so that once she gets 108 of them she can become a human superheroine instead.
  • In Ruin Explorers, Ihrie was cursed as a child so that she turns into a mouse whenever she casts magic. Fortunately, she carries along a medicine that can reverse the effects, though having a limited supply at any one time means she still has to choose her battles.
  • Pokémon: The Original Series has an episode in the Johto League saga wherein Ash meets a witch named Lily. She has a recipe for a potion that will let you read a Pokemon's mind, but needs some ingredients first. At the end of the episode, Ash is turned into a Pikachu.
  • Some fairies in Fairy Navigator Runa have animal forms as well as human ones.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has two notable examples.
    • Kars from Battle Tendency can do this after becoming the Ultimate Lifeform. He can do this because his cells contain the DNA of every species of animal, insect and even plant, on Earth and can manipulate said cells to transform his whole body or just parts of it into entire animals or just a single part of said animal.
    • Diego "Dio" Brando from Steel Ball Run can turn into a Utahraptor through Scary Monsters, the Stand he inherits from Dr. Ferdinand via one of the Corpse Eyes.
  • In Marvelous Melmo, the titular character can do this via her candies: their main use is to change a person's age, but Melmo can also cleverly use them to regress herself into a fetus, then age herself back into whatever animal she wants to become.
  • Inverted with the Youkai in The Morose Mononokean, as most of them are actually animal-shaped demons who can transform into a humanoid form if they are powerful enough.

    Asian Animation 
  • Adventurer Carly: There is Morgan, whose abilities depend on his heart rate. His normal form is a tiny pup, the form he is in when his heart rate is at a normal or slower speed. When his heart is beating fast, he transforms into a werewolf.
  • In the Oye Golu episode "Adi Bana Haathi", Adi is given a Super-Strength potion, and Golu says he should only take one sip of it. Adi drinks the entire thing, which turns him into an elephant.

    Comic Books 
  • Alpha Flight: Snowbird is an Inuit demi-goddess who can shift into any animal, but it's always an albino female. For a time, she could only shift into creatures native to Canada (for that matter, she couldn't leave its borders without dying). Those restrictions faded with her immortality when she lost her virginity, but she still prefers Arctic creatures since that's what she's most familiar with.
  • In Amulet, the population of Kanalis. Unusually, it's due to a curse, and we actually see people in the process of turning into them.
  • The DCU:
  • In Dino Kid, most of the heroes who gained powers can transform into specific animals at will. For example, the titular character can turn himself into dinosaurs, Mammal Boy into mammals, Insect Girl can transform herself into insects...
  • Monica from Generation Zero can sort of do this (she's actually creating a hard-light image around herself.) Because of her youth and sheltered upbringing, all she knows is cartoon animals. They're still deadly.
  • In Grendel, vampires are each able to transform into a single specific animal, known as their "totem", which expresses their personality. Of the most significant vampires, Tujiro can turn into a white Persian cat, and Pellon Cross into a wolf.
  • In the Doctor Who comics, the Sixth Doctor's companion Frobisher is drawn to look like this kind of character, though he's technically a shapeshifter who chooses to take the form of a funny anthropomorphic penguin most of the time.
  • Nikolai Dante: Viktor Romanov can turn into a giant eagle due to his weapon crest.
  • In the Shadow of Dragons: Being a Druid, Sissel can turn herself into a wolf, and later into a hawk as well.
  • Vampirella: Pantha can transform into a black panther.

    Eastern European Animation 
  • Gypsy Tales: Near the end of "The Gypsy Woman and the Devil", the devil transforms into a black jackdaw when Vunida escapes his palace.

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 
  • In Hakkōna and Kaitō Kokoro, Obake are creatures that can shapeshift into just about anything, including animals. Unfortunately, their powers made them feared by humans and massacred as a result with Kiku as the only survivor.
    Obake. A subcategory of Yōkai, supernatural creatures of Japanese Shinto myth. Obake are beings that can take on any shape, from an inanimate household object to the most ravenous of beasts. However, despite that, Obake can be of various species, possessing various base forms; cat, dog, monkey, even human are just some of them. Obake have generally lived in peace, respecting all those around them. Secluding themselves from people, they are one with nature, in perfect harmony with it and each other as they live through existences which aren't limited by the passing of time. Everything was perfect until that fateful day...
  • In The Secret Life of the Backyard Kids, Tiffany transforms into a giant cat, and since Jorge is a Squishy Wizard, he calls his nanny and she tells him to transform into a panther. He not only does just that but does a Shout-Out to Michael Jackson.
  • In Friendship is Optimal, humans are transformed into a pony upon uploading to Equestria.
  • In Diaries of a Madman, Nav gets turned into a pegasus several times by the shapeshifting spell, but he hates every second of it.
  • TD experiences being turned into a pony several times in the various The Non-Bronyverse stories (not all of which are canon). The AU story TD the Alicorn Princess is the biggest example, when he ends up trapped in the form of a female alicorn.
  • Inverted with Celestia and Chrysalis in My Little Pirates: Luffy's Adventures in Equestria, who are ponies (or a look alike in Chrysalis' case) that can turn into humans. Their fighting style is similar to all Zoan Devil Fruit users as they can use magic to summon their wings to fly or turn back their limbs to their original equine shape for devastating hits.
  • In Your Human And You, Max gets turned into a pony after accidentally consuming a transformation potion.
  • In Return of the Primarchs, Shrike, who spent decades fighting Orks, manages to hijack their gestalt psychic field and use it to transform into enormous raven, turning it against them.
  • Legacy of Kain: Divus Saga: Kain repeatedly makes use of his Wolf and Bat forms.
  • The Fable of Joyful Wing: The Wolf King and the Wolf Queen are spirits who can change between the forms of humans and enormous wolves at will, and their students can take the forms of foxes.
  • Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: Some werebeasts, such as Fluttershy, can change into their animal form at will.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: In Convoluted Rescue Plan, Go!, Ami has made pills that turn people into "baby mice", and Tserk willingly took one, to facilitate the rescue plan.
  • In the RWBY fic, Pawprints, some humans are born with the ability to turn into animals. These individuals, called Panthers, are identifiable at birth by their furry hands. Human-born Panthers are treated slightly better than ones who are born as animals. While both are targeted by the government and killed by Hunters, human-born Panthers are at least given a chance to blend into society.
  • In SilfofinaDragon's Sengoku Basara fanfics, Date Masamune and Katakura Kojuro change into a horse and a wolf respectively from potions brewed by Kyogoku Maria, as means to protect Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's children. Both of them change back minus any clothing after getting smooched by Yukimura and Masamune & Yukimura's son Masa respectively.
  • In This Bites!, during the Skelter Bite arc, Chopper has a discussion with Sandersonia about the Zoan type of Devil Fruits, which in One Piece canon are generally considered the weakest of the three types because they only grant this power. He theorizes that the accepted "rules" of Zoan Fruits only giving their consumer three forms — their original form, the beast form associated with a specific fruit, and a hybrid between the two — are actually falsehoods, and that Zoan users can learn much more varied and specific transformations. He cites his own use of Rumble Balls to achieve alternative forms, theorizing that his reliance on them is actually a placebo effect. He also notes that Sandersonia herself is proof of his theory; she maintains a serpent tongue and a snake-like weakness to the cold even in her human form, and his theory is strengthened when she confesses that she also gained a minor Sizeshifter aspect to her abilities after eating the Snake-Snake: Anaconda Fruit.
  • Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK: Animagi serve this role, as in Harry Potter canon. Though the ritual to become one is long and involved, doing it becomes a lot easier after Sirius is released and offers his insight, and Hermione devises a more efficient schedule.
    • In Harry's second year, Percy achieves his Animagus form of a heron. Harry immediately thinks of Issola, which becomes his Marauder/Animagus name. As Harry puts it, herons are all about being polite, courtly and respectful, while reminding everyone of their very sharp beak.
    • Later that same year, Fred and George achieve their forms of mustelids (a mink and a pine marten, though it's not said which twin is what). They are named Trouble and Strife.
    • In their third year, all four of Harry's friends attain Animagus forms before Halloween. Neville becomes a panther (Lapcat), Ron becomes a squirrel (Nutkin), Dean becomes a crow (Upstart), and Hermione becomes a deinonychus (Clever Girl).
    • In Harry's fourth year, Ginny attains her Animagus form. Fittingly, she's a peregrine falcon, nicknamed Perry.
    • Technically, Harry himself counts, as he became a dragon sometime during his childhood, before he even knew he was a wizard. He has no idea how it happened, nor does any Muggle notice the change, but he's quite content with his lot.
    • When Cedric Diggory graduates, due to not being killed at the Triwizard Tournament, he gets his Animagus form. Appropriately enough for a Hufflepuff, he's a badger.
    • Also in the story are Tyler and Anne Smith, a pair of Kitsune Trickster Twins. Fittingly, they're in Slytherin.
  • In the The Loud House fic Loud Heroes, Lana, an animal lover herself, gets the superpower of shapeshifting into a variety of animals, including extinct ones like a couple dinosaur species. The name of her superhero identity with the power is Wildgirl.
  • Asylum of Doom: As part of the Or Was It a Dream? ending, it is implied that the albino bat that startled Gaz into falling and hitting her head, which sent her back in time to the asylum, was actually Maddie's ghost in another form.
  • A Game of Cat and Cat: "(In)Effective Communication" has a mention of Soma being able to turn into a bat, since he was talking about weapon magic, and a Pun with the Batter Up! weapon was made.
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): Vampires can do Voluntary Shapeshifting into bats.
  • The Palaververse: Wedding March: Mentioned as part of the end of a flying machine, being converted into a mass of guinea pigs:
    Damasque: All the tooled parts transforming into guinea pigs and back again was too much for her in the end, I’m afraid,
  • Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: All of the Devil Fruit users on the Kamikaze Pirates' crew are different types of Zoan:

