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Films — Animated

  • At the climax of All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Red assumes his gigantic true form after capturing all the dogs in Heaven with Gabriel's Horn. Truthfully, it's just an incredibly massive and more demonic version of his base form, but is still enough to prove a major problem... until Charlie discovers his weakness.
  • In BIONICLE 2, Makuta consumes his two hired bounty hunters and his pet bird Nivawk to turn his weak, depowered body into a giant, winged titan. His movie design was just the model from the first film with wings, but the toy was a true monster.
  • In The Film of the Book of Coraline, after The Other Mother loses her temper with Coraline and tries to stop her from escaping, she gets less and less human-looking. At first, she simply becomes inhumanly tall and gaunt; at the climax, she turns into what is best described as a spider-woman with skin covered in cracked porcealin and limbs made from sewing needles.
  • Despicable Me 2 has the Big Bad using a Psycho Serum to turn himself into a giant furry monster.
  • Disney loves this Trope:
    • The Queen's "perfect disguise" in Snow White certainly counts, depending whom you ask; it's absolutely terrifying enough and—more importantly—it reflects the Queen's true nature. Supremely ironic given that the Queen wants to be "Fairest of Them All".
    • In Sleeping Beauty Maleficent turns into a dragon to fight Prince Philip, as pictured in the trope's main page.
      Maleficent: Now shall you deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of Hell!
    • In The Little Mermaid (1989), when Ariel doesn't get Eric's kiss within the time limit, Ursula allows King Triton to trade himself for his youngest, and she takes his trident and uses it to turn into a giant version of herself. Then Eric crashes his ship into her, impaling her and also electrocuting her, oddly.
    • In Aladdin Jafar turns into a giant cobra, then into an "all powerful" genie. The thing is, Aladdin actually tricked Jafar into wishing he was a genie, so he'd be trapped in a lamp.
      • This seems brilliant only in the context of the rules set by the film; Aladdin used a Chekhov's Gun of a comment of the genie's back at the oasis. The actual djinni even in the proper translated Thousand And One Nights are enslaved in precisely one story: Aladdin, which features a 'slave of the ring' and a 'slave of the lamp.'
      • There was a mysterious slave from nowhere that dumped the transformed fish in the fire in 'The Fisherman and the Genie.' He may have been a genie himself, although the title character was just shut up in a jug so long he resolved to kill whoever let him out.
      • Played with in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar in that it's actually his original, real form at the start of the film, but Jafar decides to transition back into his gigantic Genie self for the final battle instead of the human he looked like for most of it. Unlike the first film, it's not in any way a Clipped-Wing Angel.
    • Appropriately for an Affectionate Parody of their own movies, the villain of Enchanted turns into a big dragon who will NOT shut up.
      • "You're crazy!" "No. Spiteful, vindictive, VERY large but never crazy."
    • Parodied in The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma is exposed to one of her own potions, and emerges laughing maniacally from a huge cloud of smoke only to be revealed as... a Cute Kitten. Surprisingly, her new form allows her to nearly get the potion several times and be a worse threat then she was as an old woman, subverting Clipped-Winged Angel as well.
      • In an even more comical version, Kronk's New Groove features Yzma using a potion that will turn her into something that her enemies (in this case a bunch of old people who she sold fake potions to) cannot harm... a cute little bunny. Unfortunately for her, while they don't harm her, the local condor doesn't mind taking her for food.
      • In one episode of The Emperor's New School Yzma does turn into a giant snake. And in another episode she and Kuzco have a transformation potion duel—one of the things Yzma turns into is a Tyranosaurus Rex.
      • And she once made a potion that would turn her into the most hideous, terrifying thing imaginable, so frightening the other wouldn't be able to do anything about her... comically subverted when the potion does nothing, implying that she already is.
      • In the video game for the film, Yzma actually attempts to do this on the last level of the game by drinking a potion... and, true to the film, ends up becoming a cute little kitten. She and Kuzco then race each other for the human potion.
