Morphic Resonance / Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Shane Gooseman always keeps a bipedal form and roughly the same mass. He usually also keeps the blond hair.
• Adventure Time: Any vessel that the Lich possesses gains his Glowing Eyelights of Undeath, and occasionally have his curling horns as well. The Lich, being the Genius Bruiser he is, catches on quick that this is giving him away and proceeds to find a way to hide it; when he needs to impersonate Billy, he doesn't possess him, but rather kills him and wears his skin in order to conceal his deformities. It works.
• The Amazing Feats of Young Hercules: Falina still has green eyes as a sable, and her red hair has become red fur.
• American Dragon: Jake Long:
  • Jake Long has spiked green hair and always wears a red jacket; he turns into a red dragon with green spines down his back.
  • His grandpa wears a blue robe and has white hair and a moustache; he turns into a blue dragon with white spines and a moustache.
  • And his kid sister Haley wears pink and has bunches; she turns into a pink dragon with bunches.
• In Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a running joke is that Meatwad can change shape, but only into either an igloo, or a hot dog. Both of these still have the same texture and color as Meatwad, and still have his face. In earlier episodes, he could change into other things, such as a Meat Bridge and a statue of Abe Lincoln with a Samurai sword (it was supposed to be a statue of Wayne Gretzky). He became a hammer in a much later episode, too. In The Movie, he turns into a full-size office building and a giant monster designed to fight a rampaging exercise machine. It Makes Sense in Context. Sort of. He retains the previous clues to his identity, the texture and face and whatnot. Justified since Meatwad isn't a true shapeshifter. He's just a ground meat patty than can change his shape.
• The title character of the animated Beetlejuice has transformations (apart from the likes of Mr. Beetleman, Cousin BJ etc.) that often exhibit his stripes (usually the black and white ones seen on his suit), color palette and/or facial features (sometimes including the whole face◊).
• Ben 10:
  • Each of Ben's alien forms has a "timer" resembling the face of the Omnitrix, in addition to an outfit design similar to that of Ben's signature black-and-white T-shirt if they wear clothing. At least one of them has the design (a black stripe on a background of white) on its skin.
  • As of Alien Force, all of Ben's aliens share his green eye colour (when their eyes are visible, at least), including appearances of 10-year-old Ben's aliens in Ultimate Alien and Omniverse that originally did not.
    • Acknowledged in the Grand Finale for Alien Force, where Gwen identifies Swampfire as Ben via his green eyes rather than his Evil Twin Albedo's red.
  • In the What If? episode "Gwen 10", the colors become light and medium blue, reflecting her one T-shirt. Her Grey Matter form also retains her red hair.
    • In his Omniverse appearances, any clothing on Albedo's aliens matches his black and red colour scheme to mirror Ben's black-and-green.
  • All later installments ditch the clothing match-up, though the Omnitrix symbol remains. This is justified, as the symbol still is the actual device, morphed to fit the new form. The reason being to act as a method for the user to quickly swap between forms without the need to wait out the timer and turn back to their original species, should the user be skilled enough with the device. This is why the symbol from Alien Force onward is always on the chest of aliens, with older ones being redesigned in the 2016 reboot series to follow suit.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: In "Ben Again", younger and older Ben team up in the climax, and, when both turn into one of older Ben's standards, younger Ben retains the white shirt and black stripe.
• Best and Bester: No matter what the titular duo transform into, they always maintain their color schemes (pink for Best, green for Bester) and their faces.
• Castlevania (2017): Death as Varney. Not only does he lack irises, making his pupils look like empty sockets along with his sclera being the same tone of his skin, but the coat he wears has a collar that's been partially popped open, making it look like a scythe blade.
• Danny Phantom: Although he's not a shapeshifter, Danny's green eyes show in the face of whoever he's overshadowing. That's true for other ghosts as well. When he turns into his ghost form, the suit he wears is the same one he wore when he first transformed into a ghost.
• Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: In "Locket Locket in My Pocket", Wilhelmina's magic locket turns the wearer into the person whose portrait is in it. When she uses it to turn herself into Dorothy and has a run-in with the real one, her disguise is seen through because her hair retains a green streak from her real form. Likewise, when Dorothy's friends wear the locket themselves, they put their own spins on her gestalt: Toto's hair is the same gray as his fur and he keeps his tail, Scarecrow's hair is blonde and looks like the hay under his hat, Tin Man keeps his funnel, and Lion's hair is amber like his mane and he also keeps his tail.