    Films — Animated 
  • The main shtick of the plot for Boonie Bears: The Wild Life. The technological wonderland of Wild Land provides bracelets which modifies the genes of the wearer to transform them to any animal they want to be, albeit bipedal and still sentient.
  • The Frog Princess: Koshchei turns into a giant crow to attack Ivan in the climax.
  • NIMONA (2023) has the character Nimona, who can shapeshift into basically any animal, especially a dragon.
  • Aisling from The Secret of Kells is a more benign member of The Fair Folk, and one of her abilities is turning into animals. She mainly takes the form of a white wolf, but the opening of the film shows that she can turn into a salmon and a deer as well.
  • Turning Red: Sun Yee's blessing enables her female descendants to turn into giant red pandas. Unfortunately, they don't automatically get control of this power, so they will transform whenever they experience strong emotions (like getting stressed or excited), unless they undergo a ritual to seal their red panda spirit into a talisman.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Doric is a druid whose signature magic ability, "Wild Shape", gives her the ability to transform into various animals and beasts for various purposes. In a single scene, she spies on the enemy in a castle as a housefly, ends up caught and turns into a rat to sneak out the cracks, a bird to fly out of reach, a cat to safely land onto the ground, a horse to blend in among the ordinary villagers, and a deer to make the final dash out of city limits. Whenever she actually needs to fight, her preferred form is of a brutal Owlbear (which is exactly what it sounds like).
  • Upside-Down Magic: The Fluxers have the ability to transform into any animal at will.

    Literature 
  • The Trope Namer is the premise of the series Animorphs. Limitations include having to touch an animal to "acquire" its DNA before being able to transform into it, and being limited to precisely two hours in animal form before suffering Shapeshifter Mode Lock. Also note that, unlike other examples of this trope, it isn't limited to animals—they can morph into humans or aliens, too.
  • The series Woodwalkers follows a bunch of shapeshiftersnote  who can turn in various animals- although there are some limitations to their powers- for example, the animal form depends solely on the form their parents had. The same rules apply for the sequel series Seawalkers and the Interquel Woodwalkers And Friends.
  • The sorcerers in The Belgariad can turn into pretty much anything they like, though Belgarath is fond of wolves, who are apparently semi-magical themselves in the setting: Belgarath's wife was a wolf, who figured out how to transform by watching Belgarath do it. Most of the other sorcerers prefer some type of bird.
  • Briar in The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids can turn into a bat when she sneezes, and back to human form at will. She kept the ability as a side-effect of merging with her vampiric evil future self.
  • Tamora Pierce's The Immortals quartet centers around Daine, a girl with powerful Wild Magic. She starts melding her mind with other animals at the beginning of the second book, which leads to her gaining this ability at the end of the book. She keeps her human mind, though; she had issues with that in the first book, but when she admitted as much to Numair, it was an easy fix.
  • Harry Potter: An Animagus is a witch or wizard who can shape-shift into a specific animal at will. Unlike most instances, the Ministry of Magic strictly monitors anyone who attempts this magic due to its incredible difficulty, and the witch or wizard in question doesn't get to choose their animal form; it's determined from their personalities.
    • According to Hermione in Book 3, there have only been five registered animagi over the past century, and the only one of those we see is Professor McGonagall, who can turn into a tabby cat, befitting her intelligence.
    • More prominently, we know of several unregistered ones. Three of the four Marauders secretly practiced the technique until they could turn into animals to help Remus with his werewolf transformations. Sirius's is a large black dog because of his loyalty to James and because he's named after the "dog star". James, as the Marauders' leader, was a stag. Peter Pettigrew's is a rat.
    • Lastly, befitting her role as a gossip columnist, Rita Skeeter uses her unregistered ability to turn into a beetle to eavesdrop on people.
    • An unrelated incident: In Chamber of Secrets, Hermione accidentally turns into a Cat Girl after mixing the wrong hairs in a Polyjuice Potion. Hilarity ensues, to Moaning Myrtle at least.
  • Befitting somebody named after the original Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub in I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level has the ability to transform into a literal tiny fly, which helps her with both spying on people and secretly "vacationing" away from her duties without anybody knowing she's there.
  • In President's Vampire, vampires who drink human blood gain a variety of supernatural skills, one of which is the ability to turn into birds. It's implied that they can change into other animals as well, but this remains to be seen, as the main character drinks animal blood only. In any case, Magic Pants are not in effect.
  • Wizards in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books are capable of transforming into animals, though the process is dangerous. In one particularly memorable example, the protagonist Ged turns into a hawk in order to escape an enemy — and, forced to spend weeks in his new form, almost ends up getting stuck that way.
  • Dora Wilk Series has a fair share of animal shapeshifters, werebeasts and others. Usually, they change fully, but some can train themselves to retain human body, but thing such as animal hand or legs.
    • Werewolves, obviously. Their goddess Faoilinara can turn into a wolf as well.
    • Szelma can turn into a cat, although it seems there's no werecat species.
    • There are people who can turn into lions and tigers, although only one (a were-tiger) appears in the books.
    • Gods Badb and Loki can turn into any animal they wish, although the former prefers a giant crow.
  • Wizards in Nightrunner can turn themselves and others into an animal form that is said to be their "true nature." The fact that it can be done to others, of course, means it's not always voluntary.
  • Many of the evil characters in The Caretaker Trilogy are Half Human Hybrids of some sort, but the only one shown to actually be capable of turning into the animal whose traits he borrows is Colonel Aranha. For those who didn't get the Meaningful Portuguese Name, he turns into a gigantic tarantula.
  • In The Thief of Always, victims of the Big Bad turn into creepy, giant fish when their souls are removed. It's a gradual process.
  • The Were Hunters in Sherrilyn Kenyon's The Dark Hunters series were created by a king using his children, animals, and Magic Genetics to create Shapeshifting progeny.
  • Witches in Seven Years Awesome Luck can hand out both voluntary and involuntary animal transformations.
    • The main character, Trick, was turned into a cat for seven years so that he could become a familiar, in payment of his mother's debt to the witch. He's later enchanted to shift forms based on his distance away from Denneka.
    • Julia, another familiar, is a hawk by day and human by night.
  • In the Xanth series, Dolph can turn into any living thing as his magical talent, while his grandfather Trent can turn any living thing into another living thing as his.
  • Dinah and Dorinda, the main characters of Eric Linklater's children's novels The Wind on the Moon, use a magic potion given to Dinah by a witch in order to transform themselves into kangaroos. They are, however, stuck in kangaroo form until they can locate the bottle with the potion to transform them back to humans, which leads to them being caught and put in a zoo. In the zoo, they also meet Mr. Parker, formerly a human detective, who was transformed into a giraffe for no apparent reason (he blames it on wishing he was taller back when he was human).
  • In the Chronicles of the Cheysuli series, the eponymous Cheysuli can turn into the shape of their Lir (a Bond Creature that is some kind of animal bear, wolf, hawk...); some can turn into the form of any Lir they want.
  • In Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus series, Frank Zhang, a demigod son of Mars, can be anything. According to Mars this means anything within reason, any living animal. This gift did not come from Mars however, but Poseidon, who is a distant ancestor on Frank's mother's side. His whole family can do it, and have for generations going back to Periclymenus a legendary Greek hero on whom Poseidon first bestows this gift. Percy, Poseidon's actual son, is noticeably jealous of Frank's gift.
  • Everyone in The Last Dove can (somewhat) voluntarily shapeshift.
  • In the Nightshade Trilogy, the Guardians can turn into wolves at will.
  • Hoole in Galaxy of Fear is of a shapeshifting species but, while Shi'ido are able to turn into anything at will, he only ever takes the shapes of different sentient species — Wookiees are a favorite — or animals, rather than ever staying with his default form and lengthening his arms, say. Though he is able to speak Basic while Wookiee-shaped, which real Wookiees can't do.
  • The Dresden Files: One of the many things magic can do. Mainly used by Billy's Werewolf gang, for combat applications.
  • Simon is turned into a rat in City of Bones.
    • Fairies brew drinks more often, like what Simon drank. They often have a cruel sense of humor, and find it funny to turn humans or shadowhunters into animals and then put them in dangerous situations.
  • The Mirrorworld Series: Fox, who prefers her animal form until she sees Jacob kissing Clara.
  • A Fantasy Attraction has Mr. Smith accidentally transforming people into baby animals with his spork.
  • Spectral Shadows has this when Christine gets turned into an anthro fox via Sir Jon's Sound Chaser.
  • Inverted in the fifth book in the Spellsinger series. A freak perturbation of reality (they've been happening a lot lately) turns the entire party of anthropomorphic animals into humans. Jon-Tom comes up with a spellsong that turns humans back into animals to save them ... not realizing it would also affect him, playing the trope straight.
  • In Tales of Elethiya, one of the predominant supernatural races, the Serahn, are each given a power animal at birth. When they become of age, and if they have the gift, they will have the ability to morph into that animal to protect and serve the good of humankind.
  • In A School for Sorcery, voluntary shapechanging into an animal is a possible gift. Lina Mueller, roommate of the protagonist, can transform into a panther.
  • Discussed in Ryuunosuke Akiyama's A Terribly Dangerous Coat, Ishiria and Luran discuss the fact that Luran wanted to be a bird when he grew up; Ishiria points out several reasons Luran might not like being so transformed, but he does not listen to her, though it seems impossible with in-setting magic anyway.
  • Release That Witch: The witch Maggie has the magic to turn into an oversized version of any bird she's ever seen. This eventually extends to include bird monsters as well.
  • In The Cloak Society, this is Kirby's power. She's long been able to turn into a wolf, and then later got a bird form; the limits are unknown, but her mentor, Lone Star, believes that she'll be able to do any animal eventually.
  • Many of the Choose Your Own Adventure books often include the reader's character transforming into an animal (either temporary or permanently), including a mouse, rabbit, dolphin, monkey, snake, squirrel, shark, bear, unicorn, pig, eagle, bird, fish, lion, vulture, etc.
  • In the Fairy Oak series all Magicals are capable of this to themselves and others. What animals transformations you can do are only limited by your memory and wheter you have Light or Dark powers. It's something so natural to them that it, sometimes, happens accidentally, and it's so common that the fact that you can tell whether a cow is really a Magical by the taste of their milk seems relevant enogh to be taught in Magic Class with Aunt Tomelilla.
  • Ferals Series: Powerful ferals (such as Caw and the Spinning Man) can transform into their specific animal species.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Manimal has a main character with transformation into animals as a special ability.
  • From Blackadder The Third:
    Blackadder: Baldrick, who gave you permission to turn into an Alsatian?
  • In True Blood, there is a shapeshifter community. They can shift into any animal they want; they just have to imprint on the animal first - they have to see it in order to "copy" it. There is however an exception: each person has an animal that they feel comfortable with, and can transform into it at any time without having to see a real example. The ability is passed from parent to child.
  • The TV miniseries Earthsea had a story about a wizard who got so obsessed with shapeshifting into a bear that the bear's personality eventually displaced his own, causing him to eat his entire family. The story comes from the first Earthsea novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, where the bear-wizard is only said to have killed his son.
  • MythQuest has the protagonists going into multiple myths. Naturally, this happens.
    • Loki turns himself into a bird in "Hammer of the Gods".
    • In "Red Wolf's Daughter", the spirits of Eagle, Badger, and White Buffalo are summoned. All take human form.
  • A new breed of vampires is also emerging in the comics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These are not only immune to sunlight, but can also transform into different animals such as wolves and panthers, if only at night. Several vampires seem to prefer the shape of a giant bat.
  • Sheena: Sheena was taught by Kali how to "reach the animal spirit inside her", which allows her to take the form of animals if she connects with them through their eyes.

