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Sir Bedevere: How do you know that she is a witch?
Almost the first thing that everybody knows about Wizards and Witches is that they turn people into amphibians: usually Frogs and Toads, with the occasional salamander or newt ( possibly for use in potions), but your results may vary. It's their standard party trick, the sorcerous equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. This is so well-known that anybody faced with a Wicked Witch is likely to beg her not to do this, at which point she'll probably do something much worse instead.
Currently, this has become a partially Discredited Trope, and when faced with the stereotype, magic-users are more likely to irritably explain that turning people into frogs is impractical with so many other spells at hand. However, they're still quite likely to do it if it becomes convenient.
Whether the victim turns back when the spellcaster dies varies. A common variant, with reference to the tale of The Frog Prince, is that the spell can be broken by a kiss. Subversions usually opt for a mouse rather than an amphibian, playing on the association of witches and cats.
Subtrope of Baleful Polymorph.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- During the Simonson era of The Mighty Thor, there's a classic storyline in which Loki has Thor turned into a frog to keep him out of the way of Loki's latest scheme. Thor eventually gets hold of his magic hammer again, which as usual transforms himn into an armored, muscular, six-foot-plus heroic figure — who is still a frog. (This led to a cover which asked the question, "What do you call a six-foot-six fighting-mad frog?" Open the comic and the first page, in huge letters, answers, "SIR!") The spell is only broken after Thor confronts Loki.
- In a digital prequel
 to the Avengers vs. Pet Avengers storyline, Fin Fang Foom turns Thor into a frog again, along with Captain America and Iron Man. Thor actually facepalms while Tony freaks out. Bucky, oddly enough, was rather calm about it and his frog form even kept his bionic arm.
Fan Fiction
Film - Live Action
Film - Animated
Literature
- The Frog Prince is probably the Trope Codifier.
- Whenever the various sorcerers of the Belgariad are in trouble, the first thing nearby muggles suggest is that they transform the enemy into something harmless, usually with a mystical hand gesture. Polgara once turned a Cherek king into a man-sized frog so that he would take her seriously.
- Witches and Wizards alike in the Discworld can do this, but tend not to because it takes a lot of effort. Granny Weatherwax, particularly, prefers to simply make the victim think they've been transformed, which is technically less cruel but a lot more entertaining.
- Morwen, the resident good witch in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, is offended at the suggestion, although she considers doing it to Arona Vamist because he irritates her so much. Her cats encourage it as they want something to play with.
- In The Lord of the Rings, when Sam is caught eavesdropping on Frodo and Gandalf's conversation about the One Ring, he begs the wizard not to turn him into "anything unnatural", and Frodo insists it'll be a warty toad if Sam doesn't keep his mouth shut. Since it's a fairly low-magic setting, by modern fantasy considerations, it's unlikely that Gandalf could actually do it if he wanted to.
- In Tom Holt's Falling Sideways, intelligent alien frogs who came to Earth long ago have the power to make themselves seem human, and to make humans appear and act like frogs. The prince isn't really a frog, but the princess is!
- In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden has jokingly threatened to turn people into toads. Though it's an empty threat as unwilling transformations are against the White Council's laws.
- In Pamela Dean's Secret Country books, a character uses "Shan can turn you into a toad!" as an expression of annoyance, referring to a legendary wizard named Shan.
- In A Bad Spell For The Worst Witch, Mildred tells Sybil and Clarice that she thinks Miss Hardbroom did this to a girl who became the frog she's seen in the school pond. Later in the book, Ethel turns Mildred into a frog. Whilst in her frog form, Mildred meets the frog in the pond who it turns out is a wizard who got into a fight with another wizard and ended up stuck as a frog when the latter cast a spell on him.
- In Yendi, it's mentioned that Sethra Lavode, one of the world's most powerful sorcerers, sometimes turns intruders into jhegaala. The jhegaala is an animal that metamorphoses repeatedly in its life, but resembles a toad at one of its life-stages. Also, the Sorceress in Green threatens to turn Vlad into a newt in the same novel; his retort is a Shout Out to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Zigzagged in Dungeon of Dread, a pick-a-path book based on the D&D game. The Evil Sorcerer turns innocent villagers into animals, including one who became a toad ... not a helpless one, as this trope usually features, but a giant toad large and fierce enough to guard his lair.
- In Charmed Life, Gwendolen turns one of the maids into a toad, having previously claimed that her bulging eyes make her look like one already.
- Gogu the frog AKA Costi in Juliet Marillier's novel Wildwood Dancing.
- In The Runaway Princess, a witch routinely turns princes who come to bother her into frogs. Although she's perfectly willing to turn them back into princes, most of them prefer to stay as frogs.
- Subverted in the Kings Quest Tie-In Novel King's Quest: The Floating Castle. A witch turns Prince Alexander into a frog against his will, but he later realizes it was so he could more easily sneak into the Evil Sorceror's castle he needed to infiltrate, then simply get turned back by a kiss from a captive princess also within and finish his mission from there.