      Yzma: *holding a potion* Ahhh, Kuzco, I'm glad you made it. Now, with this potion, I will turn myself into a hideous monster, and END YOUR RULE FOREVER!!!!
      Kuzco: Are you sure you didn't drink it already, you old bag of bones?
    • In Wreck-It Ralph, King Candy/Turbo is eaten by a Cy-Bug. He takes it over and becomes a massive fusion of himself and the Cy-Bug.
      Turbo-bug: Welcome to the BOSS LEVEL!
    • Downplayed in Frozen with Elsa's snow creature "Marshmallow" (as named by Olaf). Already intimidating to begin with, making him angry causes him to sprout giant ice spikes and send him on a rampage.
    • Atlantis: The Lost Empire has Rourke become this after being sliced by a shard of glass infused with Atlantean magic, turning him into a shrieking, violent crystal golem with glowing red eyes and a glowing red mouth. In addition, Kida has a non-combative form after being fused with the city's Heart Drive. Fortunately, she's released when the danger is overcome.
  • Don Bluth likes Disney movies as well and has used this at least twice:
    • In the already insane Rock-A-Doodle, the Grand Duke appears to puke his evil magic up all over himself and mutates into a sort of gigantic owlish... tornado-ish... thing...
    • The spin-off movie Bartok the Magnificent has Ludmilla (voiced by Catherine O'Hara of SCTV) steal a potion that Babayaga has given Bartok to aid him in his quest - it turns you into whatever you are, deep down inside. She drinks it and...
    • Don Bluth actually worked for Disney around the time of movies like The Rescuers, so he was just carrying on the tradition.
  • Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest. After Hexxus' power source from human pollution is disconnected his smoke form dissipitates, and it momentarily seems like he's defeated. Then he harnasses his own power and transforms into a giant, black, cloaked skeleton made out of fire and tar. It's hinted to be his real form, as it's glimpsed earlier in the film during his Villain Song.
  • Kadaj, in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, transforms into no less than the Trope Namer himself. Shortly after being super-Omnislashed, Sephiroth proceeds to show his lone black wing, before leaving Kadaj to go through the whole 'dying' process.
    • In Advent Children Complete the wing appears before Sephiroth is Omnislashed, and he uses it to do a number on Cloud.
  • During the climax of The Frog Princess, Koshchei turns into a giant crow to battle Ivan.
  • Joe, the villain of Help! I'm a Fish does an odd inversion of this. He starts out as an ordinary fish, granted human intelligence via the "anti-fish" potion. During his final confrontation with the hero, he begins drinking more and more of the potion to boost his intelligence, which causes him to turn into a human. The next question he gets asked is "Can a human breathe underwater?" He, of course, can't, and promptly drowns.
  • Heroic example in Howl's Moving Castle. Near the end, Howl transforms himself into a giant flying bear/wolverine-eagle thing to fight off bombers.
  • During the climax of Kubo and the Two Strings, the Moon King transforms into a ghostly dragon that resembles a cross between a millipede and a Dunkleosteus.
  • Monster House contains one of the most bizarre versions of this ever. Bizarre, because the Big Bad in question is a house that has transformed into a monster.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • Simone Lenoir, Lena Dupree, and Jacques undergo this trope in the finale of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island when they transform into hideous, mindlessly snarling, spiritual life energy draining vampires that look like were-versions of cats. It is implied that this is their true form after they made a deal with the statue of an eldritch Cat God that is supposedly an evil version of Bast.
  • Appropriately for a film that (ahem) was an intentional homage to the classic films, Rothbart in The Swan Princess has the ability to become "The Great Animal". His monstrous true form was teased throughout the entire movie until the very end - only to have him bring the Narm and change into what appears to be a big fruitbat.
  • In Turning Red, when Ming's red panda spirit is released, she goes completely berserk, becoming a kaiju-sized monster.

Films — Live-Action

  • In one of the Alien Nation films, the Big Bad takes a massive overdose of the MacGuffin slave-drug, seemingly dying, and then...