    Pinballs 
  • Done in the "Metamorphosis" illusion from Theatre of Magic, where the magician turns into various animals, such as a dove, a tiger, or a cobra.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology: Nearly all the Greek gods are capable of Voluntary Shapeshifting, so it's not uncommon to see them turn into animals for some purpose or other:
    • Zeus was famous for his shapeshifting to carry out his amorous designs on mortal and less-divine women. For some reason he seems to have favored animal transformations:
      • Perhaps his most famous transformation is his appearance to Queen Leda of Sparta as a beautiful swan. In most tellings of the myth he mated with Leda in this form. Leda then slept with her human husband, Tyndareus, the same night, and (if you follow most accounts) laid two eggs: one from which the heroes Castor and Pollux hatched, and the other hatching the great beauties Clytemnestra and Helen—the latter being the Helen.
      • If Zeus's apparition to Leda is not the most famous, then it is his appearance as a beautiful tame white bull to Europa. Such was his beauty as a bull that Europa got on his back, at which point he ran across the Mediterranean, carrying her to Crete, where he revealed his true nature and they consummated their "relationship." (Whether Zeus stayed a bull for all this or if he made himself "human" again is left unclear.)
      • Zeus transformed both himself and Eurymedousa into ants to do the deed, and this is where the Myrmidon people came from.
    • On a less horny note, Athena occasionally appeared to her followers as her sacred animal, an owl.
  • Egyptian Mythology: The Ancient Egyptian gods, often depicted as Beast People/animal-headed Half Human Hybrids to begin with, occasionally transformed fully into animals.
    • The most famous such story is probably the myth of Sekhmet, the lioness-headed goddess of war and healing,note  who transformed fully into a ferocious lioness to root out mortals who conspired against her father Ra. Unfortunately, her thirst for blood was still raging even after she had killed all the conspirators, so her father was forced to pour out beer dyed red to look like blood to get her drunk and return her to normal form.
    • The goddess Bastet (sometimes associated with Sekhmet, and both sometimes associated with Hathor) was often depicted as a cat (rather than cat-woman) in Ancient Egyptian sculpture.
  • Aztec Mythology: Several gods had this power, but Tezcatlipoca was the most prominent, usually appearing in the form of a jaguar. In this guise, he was called Tepeyollotl, or "Heart of the Mountain," and his roar was believed to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Ars Magica:
    • Several spells combine the Muto (Transform), Corpus (Human body), and Animal Arts to temporarily transform someone into a specific animal. "Shape of the Woodland Prowler" turns the target into a wolf for a day by draping them in a wolf pelt.
    • Magi in the House Bjornaer mystery cult gain the unique ability of a Heartbeast, a personal animal form that they can assume at will. Because they believe the Heartbeast represents their spirit, they're actually quite hostile to other innate shapeshifters, suspecting them of cheating or outright stealing spirits.
    • The minor supernatural virtue Skinchanger lets a character enchant an animal skin so they can take that animal's form. The major version, Shapechanger, lets them learn multiple forms with no need for the skins.
  • Bleak World has the vampires and princesses. Their forms are different based on what kind of vampire or princess, with Dracul vampires being able to turn into bats and wolves, whereas primal vampires can turn into a dragon.
  • The Chronicles of Aeres:
    • In the backgrond lore, the Wilderkind experienced a major population surge during the last great war against the forces of Witch Lord Olgrim when refugees who had settled in the Enchanted Forest of Gruncrist beseeched the beast-god Tolgamyr for aid in protecting their home, and were given the choice to be transformed into more powerful half-man, half-beast forms so they could battle the orcs and goblins. Prior to that, the Wilderkind had all been the descendants of divinely Uplifted Animals.
    • Draconvir are former humans who were transformed into Draconic Humanoids; Tainted Draconvir were changed against their will by the evil Vulgraks, whilst Argent Draconvir volunteered for the process to be able to better battle the forces of darkness.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Barbarian-based PrC Bear Warrior is able to transform into a type of bear while they rage.
    • Druids can turn into any animal.
    • Wizards can take on animal shapes, with the right kind of spells, and transform others into harmless critters.
  • Exalted: The Lunar Exalted are able to take the form of any species, so long as they've drunk the heart's blood of a member of that species, and can build up an impressive library of forms this way. They can also apply this to humans. In all forms, this allows them to take the form of the specific individual being they've assimilated; with humans, they often need to add multiple people to their "library" because humans will pay more attention to differences between individual people than between animals, but a Lunar can also, say, hunt an espionage target's favorite dog so as to be close to him for an extended period.
  • New Horizon: Medeans merge with the genetic code of the native wildlife. Unlike most other examples of this trope, this is PERMANENT... although, oddly, it doesn't effect any kids they have.
  • In Nomine: The Celestial Song of Beasts allows the performer to transform into any animal that she has seen at least once.
  • The World of Darkness:
    • New World of Darkness:
      • The sourcebook Skinchangers has options for playable characters using almost every possible variation of this trope, with War Against The Pure and Changing Breeds adding a few more for good measure.
      • Almost every type of supernatural creature in the New World of Darkness is capable of shapeshifting into an animal by one means or another. Changelings have the Contracts of Fang and Talon, Sin-Eaters have the Primeval Caul, Mages have Life magic, Prometheans have the Metamorphism Transmutation, Vampires have the Protean Discipline and Werewolves are all inherently shapeshifters without having to learn a specific power.
    • Old World of Darkness: The various games featured assorted shapeshifting Splats.
      • Changeling: The Dreaming has the pooka, selkies, commoner hsien, and inuas (a Native American kith). A member of these kiths has one animal form that she can shift into. The pooka and inuas choose one at character creation, while the selkies turn into seals, and each commoner hsien kith has one animal form its members shift into: cats, fish, monkeys, snakes, and badgers (in case you're curious, the noble hsien kiths are based on the 5 Taoist elements)
      • Vampire: The Masquerade has three clans with specialized disciplines that allow for animal shapeshifting: the Gangrel have Protean (the typical bats, wolves, and fog, though variations exist); the Followers of Set have Serpentis (guess); and the African bloodline Akunanse have Obomwe, which allows the Kindred to turn into any animal provided she smears her body with its blood (the creature must obviously be big enough to have enough blood for this to be possible).
      • Werewolf: The Apocalypse is obviously about werewolves, but also lets you play as were- hyenas, spiders, cats (lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes, etc.), ravens, bears, foxes, crocodiles/alligators/lizards, snakes, coyotes, rats, and sharks. Extinct races include the werebats, wereaurochs, and wereboars (though even they have rules for playing them).

