"He was the worst, wasn't he?"
"He was a psychopath. A monster."
Moral Event Horizon in Animated Films."He was a psychopath. A monster."
Example subpages:
- Disney
- Dragon Ball
- One Piece
- Pretty Cure
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Ratchet & Clank
- Sailor Moon
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Transformers
Individual examples:
- Ballerina: Régine Le Haut pressured her daughter Camille to be successful at ballet and even tried bending over backwards to keep Félicie from succeeding at the audition, but those are small potatoes compared to later in the film, when she knocks out Victor and even one-ups this attack by trying to send Félicie falling to her death for winning the part.
- Steele from Balto seems to be your average animated movie Jerkass at first—making fun of Balto, flirting with Jenna even though she's not interested, etc etc. All par for the course. But when he refuses to let Balto take the crate of medicine, thus condemning the children who desperately need it to certain death, it becomes clear how horrible he is. And, once he was defeated, he deliberately tried to ensure that Balto and the whole team of dogs got lost and died, while he could return home and pretend to be a heroic survivor.
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker gives the Joker a rather infamous MEH. He kidnapped Tim Drake, tortured and "fixed" him up as Joker Jr., implanted a microchip doctored with his DNA into Tim's body, and forced Batman to watch the entire scene. He then reveals that he's learned Batman's secret identity, mocks him for it — and for not having the balls to break his one rule and kill him after everything he's done — then knifes him in the leg before he tosses "J.J." a spear gun to finish him off with. And note that this is perhaps the only instance where Batman actively tries to kill the Joker, something that he refrained himself and others from doing in the past. Also worth mentioning that Mark Hamill, who had been voicing the Joker for years at this point, was legitimately disturbed by it.
- Barnyard: Honestly, Dag could've crossed it before the movie takes place, as he's shown holding a keychain of chicken feet from his previous victims. But if we're just talking about plot-relevant examples, then it's definitely game over when he and his pack kill Ben.
- Archibald Snatcher in The Boxtrolls doesn't seem that nasty of a villain and rather a goofy one at best, until later on in a flashback that reveals he kept Eggs' biological father captive for many years, driving him to insanity even though the flashback had him intending to murder him with a wrench. Even worse, he knows the whole time that the Boxtrolls are harmless but lied to the whole town simply so he can be a part of the White Hats. His actions are bad enough to make him be on the list, but near the end He forced Eggs to watch his adopted family get murdered (they escaped in time, but still), and dressed Eggs up as the last Boxtroll and tried to kill him in a furnace. Archibald then rampages through the square and endangers everyone before abducting Winnie.
- Darla Dimple's servant, Max, from Cats Don't Dance crosses it in the climax when he outright attempts to murder Danny so he can't live to carry out his Batman Gambit. Up until that point, any evildoing he had performed was at the behest of Darla, but when he hears Danny and Pudge setting up for the performance they were going to do when Darla's film was over, he resolves to stop them on his own free will, which nearly results in Danny getting killed.
- Darla Dimple herself crosses it earlier in the film, when she floods an entire movie set in an attempt to straight-up mass murder all of the animal characters.
- Melisha Tweedy of Chicken Run crosses it for plotting to turn all the chickens into Marie Calendar-style-pies if she didn't for executing Edwina, just because she was too weak to lay eggs
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: Chester V crosses this by kicking Flint down a cliff to try and kill him, revealing his Evil Plan to have all the sentient food animals turned into food bars, and trying to drop Flint's friends into a machine to shred them to bits.
- Corpse Bride: Lord Barkis Bittern crossed the line a long time ago after he murdered Emily in cold blood to steal her dowry.
- In The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Victor Quartermaine starts out as both Wallace's rival — whose MO is killing rabbits in contrast to Wallace's humane pest control business — and smarmy competition for Lady Tottington. But he shows his true colors when he learns that Wallace is really the titular Were-Rabbit, and becomes even more determined to murder him so he can not only have Lady Tottington to himself, but also be seen as the town hero for destroying what they see as a dangerous, mindless beast.Lady Tottington: (horrified) You knew all along, Victor?
- Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Cousin Mel is so desperate to be rich she tampers with Grandma's fruitcake intending to poison or possibly even kill innocent strangers to stop customers from coming to their store. When that plan unexpectedly gets thwarted, she refuses to reveal that Santa Claus really did run over Grandma to make sure she stays missing, exploits Grandpa's senility to get power of attorney on the store, and later kidnaps a now amnesiac Grandma in order to frame Santa and get all his money.
- Heavy Metal: During the Harry Canyon segment, the titular character helps an unnamed woman hide from a group of thugs who want the Loc-Nar from her. The following day, Ratnik, the leader, contacts Harry to meet with him at the Statue of Liberty and give the Loc-Nar to him in exchange for a huge sum of money, getting the woman out of danger. And how does the woman thank him? By pointing a gun at him and demanding the entire amount for herself. The two of them previously agreed to split it in half. Although, the film implies it wasn't entirely her fault. The Loc-Nar is said to corrupt the will of people it interacts with, and bring out the evil potential within them.
- How to Train Your Dragon 2: If it wasn't clear enough by then that Drago Bludvist is 100% morally bankrupt, it most certainly was when he uses his Alpha to brainwash Toothless into turning on Hiccup, resulting in Stoick the Vast's Heroic Sacrifice.
- The Iron Giant: Although he dooms the town of Rockwell to nuclear destruction in his attempt to destroy the Giant, Mansley crosses the line when he chloroforms Hogarth after confronting him in the barn to interrogate him. Beforehand, he deliberately threatens to have Hogarth taken away from his mother, knowing full well the emotional trauma he hopes to induce in the boy to get him to disclose where the Giant is. When he gives the order to launch the missile, he is acting out of prideful stupidity. What he does to Hogarth was premeditated and intentional.
- Kung Fu Panda:
- In the first film, when Tai Lung confesses to Shifu that all he ever wanted was to make him proud, only to find out that he had Shifu's pride and love all along, he only spends one moment looking genuinely affected before he's right back to demanding the scroll, saying he doesn't care about apologies. Since he's basically thrown away any sort of redemption that might have been offered to him, that moment signals that he deserves everything that happens to him afterward.
- Lord Shen starts the second movie far on the other side of this trope. When he overhears a prophecy that "a warrior of black and white" will stop his plans to conquer China, he resorts to the genocide of an entire panda village in an attempt to avert the prophecy.
- Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole: Kludd moonblinks his baby sister, which is essentially zombifying her. In the book, he crosses much, much sooner, although Soren/the reader doesn't know it at first. He shoves Soren out of the nest, hoping it will kill him (his own brother) then does the same to said little sister, and has a hand in his own parents' deaths.
- In The Missing Lynx, Newmann overly crosses the line when he chose to try again hunting on the fugitive animals repeatedly, usurps Noah's control, and threatens to kill Felix in order to use Lynxette as bait.
- Mr. Peabody & Sherman: Ms. Grunion was already an unreasonable bully by threatening to take away Sherman from Mr. Peabody for no reason, but she ultimately crosses the line when she beats up Sherman and tries to have Mr. Peabody executed by Animal Control when he uses his Papa Wolf instincts against her.
- NIMONA (2023): If The Director hadn't already crossed it when she murdered the Queen and framed Ballister for it, she practically pole-vaulted over it when she orders the wall cannon turned inward to the city to destroy Nimona. This is after Ballister had already talked Nimona down, as well as with full knowledge that the cannon strike would destroy a large portion of the city and kill thousands of innocent people.
- The Nut Job:
- Raccoon crosses the MEH when he leads Surly to destroy the Tree, and banished him hypocritically. He reveals his true colours to the rest of Surly's gang of rodents via trying to suppress the nut heist. Thank God The Caligula got his just desserts upon getting himself surrounded by the sharks while trying to concoct an alternative plan.
