What An Idiot / Disney Animated Films

"I'm surrounded by idiots!"

— Scar, The Lion King (1994)

When you wish upon a star, it doesn't actually make your dreams come true. The same goes for forgetting acts of stupidity.

#-F

• 101 Dalmatians.
  • When Cruella de Vil wants to make a coat out of Dalmatian puppies, she goes to her old friend Anita and her new husband Roger, correctly guessing that both of their Dalmatians will have puppies. However, they politely but firmly refuse to sell the puppies, in part because Cruella was extremely rude to them.
    You'd Expect: Cruella to just move on, and find somewhere else to buy the Dalmatian puppies that she needs for her coat.
    Instead: Purely out of anger at Roger and Anita for not selling her their puppies, she hires two thieves named Horace and Jasper to steal their puppies. She assumes that no one will give much of a crap about some puppies being stolen. She does, however, acquire 84 other Dalmatian puppies elsewhere (mostly purchased legally), which makes stealing Roger and Anita's puppies all the more unnecessary.
    As a Result: Soon almost the whole country starts hunting for them, and she is forced to hide them out in an old family property while worrying about the police finding them. In the live-action version, she actually gets arrested after the police conduct a raid on her house and find the illegal furs she's kept there.
  • After Cruella kidnaps the puppies, in the animated film the dogs in London all decide that the police can't help them, because they don't have any leads. They use the Twilight Bark to locate Pongo and Perdita's puppies and to lead the parents to their puppies. This goes off with minimal hitches since Pongo and Perdita are a Badass Family.
    You'd Expect: That once the puppies are found and reunited with their parents, some dog on the Twilight Bark would notify Scotland Yard that about one hundred and one Dalmatians are traversing the countryside. This would mean that the dogs have more manpower against Cruella, Horace, and Jasper. It would also mean they get a ride home to London sooner rather than later. The police actually do help rescue the puppies and their parents in the live-action film.
    Instead: The Great Dane who helps Pongo and Perdita with directions declares that the humans have done all they could and don't consult them, or signal that the missing puppies in the news have been found.
    As a Result: Pongo and Perdita have to take the kids through freezing snowstorms, hide their tracks for fear of Cruella finding them, and stow away on a truck to return to London. They're also Alone with the Psycho when Cruella catches up with them.
  • Also, Horace and Jasper arrive at Roger’s and Anita’s house to steal the puppies while Roger and Anita are out walking Pongo and Perdita in the park. Nanny is home alone with the puppies and Jasper rings the doorbell after she puts them down for a nap.
    You’d Expect: Nanny would just not answer the door, since these are two random strangers showing up unexpectedly while the Radcliffes are out. And if they still refused to leave, she would telephone the police. That way, they would probably arrive within a matter of minutes, before the two intruders could cause any major damage.
    Instead: She curiously answers the door. Horace and Jasper pretend to be inspectors from the Electric Company, but she doesn’t buy it, correctly suspecting they have come with worse intentions. She does tell them they’re not allowed in and attempts to shut them out, but they overpower her and charge their way in.
    As a Result: They break in and steal the puppies, and Nanny is left alone unable to do anything except call for help.
  • In the live-action remake, Cruella offers a huge check for the puppies, and calmly says "Take it." Anita looks at the check and seems to actually consider it.
    You'd Expect: Cruella to continue to be calm and friendly, as it looks like Anita just might agree, and not do anything to blow it.
    Instead: She eventually loses patience, and roars TAKE IT!!! (with dramatic thunder in background). Naturally, this blows any chance of her getting the puppies.
• Aladdin:
  • Jasmine is fed up and unhappy with palace life, particularly because she doesn't have a say in who she can marry. She decides that running away is the best option.
    You'd Expect: Jasmine to make sure she packs ALL possible essentials, especially money.
    Instead: She doesn't consider taking money with her at all and then goes to a marketplace in a country where you can get your hands chopped off for not paying! This leads to the below example.
  • Jasmine runs away and dresses as a peasant so that no one will recognize her. She already makes the shortsighted decision of not taking money with her, and thoughtlessly gives an apple to a street urchin without paying for it. The shopkeeper stops her and demands payment.
    You'd Expect: Jasmine would use her golden earrings as currency, or the shopkeeper would demand them. In the live-action remake, the shopkeeper is placated by her bracelet when Aladdin offered it. Or, Jasmine would reveal she's the princess, since the shopkeeper would work out a compromise with royalty.
    Instead: Jasmine tries to say the sultan will give the shopkeeper what he wants, without revealing she's the princess. The shopkeeper tries to cut off her hand.
    The Result: Aladdin, who has been watching, has to intervene and makes up a cover story that Jasmine is his mentally ill little sister.
  • When the guards arrest Aladdin on Jafar's orders, Jasmine tries to get him released. The guards refuse, so she confronts Jafar about the arrest and demands that he free Aladdin. Jafar says that the charge was "kidnapping the princess," but Jasmine reveals that she wasn't kidnapped, that she ran away.
    You'd Expect: Jafar to tell Jasmine what he tells her in the Disney California Stage version, that he let Aladdin go, or that he will be let go now that he knows that the "kidnapping the princess" charge is fake. It's the truth, and it means he remains on her good side. She is the princess, after all.
    Instead: Jafar counts his chickens before they hatch. He cruelly tells Jasmine that he has already executed Aladdin by beheading, while planning to steal her kingdom with the lamp. Jasmine then tells the sultan what happened after he sees her crying, leading to the sultan reprimanding Jafar and Jasmine promising that when she's queen she'll get rid of Jafar.
  • Aladdin leaves Abu alone with Carpet on the bank of a lake in the Cave of Wonders, and crosses to retrieve the lamp. Abu attempts to steal a piece of the forbidden treasure, to Carpet's horror.
    You'd Expect: Carpet to tackle Abu and fly him over the lake or something, since the stakes are too high for that kind of mindless tomfoolery.
    Instead: Carpet forgets he can fly and tries stopping Abu by grasping his tail. Abu slips free and touches the treasure, pissing off the Cave of Wonders.
    As a Result: Aladdin, Abu, and Carpet have to rapidly retreat the ensuing tidal wave of lava, and the three come close to dying on multiple occasions.
  • Jafar has promised Aladdin that he will get a reward if he cedes the lamp. He also helped the latter break out of prison for "kidnapping the princess".
    You'd Expect: Jafar to hold his end of the deal. Aladdin is just a harmless street rat with nothing to lose but with ample Sticky Fingers, only wanting a way out of prison which he got and some money. Not to mention there's Abu, a monkey that doesn't tolerate his human being threatened.
    Instead: Jafar clutches the Villain Ball and immediately tries to kill Aladdin when the latter barely escapes the Cave of Wonders. Abu attacks Jafar and steals the lamp surreptitiously, which allows Aladdin to find out about the Genie and become a prince.
  • Also, Jafar's plan B is to marry Jasmine by hypnotizing the Sultan. "Prince Ali", Aladdin in disguise, arrives wanting Jasmine's hand as well. The genie has created a giant entourage with tons of people, and Abu as an elephant. The Sultan is excited by the song and goes to welcome the prince, Sacred Hospitality and all.
    You'd Expect: Jafar would just let the prince come in; it's not like he can barricade the door to a giant elephant....
    Instead: He tries to close the palace doors on the entourage while giving a placating smile to the Sultan.
    Predictably: Abu and the entourage bang the doors open, crushing Jafar and Iago. It's a miracle they survived that.
  • "Prince Ali" makes a bad first impression on Jasmine by treating her as a "prize to be won," and the Sultan has to tell Ali to leave until she's calmer.
    You'd Expect: Jafar to just let Prince "Abububu" make an ass of himself and become tiger meat, and focus on hypnotizing the Sultan. Even if on the off-chance Ali manages to woo Jasmine, Jafar could change the rules through the Sultan to make her go through an Arranged Marriage to the vizier- him. All of the chump princes have failed to win Jasmine over, and this one should be no different.
    Or Alternatively: Jafar to grill the "Prince" about specifics of where he came from, what royal family he is affiliated with, etc. Upon asking this before, Aladdin hadn't given Jafar a very clear answer, and if Jafar really suspects the "Prince" isn't who he says he is, any incriminating evidence would be sufficient in getting him out of his way for Jasmine's hand in marriage.
    Instead: He has the royal guards attempt to drown the prince while he hypnotizes the Sultan to gain Jasmine's hand. Even without Aladdin having the lamp, it's not exactly a good idea to murder a foreign prince, especially when you have a whole squadron of gossiping guards.
    As a Result: Aladdin survives thanks to the Genie and outs Jafar as a traitor. Jafar only notices the lamp by luck, while he becomes a fugitive.
  • While that went on, "Prince Ali" takes Jasmine on a magic carpet ride. They stop to watch a fireworks show. Jasmine is enamored but suspicious since "Ali" resembles the boy who rescued her in the marketplace and was supposedly beheaded. On top of that, he did the same apple trick that he did in his hideout. To test her theory, she says, "It's a shame Abu had to miss this."
    You'd Expect: Aladdin to remember that he's in disguise and tell Jasmine he doesn't know what she's talking about.
    Instead: He forgets and tells Jasmine that Abu hates fireworks; he and Carpet realize what he said too late when he gets tripped up in his words. Jasmine figures out the disguise and calls out Aladdin on lying to her. It's only at the point that Aladdin is forced to make up a story on how they met in the marketplace.
  • Aladdin quietly sneaks into Jafar's throne room while Jasmine is distracting the villain, and is mere inches away from the lamp. Abu pins down Iago and keeps him from screeching, but causes a ruckus. To keep Jafar distracted and to help out Aladdin, Jasmine pulls Jafar into a kiss.
    You'd Expect: Aladdin to take advantage of this and grab and/or rub the lamp, then wish for the Genie's freedom like he'd promised. Since the Genie is a nice guy, he would likely stick around to help fight Jafar out of gratitude to Aladdin, and there would be no threat of Iago or someone else stealing the lamp and wishing for worse things. Happy endings all around!
    Instead: Aladdin freezes up at his girl kissing the villain and doesn't go for the lamp.
    The Result: When Jafar pulls back from the kiss after about five whole seconds, he sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's tiara. Things get worse, Aladdin has to fight for a tough victory, and then pays for it again in the sequel.
• Aladdin and the King of Thieves:
  • The Oracle tells Aladdin that his father is alive and "trapped" in the world of the forty thieves. Aladdin decides to follow the trail and rescue his dad.
    You'd Expect: For Aladdin to go with the Genie. The Genie is a powerful being who managed to chase off the thieves when they invaded the first wedding ceremony. He also has a strong interest in keeping Aladdin alive, since Genie is the "best man" and Aladdin is his friend.
    Instead: Aladdin takes Iago, Abu and Carpet. Abu can pick locks and Carpet can fly, but Iago can only snark. Genie stays behind to cheer up Jasmine and establish a security detail on the second wedding ceremony.
    As a Result: Aladdin only gets spared when Cassim argues for Aladdin to "face the Challenge" — a Duel to the Death that Aladdin wins reluctantly with his Orphan's Plot Trinket dagger.
  • Aladdin finds out that the titular king is his father. Cassim like Aladdin is a lovable thief with standards, who wants to get to know his son again. After he and Cassim talk out their issues, Aladdin invites Cassim to the wedding. Iago points out to Cassim that it would be a prime opportunity to use the Oracle, since everyone will be distracted, and he can confirm the Oracle knows everything.
    You'd Expect: That Cassim wouldn't disrupt the ceremony, or at least he would be open about his intentions since he's been searching for the treasure for a lifetime, and his argument with Aladdin could be that the Hand of Midas could benefit everyone, including the Sultan, Jasmine and his band of thieves so they'd never have to steal again. He'd wait until his son and daughter-in-law tie the knot, and then ask to use the Oracle.
    Instead: He and Iago decide to steal the Oracle during the private ceremony. The Genie immediately tracks him down, which means even without the trap the guards have set that Cassim would have been busted for violating his son's trust.
  • The head guard Razoul also has a major Idiot Ball moment. After the first wedding's disruption, he has a great incentive to catch the forty thieves. Saluk, who has survived a great fall and a shark attack, comes to him with information on how to catch the King of Thieves and claim his incentive is to make Agrabah safer. Razoul is suspicious but gets useful information.
    You'd Expect: He would recognize Saluk as one of the forty thieves that attacked at the wedding and humiliated the Royal Guard, since not many people go around wearing brass claws, and take him into custody. They should then interrogate him more forcefully later. They can work out a plea deal once Cassim is caught, and once the Sultan has time to sentence all the prisoners after the wedding. The other thieves call out Saluk for being a traitor when he goes to see them in prison, so the guards should obviously figure out that Saluk is one of them.
    Instead: Razoul trusts Saluk after he learns the "Open Sesame" password wasn't a trick, and the Guard captures all but seven of the thieves. After Saluk reveals that Aladdin's father is the King of Thieves, Razoul lets Saluk go to set a trap for Cassim with the Oracle. This leaves Saluk free to go and turn the remaining seven thieves against Cassim when he returns.
  • Also, Aladdin drops the ball when he doesn't consider that his father desires the Oracle due to wanting the Hand of Midas for years on end. He just wants his dad to visit Agrabah, attend the wedding, and be his father. Genie has to point out that it's not a wise idea to just parade his father, a wanted fugitive who crashed the first wedding, in front of the Sultan and Jasmine.
    You'd Expect: That Aladdin would remain suspicious and tell the Sultan what he found out: that his father is the King of Thieves, but that Aladdin is watching him strictly to make sure that he doesn't repeat any of his criminal behavior. The Sultan can have a few guards and the Genie around as Betrayal Insurance so that nothing goes wrong. Aladdin knows that you can change someone's clothes, but you can't change who they are; he can speak from experience from having posed as a prince.