    Theater 

    Toys 
  • Tha Makuta in BIONICLE liked to take on animal forms, most famously Miserix, who preferred reptile forms to his original body (his only existing official image also has him turned into a dragon). The Phantoka Makuta team chose the form of bats, while the Mistika team took on the semblance of insects. However as a subversion, due to a mutagen, they couldn't turn back.

    Video Games 
  • In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Kain, being a vampire, can assume the form of a wolf and a bat.
  • Alucard in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse can turn into a bat, and later in Symphony of the Night he can turn into a wolf as well. Funnily enough, his bat familiar seems to fall in love with him in his bat form
  • Club Penguin: Played with since penguins are animals themselves, but some of the parties allowed the players to turn into different less sapient species.
    • The Puffle Parties permit members to turn into puffles.
    • The Prehistoric Parties have you going back to the Mesozoic and turning into dinosaurs (and a Pteranodon).
  • Cute Bite: Vampires can turn into animals such as snakes, bats or cows.
  • Warcraft:
    • Druids in Warcraft III could turn into the totem animal whose demigod they were devoted to.
    • Druids in World of Warcraft can turn into various animal shapes. Bear, Cat, Seal (or Orca), Stag (or Cheetah), Bird, Tree, bigger Tree, and an owlbear thing.
    • Dragons are also known to have a human form, notable ones being Kalecgos, Alexstraza, and Neltharion (Deathwing as most players know him).
    • It's not ALWAYS human. Alextraza and her consert turn into High Elves, Chronomaru turns into a Gnome, Ysera becomes a Night Elf. Goblin and Blood Elf forms have been seen as well for other dragons. Also Deathwing human forms or his human one has changed a lot since his days as Lord Prestor.
      • Deathwing's human Form retains the reforged lower jaw that he has in his dragon form. (See Fridge Horror.)
  • Druids in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction can acquire the ability to turn into a werewolf, or the slightly-more-exotic werebear.
  • The Nu Mou job Morpher from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance can extract the souls of monsters you have captured and use them in battle to transform into them. This job was not present in the sequel, likely due to capturing monsters and raising them by feeding them items was considered too much of a chore. However, one bestiary entry in Final Fantasy XII is signed by a Morpher, indicating that the job does exist in that continuity as well.
    • The Metamorpha enemy from Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V is a wizard that can transform into a variety of monsters. The Dark Elf from FFIV also transforms into a Dark Dragon.
    • The Transformation Staff from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light allows you to turn your characters into animals and back at will. Brandt and Rolan turn into dogs, Aire and Rekoteh into cats, Husqua into a rooster, and Yunita into a bunny. Animal forms can talk to animals and golems, but their battle stats are significantly reduced. However, the Beastmaster crown can potentially turn them into Lethal Joke Characters.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Most Manaketes/Dragons can transform from one form to the other, with varying degrees of ease. In most games, the transformation requires the use of a Dragonstone that has a limited number of uses. However, there are a few unique cases because the games all take place in different universes.
    • In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (and their remakes), Manaketes could generally transform into different types of Dragons depending on which kind of Dragonstone they used.
    • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn added the Laguz, of which Dragons were one of the many races, who could transform into beast forms and back at will, though they would revert to their humanoid state when they ran out of transformation points. A select few characters (the rulers of the respective laguz tribes) could stay transformed as long as they willed it, while Radiant Dawn introduced the "halfshifting" skill, which allows a laguz to stay transformed indefinitely, but with their stats cut to make up for it. In Path of Radiance, the Laguz would transform without the player's choice or input when their meters were full, but Radiant Dawn allowed the player to activate it whenever they wanted so long as they had transformation points to use.
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening uses a simplified Dragonstone system for Manaketes, and combined Manakete and Laguz mechanics for the Taguel, who use Beaststones to turn into giant rabbits.
    • Fire Emblem Fates has the Nohr-exclusive Wolfskin and Hoshido-exclusive Kitsune, who both use Beaststones to respectively transform into ogre-like werewolves and giant foxes. The player avatar him/herself and their children can transform into a dragon with the use of a Dragonstone. Unlike most other Fire Emblem games, the transformation stones has infinite uses.
    • The seventh game (released in the West as simply Fire Emblem) seems to imply that (at least for the Elibe-verse) it's quite difficult for dragons to switch from form to form without losing their memories and personalities from their other forms.
  • In the Banjo-Kazooie series, visiting one of two shaman-type characters (Mumbo-Jumbo in the original and Grunty's Revenge or Humba-Wumba in Tooie) would allow you transform into different things; this is usually an animal (but not always; other transformations have included a tank, a submarine, and a washing machine). Oddly, the main characters are already animals.
  • The entire premise of the Bloody Roar game series is based on this trope. Each character can transform into a specific Beast Man form when their "Beast Bar" fills up, increasing their power, causing their health to slowly regenerate, and giving them new special moves on top of their original ones. The first game alone included characters who turned into a tiger, a wolf, a fox, a boar, a lion, a mole, and an albino gorilla, and subsequent games added even more animals and even mythical creatures. The final boss of the last Bloody Roar game was a man who could turn into a full-sized dragon.
  • Inverted in E.V.O.: Search for Eden, where you spend the game "evolving" into other animals, starting as a fish, and transforming to an amphibian, a reptile, and a mammal, with the ultimate form (if you evolve in specific ways) being a club-wielding human. Secret forms include a bird, a mermaid, a gargoyle, and a dragon.
  • Altered Beast (1988) has the werewolf, dragon, bear and tiger forms. Also for the Big Bad, he has a rhinoceros form.
  • The Dragovians from Dragon Quest VIII are an elf-like race which can transform into dragons.
  • League of Legends: Playable Champion Nidalee, being a human of vastaya descent, can shapeshift into a cougar at will.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, entering the Dark World without the protection of the Moon Pearl causes Link to transform into an adorable, defenseless, pink bunny-man.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link transforms into a wolf. It is initially involuntary due to the Twilight invading Hyrule, then Zant curses Link to make it permanent; eventually, the Master Sword breaks the curse, and Link gains the ability to transform at will. Interestingly, instead of throwing away the gem that cursed Link in the first place, they hold onto it, and apply and remove it using the Master Sword to switch forms.
  • In Ōkami, the Oina tribe of Kamui are able to transform into wolf or dog forms and back.
  • Solatorobo: Red the Hunter provides a rare inversion: In a world populated by anthropomorphic dogs and cats, the main character can transform into a human appearance to become more powerful.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, one of the visitable worlds is the Pride Lands. While there, Sora is transformed into a brown lion cub thanks to his clothes. Goofy and Donald are also transformed into, respectively, a tortoise and a bird... that can actually fly.
  • One of the main features of Splatoon is the ability to turn into a squid or octopus and dive into ink of your team's colour, refilling your own ink in the process. You also move faster this way. (Of course, the Inklings are anthropomorphic squids to begin with.)
  • From the Bayonetta franchise, the titular character can use several "Beast Within" spells to transform into different animals, including Panther Within, Crow Within, and Bat Within. In Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta gains a new Beast Within transformation, Snake Within. Unlockable characters get their own variants as well (although they are functionally the same), with Jeanne able to transform into a Lynx, Owl, Moths, and a giant Centipede, Rosa able to turn herself into a Tiger, Falcon, Hornets, and a Cobra, and even Lumen Sage, Balder, is able to turn himself into a White Wolf and an Eagle. Non-playable character, Loki, also has the ability of transforming himself into a Flying Squirrel.
  • This is a part of the gameplay in the NSFW game Corruption of Champions; various plants and items are founds across the land that changes the Player Character. For example, eating enough Canine peppersWhat is it?  changes you into a dog boy/girl, eating more turns you into a Dog-morph, and eating too many will transform you into a regular dog which makes you forget that you were ever human in the first place. This applies to all animal-morph items.
  • Among the many changes the playable characters of Wildermyth can undergo is to gain an animal trait, such as having their head transformed into that of a crow (complete with pecking attack) or a wolf. The events which bring on these transformations generally offer an option to accept or refuse, albeit without much advance warning as to the exact nature of the change.
  • Kaho in Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight gets cursed into a cat form by a dying witch (making it also an example of the Involuntary type), but promptly finds an artifact that allows her to transform between human and cat at will while it's equipped. The cat form is mostly used to access some areas a human cannot fit through, but also gives some other benefits (notably greatly increased speed) at the cost of being unable to use items or use ranged attacks. This can come in handy in the battle against Duchess Lupiar, whose armor protects her from Annoying Arrows, so feline speed becomes an advantage with very little drawbacks.
  • The Animalities from Mortal Kombat consist of the fighter turning into their spirit animal to gore the opponent.
  • In Alnam no Kiba there are 12 tribes of people that can transform into humanoid animals from the Eastern Zodiac. The 12 main characters are members of these tribes.
  • The Wolf and the Waves: The player character can turn into a wolf and later a bird.
  • Disney Infinity: Using the "Crow Wing Pack" (which is unlocked in the Lone Ranger Play Set) will transform your character into a crow and allow them to fly.
  • God of War (PS4): When Atreus finally discovers that he's a god, one of the first questions he asks is if he can turn into an animal. Kratos gives him a look of utter bafflement. As it turns out, Atreus does possess that ability in several myths.
    Atreus: You really don't think I can turn into an animal?
    Kratos: You are welcome to surprise me.
  • The Breath of Fire series centers around main characters (and some secondary characters) who can transform into dragons, but Breath of Fire I also features a thief who can merge with his companions in various combinations (ox/wolf, ox/fish, wolf/fish, and ox/wolf/fish); and Breath of Fire III features a Little Bit Beastly tiger man who can turn into a fully-bestial weretiger.
  • Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy introduces a mechanic named Souls, which involves the user turning into an animal and gaining new hissatsu techniques that is usually stronger than a regular hissatsu.
  • One of [[Video Game/Terraria Terraria]]'s newer updates features a necklace as a mount item which lets you turn into a wolf.