• Ever After High: Bunny Blanc retains her white hair color upon shifting into rabbit form... and, less explicably, her black eyeshadow.
• All fairies from The Fairly OddParents! maintain their primary characteristic when they change into something else. Their crowns frequently remain above their heads no matter their shape as well. This is also true for other non-humans.
  • Cosmo's and Wanda's hair colors are their primary trait, so they turn into green and pink items. Wanda and Cosmo's unlikely colored forms are often Lampshaded by anyone with enough attention to notice that dogs shouldn't have pink or green fur. This went to Serial Escalation levels when they agreed to switch roles with Timmy and transforming themselves into looking like him — except their hair, voice, and eye color remained the same as their default forms. This became a source of confusion to Timmy's dim parents whenever they encountered one of them breaking house rules.
  • Jorgen Von Strangle has a Lantern Jaw of Justice, so whatever he turns into tends to have one as well.
  • Juandissimo Magnifico turns purple, like his eyes. His godchild's parents even called him Purple when in his ferret form.
  • Alien Mark Chang keeps his big square teeth and his red eyes in his human disguise or while otherwise using his image fake-ifier.
• Four Eyes!: Emma's human and alien forms each have a large forehead and pigtail-like strands on either side of her head.
• Gargoyles:
  • No matter what form the Weird Sisters take, they always look identical to each other, except with blonde, black and white hair, respectively.
  • When Oberon disguises himself as a human in "The Gathering," he basically just changes his clothes and blue skin.
  • An advanced example: not only does Demona look pretty similar in her human form, the Hunters analyze "Dominique Destine" and realize that she and Demona have the same musculoskeletal structure, correctly surmising that she can shapeshift.
• Get Ace: Ned Krinkle's horribly jagged British Teeth are the one flaw in his otherwise perfect disguises. However, he can somehow hide his teeth pretty well (and look exactly like the person he's disguised as) until he reveals himself by laughing or grinning.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Whenever Nergal Junior transforms into a different shape, he always keeps his signature lime green eyes, jagged yellow teeth, and nerdy glasses.
• Hazbin Hotel: Lucifer's shapeshifted forms retain his color scheme and accessories (hat and bowtie).
• Inspector Gadget: The quick-change magician Presto Change-O has shifty-looking eyes and British Teeth in his default form. Whenever he disguises himself as another character, his disguise always has the shifty eyes, slightly crooked teeth, and visibly paler skin-tone. (Since his disguises fool everyone around him, though, it's entirely possible that the trope is played strictly for the audience's benefit.)
• Justice League Unlimited: In one episode, Gorilla Grodd succeeds in his plans to turn every human into an intelligent ape, leading to an amusing scene where Lex Luthor looks at himself in a mirror and sees that he's as bald as ever.
  Ape Lex: Of course...
• The Magic School Bus: This happens in one of the later episodes, where the kids learn about animals living in the city, and their hairstyles are kept when they're changed into animals. The same could be said for any of their other transformations, including those The Bus undergoes.
• ¡Mucha Lucha!: The mascaritas' Signature Moves. For example, Ricochet's "Pulverizing Pinball" has him turn into a large sphere colored to resemble his wrestling mask, and Buena Girl's "Bulldozer of Truth" has her turn into a bulldozer with her outfit colors.
• My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony: Escape From Catrina: Rep can turn himself into a variety of other creatures such as a bird, a bull, a pony or a dragon, but always retains his dark green color scheme and his hat.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • "The Best Night Ever": Twilight turns an apple into a carriage and a group of mice into (non-sapient and realistically-proportioned) horses. The carriage looks like a giant apple and the horses retain mouse faces.
    • "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies": When Twilight turns herself and her friends into breezies, they retain their usual colors schemes and become breezie version of themselves.
    • Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, can take many shapes on a whim, but he often retains some aspect of his true draconequus form, typically his antlers, lopsided tooth and yellow/red eyes, or some aspect of his Fashionable Asymmetry, if only with the color scheme. In "Twilight's Kingdom -- Part 1", this is downplayed when he turns into a stallion, as it would give him away, but he still keeps the overall grey color scheme of his head (including his unicorn horn remaining light blue to match his normal goat horn).