    Instead: Aladdin follows the Genie's lead of acting like his father is just his father, and not Agrabah's most wanted. The Genie changes Cassim's clothes so he looks like a trader, and his story that he was a prisoner of the Forty Thieves. Aladdin immediately believes his father has changed on seeing him get along with the Sultan and Jasmine and takes no precautions to watch his father. He ends up betrayed and heartbroken on seeing Cassim tried to steal the Oracle again, deciding to end his relationship with his father after freeing him from prison. Cassim then steals the Oracle anyway after Aladdin breaks him out, claiming I Did What I Had to Do and Aladdin tells him he had a choice to not do it.
• The Aristocats:
  • The plot kicks off when the butler Edgar overhears his Madame making out her will. To his dismay, he finds that she's leaving her fortune to her cats before he can inherit. Edgar firmly believes that Cats Have Nine Lives (and since it's a Disney movie, they very well might) and thus all of the cats will outlive him.
    You'd Expect: Edgar to realize that this gives him her fortune by default. As the cats' caretaker till the end of their lives, he'd double as their guardian and thus would have access to Madame's millions. The cats can't open their own bank account; it's not that type of Disney animated movie.
    Instead: Edgar decides he'll get rid of the cats to inherit the fortune, by drugging them and ditching them in the French countryside, and he makes several mistakes. First, he fails to make an alibi for himself, although Madame and the cats trust him too much to suspect wrongdoing. Second, he leaves a lot of evidence in the countryside, which he has to retrieve the next night and does so with great labor. Third, when the cats return he has the bright idea of mailing them off to Timbuktu so that they can't return after Madame nearly hears them meowing.
    As a Result: This waste of effort, combined with the efforts of the alley cats that Duchess and her kittens befriend, leads to Edgar being mailed off to Timbuktu after a Humiliation Conga and stricken from the will because Madame believes he ran away.
  • After they encounter a tomcat, Thomas O'Malley offers to help the family return to Paris. He hitches them as stowaways on a milk truck, by scaring the bejeebers out of the driver.
    You'd Expect: Him to make sure the kittens and cats stay out of sight until the milkman reaches Paris. Otherwise they have to walk the rest of the way.
    Instead: Thomas suffers No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. He opens a milk can for the kittens so they can get breakfast. The milkman sees through the rear-view window, slams the brakes, and shoos the "tramps" out. The cats then find themselves walking the rest of the time.
  • The cats return home from the countryside but the kittens discover the pet door is locked. They try meowing to get Madame's attention only to be interrupted by Roquefort who warns them about Edgar.
    You'd Expect: The kittens to trust Roquefort and get away from the mansion before Edgar catches them.
    Instead: They can't hear him through the glass window and interpret Roquefort's jumping around as excitement out of seeing them back. They continue to meow until Edgar opens the door and puts them in a sack.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire:
  • Commander Rourke and his lieutenant Helga are trying to prevent Milo and his Atlantean forces from rescuing Princess Kida, while also trying to lighten their balloon enough to escape. Helga throws the last heavy barrel overboard and says, "That's it, unless someone wants to jump."
    You'd Expect: Rourke to not betray the one high-ranking soldier still loyal to him after all the rest teamed up with Milo against him.
    Instead: He immediately tosses Helga overboard, mockingly telling her that it's "nothing personal."
    The Result: Unbeknownst to Rourke, Helga actually survives the fall (though mortally wounded) and shoots down Rourke's airship with a flare, pretty much undoing his whole plan in one fell swoop. "Nothing personal," indeed.
• Beauty and the Beast:
  • The unnamed Enchantress is bullied by a young prince, and decides to use her magical power to force him to reform his character.
    You'd Expect: That she'd give him a humbling punishment, not one bound to make him even more antisocial than before.
    Instead: She transforms him into an inhuman monster whom the nearby townspeople would kill on sight, forcing him to stay in his castle and do nothing but brood on his spite and misery. Exactly how is that intended to make him atone? Even if he felt genuine contrition for his actions, there's no way he could rejoin society. She also curses every other resident in the castle for good measure.
  • Gaston bluntly says that he wants to marry Belle because she is the only one in town as beautiful as he is. He's oblivious to the fact that maybe tossing her books in the mud and making fun of her father isn't a sustainable means of courtship.
    You'd Expect: He would at least pick up the hints that Belle is not into him, namely that she won't accompany him to the tavern to see his kills and makes excuses to not talk to him. Or that the townsfolk would point that out and perhaps he should say outright that he wants to court her so that the air is cleared and she's not surprised by his marriage proposal.
    Instead: He arranges a wedding outside Belle's doorstep, the day after Maurice leaves for the fair. None of the townsfolk think to talk him out of it and laugh when he says that he's going to propose to her.
    Predictably: When Belle lets him fall into the mud with the pigs, Gaston is humiliated in front of the entire village. While the men rally him with a Pep-Talk Song later, he's grousing about the fact that she said "no" to him. But she said "no" several times already.
  • Maurice travels with the horse and finds himself at a crossroad while en route to the fair. The signs are worn down and useless. Phillipe indicates he wants to avoid the dark path through the thorny woods and instead go on the sunny, wider route.
    You'd Expect: Maurice would trust the horse.
    Instead: He says the creepy dark path is a shortcut.
    The Result: Phillipe hears wolf howls. He starts to panic and backs into a tree full of bats, and they swarm him. The horse nearly runs off a cliff and tosses off Maurice, running back home. This leads to Maurice barely evading the wolves, only to end up in the Beast's Castle.
  • After Belle makes the bargain to stay in her father's place, the Beast forces his sentient carriage to escort Maurice back to the village. Maurice storms into a tavern where Gaston is receiving a Pep-Talk Song, begging for help since his daughter was kidnapped by a Beast.
    You'd Expect: Gaston has just been moaning about how Belle has humiliated him by turning him down. It would earn brownie points if he helped her father, "crazy old Maurice" during a search party. Maurice is also claiming that Belle is missing, which is actually serious since you can't marry a missing person.
    Instead: We know it's not the beer since Gaston is still able to think, so that's not an excuse. Gaston "helps" Maurice by tossing him in the snow, and hatches a scheme with the asylum owner to lock up Maurice unless Belle agrees to marry Gaston.
    Predictably: This backfires because, again, Belle is missing, and it takes a while for her and Maurice to return home. Gaston still doesn't get the memo and makes LeFou stand watch until the pair reappear, which could have taken months. When threatened, Belle refuses because she just went through that with the Beast who at least had the decency to escort Maurice to the village, and just received her freedom back. Then she proves her father isn't crazy by revealing the Beast's existence. Sure, Gaston turns it around with the villagers, but he forfeited any chance of winning Belle over.
  • The Beast tells Belle that she is allowed to go anywhere in the castle except for the west wing. Belle asks what's there, and the Beast raises his voice to say, "It's forbidden!"
    You'd Expect: Belle to heed this warning. She already knows he is incredibly emotionally fragile at this point and quite vicious when upset, so it's in her best interest to ensure he doesn't lose his cool.
    Instead: Her curiosity gets the better of her and she goes to the one area she was explicitly told not to go to. After uncovering and almost ruining the rose, the Beast catches sight of her with predictable results.
  • Gaston in a fit of jealous rage realizes that Belle has feelings for a random Beast. He decides to steal her magic mirror and raise an angry mob to Storm the Castle and kill this Beast . . . so that he can win Belle over by mounting the Beast's head on his wall? The castle residents fortunately get enough warning due to the mob being so loud and shouting, "KILL THE BEAST!" They manage to raise a successful defense even with their master in Heroic BSoD.
    You'd Expect: That one of the servants would stay with the Beast as every other castle object attacks. Mrs. Potts comes to warn him about the invaders. He's Not Himself and not willing to fight, possibly welcoming Death. Also, a mob wants his head on a platter, and the castle must protect the master.
    Instead: No one stays with the Beast, so that he's alone when Gaston pierces through the castle's defenses to get to the Beast in the West Wing. This means he nearly gets killed, and would have died if he hadn't seen Belle return.
  • Gaston has found the Beast looking forlornly out a balcony window. The Beast isn't even putting up a fight. He just resumes staring out the window. Gaston is determined to kill the Beast.
    You'd Expect: Gaston to use his rifle and shoot him in the head. His Establishing Character Moment is that he's a crackshot, and this is a giant Beast that is twice his height and at least three times as heavy. Now is not the time to give your target an inch.
    Instead: Gaston uses a bow and arrow to shoot the Beast in the shoulder. Then he kicks the Beast out onto the balcony and starts taunting him about being "too kind and gentle" to actually fight back. Belle then shows up, which gives Beast a Heroic Second Wind. Gaston would have died if not for the Beast's mercy.
  • Despite the fact that Gaston attempts to kill the Beast for petty reasons and is about to be dropped to his death by the Beast, but spares Gaston's life after seeing him begging for mercy and gives him the chance to leave.
    You'd Expect: Since he is completely overwhelmed by the Beast and that Belle shows no interest in him in favor of the former, he just cut his losses, rally any survivors from the castle, and get the hell out. Afterwards he either moves on with his life after realizing that he has no chance with Belle or try and study the Beast and attempt another attack, this time with perhaps more manpower.
    Or: He'd pretend to get up, and when they let their guard down, he would take Belle hostage. Granted it's definitely an all-time low coming from him, but knowing full well that the Beast would never hurt her, he could easily ransom the Beast into doing whatever he wanted.
    Instead: He proceeds to stab the Beast right after he spared his life, knowing full well that he just got overwhelmed recently.
    As a Result: The Beast swings his arm in pain. Gaston loses his balance while trying to dodge it, causing him to fall right off the balcony into the ravine below.
  • In the midquel, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, we are introduced to Forte, a conductor with previously terrible skills who became more useful after the Enchantress's...well, enchantment turned him into a pipe organ. Because of this, unlike the other servants of the castle who want to become human again, Forte much prefers his new role as advisor and doesn't want to turn back, lest he become useless again. Due to being a heavy piece of musical equipment that's BOLTED TO THE WALL, he can't move about freely, but his music can also move objects nearby and literally bring the house down. His fate is in jeopardy when Belle, who will inevitably break the Beast's spell, comes into his life.
    You'd Expect: Forte to wait until the Beast is out of the castle and use his powers to cause an earthquake, concentrating it all on Belle's location and making her fall to her death. He could easily Make It Look Like an Accident, since the Beast trusts him so much, and he'd find no one else left to love him, leaving the castle enchanted forever.
    Instead: He blackmails his Minion with an F in Evil Fife into sabotaging Belle's time with the Beast and sewing distrust, a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
    Also, You'd Expect: If Forte was going to go through with this, he'd make sure Belle and the Beast started to hate each other. They both need to truly love one another for the curse to break.
    Instead: All of his efforts are put on making the Beast not love her, but Belle is simply led astray one time.
    As a Result: By the time Forte does resort to the earthquake method (with the intent of killing them both), Belle and the Beast have patched things up and the latter saves the day by ripping his keys out, causing him to become unbolted and fall face first on the floor.
• Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World
  • In the first segment "The Perfect Word", the Beast arranges dinner with Belle. When she's on her way, Belle brings with her a talkative dictionary named Webster who, as his name suggests, takes pleasure in explaining words and listing their synonyms. At the dinner table, the Beast starts to feel hot out of nervousness.
    You'd Expect: The Beast would simply excuse himself as calmly as possible, just a simple "I need to step out for fresh air" would be fine. He's already doing a good job appearing as gentlemanly as possible and Belle will surely understand. There is definitely no need to cause a scene if he really wants his curse broken.
    Instead: He demands to Cogsworth to open the window wide which brings a huge winter draft into the dining room and starts freezing everyone.
    The Result: Belle tells the Beast he's not congenial which turns into an arguement and it's not helped when Webster escalates the situation by listing synonyms to Belle's words until the Beast finally loses it and hits Webster in a fury. Belle is very upset and demands an apology but the Beast will not give one until she apologizes first, causing a rift between them. Yes they make up in the end but the Beast still put himself and everyone in jeopardy since Belle's love is the only thing that can break the curse.
• Bolt:
  • The titular Bolt is a dog who thinks he has superpowers protecting his owner Penny from the evil Dr. Calico. In reality he and Penny co-star in a TV series and the sets are designed in a way so that Bolt thinks everything happening in the show is actually happening. When ratings fall, they decide to do a two-part plotline where Penny is kidnapped at the end of the first part. Of course, Bolt believes that Penny has actually been kidnapped, and the studio knows this.
    You'd Expect: The studio to shoot both episodes back-to-back.
    Instead: They scoop Bolt up in a kennel and put him back in his trailer to resume shooting tomorrow. Also, Penny isn't allowed to see Bolt until the big "rescue" scene to maintain the illusion to Bolt that Penny is in danger.
    The Result: Bolt busts out of his trailer and runs away in an attempt to rescue Penny. Meanwhile, the studio gets a lookalike to replace him. However, during a shoot, this lookalike cowers when the make-believe bad guys threaten him, and he flees the soundstage, knocking over a torch in the process, setting the studio on fire, and Penny would have died from smoke inhalation if the real Bolt hadn't come back in time to save her.
• Big Hero 6:
  • At the Student Expo, Hiro wows everyone with his microbots, including CEO Krei. When Krei makes an offer to buy Hiro's bots and hire him, Professor Callaghan steps in and accuses Krei of being a Corrupt Corporate Executive who cuts corners with science.
    You'd Expect: Krei would offer more than money to Hiro, like offer to cover his tuition for the best university possible and learn there or funding microbots for a huge community service project. And if Hiro doesn't accept the offer then, wait for a few months and keep trying to recruit. In addition, Krei should, being who he is, hire lawyers to defend himself against Callaghan's accusations since later on, according to the video footage Hiro and the others find, we only have Callaghan's word that the transporter was tested too early. He has a reputation to uphold, after all.