  • Aladdin (2019), like the original, also has such a moment. Just like the Maleficent example listed below, however, it's not Jafar who undergoes such a transformation into a big cobra: instead, he turns Iago into a rukh and sends him after Aladdin and Jasmine, who are trying to fly out of Agrabah on the Carpet, taking the Lamp with them. Rukh!Iago does a really good job of it, successfully snatching the Lamp from Aladdin, but then the Sultan briefly knocks Jafar's staff out of his hands, causing Iago to return to normal and nearly fall out of the sky under the increased weight of the lamp in his parrot feet. Jafar does end up becoming a genie, as per the original film, but as per the original, this transformation is more of a Clipped-Wing Angel.
  • According to the bonus features on the DVD of the first Blade movie, this was the original ending of the film, with villain Deacon Frost transforming into the blood god La Magra (who looked like a giant CGI red tornado). However, the filmmakers were struck with a jolt of good sense and realized that it would detract from the climax, having just spent the entire film building up Frost as the main villain. Instead, La Magra possesses Frost, granting him nigh-invincibility and fighting prowess.
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): Sweet Pete gets an unwilling instance of this when his modification machine malfunctions and starts zapping him repeatedly, turning him into a disjointed mashup of animated characters, with a CG version of the heads of Felicia and Marie, Silver's coat, Wreck-It Ralph's left arm, Sheriff Woody's right leg, '87 Shredder's shoulder (and voice) and Optimus Prime's left leg. He proceeds to go on a rampage and chase after the titular heroes.
  • Toward the end of Conan the Barbarian (1982), the villain Thulsa Doom (played by James Earl Jones) turns into a snake to emphasize his inhumanity, though Conan doesn't actually fight him in that form.
  • In Demon Knight, we do briefly to get to see The Collector's true form just before he dies: a gigantic, skeletal being with a ram's head and enormous wings. He blows up real good.
  • The Devil's Advocate: Milton, after Kevin shoots himself, explodes and briefly turns into a demon, unleashing a curse that turns Christabella into a husk, and then turns into his old angelic form.
  • An almost literal example in End of Days. After Satan's human host is damaged beyond repair he abandons it and manifests in his true form as a gigantic, winged demon/dragon before possessing the hero.
  • In a Protagonist Journey to Villain example, the finale of The Fly (1986) has Half-Human Hybrid Seth Brundle's final transformation from a man who looks diseased but recognisably human into a horribly mutated insectoid beast, which not coincidentally happens just after his decayed human jaw is accidentally ripped away by his desperate lover as he's preparing to forcibly merge himself with her and their unborn child via the telepods. Taking away his ability to speak, the last tether he has to what remains of his human reason and compassion, means "Brundlefly" is solely driven by survival instinct and rage. Here it is. Hope you have a strong stomach. Luckily for the other characters, that makes him vulnerable to Revenge Before Reason and he ends up a Clipped-Wing Angel...but nobody's celebrating that.
    • The sequel has his son Martin undergo a similar transformation, but unlike his father's agonizingly Slow Transformation most of it happens inside a cocoon to avoid Body Horror. Also unlike his father, he still retains most of his humanity, even if he can no longer speak...which does nothing to save his oppressors from his Roaring Rampage of Revenge!
  • In the vampire film Fright Night (1985) the vampires have three phases of transformation, the first is typically like a normal human, the second is like a normal human but with fangs, and the third phase is a extremely crazy looking monstrous creature with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. At the end Jerry Dandridge (the main vampire) turns into a human/bat hybrid thing, gets hit by sunlight and bursts into flames and finally dies. Interestingly enough, the vampiric version of Amy is in fact a recycled version of the rejected librarian ghost from Ghostbusters.
  • Fright Night 2: New Blood: While fighting Peter Vincent in the climax, Gerri just drops all pretense and transforms into some sort of baldheaded bat-monster.
  • Ghostbusters (1984) has the scene at the beginning where the librarian ghost turns into a hideous ghoul when the GBs are trying to get her. Interestingly enough, there was an earlier librarian ghost puppet that got rejected because it was too scary, but it was recycled and used in the 1985 vampire film Fright Night (see below).
