Punch Clock Villain / Animated Films

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• Colonel Cutter from Antz is the more serious and competent kind of Punch Clock Villain. When sent to fetch Princess Bala, the first thing he does to get some attention is punch a hippie bug in the face. But when it comes to committing genocide, he feels that's taking it a little too far.
• Kronk, Yzma's lovable-lug henchman from The Emperor's New Groove is the classic example of this. This becomes especially obvious in the sequel, where he helps her under the pretense of running a legitimate business and quits when he finds out it is a sham, and the TV show where he is very chummy with Kuzco when Yzma is not ordering him to do anything nasty to him.
• Charming: Not a villain per se, but we get something like this with the kingdom's executioner.
  Philippe: Thank you. You are surprisingly pleasant for a man who kills people for a living.
  Executioner: Oh, it's just a job. My heart's not in it, really, you know. I just happen to have a talent for the work.
• Deconstructed in Megamind when the titular Villain Protagonist finally manages to win. It becomes clear that he only took the role of bad guy because everyone expected it of him, and without The Hero to oppose, the rest of the movie is driven by his wondering what to do now.
• Done in Monsters, Inc., where the monsters' sole purpose for scaring children is to use their screams to power their world. When they're not scaring kids, they're actually nice folks going about their lives.
  Sully: (to Boo) Well, now there is [a monster in the closet], but I'm not gonna scare you. I'm off duty.
• Chief and Copper in The Fox and the Hound. They track down other animals for their master so he can kill them, not out of malice but just because they're hunting dogs and it's their job.
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the Dazzlings are rather competent villains who want to achieve their ultimate evolution through feeding off of negative energy produced by their singing. While Adagio and Aria are dead-set on their goals, Sonata doesn't really seem to care too much about the end goal, coming to somewhat appreciate the world she's currently living in; especially with her love of tacos.
• In My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Captain Celaeno and her crew are stuck serving the Storm King, but their hearts aren't in it, to the point that they go from preparing to throw the ponies overboard after finding them in their ship to taking them belowdecks for lunch. Because this is all the time they get and they are not missing that.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: The entirety of Halloween, with the exception of Oogie Boogie, counts as this insofar as the world population considers them scary villains. Their Blue-and-Orange Morality means that they frighten and terrify people every year on Halloween, but most of them are shown to be perfectly amicable and even friendly off the clock.
  "Tender lumplings everywhere, life's no fun without a good scare! That's our job, but we're not mean, in our town of Halloween."
• The Pagemaster: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Long John Silver, and the Dragon all turn out to have been a part of the Pagemaster's Secret Test of Character. When Richard makes it to the Exit, they congratulate him for facing his fears and overcoming them successfully.
• Ratatouille: Perhaps he's overly harsh, but as a critic, Ego's job is to give bad ratings to restaurants he doesn't like.
• The Return of the King's orcs seem to be a combination of this and Slave Mooks, as their song, "Where There's A Whip (There's a Way)" implies that they would much rather not be marching to war.
  "We don't wanna go to war today! But the Lord of the Lash says "Nay, nay, nay!" We're gonna march all day, all day, all day, for where there's a whip there's a way!"
• In Robin Hood (1973), Nutsy and Trigger, the Sheriff's Bumbling Henchman Duo, are this. Unlike Prince John, Sir Hiss, or the Sheriff himself, they only carry out their orders, never abusing the power given to them. Due to this, they are seen guarding Prince John, Sir Hiss and the Sheriff instead of being imprisoned alongside them after King Richard takes back the throne.
• In Shrek 2, Puss in Boots tried to kill Shrek only because Shrek's father-in-law hired Puss to kill Shrek. He has no actual malice towards Shrek and becomes his friend after he spares Puss, much to Donkey's chagrin.
  • In Shrek the Third, none of the villains (sans Charming) are actually evil. They just act like villains because they don't feel like they have any other place in the world.
• Trolls World Tour: Queen Barb's drummer, Riff, implies that he's working her for college credit. Also upon being turned into a rock zombie, Branch asks the audience if they wants to get ripping tattoos on their bodies except for their faces in case they need to apply for office jobs.
• Up: Muntz's dogs. As the end shows (and the end credits), once they get a new master, they're perfectly nice.
  "I like you temporarily."
• Blackwolf's forces in Wizards. They serve their master because he promises them a better life outside of Scortch, and usually don't follow through with his campaigns because they don't really have the stomach for prolonged combat. Things change when Blackwolf shows them old Nazi propaganda films, which convince them of the glory of looting and conquering for its own sake.
• Wreck-It Ralph is an in-universe deconstruction of this trope — villain characters in Video Games aren’t actually evil, they are the equivalent of actors doing their part for the game. The moment the arcade closes, they’re off the clock, and some are shown to be pretty amiable with their respective heroes. Unfortunately, not all game characters seem to realize this, leading to Ralph being heavily stereotyped and feared for being a "bad guy". This eventually leads Ralph to abandon his game in search of a way to prove to everyone that he has what it takes to be the good guy for a change, which almost puts his game and the entire arcade in danger.

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