    Instead: He only repeats his offer and says that he and Callaghan agree to disagree, and later on doesn't follow up with Hiro when the latter doesn't register at the "nerd school", who then considers him responsible for Tadashi's death as a potential identity of Yokai. He also doesn't help his case by apparently trying to walk off with one of Hiro's microbots (though he may have been shaken by Callaghan's accusations and genuinely forgot he had it, in which case he should have apologized).
  • After Hiro's success at the Student Expo, the brothers hang out on campus, up until they see a fire in the building that breaks out. Tadashi is worried when someone says Callaghan is inside.
    You'd Expect: Tadashi to just wait outside and let the fire department handle it. Given San Fransokyo is in the United States, where fire safety is taught everywhere, it's important that civilians never try and mount a rescue.
    Instead: Tadashi runs into the fire to save Professor Callaghan. He dies, leaving Hiro, Cass, and his friends bereft. And as it turns out later, Callaghan faked his death. As Callaghan himself put it, "that was HIS mistake!"
  • Hiro and the gang are pursued by the vengeful Yokai, who is out for their blood, and Wasabi is driving the car.
    You'd Expect: Wasabi to forget about any safety procedures of driving and steer away as fast as possible. No time think about the rules when you're being chased by a supervillain.
    Instead: He apparently obeys the rule of safety driving by stopping at a red light and using pointers even when being pursued by a vengeful supervillain trying to murder them. Had GoGo not decided to intervene and do some crazy driving to successfully escape from Yokai, he would have led to the suffocation of the entire gang by his lawful stupidity.
  • After a long chase, GoGo has driven the car right into the bottom of the ocean and Yokai has seemingly lost sight of them.
    You'd Expect: Him to wait and make sure that the kids are either dead or have managed to float to the surface. Regardless of whether they die or not, their bodies would eventually float right to the surface so he can get a clear confirmation as to what happened to them. If they surfaced while still alive and within his sight... well, let's just say that the Big Hero 6 squad would not have been formed in the first place.
    Instead: He just assumes that they all died and pretty much just gives up the chase.
    As a Result: This allows the kids to recuperate in Fred's mansion, forming a team of superheroes, and ultimately causes Yokai's downfall in the end.
  • After unmasking Callaghan, Hiro and his teammates are in denial. Hiro in particular calls out Callaghan for letting Tadashi die, and for trying to kill them at different points in the movie. At this point they've unmasked and depowered the villain.
    You'd think: Callaghan would Know When to Fold 'Em and try not to anger a grieving Hiro while surrendering. He's seen Hiro as a potential bot fighter, and a kid who hasn't shown up to classes, and given he tried to kill the latter AND his former students, doesn't have much of a defense. Also, need anyone mention the robot that knows karate?
    Instead: He's Brutally Honest in saying that Tadashi's death was the latter's mistake and that he wasn't responsible. (Even if it's true, not the smartest thing to say when held at robot-point). Hiro, who in his Establishing Character Moment crushed an opponent's robot to bits, takes away Baymax's healthcare chip which turns the latter into a killing machine. Callaghan barely escapes with his life, only because the others operate on Thou Shalt Not Kill.
• Brother Bear
  • At the beginning of the film, Sitka, Denahi and Kenai arrive for the ceremony where Kenai will receive his totem. Prior to the ceremony, Kenai loads the salmon into a basket that he and his older brothers caught and Denahi tells him to get the basket tied up.
    You'd Expect: Kenai would tie the rope securely and properly to stop the fish from being stolen from a bear.
    Instead: He doesn't bother doing that because Kenai was in a rush to get to the ceremony, and when he leaves to catch up with his brothers the basket falls shortly afterwards. Kenai does hear it fall and notices, but thinking that no bear would come and steal the basket, he doesn't bother to go back and secure the basket, and instead leaves to attend his ceremony.
    As a Result: When Denahi gets sent to take care of the fish by Sitka just to leave Kenai alone (because he is disappointed that he received "the bear of love"), he is understandably pissed at Kenai when the basket inevitably gets stolen by a bear, prompting Kenai to go and hunt for it. When Sitka and Denahi look for Kenai to stop him from being killed, he gets attacked by a bear on the ice glacier that he provokes. This forces Sitka to sacrifice himself to save Denahi and Kenai from the bear by cracking huge chunks of the ice glacier that he and the bear are on. This sets the film's plot into motion. And as Rutt and Tuke point out in Alternate DVD Commentary, none of the events of the film's plot would be happening if Kenai tied the basket properly and away from the bear's reach.
• Chicken Little
  • A year prior to the movie's events, Chicken Little causes mass panic when he rings the bell and claims that the sky is falling, resulting in him becoming a town pariah. The claim in particular was that a giant piece of the sky shaped like a stop sign hit him on the head from above. It also caused him to become less close with his dad, Buck, who personally sees him as an embarrassment. After winning a big baseball game, he finally receives the town's, and his father's respect. That night, however, the very same "piece of the sky" falls on Chicken Little's head like before. The kicker is that it's a broken piece of an alien spaceship with cloaking technology, though he doesn't know about the "alien" part just yet.
    You'd Expect: For Chicken Little to tell Buck about the piece. Now that it's in his possession, he can show it to him and finally prove that he wasn't crazy in the slightest.
    Instead: He hides it from Buck and tells his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits about the piece first. Abby even calls him out on this.
  • The aliens are shown to speak English near the end of the movie, implying they know more than one language. This brings us to a point shortly after the above where two alien parents end up missing their child, Kirby.
    You'd Expect: For them, upon noticing their young is missing and there are four trespassers on the ship, to opt to speak English to the group and try to ask them where he is. Especially considering they saw their acorn map and mistook it for a list of planets conquered, so they could use a bit more convincing that they're not evil.
    Instead: They speak in their own alien language, scaring the kids and escalating to a full-scale invasion to try and rescue their son. They don't even speak English during the invasion, causing even more of a commotion.
  • After Chicken Little rings the bell tower again to warn of the alien threat, they end up fleeing due to the bell hurting their heads. They make it to where the spaceship is, only for it to have already disappeared. Everyone barely misses it, with Chicken Little's friends sticking up for him and Buck in the crowd of people.
    You'd Expect: Buck to realize Chicken Little has a very good reason for ruining his own improved reputation and attempt to believe him this time.
    Instead: He doesn't, leading to more tension between father and son.
• Cinderella:
  • The mice decide to surprise Cinderella by making over her mother's dress in time for the ball while she works on her chores. Cinderella doesn't have any jewelry, but she has lots of material for the sewing project. This includes fabric, needle and thread; there are also extra ribbons, as they use them to adorn her dress.
    You'd Expect: The mice to use what's in the room, and perhaps scrounge within the limits for extra items like buttons or necklace material.
    Instead: Gus and Jaq are sent to go "borrow" trimmings from Cinderella's stepsisters. They see Anastasia and Drizella tossing away a sash and a string of beads respectively. Cue one epic battle with Lucifer to retrieve them safely and return to Cinderella's attic.
    The Result: Lady Tremaine spots the little items when Cinderella comes down, chores done and with an outfit to wear. While the dress itself looks dated and ridiculous with all of the bows, Lady Tremaine is taking no chances and seizes her excuse; she casually points out the beads to Drizella. Gus realizes what's about to happen and tries to charge, but Jaq holds him back because two mice can't do much against three full-grown women. Drizella proceeds to rip the beads off Cinderella's neck and call her a thief; Anastasia notices her sash and follows suit. By the end of the proceeding assault, Cinderella is left alone in the house with a very torn dress, the last thing she had of her mother's, and obvious trauma. Lady Tremaine may have found another excuse to keep Cinderella from coming, but the mice's good intentions fall flat as Cinderella runs off to cry in the gardens.
  • After Cinderella has done all her chores, she tells her stepmother she's not going to the ball, since she doesn't have anything to wear. She changes her mind after discovering her animal friends had altered the dress she was going to wear for her.
    You'd Expect: Cinderella to wait until her stepmother and stepsisters leave for the ball, and then take another carriage to go to the ball herself.
    Instead: After getting dressed for the ball, she rushes downstairs calling to them to wait for her, and she shows them her dress and asks Lady Tremaine if she thinks it will do for the ball.
    The Result: Lady Tremaine notices the stolen items and nonchalantly points out Drizella's beads. The stepsisters proceed to destroy her dress and leave her in tatters. Fortunately, she is still able to go thanks to her fairy godmother, but still.
  • A big one when the Prince and Cinderella meet. He notices she's wandering around lost on the ballroom floor and goes to help her out. They start dancing, and the Duke arranges for them to have some space away from the other ballgoers, including a suspicious Lady Tremaine.
    You'd Expect: The minute they're out in the royal gardens, that they would have introduced each other properly. For one, it's a very polite thing to do.
    Instead: They spend the whole night dancing and wandering around, but not getting around to that important part. According to the clock, this is about an hour at least since the royal carriages came for the Tremaine family at nine PM.
    The Result: When the clock strikes twelve, Cinderella says farewell and leaves in a hurry, making the excuse that she hasn't seen the prince yet. The prince doesn't know how to find her, and his Duke can only retrieve the young lady's slipper, the sole clue to her identity. The prince and the king decide the only way to find the girl is to see which lady's foot in the kingdom will fit.
  • On the day after the ball, Cinderella finds out that she still has a chance with the prince because the grand duke will travel around the town to find the girl who fits the glass slipper.
    Sadly, Cinderella picks up the Idiot Ball in the climax, when the Grand Duke is coming. She, of course, was the mysterious girl that the prince danced and fell in love with, and is the owner of the glass slipper they are bringing. At this point, the stepfamily is rushing to get ready for the Duke's arrival and shoe-fitting, and don't know about Cinderella being at the ball, having torn up the original dress she was going to wear. Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters, as usual, charge Cinderella with cleaning up and doing chores.
    You'd Expect: For Cinderella to go about her chores like any other day and keep a low profile, knowing that only she can fit the slipper, and, having dealt with the Tremaines most of her life, also knowing that they will be hell-bent on stopping her from getting out from under their feet, and will take action if something even seems remotely off about her.
    Instead: Upon hearing that the Duke is coming with the other slipper, Cinderella immediately zones out, drops a tray full of tea, and then hands the stepsisters' laundry back to them and softly dances back upstairs to get ready for her new life, singing "So This Is Love."
    As a Result: It only takes three seconds of musing for Lady Tremaine to realize that Cinderella was the mystery girl at the ball, and wicked as ever, she follows her upstairs and locks her in her room, forcing the mice to retrieve the key in the film's climax.
  • Lady Tremaine also gets this when she realizes Cinderella is the girl who was at the ball. She is the girl's legal guardian and technically her mother in the eyes of the law. Thus, Cinderella would be indebted to her even if she married into royalty.
    You'd Expect: She would blackmail Cinderella into favoring the Tremaines when she marries the prince, or threaten to lock her up forever. Use the leverage you have to support Gold Digger tendencies. This was what Dame Olga, Tremaine's equivalent in Ella Enchanted, tried to do when realizing her Ella was in love with her prince.
    Instead: She not only locks up Cinderella, but breaks the slipper in full view of the Duke and his valet when Cinderella makes her way down.
    To Make Matters Worse: The possibility of Cinderella having the other glass slipper never occurs to Lady Tremaine. Cinderella takes out the other slipper, and Lady Tremaine can only watch in horror as Cinderella tries it on.
    The Result: The Tremaines are definitely not invited to Cinderella's upcoming wedding, and the Duke has witnessed Lady Tremaine commit treason. Nice going, lady.
  • In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, when Cinderella is confused about the slipper supposedly fitting Anastasia...
    You'd Expect: For Cinderella to calm down, keep her mouth closed, and to keep the other slipper away from her evil stepmother's sight, and sneak to the palace with the evidence while the stepmother isn't looking.
    Instead: Cinderella panics and shows the other glass slipper to her evil stepmother!!
    As a Result: The stepmother snatches the other glass slipper from Cinderella and drops it, causing it to break.
• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: The villain of the movie, Merlock, has a Voluntary Shapeshifting ability. At one point, he manages to get into Scrooge's now overtaken vault by becoming a cockroach and riding on the nephews without their knowledge. He diverts from the group and makes inside the elevator, but is too small to hit the button.
  You'd Expect: For him to shapeshift back into his anthropomorphic wolf form, hit the button, and then become a cockroach again. He's the only one inside the elevator and he's able to shapeshift instantly so this should be a snap to do and nobody would know he's there.
  Instead: He remains a cockroach and feebly tries to hit the button that he's clearly too small to hit, and only after suffering many Amusing Injuries in the process and much worse for wear is he successful.
• Dumbo
  • The circus is coming to town, with a mother elephant and her baby in tow. Mrs. Jumbo adores her little charge, Jumbo Jr., aka "Dumbo" as her fellow elephants cruelly nickname her baby. Every other elephant and human makes fun of Dumbo because his ears are unusually large. Dumbo, for his part, is just a baby and doesn't understand the cruelty aimed towards him, though his mother does.
    You'd Expect: The circus to know that any animal, no matter how domesticated, will react violently if their baby is threatened. Thus, Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo should either be kept away from the public eye, or, if put on display, heavily guarded.
    Instead: The Guards Must Be Crazy comes into full effect. The circus puts its show animals on display for the local kids to see. One Jerkass kid is Too Dumb to Live, sneaks under the flimsy safety rope, and grabs Dumbo by the ears twice to mock them.
    The Result: Any of the animal mothers would have been angry on seeing this, as would any of the normal animals like the tigers. Mrs. Jumbo gets furious; she spanks the boy that grabbed her baby, and she goes on a Mama Bear rampage. The ringmaster orders her locked up in solitary, leaving Dumbo parentless.
  • Following this, the Ringmaster wants to do a circus act with the other elephants forming a pyramid but isn't sure what to do for a climax. Timothy Mouse, Dumbo's new ally, plants the idea in the Ringmaster's head while the latter is sleeping to have Dumbo jump to the top of the pyramid and form the climax. The idea is to make Dumbo so famous that they'll release his mother.