    Webcomics 
  • In Beyond the End, Hal can turn into a lion or sea serpent.
  • In El Goonish Shive, Grace can turn completely into a squirrel.
    • Ellen once turned herself into a duplicate of the family cat, "Brownie". She could still talk via magic and retained her mind.
  • In Zoophobia, shapeshifters can change into different animals. Avians into birds, serpentines into snakes and so on.
  • All four members of Panthera can turn into big cats. Useful enough in itself, but they can also use Elemental Powers while transformed.
  • Fletch from The Sanity Circus can turn at will into a seagull. Other shapeshifters exist in the same world — but overuse leaves you as a Funny Animal in the end.
  • Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox: Isla Grace receives a fox-shaped engagement ring from her husband-to-be, Parker, which gifts her with the ability to transform into a fox (both anthropomorphic and full fox versions). She then feels it's only appropriate to put her new powers to use in the service of her community.
  • In Yokoka's Quest, the beast/demon and demon/beast characters are able to switch between their demon (humanoid) forms and a beast form. They mostly appear to be able to do this freely, though Kalliv is shown to be unable to switch to demon form when scared.
  • In Urban Animal, the chimeras are creatures that can transform into animals.

    Web Original 
  • Dragore from both Furtopia RPs of Darwin's Soldiers was turned into a dragon for unspecified reasons.
    • Professor Sehack from the rebooted Furtopia RP was turned into a Bengal tiger for unspecified reasons.
  • Fire Emblem on Forums: Laguz characters can transform into animal forms, as in the origin series.
  • We Are All Pokémon Trainers has both examples:
    • Upon entering one of the PMD universes, humans get forcibly transformed into Pokémon.
    • A human wearing a human to Pokémon armband will get turned into the Pokémon they relate to most.
    • Weremons tend to have involuntary transformations, but due to her enchanted Moon Stone Crewe can switch forms at will.
  • Similarly to the above, the contestants in Total Pokemon can turn into Pokemon whenever they brush their finger against the ring they had when they woke up.
  • The Funniest Minecraft Videos Ever: Played for Laughs. Using the Morph mod, players can shapeshift and take the forms of mobs and people they have killed. This results in copious amounts of Death as Comedy and Black Comedy Animal Cruelty as the people involved in each video use their newfound shapeshifting powers for increasingly absurd bits.
  • Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Limyaael has a rant on shapeshifters, on shapeshifter societies and on blurring the distinction between the "human" part and the "animal part".
  • RWBY: Qrow and Raven have the power to shapeshift into birds. This is explicitly not their Semblances, which are unique powers everyone has. The shapeshifting is an additional power on top of their Semblances, and is referred to as actual magic, instead of the "magic-like" Dust and Semblances.
  • In the Whateley Universe, Feral has the power to change into pretty much any predator mammal. There are also Weres who can shift into animal or were-animal forms, plus some mutant Shifters can do it. (Some mutants end up stuck in the involuntary version because of the way their power first manifests.)

    Western Animation 
  • 101 Dalmatians: Though she starts as an animal, Spot, a chicken, is transformed into a dog due to her wish being granted by her Fairy God-Chicken in the episode "Spot's Fairy God-Chicken''.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Cosmo and Wanda (along with all fairies) can turn themselves into animals to disguise themselves to keep up the Masquerade. No one seems to care or even notice that their fur/plumage is green and pink, or that Timmy can talk to them.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: One of twelve Zodiac talismans, the Monkey Talisman allows whoever is touching it to turn themselves and anyone around them into any animal they choose and back. It even works on inanimate objects, though unless the user is in physical contact with it, the magic will only turn it animal-shaped, not fully into an animal.
  • The Magic School Bus: This happens in several episodes.
    • "In The City": Ms. Frizzle turns the students into different animals that you might find in a city, such as foxes, falcons and possums, and herself into a raccoon.
    • "Gets Cold Feet": Ms. Frizzle turns the students and herself into various reptiles.
  • Miraculous Ladybug: Animan is the akumatized form of Alya's dad, a zookeeper. He can transform into any animal.
  • Molly of Denali: In "Home Made Heroes," Vera's idea for a superhero is a girl who can turn into a songbird.
  • Samurai Jack has an interesting take on this trope with Aku. When fighting Jack, he often shapeshifts into forms resembling animals, such as, in one episode, a scorpion, a dragon, and a praying mantis. He also turns into smaller animals like bats to escape whenever Jack beats him. Since he's literally Made of Evil, it all make sense.
  • Skysurfer Strike Force: Replicon can turn into various animals or even certain attributes of animals.
  • Sofia the First:
    • In "Cedric's Apprentice", Sofia accidentally spills a potion which turns her into a lizard.
    • In "When You Wish Upon a Well", Amber makes a wish in a wishing well that Roland would be allergic to Sofia; the wish turns Sofia into a cat, which is what Roland is allergic to.
    • In "Hexley Hall", the first will-driven ability Sofia gains after freeing Princess Elena from the amulet is the ability to transform into animals; however, she must look at the actual animal she wants to turn into for the spell to work.
  • Superfriends: When the twins touched, Zan could turn into some form of water/ice, while Jayna could transform into any sort of animal.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In the first episode, Bebop and Rocksteady volunteer to let Shredder turn them into a warthog and rhino, respectively, to get revenge on the turtles for humiliating them.
  • Teen Titans (2003): Beast Boy has this as his superpower. Interestingly, the involuntary subtrope occurs in the episode "Bunny Raven, Or How to Make a Titanimal Disappear". Mumbo the Magician changes most of the Titans into various animalsnote , and since Beast Boy's powers can counteract any attempted animal transformation, Mumbo turns him into a lamp, altering his powers to allow only inanimate object transformations.
  • Visionaries: The main characters are fourteen knights who have been given the ability to transform into the animals which best reflect their skills and personalities. For example, Feryl can transform into a Wolf because of his "amazing tracking skills", Leoric can transform into a lion because of his "raw courage and leadership"... and so on.
  • Wild Kratts has this as the founding concept, in which the main characters can assume animal shapes using the Applied Phlebotinum in order to get close to the real animals.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: Several Shen Gong Wu have this ability.
    • The Monkey Staff bestows the qualities and strengths of a monkey upon whomever holds it, turning the wielder into a human-monkey hybrid. But as soon as they let go of the staff, they turn back to normal.
    • The Manchurian Musca could be used to turn into a fly, which was great for spying but also came with a craving for sugar.
    • The Moby Morpher is the most potent of this sort, allowing its user limitless shapeshifting and giving them the power of whatever form they take. The scroll depicts the user turning into a big cat, monkey, and bird.
  • Young Justice (2010): Once again, Beast Boy has this ability, presumably due to the blood transfusion from the shape-shifting Miss Martian. Though he can take any animal's form, he goes with various primates most often, because they are his favorite animals. Since he was bitten by a monkey shortly after said blood transfusion, his default form is that of a green, stooped, tailed half-monkey boy. The latter may just be a voluntary disguise, as a traumatic reminder in one episode caused him to involuntarily shift (back?) to a green, but otherwise completely human form.