- Mayor Percival J. Muldoon of The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature crossed it when he replaced Liberty Park with Libertyland, if he didn't cross it for plotting revenge on Surly. He passes blame on Surly and his gang by getting away in a hot air balloon, yet Surly defeats him and the Mayor gets his just desserts for his crimes.
- In The Powerpuff Girls, Mojo Jojo is usually an incompetent and harmless villain. In the movie, however, he's anything but. He arguably crossed it by enslaving Townsville with super monkeys, destroying half the town, and betraying the girls' trust in the process. Confronted with this development, he tries to Break Them by Talking:Mojo: Can't you see? None of them will ever understand you as I can. For we are kindred spirits whose powers spring from the same source. So girls, do not make me destroy you! For we are smarter! We are stronger! We are invincible! We have the power! We ARE SUPERIOR TO THEM! AND WE SHALL RULE!!! All we have to do is work together. Girls, join me.
[Beat]
Girls: NOOOOO!
Blossom: We'd never join you! And it's because we are stronger!
Bubbles: Because we are invincible!
Buttercup: Because we have the power!
Girls: WE HAVE TO PROTECT THEM FROM YOU!
Blossom: It's you who is to be feared!
Bubbles: 'Cause you are a monster!
Buttercup: You are evil!
Girls: AND YOU! ARE... it!
[they push him off the skyscraper where he's standing]- Ironically, since the show is set after the movie, this trope is inverted, as Mojo peaked in his evil here and only had down to go, becoming more redeemable rather than less.
- Pharaoh Seti in The Prince of Egypt led a campaign to curb the Hebrew population by rounding up and killing all of their infants. He's not too sorry about it, either, with murals depicting the event adorning the walls of his palace. When Moses, his adopted son, tries to call him out on it, Seti just blows off his concerns, saying "Oh, my son... they were only slaves..." The scariest part of it is, he thought this would make his adopted son feel better. He was trying to comfort him with those words.
- Mayor Tortoise John from Rango crosses it when he tries to have both the title character and Beans drowned in the bank's vault, and if that wasn't enough, he fully crosses the line when he attempts to kill Rattlesnake Jake for having no place in his ideal town, saying "pretty soon, no one will believe you even existed" before pulling the trigger. However, this backfires due to the gun having no ammo in it (since Rango had removed the bullet from the gun beforehand) and Mayor John is subsequently dragged out of town by an angry Rattlesnake Jake.
- The Road to El Dorado:
- Tzekel-kan shows that he is willing to act as accessory to the massacre of his own people with his attempted sacrifices and pressing requests towards the gods to let him purge the city of those that he considers sinners. Even arguing that presiding over a religious system that, while certainly unpleasant to both Miguel and Tulio's European perspective and the audience's modern-day one, would've seemed perfectly natural to a man of his time and culture, one cannot ignore that he was the only one obsessed with enacting it even when the gods denied his request, or the fact that he sacrificed his own henchman, who if anything else, should not be considered disposable, according to his beliefs. And toward the end of the film when he agrees to lead the Conquistadors to the city and allow them to pillage it, not only to spite the Chief for banishing him, but also because he sees them as the ideal gods, it becomes clear that he's genuinely evil no matter whose perspective you're coming from.
- Cortez would have his expedition which would bring slavery and destruction to the so called heathens as his MEH if he didn't cross it when he planned to have Miguel and Tulio flogged and then sell them into slavery, all for accidentally stowing away on his ship.
- The Grand Duke Of Owls crosses this in Rock-A-Doodle when he nearly strangles Edmund to death.
- Rugrats in Paris:
- Coco LaBouche, acted like your typical Child Hater who only pretended to love Chas just so she can go up in the social ladder. Her acts started when she wrenched Chuckie's Tragic Keepsake out of his hands and then ordered Kira to destroy it. Even Angelica looked shocked!
- Then, it only went downhill when she and Jean-Claude cross this when they're willing to lock children away in a warehouse for the sake of a perfect wedding.