    You'd Expect: The Ringmaster would have done at least one tech rehearsal to make sure that everyone, animal and human alike, could do their job and they work out all the bugs in the act.
    Instead: They just perform the act without rehearsing.
    The Result: The performance goes sideways in one of the worst ways possible when Dumbo and Timothy realize Dumbo's ears make him unable to run without tripping over them, and he needs to run to reach the platform at the top of the pyramid. Timothy attempts to fix this by tying up Dumbo's ears, but the knot comes loose and Dumbo ends up ramming into the pyramid and making it become unstable. In the chaos, the entire circus tent comes down, all the elephants get badly injured, and Dumbo is made a clown.
• The Emperor's New Groove
  • The movie reveals that Yzma, who is Emperor Kuzco's advisor, practically raised him. She's the closest thing he has to a mother and has probably been his regent. Yzma is just as vain, arrogant and self-centered as Kuzco is. The only thing that Kuzco is right about is that she has no right to "rule the country" behind his back.
    You'd Expect: Yzma would let the emperor do the ruling and engage in the luxury life. While it means she's a glorified royal without any political power, it gives her the trappings of the Fiction 500 without the responsibility and gives her more time to experiment in the secret lab. Also, any tyrant who didn't love Yzma would see her insubordination as grounds for exile or execution.
    Instead: She sits on his throne while he's busy and bullies the peasants that seek audiences with the emperor. Which isn't that different from what Kuzco does.
    Predictably: After the third or fourth time Kuzco catches her, he nonchalantly fires her. It's not like he's wrong either.
  • Emperor Kuzco has just "fired" his advisor, Yzma, for ruling the country behind his back. She is still allowed to stay in the palace. Yzma, after taking her frustration out on Kuzco statue heads, decides to assassinate the heir, which would leave her as the sole ruler. In her secret lab, she decides to simply poison him over a private dinner. Her bodyguard and lab assistant Kronk is Dumb Muscle.
    You'd Expect: Yzma would let Kronk simply prepare the dinner since he's a good cook, and that she would surreptitiously slip the poison into his drink.
    Instead: Yzma lets Kronk bring the poison. While Kronk manages to successfully spike Kuzco's drink, they realize too late that it was a transformation potion that turns the emperor into a llama.
  • Following this, Yzma has to get the emperor out of the picture, and fast. He's still alive, but is an unconscious llama
    You'd Expect: She would smother him, force-feed him poison, anything to do the dirty work herself, and then get rid of the body.
    Instead: She agrees to have dessert and a quick cup of coffee before sending Kronk to "finish the job". Kronk has a crisis of conscience and can't go through with it, and ends up accidentally losing Kuzco's form to a random peasant. Yzma realizes that she and Kronk have to find the llama before the emperor returns to hurt her claim to the throne.
  • In the climax, by some miracle, Yzma and Kronk beat Kuzco and Pacha to the secret lab and have pocketed the potion that would change him back to a human. Neither llama or peasant are in a state to fight, and Kuzco is bereft that his foster mother plotted to murder him. In fact, he and Pacha are paralyzed when it seems Yzma is only going to pull up her skirt, and she produces a knife.
    You'd Expect: Yzma would take them on, or call her more competent guards to murder them as she does later. Kronk has been good at everything else except blatant murder and he hesitates at using violence.
    Instead: Rule of Three kicks in; she tosses the knife to Kronk and asks him to murder both Kuzco and Pacha. When Kronk hesitates and starts talking to himself about it, Yzma hits her Rage Breaking Point and insults him and his spinach puffs.
    As a Result: Kronk is motivated to commit a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal and turns the knife on Yzma instead, utilizing a Falling Chandelier of Doom that narrowly misses killing her.
  • On the other end of the equation, Kuzco is horrified that he has been both transformed into a llama and unknowingly carried miles away from home to the village of Pacha, a portly peasant whose community is going to be destroyed so that Kuzco can build a lavish summer home for himself. He decides that his best bet is to travel back to the palace and have Yzma turn him back into a human, knowing full well that she has a "secret" laboratory where she can make something to restore his humanity.
    You'd Expect: At some point during the journey Kuzco would realize that Yzma has both the motive (anger at him for firing her from being his advisor) and the resources (a lab where she can create potions to turn humans into different animals) to do something like this to him, and have her immediately brought in for questioning upon returning home so that he can determine her role in his predicament, have her change him back, and punish her for treason and attempted regicide.
    Instead: Kuzco's mountain-sized ego and severe Lack of Empathy (along with the partial amnesia he sustained from being knocked unconscious by Kronk) means he doesn't think for a second that Yzma could be behind his predicament and is convinced that she is unwaveringly loyal to him, instead believing Pacha is the one who transformed him in retaliation for what he was planning to do to Pacha's home, and even then he doubts that's the case because it would be "giving [Pacha] way too much credit".
    The Result: Kuzco disbelieves and tells off Pacha when they stop at a diner for lunch and the latter overhears Yzma lamenting about how she "should have done away with Kuzco [herself] when [she] had the chance" and tries to warn him, which Kuzco dismisses as Pacha attempting to save his village from being demolished and ends their slowly-budding friendship. Kuzco is completely blindsided when he hears Yzma berating Kronk for botching the initial murder attempt by giving Kuzco the wrong potion and saying they need to track down and kill him just as he is about to reveal himself to them. This means he has driven away perhaps the first person he considered a friend for no reason and spends the following night alone in the rain with only himself to blame for his mistakes.
• The Fox and the Hound:
  • Tod visits Copper late at night while Amos and Chief are asleep. Copper is happy to see Tod but is concerned for his safety. He warns Tod to leave before Chief wakes up.
    You’d Expect: Tod to listen to Copper and leave quickly before Chief sees him.
    Instead: Tod stays and tells Copper that Chief doesn’t worry him.
    As a Result: Chief wakes up just seconds later as Tod and Copper are arguing, and he alerts his owner of Tod's presence thus beginning a chase, which ends with Chief almost getting killed, Amos becoming more determined than ever to kill Tod, and even Copper developing a grudge against his old friend. Furthermore, Widow Tweed is forced to give up Tod and drops him off at the local game preserve.
• Frozen:
  • Elsa ends up accidentally hurting Anna during their playtime in the night. Their parents, the king and queen, visit the trolls for help. Grand Pabbie gives Anna Laser-Guided Amnesia causing her to lose her memories of Elsa's ice powers, and tells Elsa that she must control her powers.
    You'd Expect: The king and queen would get to learn more about Elsa's powers and teach her to control them. Or that the trolls would train Elsa, since Grand Pabbie knows how to use magic. If they could find no way of controlling her power, then at the very least have Anna and Elsa keep indirect contact in each other whether it be through letters or outside the courtyard and tell Anna that her sister doesn't want to be close for fear of hurting her.
    Instead: They keep Elsa in isolation and hide her powers from everyone, including Anna, while telling Elsa to do everything she can to suppress her powers rather than control them.
    As a Result: Elsa grows to fear her power, eventually loses control of it, accidentally plunges Arendelle into an ice age, and nearly kills Anna.
    Additionally: Why did they feel the need to remove Anna's knowledge of Elsa's powers when Anna was clearly fine with them before? All that did was make it much harder for Anna to understand why Elsa is shutting everyone out.
  • Throughout the 13 years before the coronation, Elsa's isolation has clearly troubled Anna to no end, what's even worse is that Anna doesn't even know why Elsa's isolating herself.
    You'd Expect: That at some point when Anna grew older, someone would at least tell her why Elsa is isolating herself from her sister and is hiding herself in her room, whether it be her parents or Elsa herself after the former's passing — namely because she's afraid of hurting Anna with her powers just like she did years ago. Even if they are unsure as to whether or not it will actually help her, it helps ease Anna's worries as well as actually being given an explanation as to why she shut her sister out in the first place.
    Instead: Nobody tells her anything during the thirteen-year interval before the present day, which leads Anna to believe that Elsa actually hates her.
    As a Result: Because she doesn't know why Elsa's isolating herself, it ultimately leads to disaster when an argument at the coronation with Elsa ends up accidentally revealing her powers, plunging the kingdom into an Endless Winter, and due to not knowing why flee to the mountains, ends up nearly killing Anna during their argument.
  • Hans, being the youngest of thirteen brothers, has no prospects of owning a kingdom. He goes to Arendelle in the hopes of courting Elsa but finds her younger sister and heir Anna falling for him. Hans comes up with the plan of marrying Anna and then killing off Elsa years later to leave the throne free for him to claim, leaving Anna as a Trophy Wife.
    You'd Expect: That after causing Anna to fall for him that Hans would follow traditional royal etiquette — that is, to court her over a matter of months rather than hours and undergo negotiations with Elsa for a marriage. Such negotiations weren't taken lightly among the higher class. This would also endear himself to Elsa, who tries to be a Reasonable Authority Figure as queen.
    Instead: He proposes to Anna after spending just several hours with her at the coronation ball, and says nothing as she argues with Elsa about how she deserves a blessing for marriage because "it's true love". If not for the quick engagement angering Elsa and leading to the argument that reveals her ice powers, he would have been in position to inherit Arendelle's throne.
  • Hans proposes marriage to Anna and the latter, who is shown to be starved for affection, happily accepts. They both decide to find Elsa and ask for her blessing, but Elsa is understandably opposed to the marriage given that they've known each other for about a day.
    You'd Expect: That Elsa wouldn't outright reject the marriage, but rather suggest that Hans court her sister for some time before she would officially give them her blessing. After all, if this prince could give Anna the happiness that Elsa herself couldn't, then surely it wouldn't necessarily be harmful to give a relationship a chance to grow. And if he turns out to be treacherous, he would then be easily exposed and stopped before he could harm either of them.
    Instead: Elsa tells Anna she's flat-out wrong ("You can't marry a man you just met!"), and when Anna pleads that "it's true love," Elsa asks "Anna, what do you know about true love?" As Elsa has been highly reclusive, and although the audience is aware of her reasons, as far as Anna knows from being Locked Out of the Loop, Elsa's shown little interest in anyone else and has been ignoring Anna for most of their lives without any explanation or reason Anna's been made aware of. This makes her appear quite hypocritical and prompts Anna to point that out. Elsa then outright refuses to speak about it further, and decides to shut down the party and close the gates.
    As a Result: The conversation snowballs into an argument that ultimately results in Elsa snapping and shooting ice spikes at her sister, revealing her powers, a.k.a. the very thing she's been trying to avoid.
  • Anna immediately takes responsibility for the accident, and with Elsa having fled the kingdom and an eternal winter starting, she knows that the kingdom needs to find Elsa or everyone will freeze.
    You'd Expect: Anna would organize a search party, dressed in proper winter wear, to seek out Elsa and reason with her. Also, you would expect that she would stay behind to rule since there is no other heir to the throne.
    Instead: Anna sets off with only a summer riding shawl and a horse, alone, leaving Hans in charge. Hans has no legal jurisdiction for this, and Arendelle has no precedent for such a crisis.
    As a Result: Hans takes advantage of the situation to cement himself as a potential new ruler, while still feigning affection and concern for Anna because he still needs her alive. Anna in the meantime loses her horse when it gets spooked and nearly freezes; by sheer dumb luck, she finds a shop selling enough winter clothes for her to change, and an ice-cutter named Kristoff who can help her navigate the new terrain. As Kristoff snarkily puts it to his reindeer, Anna would've died if she were left on her own.
  • The Duke of Weselton wants stronger trade negotiations with Arendelle that he can exploit for more wealth. He's also fiercely prejudiced against "witchcraft", as shown when Anna accidentally outs Elsa's powers by taking her gloves and baiting her. Elsa then flees in a panic, leaving the country in eternal winter.
    You'd Expect: The Duke to prioritize his ambition over his prejudice & fear and order the guards to assist Hans in capturing Elsa. Afterwards, with the queen held captive, he could demand from her stronger trade negotiations in order to make his kingdom even richer.
    Instead: He lets his prejudice gets the best of him and stealthily orders his royal guards to assassinate Elsa once they find her.
    You'd Then Expect: That if he really wanted to kill her, he would supply the guards with muskets^note Given the Industrial era setting of the film, they would certainly have firearm technology so he could have the guards shoot her to death with little effort. The Ice Queen has demonstrated her ice powers and has just froze the entirety of Arendelle, it would be best to come as fully armed and prepared as possible.
    Instead: He just arms them with outdated crossbows.
    The Result: When the Duke's guards get into her ice palace, Elsa is able to form ice shields to block their arrows and mount a defense against them, and nearly kills them before Hans manages to talk her down. Later, after she returns to her rightful rule, Elsa cuts all trading ties with Weselton.
  • After Anna gets struck in the heart by Elsa's ice powers, Kristoff decides to take her to the trolls, as he remembers that they healed Anna 13 years ago the last time she got struck by Elsa's ice. Grand Pabbie proclaims that due to the ice in her heart, Anna will become frozen solid and that the only way to remove the ice is an "Act of True Love".
    You'd Expect: Anna would demand that the trolls to tell her everything about Elsa and her powers, including things like when Elsa got them, why she's so scared of it, and why exactly Elsa is shutting her out besides to hide it. Whatever knowledge she receives would be particularly useful in trying to persuade her sister again when she returns to the Ice Castle after the ice in her heart is removed by the Act of True Love.
    Instead: She doesn't seem to bother questioning them, and is seemingly more focused on getting a kiss to thaw her frozen heart, but afterwards, she seemingly doesn't know what to do next. It's only because of Hans that she unwittingly performs the act that broke the curse, but if the timing was any different, she probably would have turned into a solid block of ice forever.