Examples of Involuntary Animorphism

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In The Cat Returns, Haru is turned into a humanoid cat so she will make a more suitable bride for the cat prince. As the movie progressed Haru grew whiskers,a tail and other typical cat features. for a split second, she also has fangs, but her fangs disappear for the rest of the movie. If the transformation wasn't cut short, it's likely she would've likely become a full cat
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, it's possible to combine human beings with animals to create chimeras. If the procedure comes out right, the creature should have human intelligence and several traits from the animal they're mixed with (both advantageous and drawbacks), and some can even shift from their half-animal form to an apparently normal human. They are kept a secret from the public because of the obvious ethical issues they pose (let's just say the subjects did not volunteer for the experiments). So far we have seen snake, lizard, bull, dog, lion, toad and monkey chimeras.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Inverted during the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball, when we meet Man-Wolf. He was a humanoid wolf who turned into a human during the full moon. When Jackie Chun previously blew up the moon, it left him stuck in wolf form, and quite angry about it. So, Jackie hypnotizes him into his human form permanently.
    • Saiyans with tails will, when looking at the full moon, turn into very large apes. While most Saiyans are well aware of this and are able to trigger the transformation voluntarily, Goku spent most of his life completely unaware of this ability; there are a few moments where he causes problems by accidentally looking at the full moon and transforming, and he never learns that he accidentally killed his grandfather this way.
    • In Dragon Ball Z,Captain Ginyu is turned into a frog when Goku interrupts his attempt to swap bodies with Vegeta by tossing a frog in the way.
  • In Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan Dokuro has a bad habit of doing this to students who get in the way between her and Sakura. One she turns into a baboon, the other an Shiba dog. No one seems to care. Made extra-funny by how they render the change: replacing the characters heads with paper cutouts, as seen here.
  • One chapter of To Love Ru and one chapter of To Love-Ru Darkness are devoted to this, Rito being turned into a dog and found/petted by Haruna in the first one, and Haruna being turned into a cat and found/petted by Rito in the second.
  • Some characters in Ranma ½ are cursed to transform into animals when doused with cold water. We get to see a giant panda, a cat, a piglet, a goose and a yeti-bull-crane-eel-octopus hybrid. The degree of "involuntary" varies, though.
  • In Negima!? the spinoff series of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Negi Springfield is turned into a "chupacabra" due to revealing the existence of magic to most of the class during the final episode.
  • In Naruto, during the titular character's fight against Kiba, Naruto transforms himself into Akamaru so he can trick Kiba. This ends horribly, as Kiba attacks the real Akamaru, and Naruto then ambushes him.
  • In Fruits Basket, thirteen members of the Sohma clan are under a curse where they each transform into one of the animals of the Eastern Zodiac (as well as the Cat, an animal who would have been part of the Zodiac had the Rat not tricked him) whenever they're hugged by someone of the opposite sex who isn't cursed or when their bodies are weak or overstressed. Part of the curse's problem is that they can't control their transformations from human to animal and vice versa.
  • In Time Patrol Tai Otasukeman, one late episode features a comic book artist who wants to make a comic book about Funny Animal versions of the main characters. The narrator then declares that, because of the character's choice, the characters will be actually depicted as such for the remainder of the episode.

    Asian Animation 
  • Lamput: At the end of "Invisible Necklace", the magician whom the docs stole the invisibility necklace from finds them, takes the necklace back from them, and uses it to transform them and Lamput into bunnies. This, of course, does not stop the docs from going to chase Lamput when he hops off, as per usual.

    Comic Books 
  • Captain Britain: In Captain Britain: A Crooked World, Vixen after confronting Mad Jim Jaspers, is turned into a female fox.
  • The Mighty Thor: Thor himself was turned into a frog in "The Fight for Asgard" because of a curse by Loki.
  • Spider-Man: Biologist Curtis Connors uses himself as a guinea pig for a limb-regenerating formula made from genetically modified lizard DNA. He regains his right arm but then transforms into the Lizard, an unthinking humanoid reptile.
  • Starman (DC Comics): One Golden Age story involves a scientist who changes men into half-man, half-beasts in order to make them better criminals. Starman himself is put through the process and ends up with a lion's head temporarily, though he's able to use the gravity rod to reverse the effects.
  • In the second story arc of Garulfo, the irascible and vain prince Romuald is turned into a frog to learn humility.
  • Superman:
    • In Action Comics #303, Superman is accidentally turned into a horned, flying, humongous Kryptonian snake-monster named Drang when he's handling a drang egg contaminated with Red Kryptonite radiation.
    • "The Super-Steed of Steel" introduces Supergirl's horse Comet, who is really a centaur transformed into a horse by an ancient evil wizard.
  • Wonder Woman: Circe, much like her mythological counterpart, has a nasty habit of turning men into animals against their will and erasing their sense of self while she does so. Sometimes she turns them fully into animals, which she did more often back in Wonder Woman (1942), but from Wonder Woman (1987) on she's more likely to turn them into animalistic monsters to serve her more usefully. She also cooks and eats her Beast Men.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes happily plays with the Cursed with Awesome aspect of this Trope at least twice, via Calvin's Transmogrifier.
    • In one story, Calvin is turned into an owl and isn't pleased — until he remembers that owls don't go to school so he and Hobbes can play in the woods all day. And then, next morning, he learns that the effects of the Transmogrifier wear off overnight.
    • At the end of the story arc where Calvin clones himself several dozen times, he ends up transforming the clones into worms. And their immediate reaction, rather than being seriously upset, is "Cool! Look at us! Let's go gross someone out!"
    • Another instance is when he once used the Transmogrifier to turn into a tiger, which he ends up looking like a smaller version of Hobbes.
  • The Wizard of Id:
    Peasant: I want you to put a curse on my insurance man.
    Wizard: Zooley-zooley-zat, your insurance man is now a rat!
    [peasant answers his door to find an enormous rat standing there with paw outstretched]
    Rat: Your premium is due...

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • Lampwick and the other boys partying on Pleasure Island literally make asses out of themselves in Pinocchio.
  • In Brother Bear, your spirit evidently takes the form of your totem animal (good news if your totem is an eagle, maybe not so much if it's a salmon). The protagonist Kenai is turned into a bear by the spirits to teach him a lesson. Kenai eventually gets over his angsting over being transformed and opts to stay a bear and adopt Koda as his little brother.
  • The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma has a number of potions able to transform a human into an animal, as well as a potion for turning animals human. This is how Kuzco gets stuck as a llama for the majority of the film. Late in the movie, a number of castle guards get random potions dumped on them. In the end, Yzma herself is trapped in the form of a Cute Kitten.
    "Hey, I've been turned into a cow. Can I go home?"
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Prince is transformed into a hybrid of various different animals by the enchantress to teach him a lesson.
  • The Princess and the Frog: Main characters Prince Naveen and Tiana both suffer this fate, being transformed into frogs. Naveen is transformed after making a Deal with the Devil with Dr. Facilier, believing that it will make him wealthy, although Facilier transforms him into a frog due to some tricky word choices. Tiana is transformed after kissing the transformed Naveen while not being a princess.
  • Merida's mother and brothers in Pixar's Brave after eating an enchanted cake given to Merida by a witch. She was originally told that the cake would have the power to "change her fate".
  • Rock-A-Doodle: The Duke transforms Edmond into a kitten.
  • In Help! I'm a Fish, the three main characters accidentally get turned into fish after drinking a potion made by Professor MacKrill.
  • In Spies in Disguise, Lance Sterling drinks what he assumes is a glass of water, it ends up turning him into a blue pigeon. As well as a painful and agonizing transformation to go with it.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Cat People has werecats who are the distant offspring of black leopards with their human worshipers. Transformation is invoked by carnal relations.
  • The short story The Fly and its two movie adaptations are a high-tech and horrific version of this, where either a man and a fly exchange heads, or a man slowly becomes a fly.
  • In fact, this is a staple of horror and sci-fi films from the era, as evidenced by the titles The Alligator People, The Ape Man, The Bat People, The Brooklyn Gorilla, ad infinitum...
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "She turned me into a newt!"
    Bedevere: A newt???
    Beat
    Villager: "Well, I got better!"
  • In The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Abu the thief is changed into a dog by the wicked Jafar. Curiously, he adjusts rather well to his new life, accompanying his blind friend as a dog guide.
  • In The Witches (1990) and The Witches (2020), Bruno and the protagonist are both turned into mice, as are all the witches at the end, very creepily losing the bulk of their mass like escaping steam.
  • In The Incredible Mr. Limpet, the titular Henry Limpet dreams of being a fish, until one day he falls into the ocean and actually becomes one. (The underwater scenes are all animated.)