- Jean-Claude pilots the Super Escargot mecha against the babies' Reptar mecha and attempts to destroy it, knowing full-well the babies are inside and even gleefully going along with it.
- Sausage Party: Douche crosses it when he kills an injured juice box by draining him from his crotch.
- Sheep & Wolves: Ragear, who starts off as the usual contrast to The Hero, goes past the point of no return when he kills Magra just to claim the position of the wolf village leader.
- Shrek:
- The first movie has Lord Farquaad already commit several heinous acts as the film progresses, such as banishing several enchanted creatures to Shrek's swamp as if it was an unimportant piece of land and taunting Gingy with his severed legs, and having Mama Bear made into a rug off-screen all because he believes that fairy tale creatures are tarnishing his "perfect world". However, he truly crosses it when, after Fiona reveals her ogre form, he orders his guards to take her and Shrek away, the latter being sentenced to a Fate Worse than Death and the former about to be trapped in her tower for the rest of her life. At that point, nobody felt sympathy for him when he got eaten by a dragon.
- In Shrek 2. The Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming cross this when she gives Harold a love potion to ensure Fiona falls in love with her son Charming. Charming for willing to go along with that and steal Fiona away from her real love just so he can become king of Far Far Away. Harold comes close to this (he did try to have Shrek killed so Fiona and Charming could be together and he could fulfill his promise to Fairy Godmother) and nearly gives Fiona the love potion (albeit reluctantly) but stops at the last minute when he sees Fiona still loves Shrek and he does not wish to violate her free will.
- If Charming wasn't already on the other side of this line after the previous movie, he certainly is after apparently killing Shrek in Shrek the Third. Keep in mind, this is after Artie's "You Are Better Than You Think You Are" speech and getting all the villains to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- Shrek Forever After's main plot involves Rumpelstiltskin tricking Shrek into giving up the day he was born so he could take over Far Far Away. In the timeline where Shrek didn't exist, he turned it into a dictatorship where literally everyone's lives are far worse, and we even get to see him executing a witch for allowing Shrek to get away.
- Eris of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas crossed this when she unsatiably took matters into her own hands upon framing the titular protagonist by stealing the Book of Peace. She pushed even further when sending her pet Ice Eagle, Roc to attack Sinbad and his Crew
- Superman in Superman vs. the Elite jumps through the MEH when he decides to finally buy what Manchester Black is selling... by murdering each of the Elite, then lobotomizing Black by destroying his powers. Then, we find out he subverted it by revealing none of the Elite are dead, that an army of robots saved them, and that his way works.
- The Elite themselves jumped through the horison when they decided to kill Superman simply because he doesn't agree with their methods.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
- Bowser crosses it when he orders Kamek to torture Toad in order to blackmail Peach into marrying him, showing how low he's willing to go to make her his. He keeps on going when he orders all of his prisoners to be executed in molten lava during his and Peach's wedding. And if you still hold any sympathy for him, the part where he orders his minions to fire a Bomber Bill over the Mushroom Kingdom out of spite for having his wedding with Peach thwarted will seal the deal.
- Earlier, the Koopa General crosses it when he turns himself into every Mario Kart player's worst nightmare, The Dreaded Blue Shell, as a kamikaze attack to try and take out Mario and Donkey Kong, as well as destroying Rainbow Road to capture the rest of the Kong army.
- Thumbelina: Mona is arguably one of the most evil characters of Golden Films, since she outright disregards the lives of the little people and is not above selling Thumbelina to Mr. Mole with a fake promise of helping her on her mission. Mr. Mole also crosses the horizon with his willingness to go with such a plan.
- More than half of the short animated film Zero in one long crossing of the horizon for everyone at the expense of the title character who happened to be born with number zero on his chest. He is continuously abused and physically assaulted and they almost murder his pregnant wife in front of him after imprisoning him. It is clearly shown that this happens to all zeroes and it is a film about the horrors of racism, casteism and social unequality.