  • After Hans succeeds in capturing Elsa and bringing her back to Arendelle in the hopes that she can undo the eternal winter, a half-frozen Anna returns. She manages to explain that Elsa attacked her, but that a kiss from Hans can save her because it would be an act of true love. However, Hans doesn't really love Anna and knows that such a kiss won't be able to thaw out her frozen heart.
    You'd Expect: Hans would keep up his nice facade and actually kiss her. While it inevitably wouldn't work given his true colors, he could simply suggest that maybe an "Act of True Love" could mean something else. Alternatively, he could simply lie to her by offering to seek help before leaving her behind, after which he'd claim to the diplomats that they made their marriage vows before heading to where Elsa is imprisoned, condemn Elsa for supposedly murdering her sister, and kill her. Regardless of Anna's state afterwards, Elsa's death means that with only Anna as the sole heir left, he would be given the throne on a silver platter due to their supposed marriage blessing. Or he could invite the diplomats back in and manipulate Anna into giving him the throne by declaring their marriage vows and appoint him as the King of Arendelle in front of the other witnesses to legalize his claims before leaving her with the other servants, promising to Anna that he would "take care of her big sister" before she gets frozen solid, and executing the current queen as stated above.
    Instead: Hans decides to cut his losses, tell Anna she's outlived her usefulness, and gleefully reveal to her he never loved her. Then he douses all the candles and fire in the room and leaves her to die, claiming that once he kills Elsa and brings back summer that no one will care that Anna is dead.
    You'd Then Expect: That he makes sure that Anna actually dies (for example, smothering her with a pillow or just waiting till she freezes solid), leaving no witnesses to his claim that Anna died in his arms. Afterwards, he would lie to the diplomats by claiming that he and Anna had said their wedding vows and she had passed him the ownership of Arendelle.
    Instead: He just leaves Anna to her death without double checking, completely gambling on the fact that Anna will die rapidly, that no one will hear her faint cries for help, that no one knows where she is, and that she didn't and wouldn't write a note explaining to everyone that Hans killed her.
    The Result: Olaf manages to rescue Anna in the nick of time. When Anna subsequently saves Elsa from Hans, every local and foreign guest sees his cruelty, and Elsa sends Hans back to the Southern Isles in disgrace for trying to kill them.
  • Related to the above, Hans tells the Arendelle royal council that Anna has "died" (Anna, while slowly dying, is still alive at this point), and that they said their wedding vows right before she took her last breath. As the new King of Arendelle, his first act is to sentence Queen Elsa to death for the supposed murder of her sister.
    You'd Expect: Someone to go to collect the body (which would lead to them discovering Anna freezing in the library and her spilling the truth about what Hans is doing), or someone else to point out that a marriage has no legal meaning without witnesses and someone presiding over it. The council would also point out that it is not within Hans' rights to be the executioner as Elsa needs to stand trial first (not to mention that such claims from a foreign representative basically tantamount to a declaration of war)
    Instead: They just go along with everything Hans says, even the part where he thinks Elsa has to be killed. Granted, Elsa has scared them with the whole eternal winter thing and they want to repair it as fast as possible, but that's no excuse for them not to go fact-checking Hans's story at all and let him take over despite the fact that he has absolutely no legitimate claim to the leadership of Arendelle.
• Fun and Fancy Free:
  • In the second short and Show Within a Show "Mickey and the Beanstalk", Mickey, Donald and Goofy have been starving since a strange force kidnapped a magic harp that kept their home Happy Valley happy and prosperous. After Donald has a breakdown and tries to eat their cow alive, Mickey decides to sell the cow for food.
    You'd Expect: He would listen to his stomach and not to any conmen. A Deleted Scene reveals that Princess Minnie might have given them to him, but another showed Gideon from Pinocchio running a con so he might have met a charlatan.
    Instead: He sells the cow for five "magic beans".
    Predictably: A starving, raging Donald tosses them away, seemingly wasting them. A beanstalk grows at night, carrying the trio's cottage into the sky and breaking it apart. Sure, it works out in the end, but Donald had a point.
  • After the beanstalk carries them into the sky, the trio find themselves in Giant land, where the insects and fish are much larger, and when they enter a house so large they can crawl under the front door, they gorge themselves on food. The clatter leads to the captive Harp calling for help, and she tells them that a "wicked giant" kidnapped her. Said Giant appears, hungry, and encounters Mickey in his sandwich. However, he just catches him for sneezing in his face and trying to run away. So far Willy, as he's called, isn't being overtly malicious. He's just figuring out what these little Toons are doing in his home.
    You'd Expect: Mickey would explain to the giant they need the harp or everyone in Happy Valley would starve. As shown, Willy isn't the brightest tool in the shed, but he seems Obliviously Evil from what they've seen, more of a Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds. Maybe there's a peaceful resolution or they could compromise.
    Instead: Mickey tries to trick Willy into turning into a housefly, and swat him with a swatter that he sees nearby. Willy, who prefers bunnies, changes into a pink bunny at the last minute.
    The Result: Willy isn't that stupid when he catches on to what the trio tries. He locks them up, and when they escape and rescue the harp, gives chase on seeing Mickey trying to tie his shoelaces together. Cue one murderous sprint from the giant's castle, across the pond and down the beanstalk. Donald and Goofy barely manage to get the Harp down in time, and they end up sawing the beanstalk Just in Time. Willy as it's revealed survives and is still chasing after Mickey, in the "real" world.

G-L

• A Goofy Movie:
  • After Max excitedly dances around after his crush Roxanne accepted a date with him to go to a party, his Principal calls Goofy and gives him a highly exaggerated story about what Max did at the school auditorium, which was really just to impress Roxanne. Meanwhile, Max returns home to discover, to his dismay, that Goofy plans on going on vacation with him.
    You'd Expect: That before leaving for the road trip, Goofy would at least talk to Max about his phone call with the principal, and also that he would let Max explain his side of the story and about his planned date with Roxanne to find out what really happened. If anything, Goofy could at least have made a compromise by postponing the road trip for at least a week, allowing Max to go to the party with Roxanne as planned while still being able to spend some time with him as well. Also, you'd expect him to not believe the overblown story from the principal, or at least not take it so seriously and believe that it's true.
    Instead: Goofy doesn’t do any of this, believes the exaggerated story and immediately coerces Max into going on vacation with him without explaining why except that he doesn't want Max to end up in the electric chair, which confuses Max. He doesn't even say that he's doing it because Max got in trouble with his principal. And even when Max tries to tell him about the party and his plans with Roxanne, Goofy doesn't let him get a word in.
    As a Result: Max is forced to cancel his date with Roxanne, but when she talks about going with somebody else, he lies to her about going to the Powerline concert in order to impress her. Fortunately, it works out in the end when he and his dad finally explain everything to each other, but still.
  • Later, Goofy is driving Max on the road trip and using a map to guide them.
    You'd Expect: Goofy to take a break from looking at the map and stay focused on the road.
    Instead: He looks at the map while driving.
    As a Result: First, he drifts into a lane under construction and crashes into a construction pole sending two workers falling. Later, while he is looking at the map and driving, he drifts into the opposite lane and fails to notice an oncoming truck. If Max hadn't grabbed the steering wheel and moved them back into their lane in time, they could've been killed.
• An Extremely Goofy Movie:
  • Max turns down Bradley's invitation to join his fraternity because he doesn't want to leave his friends behind and they make an embarrassing bet that the loser team will be the other's towel boy. They end up recruiting Goofy instead when he accidentally shows off some skateboard moves. Max is less than pleased about this move, but he makes him join Bradley's team to keep him distracted. Later, during the qualifiers, Bradley sabotages Max's performance by blinding him with a light and rigs Goofy's skateboard, with Max just barely passing to the next round.
    You'd Expect: Max would realize that his dad is naive but not disloyal and that he would warn Goofy that Bradley is a Jerkass and probably trying to win the bet by driving a wedge between them.
    Instead: He doesn't. When he loses at the initial rounds to Goofy and barely passes, he yells at his dad to stay out of his life and doesn't talk to him for months, until late in the school year during the finals. While he did have a point that his father was being too clingy, Goofy wasn't aware of what happened, and the events in the qualifying rounds weren't his fault this time, resulting in Max coming off as a jerk due to him blaming him for what happened because he's salty over the fact for losing at skateboarding to him. Of all the things in the world, is this supposed to be the last straw?
    To Make Matters Worse: Goofy eventually comes to his senses that he needs to quit Gamma Ray for Max's sake. When that happens, he finds out Gamma Ray has been cheating and goes to warn his son. Max still doesn't want to talk to his father.
    The Result: Gamma Ray nearly disqualifies Max's team by sending PJ flying on rocket boots during the X-Games finals. Only then does Max realizes they need his dad to participate, and they apologize to each other.
  • Bradley Uppercrust III gets knocked out by Goofy and sees that Max and Tank are heading for the finish line without him.
    You'd Expect: That Bradley Uppercrust III would keep his pride in check and that he would let Tank win it for the Gammas which is both Bradley and Tank's team.
    Instead: He activates a rocket booster cheat on Max's skateboard that causes Max to crash into Tank and Both Max and Tank to crash into the Giant X Logo.
    As a Result: While Bradley does pull ahead for a few seconds while Max and Goofy help to Rescue Tank from the Burning X Logo, they quickly catch up to him and Max wins it for his team, Team 99 and Bradley is left to face the wrath of Tank for leaving him behind to die. This results in Tank firing Bradley as the head of the Gamma Fraternity and team, him to be slingshoted into the blimp and either die or be arrested for attempted murder. Seriously, what did Bradley expect would happen when you betray a guy who is bigger and stronger than you if they survive or are rescued by your opponents. Also the fact that it literally just happened a few seconds ago means there was absolutley no chance or possibility that Tank would ever forget or forgive Bradley for leaving him behind to die. Even if Bradley did win he would still be screwed as Tank would still give him his punishment and tell the ESPN and the Gammas what Brad did to him, the Gammas may be willing to hurt or kill their opponents, but hurting or killing their own is quite likely where they draw the line, after all if your leader would leave you behind to die, then you all might be expendable to him.
• The Great Mouse Detective:
  • The plot kicks off when Mr. Flaversham, a toymaker, is kidnapped on his daughter's birthday. The Big Bad Ratigan has his Dragon Fidget do the job. He also anticipates that Flaversham as a loyal subject to the crown will not cooperate unless he is forced to.
    You'd Expect: That Ratigan would have ordered Fidget to capture both father and daughter at the same time, to tie up the loose ends, and that if Fidget doesn't see her at first to go through the tiny flat looking for her.
    Instead: Fidget doesn't even think about Olivia until long after her father has been installed in Ratigan's lair. Ratigan writes her down on a list and assumes Fidget will find her, while Olivia goes searching for Basil since only the best detective can find her father. Fidget only finds her again coincidentally at Basil of Baker Street's lair, and then at the toy shop where he steals toy soldiers' suits, and gears. As a result, Basil learns about Ratigan's scheme after many dead ends, and gets on the case.
  • When Olivia finally tells the detective about her father being kidnapped, Basil takes interest because the "peg-legged bat" works for Ratigan, and Fidget happens to appear at Baker Street. She insists on going along when Basil recruits Toby, a basset hound, to go after Fidget, so that she can find her father. Basil has said that Ratigan boasts about drowning widows and orphans and doesn't want her to come along because he's not a nursemaid.
    You'd Expect: That Olivia should realize that it's safer for her to stay at Basil's place since she would be The Load even if he finds her father. Given how much of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer Basil is, as Olivia sees firsthand, it's best to not distract him from his methods.
    Instead: Offscreen Olivia has her way, so that Basil takes her along reluctantly as The Load. Fidget then takes the opportunity to kidnap her at the toy shop, which forces her father to build the robot Ratigan wants, while Ratigan uses Olivia's wraps to lure Basil and Dawson to a certain spot in the lair and have them surrounded by minions. In the climax Ratigan then uses her as a hostage to get away from the Royal Palace when Basil unravels his scheme, and Basil then has to put her safety above his when Ratigan goes feral in Big Ben.
  • Basil and Dawson have discovered the location of the nefarious professor Ratigan's lair in the sewer. Olivia, has also been taken to Ratigan's lair, so they want to rescue her.
    You'd Expect: Basil, knowing that Ratigan is much bigger and stronger than him and has a relatively large number of minions, to have the city police accompany him to the hideout for backup.
    Instead: He goes with just his well-intentioned but inexperienced partner Dawson to catch Ratigan and rescue the Flavershams.
    As a Result: Ratigan was expecting him after learning that Basil had got his hands on the list and had set up a trap for him, resulting in the two being quickly captured.
  • Ratigan has captured Basil and Dawson and has them bound in his lair where he plans to kill them.
    You'd expect: Ratigan would kill Basil and Dawson immediately to get rid of the undesirable variables so that he can cement his victory.
    Or: If he has to use the Rube Goldberg Death Mousetrap, he would leave at least one of his minions behind to make sure it succeeds in killing Basil and Dawson and if it doesn't then they can kill Basil and Dawson as soon as they escape.
    Instead: He uses the Rube Goldberg Death Mousetrap and doesn't leave any of his henchmen behind to make sure it works or to kill Basil and Dawson if it should happen to fail.
    As a Result: Basil after Dawson helps him snap out of his Heroic BSoD finds a way to escape the trap using it so it frees him and Dawson instead of killing them and they rescue the Queen and it results in Basil and Ratigan's fight on Big Ben which ends in Ratigan's death.
• Hercules:
  • In the beginning of the movie, Hades snarkily reveals that Zeus put him in charge of the Underworld, and it's a job in a dark place that doesn't allow for much fun or festivity. Zeus for what we see doesn't seem to hate Hades.
    You'd Expect: Zeus would ask his brother what would make him happier or his job easier. Like, perhaps more help? Or an Elysium to go with the Tartarus?
    Instead: Zeus is an Innocently Insensitive buffoon that ignores Hades's hints that he is resentful of working in the Underworld.