    Literature 
  • One of the first stories of Ovid's Metamorphoses involves the transformation of Io into a white cow. Considering that this story was old by the time Ovid recounted it, this one is definitely Older Than Feudalism.
  • And another set of Metamorphoses, this one by Apuleius (second century CE), involves a young man, Lucius, who experiments with a witch's charms in her absence and ends up as a donkey.
  • Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis; the protagonist has transformed into a bug (literally "vermin"), possibly a beetle. If that's true, it adds a layer of irony to his death: he could've flown away, if he only knew...
  • Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest: The Dragonmen tribe specialize in a form of magic that allows them to assume the forms of dragons.
  • In The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries, Sookie's roommate Amelia turns fellow witch Bob into a black cat during a night of wild sex.
  • The Dresden Files: Using magic to transform someone else against their will is against the laws of magic, but possible. The Loup-Garou from Fool Moon is subject to a hereditary curse which causes the afflicted to transform into a nigh-invincible wolf monster and go on a rampage during a full moon.
  • Discworld:
    • The Librarian of Unseen University was transformed into an orangutan early in the second book, The Light Fantastic, by an exceptionally powerful spellbook. (Books on magic are dangerous as they are, but this one belonged to the Disc's Creator) He has since come to enjoy his new state, as the prehensile toes make shelving a dream, and the muscles capable of unscrewing someone's head off. (Which he will do if you call him a monkey) The other wizards allow this because he's the only one who can run the library, and there's no rule against an ape serving on the college council (and the wizards looked very hard for one).
    • The Toad in the Tiffany Aching books is actually a lawyer who got on the wrong side of a fairy godmother, and subsequently got on the right side of the Nac Mac Feegle. The Disc will never be the same again.
  • Snow White and Rose Red, a fantasy novel adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name, reveals this as the fate of a Faerie who loses their magical essence. Thus, when Hugh is robbed of his essence by humans seeking to master Faerie magic, he slowly and painfully turns into a bear over the course of a month. Furthermore, anyone who fully transforms gets unceremoniously dumped out of the realm of Faerie and banished. Hugh's curse serves as the conflict of the novel, and his loss of humanity as time passes in the bear's form becomes another source of problems.
  • Magnus Bane from The Mortal Instruments can turn into a cat, but it´s just an illusion.
    • Vampires can turn into bats and rats at will. In these forms, however, they keep their human minds.
    • In their animal form, werewolves just look like big wolves. In contrast to the examples above, their clothing does not change with.
  • In Roald Dahl's The Witches a greedy second banana named Bruno, and the protagonist are force fed "Formula 86 delay action mouse maker" by the witches, and subsequently forced to foil their plot as tiny field mice. By turning them all into mice.
  • Arthur Yorink's picture book Louis the Fish is about a man who has inherited his family's butcher shop, but hates meat. His fascination with fish is the only source of joy in his life. He falls ill and one night has an extremely bizarre dream. When he wakes up, he has been inexplicably transformed into a salmon. This doesn't bother him and when the owner of the local pet shop puts him in an aquarium, he is happy to live the rest of his life as a fish, soon forgetting that he was ever human.
  • In The Belgariad, The Big Guy Barak is appointed by Prophecy to be Garion's protector, with the side effect that he occasionally turns into a large, angry bear when Garion is in danger. Before he learns what triggers the transformation, he's terrified of eventually degrading into a mindless beast; later, he comes to think it's pretty neat, though the fact that he's at least as dangerous a fighter in human form makes it mostly Awesome, but Impractical.
  • In The Gypsies in the Wood, there is an in-universe series of children's stories featuring Sir Boris de Bruin, an anthropic bear wearing a cuirass and helmet whose backstory is that he was a knight transformed by the Witch-Queen Coelacanth.
  • In Katie Kazoo Switcheroo, the magic wind occasionally turns Katie into other animals. Katie has been a hamster, a cocker spaniel, a black cat, a raccoon, a clownfish, a snake, a horse, a bat, a reindeer, a dolphin, and a goat.
  • Phantastes: When a family is discussing the tale of "White Cat":
    "But, father," interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner, "you know quite well that mother is descended from that very princess who was changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. Mother has told me so a many times, and you ought to believe everything she says."

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Amy, the witch, turns herself into a rat to escape an angry mob. This is on the involuntary list because she can't change herself back — as a rat, she has no powers. Amy first used her rat spell in an earlier episode on Buffy, which she later reversed. After witnessing this, Willow and Buffy try to frighten the mob into letting them go. Later in the comics, she can transform into a rat and back again at will. And also in a cat.
    Buffy: Yes! You will all be turned into vermin. And some of you will be fish! Yeah, you in the back will be fish!
  • Merlin had Freya, the Druid girl cursed to transform into a panther, albeit a winged one, every night at midnight.
  • One of the films shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000, "Jack Frost", was a bizarre pastiche of nearly every Fairy Tale Trope imaginable. In one of the many plot threads, the hero is turned into a bear — and he spends nearly the entire first half of the movie complaining loudly about this.
  • Happens twice on MythQuest, in different myths.
    • Thor turns Váli into a wolf so he will attack his brother.
    • Math and Gwydion turn Blodeuwedd into an owl as punishment for killing her husband.
  • Out of This World (1987): In one episode, Uncle Beano is accidentally gleeped into a dog.
  • One of Sam's leaps on Quantum Leap was into a chimp at NASA. However, it should be noted that Sam leaps into people's auras, not their bodies, so all the other characters see a completely different character. Sam is still a human; he can still talk, swim, and stand up straight. Other characters, however, see and hear a chimpanzee. This causes them to comment on how unusual it is for a chimp to stand, so Sam spends the rest of the episode hunched over.
  • The Animalizer of The Thundermans turns people into animals. It turned the comical villain Dr. Colosso into a rabbit. It also turned Cousin Blobbin's dog human briefly.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985):
    • In "Ye Gods", Megaera turned Cupid's lover Drusilla into a tree frog as she was angry that Cupid had cheated on her. She later threatens to turn Todd Ettinger into a snail darter.
    • In "The Last Defender of Camelot", Merlin threatens to turn Tom into a goose, as he finds him disrespectful, but Lancelot stays his hand.
    • In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", Volkerps considers turning Arky Lochner into a bug and feeding him to his serpent mate Diptha.
  • Woof!, which features a kid who involuntarily changes into a dog at times.

    Music 

    Toys 
  • In BIONICLE, Metus is transformed into a snake by the Mask of Life.

    Video Games 
  • Vivisector: Beast Within deals with Doctor Moreau-like half-human animal cyborgs, but there's also hints that their creators also did something to the game's protagonist as a kid, which manifest during the events of the game.
  • Glenn the Frog of Chrono Trigger was transformed by the Big Bad. Given the some of Frog's skills explicitly take advantage of his new shape (water magic, grabbing enemies with his tongue, twenty-foot leaps,) this falls square into Cursed with Awesome.
  • Mario & Luigi features an early game boss fight with a dragon that hatched from a giant egg. After defeating the dragon, it turns back into main character Prince Peasley, who reveals that Cackletta turned him into the dragon and trapped him inside the egg to get him out of their way.
  • In the adventure game Loom, the ultimate punishment tor Spellweavers — "Transcendence" spell — involves transformation into a swan.
    • The manual explains how the protagonist's mother got transformed shortly after his birth.
    • His foster mother gets transformed into an egg shortly after the game start (the spell went wrong). Later she hatches as an adult duck.
    • Immediately after she becomes an egg, a swan appears and transforms into swans the whole village except the protagonist.
  • In Quest for Glory I, Baba Yaga turns you into a frog, and the Dryad will turn you into a white stag if you offend her. One should expect nothing less from a Sierra game.
  • Three cases of this happen in the Jak and Daxter series :
    • At the beginning of the first game, Daxter is turned into an ottsel after being knocked back into a pool of Dark Eco by accident. The plot of the game is to find a way to change him back into a human, though in the end, he is forced to give up his chance to allow Jak to defeat the Big Bads. He has since accepted his new form.
    • Near the end of the third game, Count Veger demanded that he'd be transformed into a Precursor when Jak is given the chance. One reveal later, he's stuck as an ottsel and at the mercy of Kleiver.
    • At the end of the third game, Tess is turned into an ottsel when she wishes she had pants like the ones Daxter just got.
  • Mentioned in Thrilleville: Off The Rails. Mortimer turned into a beetle at one point.
  • Common in the Final Fantasy series is the Toad spell which turns either enemies or allies into frogs, and it's fittingly cured by the Maiden's Kiss item. Final Fantasy III in fact requires you to turn your party into frogs at some points to advance dungeons. Final Fantasy VII has a frog enemy called Touch Me who constantly turns your characters into frogs and back every time it hits them.
    • Final Fantasy IV has lesser variant that instead turns characters into pigs.
    • Regent Cid from Final Fantasy IX was turned into an oglop by his jealous wife. An attempt to heal him with a special potion only results into turning him into a frog. He's later restored when Hilda comes back.
    • Reis in Final Fantasy Tactics was turned into a Holy Dragon by a curse from a spiteful priest meant to target Beowulf. Even after she's turned back she somehow retains dragn powers. The PSP version has the priest turn into a dragon himself as a One-Winged Angel form.
    • Thanks to her greed, Aire from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light gets cursed into a cat form. Using the Animal Staff, she turns Brandt into a dog to save him from the worst fate of being an immobile plant. However, the Animal Staff is then upgraded into the Transformation Staff, allowing everyone to turn into animals and back at will.
  • The Shantae series:
  • Shin Megami Tensei I, Shin Megami Tensei II, and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne have an enemy-exclusive spell called Bael's Curse which turns your characters into flies. In Nocturne, this status is uncurable, so the only way to revert it is to kill the afflicted and revive them (which is impossible for Demi-Fiend since his death means a Game Over).
    • Camazotz in Digital Devil Saga has the similar power of turning your characters into bats.
    • In Persona 5, your party will occasionally be turned into mice in one of the late-game dungeons, allowing you to sneak through tiny holes and stealth past enemies. Some enemies can also turn your party members into mice during battle.
  • In Patty And Mr Miles, all the men in Rinu Village have their heads turned into various animal's heads thanks to a witch's curse.
  • One of Lulu's abilities in League of Legends turns enemies into small fluffy animal temporarily, leaving them unable to attack or use their own abilities until it wears off.