    • Parodied at the end when Gozer, who initially appeared as a young woman, demands the Ghostbusters choose the form it will use to destroy them. All the GBs clear their minds except Ray - who unintentionally thinks of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Cue the attack of a 50-foot mascot.
      • And technically, this also happens to Zuul and Vinz Clortho, where, after they complete the mating ritual and get zapped by Gozer's lightning, they burst out of their human disguises and resume their natural Terror Dog forms, only to not do anything more for the rest of the film until they are ultimately destroyed and turned back into stone statues by the destruction of the gateway to Gozer's dimension.
    • In Ghostbusters (2016), the ghost-obsessed Rowan North commits suicide and comes back from the dead. Like Gozer, he asks for a form to cause the Apocalypse and transforms into a demonic and gigantic version of the Ghostbusters' logo mascot.
  • Some of the monsters in the Godzilla series can change form. For example, in Godzilla: Final Wars, Monster X transforms from a skeletal dragon into the more powerful Keizer Ghidorah (Which is essentially an Expy of both King Ghidorah and Desghidorah (a quadrupedal three-headed dragon Kaiju)).
    • Likewise, there's Destoroyah who changes from a pretty dang big crab/scorpion-esque monster into what looks like a kaiju version of The Devil that towers over Godzilla himself.
    • And there's Biollante, who takes this trope and makes it her own.
  • The main villain in the 1980s Eddie Murphy Vehicle The Golden Child spends most of the film looking like actor Charles Dance. At the Final Battle, and with no foreshadowing anywhere in the film, he transforms into a large, bony, winged demon (stop-motion animated to boot), whereupon Murphy kills him with a special knife.
  • Guyver
    • At the end of The Guyver, Fulton Balcus, the head Zoanoid, turns into a giant creature after the main character refuses his invitation to join Chronos. The transformation is shown in the dark. All you can see are his Glowing Eyes of Doom, as they raise and separate to show just how big he has become. To his credit, taking him down requires the Guyver to use his secret weapon — a Wave-Motion Gun in his chest.
    • In the sequel Guyver: Dark Hero, Crane, a reptile zoanoid and main antagonist, gets his own (though damaged) guyver unit and turns into bad-ass incarnate.
  • In Hellboy (2004), every time Rasputin dies, a little bit more of his god comes with him, until at the end of the film, he dies one last time, his body splits open, and a full-fledged Eldritch Abomination emerges.
  • In the climax of Hop, holding the egg of destiny transforms Carlos into a giant, freakish bunny/chick amalgamation.
  • Happens to the villains in both 2003's Hulk and 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Then again, this makes sense as The Hulk himself could qualify as the heroic version.
  • At the end of the stop motion film, Jack the Giant Killer, after several attempts to kill Jack (the main character) are foiled, Pendragon, the main villain and evil sorcerer, transforms into a dragon to fight Jack, who eventually kills him in the final battle.
  • In Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen, Daiki Kaito uses the plates of DaiZangyack and DaiShocker to turn their respective battleships into the massive monstrosity Big Machine, a threat so powerful, it requires the Go-Buster-Oh and the Super-1 and Super-3 Switches in tandem.
  • The martial arts comedy, Kung Fu Wonder Child, ends with the Evil Sorceror Big Bad using his chi to transform into a gigantic cartoon Chinese dragon to assault the heroes.
  • In the film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Dragon consumes enough of Jekyll's serum to tower over the real Mr. Hyde.
    Mr Hyde: Not the whole thing!
  • In Lisztomania, Richard Wagner turns into a grotesque vampire at the final showdown with Franz Liszt.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
  • Appears out of freakin' nowhere in the Lost in Space movie. Dr. Smith is attacked by an alien bug and somehow this transforms him into a distracting CGI creature. Bonus points for Lampshade Hanging the "well, we couldn't kill you as a human but now that you're a monster you're fair game" issue!