    The Result: Hades plays The Long Game to take over Olympus and betray his family.
  • Hades plans to kill Hercules after learning of a prophecy that will end in him ruling Mount Olympus unless Hercules lives long enough to stop him. To get him out of the picture, Hades sends his imp cronies Pain and Panic to kidnap the infant Hercules, steal his immortality, and kill him, only for them to bungle the job and leave Hercules with his godlike strength, preventing them from finishing him off and making them decide to lie about killing Hercules to spare themselves from Hades' wrath.
    You'd Expect: Being the God of the Underworld, Hades searches through his many souls to see if Hercules is among them. And he keeps in contact with his brother so that he'd have confirmation about Hercules being gone from Olympus.
    Instead: Hades somehow never talks to his brother or the rest of his family, and doesn't learn (until some eighteen years later) that Hercules is still alive and living on Earth as a mortal. Cue the epic Spit Take.
  • Pain and Panic themselves also deserve mention. As they are feeding Hercules a potion to make him mortal, they are interrupted by the mortals Amphitryon and Alcmene, startling them and unwittingly keeping Hercules from drinking the last drop of the potion. Their attempt to kill Hercules by taking the form of snakes ends badly when he innocently curb stomps them thanks to still retaining his godly strength, making Panic worry about how furious their master will be with them for failing the task.
    You'd Expect: After a direct attack fails, Pain and Panic would try again, preferably when Hercules is asleep and less likely to give them another trouncing.
    Instead: Pain proposes they lie through their teeth about killing Hercules and hope that Hades never learns the truth.
  • Hercules's first great battle in public (saving Meg from the river centaur was rather private) involves a Hydra that he accidentally released when saving two boys (Pain and Panic in disguise) from a cave-in. During the battle he cuts off the Hydra's head after it swallows him, only to find that three heads regrow in his place.
    You'd Expect: Hercules to try other tactics than beheading: he could aim his sword at the belly, or do what he did in myth and cauterize the severed heads so that they can't regrow.
    Instead: Hercules keeps slicing the heads until he's facing dozens of them. Phil lampshades this while yelling at Hercules to stop beheading the monster.
  • Hercules' trainer, Phil, has caught sight of Meg talking to Hades, finding out that she's working for him.
    You'd Expect: That he would listen to the entire conversation to see if she will go through with his plan or not, and what the plan is. If he caught sight of her rebelling against Hades, then there's no need for Phil to worry about her, especially after spending most of the film seeing her as a distraction for Herc out of personal dislike towards her.
    Instead: Phil leaves to warn Hercules of whom Meg is working for when he overheard their conversation, but has no proof whatsoever because since he went running off a few seconds too early and didn't hear all of it, he missed out on Meg rebelling against Hades for the second time in the same conversation (the first time was because he lost consciousness after he accidentally fell from Pegasus when Hercules was distracted), not to mention that during one of Meg's replies to Hades, the one that led him to go warn Hercules in the first place, he didn't even stop to realize that she was using sarcasm. Speaking of Hades' plan involving Meg...
  • When Phil warns Hercules about Meg working for Hades, he doesn't pay attention to him, since he's in love with Meg.
    You'd Expect: That Phil would ask Hercules explanations for his strange behavior and his lack of concentration and tell him that Hades is plotting something because he saw him with Meg. As he missed out on her rebelling against Hades more than once during that conversation, you'd expect that he would decide they should look for Meg to see if she wanted to be part of what Hades was up to, just to know her true intentions and know what Hades is up to, if not immediately, at least after the argument they then have, even though Hercules could still be mad at him for badmouthing Meg.
    Instead: Phil gives no explanation nor context on what he found out, badmouths Meg and yells at Hercules that she's using him and tricking him, all without even giving evidence about what she's involved in. He doesn't even mention Hades, which would be the most logical thing to warn him about, meaning that Hercules has a reason to not believe him aside being in love with Meg, and that it's Phil's poor explanation, thus making the warning unclear and not believable. When Hercules is ignoring him, Phil gets furious and has a row with him, going out of line when he insults Meg in front of him, pissing him off, and after he gets a slap from him as a result, he abandons him on the spot after the accident, leaving him on bad terms and breaking contacts with him over the argument. Big mistake, Phil. You put up with Herc's mistakes and failures when he was a clumsy and uncoordinated teen for two years, you were there for him with the hope that he would make your ambitions come true, you were by his side through his challenges, battle and labours, and now you just ditch him over an impulse of anger and an argument? Seriously? If that was supposed to be the last straw, then abandoning him on the spot looks more petty than anything else.
    As a Result: After his trainer left him on his own (Pain and Panic have tricked his only other ally, Pegasus, by transforming into a female pegasus, capturing him and tying him, preventing him to help him), Hercules is left vulnerable to Hades once he shows up, makes a deal with him, gives up his superhuman strength in exchange for Meg's safety for a day, gets his heart broken and eventually doesn't even try to fight the Cyclops at Thebes after his morale reached an all-time low, getting badly injured and almost getting himself killed He only survived because Meg convinced Phil to come back and help him when she saw him getting completely overwhelmed.
    To Make Matters Worse: These events also happen on the same day of the planetary alignment, when the Titans can be released, but nor Hercules nor Phil know about this, which leaves Hercules unprepared for Hades' invasion of Olympus until Meg sacrifices herself and tells him to stop him before it's too late.
  • Hades has successfully tricked Hercules into depowering himself for 24 hours in return for Megara's safety but not after revealing to him that Megara has been working with him all along. With Hercules Brought Down to Normal and depressed, Hades immediately takes the opportunity to release the Titans in order to take over Mount Olympus.
    You'd Expect: That since the contract will be broken should Meg get injured, he will just leave them be and would go ahead & become the new rules of Olympus with the other gods at his mercy. Or better yet, why not just capture Hercules and send him to the River Styx where he will get trapped with all the deceased spirits, potentially forever. After all, he may have a contract about keeping Meg safe but there is nothing to suggest that the same applies to Hercules himself.
    Instead: He decides to send the Cyclops to finish off Hercules ^note Why not have Hades do so himself then if he really wants to murder him? which will potentially get Meg hurt and allow Hercules to regain his powers back before time is up.
    As a Result: Hercules regains his powers, takes down the Titans, and send Hades to the River Styx, where he will be trapped for a whole eternity.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • At the start of the movie, Frollo arrests a group of Romani who are entering Paris illegally. He notices a woman is holding a bundle. The guards ask her what it is, and it turns out that it's her baby. She doesn't get a chance to explain herself.
    You'd Expect: The guards would check what the bundle is. Or that Frollo would.
    Instead: Assuming the bundle is stolen goods, Frollo orders the guards to "take it from her". In the German stage version, it's even worse as she tries to explain, but Frollo assumes that she's lying.
    The Result: The unnamed Romani woman goes Mama Bear, albeit in a more realistic fashion. She escapes from the guards and outpaces Frollo on his horse, running to Notre Dame to scream for sanctuary. Frollo knocks her against the steps, instantly killing her, and only then realizes that the bundle was a baby when it starts to cry from the chaos. When the Archdeacon appears and stops him from dropping the baby in the well since it's deformed, he tells Frollo that committing murder on church grounds means he is not hiding from the eyes of God. Frollo briefly gets a Heel Realization that he's damned, only to get an Ignored Epiphany when he agrees with the Archdeacon to raise the child as his own, in the hopes that it will serve him later in life.
  • Esmeralda has barely escaped from Frollo's guards for defying his orders and freeing a tied-up and beaten Quasimodo. Phoebus covers for her and lies that she has claimed sanctuary in Notre Dame; Frollo is forced to abide by the sanctuary when the Archdeacon reminds him of what he did twenty years ago, but he grabs Esmeralda and tells her that this "fine prison" is still a prison. Also it's clear that he can come and go as he pleases, something that does rattle Esmeralda. She learns that Quasimodo lives in the church, and he offers her Sacred Hospitality, a tour, and a lovely view of the sunset. He even says that she could stay forever since she has sanctuary, which actually isn't true but buys her time.
    You'd Expect: Esmeralda would stay with Quasimodo until her time of sanctuary is up. There are lots of places in the cathedral for her to hide from Frollo.
    Instead: She tells Quasimodo that she prefers her freedom and that she doesn't want to be trapped in Notre Dame with Frollo able to walk in as he pleases.
    The Result: Quasimodo, since she was kind to him before, personally escorts her out of Notre Dame with some parkour that gets them past the guards. He says he can't come with her after the awful day he had and promised to never leave the church, so she gives him a talisman that's a map to the Court of Miracles. This leads to a bad chain of events; Frollo burns down all of Paris in his search to find Esmeralda, trashes Quasimodo's delicately hand-carved replica of Paris, and sets a trap by saying that his men have found the Court of Miracles and will storm it at dawn. Quasimodo and Phoebus run to warn the Romani, but end up dooming them by accident. Esmeralda nearly gets burned at the stake, barely surviving the smoke inhalation in the film and dying from it in the stage version. Lots of Romanis get captured and imprisoned, and Phoebus has to raise an insurrection against Frollo when he invades Notre Dame.
  • Frollo is clinging to the side of Notre Dame with his sword drawn, and sees Esmeralda holding up Quasimodo, thus making her vulnerable, and goes to attack her.
    You'd Expect: He'd take the second to hop over the balcony rail that's inches away from him before attacking her, or at least quickly cut off her arm if he really wanted them both dead.
    Instead: Shouting "... And He shall smite the wicked!", he raises his arms above his head and balances his whole weight on an already centuries-old gargoyle.
    The Result: The gargoyle collapses under his weight and he falls from the tower into the blazing inferno below.
    Even Better: He'd cut through that very gargoyle with his own sword minutes beforehand.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame II: After facing Sarousch in the sewers, Quasimodo's friends have to stop Sarousch from carrying Zephyr.
  You'd Expect: Quasimodo to use his parkour skills to ride the boat, rescue Zephyr and beat Sarousch and his henchmen.
  Instead: He allows Madellaine to use the trick of walking the slack rope when Madellaine wasn't skilled enough in it. Even barring the skill level, Quasimodo doing the attack was far safer.
  The Result: Madellaine sucessfuly pulled the stunt, but still.
• The Jungle Book:
  • The movie's conflict starts when Shere Khan returns to the wolves' territory, and he is targeting their feral man-cub Mowgli. Rama, Mowgli's adoptive father, protests having to give up his child to the man-village but Akeela the pack leader tells him that the wolves are unable to protect the boy from the tiger.
    You'd Expect: If Rama cares so much about Mowgli, that he would talk to him first and explain why he must leave. Mowgli would be upset, but if he has longer to process the situation then he could understand. You would also expect Rama and his family would escort Mowgli to the man-village so that they can say a proper goodbye, and protect him in case Shere Khan intercepts them en route. This actually does happen in the book, where Mowgli finds out from his wolf brothers that Shere Khan is planning a pack mutiny, and counterattacks by stealing fire from the village.
    Instead: The wolves don't think to break it to Mowgli gently why he must go and make sure he understands that Shere Khan won't listen to reason that Mowgli won't ever grow up to learn how to hunt, especially if he remains a jungle boy. Bagheera the panther, who is an outsider and the one who found Mowgli, volunteers to escort Mowgli on the pretense of walking with him as per routine. Mowgli, on hearing that his usual night stroll with Bagheera is a permanent goodbye, doesn't react well to learning he needs to leave his home. As the movie shows, he can handle himself against threats like Kaa, so he's not completely defenseless.
    As a Result: Mowgli wastes the entire next day irritating Colonel Hathi and his herd, getting into a falling out with Bagheera then hanging out with Baloo before being abducted by King Louie's monkeys, forcing Baloo and Bagheera to rescue him. Then he runs off from Baloo when he takes Bagheera's side and thinks Mowgli ought to go the man-village, nearly gets eaten by Kaa again before ultimately encountering Shere Khan in the middle of a quartet of friendly vultures cheering him through a Heroic BSoD. Bagheera doesn't help at all during this encounter, and Baloo nearly dies from protecting Mowgli.
  • On the other side of the equation, Shere Khan's reasons for wanting to kill Mowgli is because, as Bagheera puts it, "he fears man's gun and man's fire", and will kill Mowgli the first chance he gets to ensure he won't live long enough to have either of those things.
    You'd Expect: Shere Khan to realize that if Mowgli stays in the jungle, with most of the animals being his friends, that he would never become a hunter or logically have access to a gun since to get one of those, he'd need to steal it from another human or reenter civilization. Mowgli himself says he wouldn't grow up to be a hunter and they should just tell Shere Khan that, and confesses to King Louie that he does not know how to make fire due to his upbringing by the wolves. Surely a compromise could be reached.
    Instead: Shere Khan at some point off-screen ignores this logic and pursues Mowgli, forcing the wolves, Baloo and Bagheera to escort him back to humanity.
    As a Result: Mowgli discovers fire and uses it against the tiger, meaning a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy ensued with him learning to use weapons against animals. Now that Mowgli is in the man-village, likely to become a homesteader, he's even more likely to get a gun!
  • Bagheera and Mowgli are up a tree to sleep for a night before the long day of travelling to the Man Village and with the former asleep, Kaa, who is in the tree at that time, manages to hypnotise Mowgli so that he will eat him. Mowgli, while being hynotised, tries to get Bagheera's attention, but the panther, while half asleep, thinks that Mowgli is trying to argue with him again and tells him "no more talk until morning".
    You'd Expect: Kaa would keep himself quiet so that he will have the chance to devour Mowgli.
    Instead: He chuckles to the sleepy Bagheera "He won't be here in the morning." This made Bagherra realise his presence and instantly wakes up in alarm. Bagheera quickly stops Kaa just in time by slapping him in the wide-open mouth, making him release Mowgli from his grasp in his coils.
  • A pillar that was holding up an ancient palace falls apart, leading to King Louie holding it up to keep from falling.