    Visual Novels 
  • Sasami's route in Little Busters! involves this, as she'll transform into a cat if she isn't inside Riki's room. She'll still transform into a cat inside Riki's room if someone besides the two of them is in the room and is also conscious.
  • It may seem to be an odd example in a world where everyone is a Funny Animal already, but The Pirate's Fate features the antagonist Circe (sound familiar?), who transforms people into feral animals by trickery, trying to eliminate The Evils of Free Will.

    Webcomics 
  • In Beyond the End, Roman gets temporarily changed into a talking horse while meeting with Death.
  • One plotline in Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell has Ella transformed into a cat by a magic hat. Turns out there's a man running a street theater show with involuntarily transformed anthropomorphic animals.
  • An apparent running gag in Electric Wonderland involves Aerynn turning NJ into a random animal whenever she needs help protecting herself and/or their teammates.
  • In El Goonish Shive, Dan once turned Melissa into a cat in a filler strip (which got carried over into a later filler strip).
    • In an April Fools strip, the cast was turned into cats at one point
    • In the Back Story (but entirely canonical), Tedd once turned Sarah into a cat by mistake.
  • Housepets!: A recurring event, often sparked by Celestial magic.
    • Joel Robinson is transformed into a dog by the Celestial Pete to serve as a chesspiece in a Cosmic Chess Game, which demands only dogs and cats be viable players. Joel was an exploitation of this rule, seemingly to get a leg up on the actual dog who was already enlisted on the other side of the Game.
    • Investigating Pete's temple in Babylon Gardens, Thomas Milton is transformed into a camel by touching cursed gold. As revenge on Herman Steward, who sent him into the temple, he carries a single coin of gold out and spreads the curse to Steward, turning him into a badger.
    • Marion Wheeler wakes up one day to find himself mysteriously turned into a squirrel, and shortly after his girlfriend falls victim to the same curse. They both privately suspect the ECP to be behind it, transforming humans into animals to argue for animal rights, but the real culprit is Steward, of course, trying to bankrupt the ECP by straining their resources.
    • In Heckraiser, a city-wide Forced Transformation turns hundreds if not thousands of humans into animals in a nearby city. A Weirdness Censor keeps them from noticing this at first, but its eventually lowered, meaning rights for humans-turned-animals becomes an immediate hot topic again.
  • In Kevin & Kell, the portal from Earth to Furth transforms humans into appropriate animals. Except Martha, when she was hiding in a lead-lined barrel.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Vaarsuvius is temporarily changed into a lizard.
  • Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox: Isla Grace receives a fox-shaped engagement ring from her husband-to-be, Parker, which gifts her with the ability to transform into a fox (both anthropomorphic and full fox versions). She then feels it's only appropriate to put her new powers to use in the service of her community.
  • Zoe from Sluggy Freelance is in something of a grey area between voluntary and involuntary shapeshifting. The magic tattoo on her neck causes her to transform into a camel whenever someone says "shupid" near her, and it changes her back when someone says "kwi." Technically, Zoe could say "shupid" and turn herself into a camel, but this is pretty unlikely since she doesn't like transforming and, in camel form, she can't say the magic word to change back. She did it once, when she needed to hide fast and a random camel in a closet wouldn't raise eyebrows.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • American Dad!'s Klaus is an East German Olympic ski jumper, semi-permanently placed in the body of a goldfish. Apparently, the fish got his body in the deal, but couldn't use it.
  • Beast Wars inverted a large part of the trope. Where most heroes use animal forms to become stronger, these Transformers use them to mainly protect themselves from local radiation, and can only spend limited time in the "human" (humanoid robot) form that has the real power: their guns.
  • In the Bluey episode "Asparagus", Bluey and her family pretend this is the effect of the eponymous asparagus, giving Bluey the ability to transform them into animals. She keeps transforming them into animals that are very uncivilized, forcing her to teach them some manners.
  • In the Defenders of the Earth episode "Dracula's Potion", the titular potion transforms all the Defenders except the Phantom into the animals which best reflect their personalities.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures:
    • It features the Monkey Talisman which allows the user to transform any object (living or not) into any animal (except transforming stone or rocks would create animal statues instead) and back again. Whether voluntary or not usually depended on the situation.
    • Jade also suffered two additional transformations during the series, once turning into a cat person after being scratched by a magical artifact, and another time turning into a donkey due to a chaotic spirit.
  • Justice League Unlimited: In the episode "This Little Piggy", Circe turns Wonder Woman into a pig.
  • In the Kim Possible, episode "The Full Monkey", Lord Monkey Fist curses Kim with a magic amulet, which causes her to develop a monkey-ish physique... on school picture day. Monkey Fist himself is part monkey due to radical experimentation.
  • In the Phineas and Ferb episode Does This Duckbill Make Me Look Fat? Candace and Perry get their minds swapped by a teleporter mishap.
    Candace: Am I sweating milk?
  • In the PJ Masks episode "Robot's Pet Cat", Romeo invents an Animal-Metamorpho Ray and uses it to turn Catboy into a cat, which Robot then adopts as his pet. He plans to use the ray on everyone in the city to make his own zoo, but Robot wants to destroy the ray to prevent Catboy from ever being turned back.
  • In Space Sentinels, one of the main characters is Astrea, who is able to take the form of any animal. In one episode, she travels to an alternate dimension where her powers don't work correctly but overcomes this by transforming into mythological animals such as a griffon.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, biologist Curtis Connors pays the price for using himself as a guinea pig for a limb-regenerating formula made from genetically modified lizard DNA. He regains his right arm, but then transforms into the Lizard, an unthinking humanoid reptile. He only returns to normal after Spider-Man force-feeds him an antidote, losing the new arm in the process.
  • Teen Titans (2003) has the episode "Bunny Raven", in which Raven turns into a rabbit, Robin into a monkey, Starfire into a tiger and Cyborg into a bear. As stated above, since Beast Boy's superpower is turning into animals, he turns into a lamp.
  • Even though the title characters don't count, in the 80's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, April O'Neil had undergone a few involuntary transformations, including a cat and a fish.
    • And while the turtles themselves don't count, their master Splinter does, as the same ooze that turned them into humanoid turtles turned him, formerly a ninja master named Hamato Yoshi, into a humanoid rat.
    • Baxter Stockman turns into a fly when entering a portal at the same time an actual fly does.
    • The ooze does this in the 2012 series. It seems that the ooze turns a person into an animorphized version of whatever living thing (plants included) that they were last in contact with. (excluding mutants)
  • Totally Spies!: Clover gets turned into a Cat Girl in one episode.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man:
    • In the episode, "Field Trip" Loki turns Thor into a frog.
    • In the episode, "Run Pig Run" Loki disguises himself as a hot dog vendor and turns Spider-Man into a pig (in this case his counterpart Spider-Ham) from an enchanted hot dog for him to get revenge on him and sends the hunters after him. At the end, he turns back to normal.

Alternative Title(s): Turning Into An Animal

Top

Giselle Becomes a Parrot

Archie gets fed up with Giselle's bad behaviour and undoes her human transformation, reverting her back to a parrot.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (1 votes)

Example of:

Main / ForcedTransformation

Media sources:

Report