  • In The Luck of the Irish, when Seamus starts losing to Kyle at basketball, he turns into his far darrig form (making him look a bit like Teen Wolf) and his voice turns into a deep growl. Then again, only Kyle, his friends, and family appear to notice this.
  • Happens to Maleficent in Maleficent, naturally. Though it's actually the return of her wings, not her transformation into a dragon.
    • Also happens to the shape-shifting Diaval, who does become a literal dragon.
  • In Man of Steel, Zod starts out like his fellow soldiers jumping around at high heights and having Super-Strength and speed. But when he breaks out of his battle suit during the final battle, he becomes as equally powerful as Superman, with the ability to fly and use heat vision.
  • Happens all the damn time in Men in Black (both the comic, movies, and Animated Adaptation) whenever the disguised alien villains expose themselves in front of J and/or K. One has to wonder why they don't just shoot before the transformation is complete, what with the guns usually loaded and pointed at the alien during the transformation.
    • However, they may be following the grand tradition of movie aliens flipping out and assuming monstrous forms to attack. The Thing (1982) does it (quite a lot really). So does Sil in Species.
    • For the first film, it was justified since the Bug had eaten the galaxy and shooting him would probably have destroyed it. Subverted in the third film - after Boris kills J's father, he starts transforming and sneers "Go ahead, arrest me," at young-K. K calmly replies "Not today" and disintegrates him with one shot.
  • Inverted in all three entries of The Mummy Trilogy, in which both Imhotep and the Dragon Emperor undergo some terrifying transformations before the climax, yet end up facing down the heroes in human form at the end. In the first film, a timely incantation renders the villain an ordinary mortal again; in the second, it's because Anubis wanted it that way; and in the third, it's because the hero dares the Emperor to fight like a man for honor's sake.
  • Nope has the Big Bad Jean Jacket. It spends most of the film as a Flying Saucer, but that's just a compacted version of its true form. Said form is unveiled in the climax as a massive Starfish Alien that resembles a bizarre white jellyfish with an expanding green eye.
  • At the end of Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, Stone finally turns into The Devil, a monster with wings, horns, and a tail.
  • In the climax of Once Upon a Warrior, Irendri the Snake Sorceress proves she lives up to her name by revealing her most powerful form, a snake-human hybrid, whose body have numerous extra snakes extending from her limbs, shoulders, and various parts. It's her most powerful form and she absolutely delivers a thrashing on the hero Yodha, who is hopelessly overpowered by the sorceress.
  • Resident Evil: Extinction has the big bad evil scientist injecting himself with a massive dose of secret formula and then mayhem ensues. So does Resident Evil: Degeneration Except that in Degeneration, he was more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist, who's plan was to go on a rampage, exposing the research on the G-virus that was being done.
  • In Return to Oz, once Dorothy begins guessing right at the ornaments and restoring the Scarecrow, Tik Tok, and Jack to their original forms, the Nome King — previously human-sized and at one point almost looking entirely human thanks to everyone else being imprisoned — becomes a giant rock monster and attempts to eat them all. Unfortunately for him, Billina is still inside Jack's head and lays an egg, which falls into the King's mouth...POISON... TO... NOMES!!!
  • The true form of the renegade spirits in R.I.P.D..
  • In the 2002 live action Scooby-Doo movie, Scrappy(!) turns into a demonic version of himself with razor sharp claws and teeth, a big muscular body, wild looking eyebrows, enhanced agility and strength- A DEEP BOOMING VOICE and a horrid case of bad breath. Take That, Scrappy!, much?
  • In Suicide Squad (2016) Diablo somehow turns into a twelve-foot tall Aztec skeleton wreathed in flames during the fight with Incubus, making him just strong enough to force him into the corner with the bomb.
  • Shredder, at the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, drinks the mutagen, which transforms him into Super Shredder (also transforming his outfit). He attempts to destroy the Turtles along with himself by bringing the pier down on their heads.