- In Wen Spencer's Tinker, there is talk of elves able to turn people to frogs.
- In John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince, the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
- In Alethea Kontis's Enchanted, Sunday meets a talking frog who's this in the forest.
- In Patricia C. Wrede's Mairelon The Magician, the lower-class slang for wizard is "frog-maker." At the end, Mairelon says he'll turn his brother into a frog for a few minutes if it would make him feel better, but he'd rather not.
- Discussed in A Song of Ice and Fire when the young sellsword known as Frog reveals himself to be Prince Quentyn Martell. The Prince Charming scenario is then horribly deconstructed when (after being spurned by the Princess) he goes to tame the dragon and gets crispy-fried and takes three days to die from horrific burns.
Live-Action TV
- In the first season of Dark Oracle, there's a character who was trapped in the shape of a frog, and can be changed back and forth by being kissed.
- Darrin on Bewitched claimed to have seen his mother-in-law do this.
- Inverted in another episode, where Samantha meets a man who used to be a frog and wants her to turn him back.
Newspaper Comics
- One early Dilbert arc has him dating a witch who turns him into a frog to get rid of an annoying fly.
Tabletop Games
- Forgotten Realms got some of this:
- From the introduction of Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, 2 ed. —
Elminster: To readers who trust in the sword or the dagger and hope to find in these pages a guide to how to lay mages low, I tender the following piece of very good advice: "Wizards? Avoid 'em. Life's better when ye're not a frog." That anonymous trail saying of the Sword Coast lands has been around a long, long time, but it is best never forgotten—if ye take my point.
- Used as a Noodle Incident in Elminster at the Magefair by Ed Greenwood.
"Why, Dhaerivus, I recall my first magefair!" He nodded in reflection and added dryly, "Ye made a most fetching toad."
- Supplement Pages from the Mages. During the course of a feud between the wizards Phelpar of Rassatan and Selvar of Taruin, Phelpar turned Selvar into a frog. Selvar had to hop many miles to reach a cave where he had hidden a cache of magic that could return him to normal.
- In the 5th and 6th editions of Champions, the superheroine Witchcraft is built as a standard superhero-mage ... but has a spell to turn people into frogs. One of the "cure" conditions is even being kissed.
- Magic: The Gathering includes a "Turn to Frog" card:
Target creature loses all abilities and becomes a 1/1 blue Frog until end of turn.
"Ribbit."
Video Games
- Frog in Chrono Trigger got his moniker and his shape from Magus, the Disc One Final Boss, who saw the young Glenn as a harmless foe and wanted to humiliate him. While Magus thinks he's using this trope, it's actually a subversion, since Frog loses none of his strength or abilities through this and becomes even more Bad Ass after that. He actually ends up thanking Magus for cursing him with awesome. If you let Frog kill Magus in the Duel Boss near the end of the game, he will have reverted to his original form by the end credits.
- In Final Fantasy III you are capable of turning your enemies into Frogs with the Frog spell and at one point have to turn yourselves into Frogs to progress.
- In Final Fantasy IV (II in the US release), not only are there in-battle frog (and pig) transformation spells, but at one point the townspeople turn you into frogs and pigs for revenge for your earlier actions as the Dark Knight.
- Additionally, there is an enemy called the Bog Witch, who enters battle with several Bog Toads and orders them to cast Toad on you every round. When they're all killed, she turns herself into a Toad.
- In Final Fantasy VII, Touch Me and Toxic Frog have an attack called Frog Song, that not only turns one party member into a toad, but puts him/her to sleep. You can acquire this power from them as a form of Blue Magic. They can also turn party members into frogs with their basic physical attack (Frog Jab). Fortunately, applying the status "Frog" will actually cure anyone already affected by it. Fights with these enemies tend to involve a lot of getting switched back and forth, which can throw off any battle command more complicated than simply attacking them physically. Fortunately, they don't do much damage so the only significant danger comes from any other enemies accompanying these little guys. Unfortunately they tend to show up alongside enemies that can mess you up pretty bad if they aren't dealt with quickly.
- Also, Sephiroth in his One-Winged Angel form can inflict multiple status changes on your entire party in one attack, including Toad.
- In Final Fantasy IX, Regent Cid was tranformed into an Oglop by his wife as a punishment for infidelity. Dr Tot attempts to concoct a potion that will restore him to human form... which turns him into a frog instead.
- Final Fantasy Dimensions:
- The witch Styx turns the world-famous bard Eduardo into a frog after promising him a way to be together with the mermaid he loves. The spell is only broken by the mermaid's kiss, with the twist being that the mermaid is actually his mother and the kiss is on the forehead.
- There is also a dungeon where the party must turn themselves into frogs to proceed, probably as a deliberate Mythology Gag to Final Fantasy III.