    • Almost all of the forms Ocellus, a shapeshifting changeling, takes maintain her usual light blue and red color scheme, adjusted to fit the anatomy of the creature she's turned into.
    • "Frenemies": Queen Chrysalis retains her distinctive blue-green eye color when in her cragadile, goat and ophiotaurus forms. While this is absent in her ursa form, several of its component stars shine the same color as her eyes. Only her roc form doesn't bear any signs of her usual appearance.
    • In general, it seems that changelings can decide how much Morphic Resonance they want to use. Ocellus, for example, could create more complete disguises, but she keeps her color scheme because she's with her friends and not trying to fool anyone. When she turns into a dragon, none of her characteristics show through. Queen Chrysalis also retains some characteristics when there is no need to hide (cragadile) or the one being fooled is too dumb to know (ophiotaurus). The Roc was just a copy of another creature she had seen once (real reason: reusing assets). Lastly, Thorax almost never makes use of Morphic Resonance, though he could, and his brother Pharynx transforms into a large bug monster with the same coloration at one point.
• Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero plays with this. Both the heroes and villains have recognizable features and accessories that remain with them no matter what form they take (Larry and Sashi's glasses, Boone's braces, etc) but the resonance can only be seen by other part-timers, normal citizens just see them as the person they're pretending to be.
• Samurai Jack: Here's a tip for new viewers: if Jack encounters a character or creature with red, green, and black predominantly featured in its color scheme, it's going to be Aku in disguise. Yes, this even applies when said character is the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power:
  • Imp typically retains his blue and black coloration whenever he disguises himself.
  • Likewise, when his master Hordak does a full-body shapeshift, his new form will have the same coloration and his face.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Mermista is a mermaid who can turn into a human at will. In the latter form, she sits with her legs pressed together whenever possible.
• The Simpsons:
  • A Couch Gag parodying human evolution shows various prehistoric animals resembling Homer Simpson gradually turning into, well, guess. There is also an octopus resembling Mr. Burns, a dragonfly resembling Lenny Leonards, a pterodactyl resembling Agnes Skinner, a Tyrannosaurus rex resembling Bart, a Stegosaurus resembling Lisa and a small mammal resembling Moe Szyslak (which did evolve from Cave-Moe — or Cave-Moe devolved back into a Moe-like rodent, to keep with the theme of his occasional attempts at suicide).
  • "Treehouse of Horror XIII": The third segment is about Dr. Hibbert being a mad scientist who turns people into animals that retain characteristics of who they originally were: for example, we have Homer as a walrus, Marge as a jaguar with a beehive hairdo, Bart as a spider, Lisa as an owl, and Maggie as an anteater.
• Sofia the First:
  • When Sofia shapeshifts, her forms tend to favor purple like her wardrobe. In fact, when Amber accidentally wished Sofia into a cat, the fact that the cat was purple and her tail had a similar pattern to Sofia's dress clued Amber into the fact that the cat was her sister.
  • Twitch, a strangleling, can become any sneaky animal he wants, but always retains the diamond pattern on his body.
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: The Chameleon's eyes flash to indicate that it's him wearing whatever shape he's in.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Son and Daughter's gargoyle and gryphon forms retain their respective coloring, and in the Daughter's case her Holy Halo.
• Steven Universe:
  • Gems are capable of Voluntary Shapeshifting, but all their different forms maintain the same unusual skin and hair colors. Their gems do not shapeshift, and will often be visible when they change form. This makes sense given that their shapeshifting powers stem from their bodies being Hard Light projections produced by their gems. Gems also fuse with one another, creating larger forms that will generally borrow features from both of their components to differing degrees. For example, every single one of Garnet's fusions seen thus far has kept her Cool Shades, albeit in different shapes. Similarly, whenever Amethyst shapeshifts or fuses, her full lips carry across.
  • Pink Diamond, in her disguise as Rose Quartz, manages to cleverly fine-tune her shapeshifting to work around this trope. She Palette Swaps her bright pink skin with her light pink hair — which also makes her look remarkably human — and rotates her gem 90 degrees into her body so that the pavilion faces inward instead of upward, hiding the distinctive brilliant cut and making it look like an ordinary quartz gem. She does retain her nose shape and pink lips.