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants cartoon that only aired in Japan (and has gained a bit of notoriety online as many viewers assume that it must be an elaborate parody). In this series, the Turtles were granted magical crystals that allowed them to transform into superpowered forms. Sadly, Shredder, Rocksteady, and Beebop found evil versions of the same crystals and are now capable of turning into superpowered monsters. At this point, it's probably better just to direct your attention to the show's opening sequence.
  • In Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny Paul F. Tompkins changes into Satan and KG and Jables challenge him to a rock-off.
  • Tim Burton has used this trope a few times:
    • In Beetlejuice the titular character turns into a variety of bizarre things to frighten people, as do Adam and Barbara.
    • Parodied in Big Fish. The hero suspects the ringmaster is a werewolf and dreads the inevitable transformation. Turns out he is — but not a mean or monstrous one. The werewolf does bite Edward, but then he apologizes after he turns back into a human.
    • As mentioned in the Western Animation section, Batman: The Joker loved revealing his Monster Clown face. This is due to a scene in the 1989 Batman film where Viki Vale (Kim Basinger) sprays water on The Joker's (Jack Nicholson) face revealing his Monster Clown look under the makeup and The Joker quotes the witch from The Wizard of Oz.
    • The Penguin in Batman Returns is another non-fantastic example. As a derelict living in the sewers, he wears nothing but a thick robe over slime-stained long underwear. Once he decides to compete in Gotham City's mayoral race, he begins appearing in public in a tuxedo shirt, a waistcoat, striped pants, a bow tie, and a top hat. Fleeing the city in disgrace after his hypocrisy is exposed by Batman, Penguin loses his hat and retreats back into the sewers, where he begins stripping off his fancy suit. For the rest of the movie, he appears only in his robe-and-long-underwear combo - signaling that he has returned to his "normal," quasi-animalistic self.
    • Although it's debatable if the Hessian counts as a villain...the Hessian Horseman's head growing back at the end of Sleepy Hollow (1999) could also qualify.
  • Ultra Series
    • During the final battle of Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, Ultraman Zero manages to defeat Ultraman Belial by throwing him into a pit of lava. He's soon followed by the souls of his 100 kaiju, merging with them to form the 100 Union Kaiju Beryudora. It takes an all out attack from the Ultras, EX Gomora, and Ultraman Zero to finally put him down. And Belial still survived!
    • In the sequel Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial, Belial absorbs a massive amount of energy crystals he was stealing, transforming into the gigantic and monstrous Arch Belial.
    • In Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey, the Dark Giant Camila uses The Power of Hate to call forth the residual darkness of Gatanozoa left over from the Series Finale, merging herself with it to transform into Demonozoa, an utterly colossal version of Gatanozoa made entirely of shadows.
  • Dracula and his brides in Van Helsing can turn into harpy-esque bat things. And in the finale, Van Helsing himself becomes a werewolf to battle Dracula, who has turned into a giant demon thing.
  • In Warcraft (2016), when Lothar and Khadgar confront Medivh and beat his minion, he hulks out into a giant demonic figure.
  • Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is almost a sick parody of the "Look at my true form and despair" variation.
    Eddie Valiant: Holy smoke, he's a Toon!
    Doom: Surprised?
    Eddie: Not really. That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a Toon.
    Doom: Not just ANY Toon... (reveals his true identity) Remember me, Eddie?! When I killed your brother, I talked! JUST! LIKE!! THIIIIISSS!!!!!
  • In Windigo, Slender Man is seen primarily as a Badass in a Nice Suit... until the climax where he unleashes his Combat Tentacles and starts throwing around vehicles.
  • In Wishmaster, the Djinn adopts his true djinn form whenever things get serious. He also appears like this when he gets defeated in the climax of every one of the movies, demonstrating that it's a true monster being overcome by the protagonists.
    Djinn: Spare me, child. Behold my true face.
    Alexandra: Oh my god.
    Djinn: Yesss. The shit just "hit the fan", didn't it?
  • The Witches of Eastwick has the scene where Jack Nicholson's character becomes a giant and then after the girls smash the wax voodoo doll of him becomes a worm-like monster.

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