    You'd Expect: Baloo to use this opportunity to grab Mowgli and run off.
    Instead: He goes to Louie to tickle his armpits as he's holding up the palace, giving the other monkeys time to intervene and charge towards Baloo with a large battering ram, intending to save their leader and stop Baloo from doing any more harm.
    Although now you'd expect: That given the current dilemma that King Louie is in, the monkeys at least take care not to have their own leader come to any harm as they charge straight for Baloo by charging at Baloo from an angle out of King Louie's way, giving time for another group of monkeys to directly assist Louie where he is and hold up the building.
    Instead: Not only do they recklessly charge straight into Baloo without taking any care to not hit Louie by accident, but they end up knocking Louie straight another pillar that crumbles, winding up with Baloo in the same spot that Louie was in earlier and Louie now stuck holding up another part of the doomed building. Only now does Baloo decide he's had enough and runs off with Mowgli and Bagheera while Louie just stays there hoping to keep his building from falling; just as the whole palace is splitting in half and nearly flattens our heroes.
  • When Mowgli encounter Shere Khan, he stands up to him and tells him that he's not afraid of him. Shere Khan gives Mowgli a Mercy Lead and counts to ten.
    You'd Expect: Mowgli to take advantage of this and get away from Shere Khan while he still can.
    Instead: Mowgli refuses to run away and grabs a small stick to fight a tiger who is several times larger than him.
    As a Result: Shere Khan catches on to Mowgli's intentions, speeds up his counting, and after quickly counting to ten, charges at Mowgli with claws and teeth bared. If not for Baloo's timely arrival, Shere Khan would have succeeded in killing Mowgli.
• The Jungle Book 2:
  • At some point in the movie, Mowgli tries to get a few kids to go with him in the jungle, only for Shanti to stop them. Unfortunately, this results in them also getting caught by Mowgli's adoptive father from the village, who starts reprimanding him.
    You'd Expect: Him to go easy on Mowgli, given that he's known the jungle most of his life, it makes sense that he still misses it.
    At The Very Least": He'd let Mowgli off with a small warning, to help Mowgli understand.
    Instead: He punishes Mowgli by sending him to his room without dinner.
    The Result: Baloo sneaks into the village in the middle of the night and meets up with him, only they're forced to flee into the jungle when discovered by Shanti. Shere Khan, who also snuck into the village, follows them in there.
    It Gets Worse: Both Shanti and Ranjan go into the jungle by themselves to find Mowgli, leaving the adults to search for three children, not just one.
• Lady and the Tramp:
  • After the happy couple Jim Dear and Darling have a baby, they decide to go on a short trip. They ask Aunt Sarah to watch over the house, the baby, and their dog Lady, who is a sweet Cocker-Spaniel.
    You'd Expect: Aunt Sarah would make all three of these things her priority. Lady is family to the couple, and has been with them for years. Also, Aunt Sarah is a guest in someone else's home, even if she is doing babysitting duty. She should act like one.
    Instead: Aunt Sarah is a terrible jerkass to Lady. She shoos the well-behaving dog out of the baby's room, muzzles and chains Lady up on two separate occasions, and brings her cats to the house. The last part is especially egregious since the cats trash up the living room and threaten the baby on hearing its cries (because Tramp knocked over the cradle when trying to kill the rat).
    The Result: When Jim Dear and Darling return to find Lady locked up in the basement and hear what happened, they tell off Aunt Sarah for not realizing that Lady wouldn't act like this unless something was really wrong. In this case, it was a rat threatening their baby, which Aunt Sarah missed while a tied-up Lady was barking in alarm. Aunt Sarah's negligence means that the baby nearly gets mauled by both her cats and the rat, and Tramp nearly gets killed at the pound if not for Lady's dog neighbors stopping the dogcatcher's wagon. Also, what would Aunt Sarah have done if Lady had taken the Tramp's offer to travel the world with him rather than return home, and she had to explain that she lost Lady while getting a muzzle for the latter?
• Lilo & Stitch:
  • On Earth, Lilo arrives late to hula dancing because she was feeding Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich because "Pudge controls the weather". Everyone in the room, from the dance instructor to the other students, know that Lilo has just lost her parents and is coping with the grief in various ways. One of them is Mertle, the local Alpha Bitch.
    You'd Expect: Mertle would keep her mouth shut.
    Instead: She calls Lilo crazy, which causes the other girl to attack and bite her.
  • Due to this disaster, Lilo's teacher calls her sister Nani to pick her up. Only Lilo is bratty and leaves before Nani can come, and it's the day that a social worker is coming to view the home situation. Nani runs back home, only to find that Lilo has locked herself in and nailed the front door shut.
    You'd Expect: She does what she figures out later, to sneak in through the back door or window.
    Instead: She laboriously tries to remove the nails one by one while angrily ranting at Lilo, craning her neck through their doggie door.
    The Result: Cobra Bubbles, the social worker, appears as Nani is doing this, and gets a bad second impression of her; his first impression was when she kicked the front of his car and called him a stupidhead, not knowing who he is. Nani only then thinks to sneak in through the window and unlock the backdoor. And of course after Cobra leaves, Nani tells off Lilo for her actions because social services may take Lilo away to foster care.
  • After that, Lilo and her sister Nani adopt Stitch, the latter of whom causes Nani to lose her job. Cobra Bubbles appears, who tells Nani she needs to get employment or she can't keep Lilo, and notices Stitch, who attacks him. We find out later that Cobra has worked with aliens before, and recognizes Stitch as one.
    You'd Expect: He'd explain to the sisters who Stitch is, and try to offer help since as it is he's Bothering by the Book to give Nani time to clean up her act and prove herself responsible enough to keep Lilo.
    Instead: He tells them the "dog" needs to become a model citizen.
    The Result: Lilo tries but ultimately fails while using Elvis as a reference.
  • The Grand Councilwoman, fed up with Jumba and Pleakley’s failure to capture Stitch, calls them to tell them they are terminated from the mission and prison-bound.
    You'd Expect: For the GC to tell them to return to base immediately, and any further action will result in them facing a greater punishment. This should especially be considered given what a loose cannon Jumba is.
    Instead: She only bluntly fires them on the spot without setting any procedures.
    The Result: No longer bound by rules, Jumba decides to try to capture Stitch without any regard for the destruction he causes and the lives he puts at risk. This results in the Pelekais' house getting blown up in the subsequent brawl between Stitch and Jumba, Lilo nearly getting killed in the crossfire if not for Pleakley following Jumba and pulling her out of range of the explosion, and is the final nail in the coffin to make Cobra deem Nani unfit for being Lilo's guardian.
• The Lion King (1994):
  • Mufasa shows Simba the whole kingdom that his son will one day rule. Simba notices a distant, ominous-looking land and asks his father what is over there.
    You'd Expect: Mufasa to explain to Simba that the distant land is home to packs of hyenas that Simba, as a young cub, would stand no chance against. Simba must not go there because he could get himself killed!
    Instead: Mufasa tells Simba, "That land is beyond our border. You must never go there, Simba", without explaining anything.
    As a Result: Simba doesn't take his father's warning seriously, and Scar uses this to his advantage by "explaining" to the cub that the distant land is an elephant graveyard without telling him about the hyenas. Simba disobeys his father and nearly gets himself, Nala and Zazu killed by the hyenas.
  • Simba and Nala escape from the hyenas in the "elephant graveyard" but Zazu gets captured. The hyenas launch Zazu into the sky from the "birdie boiler" which the two cubs witness.
    You'd Expect: Simba and Nala to notice the hyenas are rolling with laughter, track down Zazu's path and with his guidance get out of the graveyard while they still can.
    Instead: Simba gets their attention by shouting, "Hey! Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" Shenzi promptly fires back "Like you?" and the hyenas chase the cubs through the graveyard. Had it not been for Mufasa, Simba's arrogance very easily could have gotten himself and Nala killed.
  • Just after killing Mufasa, Scar goes down into the canyon to confirm that Mufasa is dead, running into Simba. Since Scar's plan relies on both Mufasa and Simba being dead, Scar's plan is only half-finished.
    You'd Expect: Scar would try and kill Simba right then and there. After all, the only witnesses around are the hyenas, who are loyal to Scar, and Simba has proven no match for them on his own. With all three of them, plus Scar, they could easily overpower the young prince.
    Instead: He manipulates Simba into accepting the responsibility of Mufasa's death and tells him to run away. Scar then waits until Simba is out of earshot, then he sends the hyenas after Simba to kill him. Perhaps Scar didn't want to personally shed any blood, but that seems like a strange thing to be stubborn about, considering he'd just committed fratricide.
    As a Result: Simba escapes the hyenas and runs away into the wild. He could have died of dehydration, at the very least, had Timon and Pumbaa not come across him and given him a home for the next few years. In other words, Scar traded a plan with no chance of Simba living to a sliver of a chance and it bit him in the butt.
  • One major reason why Simba doesn't want to go back to the Pride Lands (along with adopting the whole "Hakuna Matata" mindset) is because Simba is convinced that he was responsible for Mufasa's death. He encounters Mufasa's spirit in the sky, who does seem to help Simba get out of his Heroic BSoD and motivate him to go back to the Pride Lands.
    You'd Expect: Mufasa to tell Simba the truth about Scar's treachery and how he was the one directly responsible for killing Mufasa, not Simba seemingly being in trouble.
    Instead: Mufasa withholds this information for some odd reason, only telling him for him to remember who he is. Though this could be because either Simba was actually hallucinating and didn't actually speak with Mufasa, or Mufasa, being dead, is either not allowed or unable to tell the living what they don't already know.
    As a Result: Simba goes back to the Pride Lands and confronts Scar, who immediately attempts to accepting the blame of his father's death, which almost gets him killed.
  • Simba returns to the Pride Lands and confronts Scar over Mufasa. Scar reinforces Simba into accepting the blame for his father's death, this time in front of the other lions. This allows Scar to gain the upper hand, and he dangles Simba over Pride Rock.
    You'd Expect: Scar to finish off Simba then and there by letting him fall off the rock.
    Or: If he doesn't want to kill Simba, Scar could enforce his authority as king of the Pride Lands by laying down some ground rules. He could have Simba imprisoned and manipulate the other lions even further by carrying out a sentence due to Simba's admitted guilt over Mufasa.
    Instead: He pulls Simba close for some Evil Gloating and tells Simba that he killed Mufasa.
    As a Result: Absolved of his blame, Simba gains his strength back and forces Scar to confess the dirty deed to the other lions of Pride Rock.
  • Related to the above, the lionesses were shocked when Simba remorsefully confesses that he caused Mufasa's death and Scar takes this opportunity to assert his dominance over the other lions and begins to throw Simba to his own death.
    You'd Expect: That the lionesses, or at least Nala and Sarabi, would immediately snap out of it and fight back against Scar and his hyenas and help Simba forgive himself. After all, murderer or not, he is still the only chance to restore the kingdom to health, and later they could perhaps let Simba explain himself what really happened during the incident. Simba was a cub, after all.
    Instead: The lionesses doubt Simba and don't even bother to vouch for him, even as he reaches the edge of the cliff. It is only when Scar throws a big Villain Ball they decide to fight back.
  • Once Scar takes over the mantle as the king of the Pride Lands, the whole land seems to suffer to the point that every single animal including the hyenas themselves loathes him and wishes that Mufasa would be around to stop him.
    You'd Expect: That the whole group of lions along with the other animals team up and overthrow the childish tyrant.
    Instead: They never consider this choice until after Simba returns years after Scar becomes the ruler of the land.
  • At the climax of movie, Scar is now trapped at the top of Pride Rock with only the hyenas as his remaining followers. Simba confronts him.
    You'd Expect: Scar to either shut his mouth or engage in some Evil Gloating in how Simba is nothing but a failure as he stalls enough time for the hyenas to come to his aid, potentially win the battle for him by ganging up on Simba, and giving the hyenas a feast for their lives.
    Instead: He desperately tries to blame everything on the hyenas, aka his only remaining followers, which ends up turning the entire pack against him and forces him to fight Simba alone.
    As a Result: After Scar is defeated, the hyenas eat him alive, fully aware of his true colors.
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
  • Zira decides to use Kovu as her agent to get revenge on Simba by using his friendship with Kiara; however, Kovu wants absolutely nothing to do with the plot, already has an emotional attachment with Kiara, does not want power at all and is inherently nice. Zira implies that she suspected he wouldn't do it.
    You'd Expect: Zira, realizing that Kovu is the worst person to do this, pick either Vitani, or especially Nuka, given that Kovu wants nothing to do with the plot. Furthermore, Kovu has shown a lot of disgust with his adopted mother's morals, and Vitani, and especially Nuka are fully loyal to the cause.
    Instead: She still has Kovu be her agent. Predictably, Kovu flatly refuses to harm Simba upon reuniting with Kiara, and tries on multiple instances to tell her about Zira's schemes. What ordinarily would have been a Spanner in the Works becomes a rather blunt case of Did Not Think This Through.
  • After getting to know Kovu for a while, Simba decides to take Kovu out for a walk and tell him who Scar really was. He decides to take Kovu to a fire ravaged region of the Pride Lands, alone.
    You'd Expect: That Simba would demonstrate the caution of any monarch in this situation and decide to tell someone what he is exactly doing, and also bring along a few lionesses as an escort. Although the audience is well aware that Kovu will not harm Simba, he still is not trusted completely in the Pridelands.
    Instead: He literally just tells Kiara and takes Kovu with him alone. The Outsiders promptly ambush him and set Kovu up as the fall guy, and Simba is nearly killed as a result. Zira even mocks him over this stupidity.
  • Simba immediately believes Zira's claim that Kovu led him to the ambush, and promptly banishes him.