• Superfriends: Notably, the Wonder Twins have differing shapeshifter tells: Zan's face is usually visible as a reflection on the surface of whatever water-based item he turns into, and Jayna maintains her purple eyes no matter the form she takes.
• Teen Titans (2003): Just like in the comics, Beast Boy can transform into any animal, but he is always green. If the animal has teeth, then his snaggletooth is also kept. In one episode where the villain makes it so he can only transform into inanimate objects, he still maintains his green coloring.
• Teen Titans Go!: Beast Boy retains his green color and normal speaking voice when in animal form.
• Tom Terrific: Tom can transform himself into anything, but always keeps his face and trademark funnel hat.
• Transformers:
  • When Transformers reconfigure themselves to have different vehicle forms, their robot-mode bodies tend to look roughly similar to their previous forms.
    • For example, Generation 2 gave Optimus Prime a new "Hero" body◊ that still had his distinctive red truck cab chest, even though his chest actually became the underside of his new vehicle mode (which had a white cab of a completely different design).
    • Mind you, that's a major improvement over the original series, which applied the same concept going backwards in time. G1 Bumblebee had VW Beetle hood halves on his feet long before he turned into one (indeed, long before there was any such thing as a Beetle, or Volkswagen, or automobiles, or Germany, or anything resembling present-day humans).
    • It's not just Bumblebee. Soundwave still had his cassette tray and buttons, Megatron's chest was still the side of a Walther P-38, Optimus Prime still had a semi truck's grille and windows on his chest, and the Seekers still had F-15 cockpits and wings, just to name a few examples.
  • Beast Wars: Several of the Transformers' faces resemble that of their beast modes. For example, Rattrap has buckteeth like a rat, Cheetor and Tigatron both have catlike noses and whiskers, and Waspinator has a bug-like face.
  • This is something in several series (but not in just as many others). Rather than make two designs for every character, a pre-Earth one that will only be in part of the premiere as well as their standard form they'll have the rest of the series, the standard robot modes will be used in Cybertron scenes and they just won't transform (except in G1, where alien vehicles transform into robots and 'grow' their eventual Earthen vehicle parts on the way.) Transformers: Animated seems to be the only series so far that gives everyone pre-Earth and Earth forms in vehicle and robot mode (they've all got toys, natch. At least, the main Autobots do) They actually get quite a bit of mileage out of the pre-Earth forms: characters still on Cybertron will be the Cybertronian forms repainted; apparently, there are only so many body-types a 'bot can start out with, and it's through scanning new ones on their own later that more unique forms are obtained.
  • And who can forget the episode "Only Human"; when Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Springer, and Arcee are forced into human bodies, not only does Arcee's hair resemble her robot form's helmet, but they almost immediately find a building with jumpsuits in their robot forms' color schemes for them to wear.
  • Animated did a similar plot in the two-part "Human Error". This time, the resonance was justified by the world where the Autobots were human being a simulation run by Soundwave, who was brainwashing their bodies to fight for him while their minds were preoccupied.
• Wakfu:
  • The ancient dragon Grougaloragran retains his bushy eyebrows and beard, as well as a general dark color, whether he transforms into a humanoid or a giant kralamoure.
  • This is also true for Adamaï, a younger dragon, who can take many shapes but keeps his white-and-blue color scheme and peculiar eyes.
  • Same goes for anyone possessed by a Shushu, as they resemble something that is half themselves and half evil monster. They tend to get much bigger, though.
  • In "The Dragon-Pig", Yugo, Amalia, and Evangelyne are turned into piglets, but retain some recognizable traits, like Eva's green eyes and freckles, or dark skin and tufts of green hair for Amalia.
  • Also happens with the heroes changed into Thursters in "The Night of the Thirsters". You can still recognize them, which make the scene where Evangelyne and Sadlygrove try to touch each other that much more pathetic.
  • And again in "Bellaphone Island", when the Bellaphones turns the male members of the party into apes or monkeys.
• Widget from Widget the World Watcher always retains purple color after being transformed.
• Yam Roll of the so-named cartoon can transform into pretty much anything, but that anything will be colored like his yam filling and wearing his trademark cowboy hat. His mentor has similar powers, always turning into something brown with a white beard.
• In YooHoo & Friends the protagonists' fur retains the colors of their human forms.

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