- World of Warcraft plays this straight as an arrow with the Shamans' Hex ability. Mages get something similar, but it turns their targets into sheep...or monkeys, penguins...you get the idea.
- In Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, getting hit by a wizard's "energy blast" in Medieval stages turns him into a frog, costing you a life.
- In Scribblenauts, the magic wand (which is the default weapon of witches and wizards) shoots bolts that change living things into frogs.
- In Escape From Moonbase Alpha, Deadly Doris (an animated television set, possibly inspired by Evil Edna in Willow The Wisp), has a chance of turning the player into a frog when she attacks.
- An odd example in Glover. You can cast the frog spell onto witches, but they will reverse the spell right back at you.
- In Jazz Jackrabbit 2, there's a witch that turns you into a frog, and being kissed by Eva Earlong turns you back into a hare. There is only one only place where this happens, and it is in the demo levels.
- In Cave Story, Misery turns Balrog into a giant frog for a boss battle.
- In King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder, the witch in the forest has turned numerous people into frogs, and can turn Graham into a frog as well.
- Mages have a reputation for doing this in Dragon Age. In fact, Alistair can say that he prefers to know his odds of becoming a toad at any given moment.
- In Dungeon Keeper wizards and similar creatures get turned into a frog and back while being tortured.
- In The Sims: Makin' Magic, one of the first spells Sims can learn is Toadfication, which, naturally, turns another Sim into a toad. If your Sim tries a spell on a magic-user that is more powerful than them, the target will realize what is about to happen and whip out their own wand, quickly using Toadification on the person trying it before they can finish casting the original spell.
- In Castlevania Portrait Of Ruin, the witch protagonist Charlotte learns how to cast a Toad Morph on herself and Jonathan to aid their progress. Backtracking with the spell is required to reach the best ending.
- Quest for Glory has Baba Yaga use the standard trick of turning heroes into frogs. In a later sequel, she instead has the hero turn into a hedgehog, but reverses the spell once she remembers the hero has to give her something.
- Lusternia's Wiccan class has Toadcurse, transforming players into an ineffectual (and easily stomped) toad for a period of time.
- The Interactive Fiction game Enchanter features the CLEESH spell: change a creature into a small amphibian. In the third game, Spellbreaker, the antagonist casts this on the Guild of Enchanters; they continue the meeting without much difference, despite being frogs and newts.
- CLEESH also appears in Kingdom Of Loathing, as a spell you can get from the adventure game-themed "strange leaflet". It turns your opponent into a frog, newt, or salamander, but replaces the monster's normal item drops and experience gains, and it won't work on boss monsters, creatures that are already reptilian/amphibian, or the Country (yes, you can pick a fight with the whole of Loathing and try to turn it into a frog).
- In For The Frog The Bell Tolls, the main character and his rival Richard can turn into frogs due to a suspicious potion a witch woman named Mandola sold to them.
- Toad Man in Rockman 4 Minus Infinity can turn Mega Man into a toad if the rain he summons hits him. After Toad Man is beaten, Mega Man gets said ability and can turn said ability against Toad Man during the Boss Rush for an easy One-Hit Kill.
- In the ZX Spectrum game RanaRama, the player character is a sorcerer's apprentice named Mervyn who accidentally transformed himself into a frog by experimenting with potions.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: An Inversion in the Treehouse of Horror parody of Harry Potter: students are expected to turn frogs (presumably of original frog descent) into princes.
- In the old The Legend Of Zelda cartoon, there's an episode where Ganon turns Link into a frog.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle:
- In a Fractured Fairy Tale, a princess finds a prince who has been turned into a frog. He wants her to kiss him to turn him back into a prince but she refuses. "A talking frog! I'll make a fortune!"
- Another episode inverted the idea. Due to a shortage of Princes to turn into frogs a witch finds a frog and turns him into a prince.
- In an episode of Gotham Girls, Zatanna turns three men into toads. The other spells she casts wear off quickly; it's not clear whether this one will wear off, but since they were as clear as the format would allow in their intention to rape her, it's not a pressing concern.
- In one episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, Loki turns Thor into a frog so he won't interfere with his Frost Giant invasion of Earth. He's not as strong as he once was, but he still has power over Mjolnir and human speech in this state. At one point, one member of Spidey's team suggests that White Tiger (the only girl of the group) kiss "The Frog Prince", an idea she immediately dismisses. Spidey gets Thor back to normal by tricking the Trickster God himself- he points out that nobody would be impressed by a god killing a frog, and reverting Thor gives him the opportunity to kick Loki's ass.
- The Smurfs had a few princes turned into frogs, twice by sorcerers and once by Hogatha the witch. One prince-turned-frog was Prince Theodore, whose human appearance was switched with that of a frog by Morlock the wizard who sought to control the prince's kingdom by using the frog-in-prince-form as his lackey.
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