    You'd Expect: That Simba realize that he was alone with Kovu for quite a while before Zira showed up, and noticeably did not attack him. Kovu immediately claimed he was innocent. Simba is literally taking the incredibly unstable Zira at her word, and given that Simba has been in this situation before with Scar, he would at least think about the matter first.
    Even Better: Kovu clearly tried to help Simba in the ambush, and Simba noticeably saw Kovu completely ignore Zira's commands to attack him when he was completely vulnerable on the logs, which would be very unusual behavior if Kovu actually was part of the ambush.
    Instead: Simba is still convinced that Kovu set him up to be murdered and banishes him. Not only is this the last straw for Kiara to give Simba a vicious Calling the Old Man Out speech, but it also prompts her to run away and save him.
  • During the ambush, Kovu completely ignores Zira's commands to attack Simba on the logs. Nuka decides to chase after Simba on the logs to get his mother's approval.
    You'd Think: Given that Simba noticeably balks before he attempts to climb them, and is having considerable trouble, and the fact that Zira and Vitani are keeping a safe distance despite the fact they hate him, Nuka would realize that going after Simba is incredibly dangerous and reckless, and that it would be best to let Simba leave.
    Instead: Nuka decides to chase Simba on the logs. The logs break under his weight, and he gets crushed to death for his failure to foresee the possibility.
• The Little Mermaid has a few infamous moments in all three movies:
  • In the beginning of the film, Triton and Sebastian are preparing for Ariel's debut concert as she joins her six older sisters. Everyone in the kingdom is coming to attend. Sebastian makes a snarky comment that Ariel is a constant no-show for rehearsals as he heads to the orchestra. It turns out Ariel completely forgot it was concert day.
    You'd Expect: Either Sebastian or her sisters would have prepared since Ariel is notoriously unreliable when it comes to concerts, and do a roll call in a reasonable window before showtime. That's the whole purpose of having a stage manager. If Ariel isn't there, they can quickly announce she can't perform and have one of her sisters do the solo.
    Instead: Sebastian just starts the concert, assuming Ariel is in her shell. In a Deleted Scene it's even worse when her sisters note Ariel is missing while talking with their conductor backstage, and Sebastian nervously tells them he'll stall while they look for her.
    The Result: Everyone is blindsided when Ariel's performance shell opens and she's not there. When she swims back and apologizes after remembering, Triton and Sebastian chew her out for being so irresponsible and humiliating all those who were involved in putting on the performance.
  • After Ariel has rescued and fallen in love with Prince Eric, Sebastian vows to keep the whole thing between them a secret from King Triton, knowing he would be enraged. Later, Triton calls on him and questions him about Ariel's newfound love, which he had discovered, though he did not know she fell in love with a human.
    You'd Expect: Sebastian to realize Triton hasn't said anything about humans and doesn't seem furious about his daughter being in love (which he would be if he knew the truth), and that he would watch his words. He could say something along the lines of "I hadn't really noticed that" or "I wonder who it could be?"
    Instead: Thinking Triton already knows the whole truth, he anxiously blurts out that he tried to keep Ariel away from the humans. Predictably, Triton flies into a furious rage and angrily asks Sebastian to tell him more, which results in him revealing the location of Ariel's secret grotto where she keeps her human treasures, which leads to the incident below.
  • Triton angrily blasts all of Ariel's treasures all because she said she loved Eric. When he's finished, he visibly looks remorseful about upsetting her when she bursts in tears.
    You'd Expect: Triton to swim up to her and apologize, and maybe have a heartfelt moment. Even if we are to assume he's gone beyond Ariel's forgiveness by this point, and she might have told him to go away (like she did to Sebastian), he could have at least tried.
    Alternatively You'd Expect: He would attempt to repair the damage with his trident. It's a magical weapon can transform people into mermaids and vice-versa, and in the direct-to-video sequel we see a handful of the items in her grotto restored. It's safe to assume Triton could undo everything that he just did because even he realizes that he went too far when the red fades from his eyes.
    Instead: Triton just swims away after that, leaving her to cry. This gives Ursula's minions, Flotsam and Jetsam a chance to exploit her emotional vulnerability, leading to her making an impulsive Deal with the Devil with Ursula.
    The Result: In both the stage show and the movie, Ariel runs away. So does Sebastian, apparently. Triton sends out dozens of search parties, but no one can find the pair. Triton is wrecked with guilt that he drove away his daughter and crab composer. By the time Sebastian reappears, it's too late; Ursula's succeeded in winning her deal with Ariel and owns her, and Triton to save Ariel from becoming another polyp for Ursula takes her place in the deal.
    You'd Then Expect: Ariel's sisters would be there as well to help her, possibly by taking the trident before Ursula can and giving it to Ariel, in the hopes that she'd blast Ursula with it. As a matter of fact, in the original story by Hans Christian Andersen, the unnamed mermaid's sisters actually do try to help her by trading their hair to the Sea Witch for a knife, which they tell her she must use to kill the Prince so that his blood will turn her back into a mermaid. She takes the knife as if to do so, but she can't find it in her heart to do it, and jumps into the ocean. Her body turns into sea foam, just as the witch had warned, but the mermaid succeeds in her task of gaining an immortal soul because she sacrificed herself for the Prince. Therefore, in a manner of speaking, the sisters' attempt to help her is successful.
    Instead: Ursula simply takes the trident and the crown.
  • Eric in a matter of minutes learns that a sea witch hypnotized him into a marriage and has stolen away his true love, the mute girl he had taken in, who transforms into a mermaid.
    You'd Expect: As a prince with a loyal kingdom, he would bring in The Cavalry, including the sailors who told him the myth of Triton (and Ursula in the deleted Spoiler Opening), which he does do in the stage version. He already knows that Ursula can do dangerous magic, and has the strength of a large octopus at the least.
    Instead: He goes alone in a dinghy, only armed with a harpoon, with no idea of what he's up against. He gets in way over his head as a result and only turns the tides with quick thinking, but before that the harpoon only gives a flesh wound to Ursula. She nearly drowns him and disintegrates him in revenge.
  • On that note, Ursula pins down Ariel with her newly-acquired trident for attacking her, and then sends her eels Flotsam and Jetsam after Eric when he launches his offense. Before Ariel can help Eric, Ursula grabs her in a tight hold, so that Ariel can only scream at Eric to look out and swim for it.
    You'd Expect: She would keep Ariel in that grasp, since Ariel can't break free, and make her watch Eric die by the trident's blast. Ariel has previously been established as an impulsive Action Girl and Spanner in the Works who protects the ones she loves with righteous fury.
    Instead: Ursula for no reason at all releases Ariel before gloating, "Say goodbye to your sweetheart." Ariel manages to throw off her aim so that the trident's blast hits Ursula's eels instead, disintegrating them into scattered body parts.
• The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea:
  • Ursula's sister Morgana shows up at the celebration of Ariel and Eric's daughter Melody's birth, still angry at them for killing her sister. Out of revenge, she threatens baby Melody's life by snatching her in a sneak attack and dangling her over a shark, demanding Triton's trident. Triton prepares to surrender it since he doesn't want his granddaughter hurt.
    You'd Expect: She'd stay out of range from Ariel and Eric, especially since Eric took down her sister with his wits and a wrecked ship, while holding Melody hostage.
    Instead: Much like Ursula, Morgana can't resist Evil Gloating. She comes closer to the royal boat to explain that she's vengeful about them killing Ursula. Ariel uses Eric's sword to cut a rope that leads to a mast hitting Morgana in the face, and Eric catches Melody as she sails through the air.
  • After this happens, Undertow the shark prepares to eat Melody after Morgana loses her hold on her. Triton still has his trident, which can reduce living beings to fragments and do much more damage.
    You'd Expect: Triton would just kill Undertow when he has a clear shot. He's a Papa Wolf as well and has previously shown no compunctions for causing collateral damage.
    Instead: Triton uses the trident to turn Undertow into a pathetic, tiny shark, who escapes with Morgana. Years later he seeks out Melody when she runs away from home to learn about the locket, and leads her to Morgana's icy lair.
    • After Ariel and Eric save their baby, Morgana escapes and vows to return.
      You'd Expect: Ariel to just tell Melody that Morgana would kill her if she went into the sea, and to have Triton establish a guard on the sea part of the kingdom so that Morgana's return would raise red flags. Or, if not wanting to scare the heck out of her, say there's a threat out in the sea and no one can go out there until it's taken care of.
      Instead: Ariel decides to not only forbid Melody to go into the sea while Morgana poses a threat, but also keep her from knowing about Morgana or her mermaid heritage in general because...um...
      As a Result: Melody does not understand why she is forbidden to go into the sea, and continues sneaking out under the huge wall Ariel and Eric have built to keep Melody from the water.
    • Ariel discovers her daughter was sneaking out and found a medallion with her name on it, clearly showing that mer-people and Atlantica exist. Naturally, Melody has some questions.
      You’d expect: Ariel would remember how badly her own argument with Triton ended and calmly tell Melody the truth, explaining why she was lied to her whole life.
      Instead: Ariel snaps at Melody for disobeying her and refuses to answer any of her questions. Just when she calms down, talks with Eric and decides to tell Melody the truth, Melody runs away and falls right into Morgana’s grasp. Just like what happened with Ariel and Ursula!
    • Speaking of the example above, Ariel has finally admitted this to Melody, who has stolen Triton's trident because Morgana claimed that a bad man took it years ago, after two catch each other in mermaid form.
      You'd Expect: That Melody would put aside her (albeit justified) anger towards Ariel for her secretiveness, understand what's going on, and return the trident to Ariel, or even better, King Triton because he's the owner of the trident in the first place.
      Instead: She impulsively gives the trident to Morgana. Of course, the latter reneges on her deal with Melody of making her a mermaid permanently by locking her under the sea until the spell wears off and Melody nearly drowns.
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning:
  • The movie begins with King Triton and Queen Athena's happy life with their children, when suddenly, a pirate ship approaches their territory, looking for plunder. Panicking, the merpeople go back underwater to avoid being seen. For the most part, they succeed. However, Athena and Triton's music box is still out in the open for the pirates to take.
    You'd Expect: Athena to forget about the music box and focus on getting away safely, like everybody else already has. While the music box was established to hold sentimental value between her and Triton, it's not worth throwing herself in harm's way for.
    Instead: She rushes to recover the music box, even at the risk of getting run over by the ship, while Triton is screaming her name.
    As a Result: As Sebastian puts it, "Queen Athena was lost to us."

M-R

• Meet the Robinsons: Lewis brings out his PBJ shooter and explains what it does.
  You'd expect: The Harringtons explain Mr Harrington's allergy and how dangerous it is for him to be around peanuts, thus making Lewis think twice about setting off the machine.
  Instead: The Harringtons simply make excuses to leave, state that the launcher isn't a good idea without elaborating further, and don't immediately hit the dirt when the launcher starts to malfunction.
  The result: Lewis has no idea about Mr Harrington's severe allergy and sets off a harmful reaction, thus putting Mr Harrington in danger and ruining his chance at adoption. You would think such a life-threatening allergy would be the first thing to come up as soon as Lewis said "peanut butter".
• Melody Time:
  • "Once Upon A Wintertime":
    • A couple on a date goes on a lake for ice-skating in the dead of winter. Two rabbits join in on the fun since they are having a date night as well.
      You'd Expect: The guy would choose a public place to skate and test the ice. It's revealed his date doesn't skate well and has trouble balancing.
      Instead: He apparently sleds past several lakes where people are, choosing a river area rather than an enclosed space where someone can either help in an emergency or run and get a doctor. This river also opens up to a waterfall that is still active in the winter.
      The Result: It turns out he missed the Thin Ice sign, which the male rabbit notices. When the lady rabbit and lady human walk on it, the ice ends up cracking due to the male rabbit getting annoyed about them ignoring the sign and placing it in the ice with too much force. They end up stranded on the river, soon headed for the waterfall.
    • When his date seems to walk out on him, she's mad at how he didn't help her to her feet and laughed at her for revealing her petticoats. The lady rabbit follows her, nose in the air.
      You'd Expect: She would return to the horse carriage a few feet away. That would signal the date is over, and she wants to go home.
      Instead: They both go farther down the river, and miss the Thin Ice sign.
      The Result: Both ladies faint while trapped on a rapidly-moving ice float. It's only by the carriage horses working with the forest animals that neither of them falls into the river water, let alone the waterfall that nearly sweeps them down.
  • "Pecos Bill": The title character and his horse Widowmaker are a dynamic duo. They've taken on cattle rustlers, native tribes, and even heavy drought. Then Pecos Bill sees Slue-Foot Sue riding a catfish, and falls head over heels with her. Widowmaker doesn't like this, nor the subsequent dates. He starts crying in the shadows as Bill shoots out the stars to serenade Sue.
    You'd Expect: Given that Widowmaker is perfectly in sync with Pecos Bill, that he would communicate that he is not okay with him dating Slue-Foot Sue. Get those negative feelings out there before it escalates.
    Instead: For some reason, Widowmaker keeps his opinions to himself, until the couple's wedding day. It turns out Slue-Foot Sue wants to ride Widowmaker to the altar.
    You'd Then Expect: Pecos Bill would get the inclination that his fiancee riding his horse is a bad idea given that he has red eyes and needs eight men to hold him still.
    Instead: Sue successfully browbeats him so she can ride the horse. When Widowmaker manages to bounce Sue off him (though a credit to Sue that she holds onto the saddle for a long time), her bustle launches Sue into the stratosphere and keeps landing her higher. Widowmaker sabotages Bill's attempts to lasso Sue so she can land safely, and Sue ends up on the moon. The horse lived up to his name, turning Bill into a widow. Bill then gives up on humanity, returning to his coyote roots and spends the rest of his days howling to the moon. Widowmaker follows, out of loyalty and guilt.
• Mulan:
  • Mulan runs late for her matchmaker exam, and her mother along with some women help her get ready in a rush. Fa Li discovers the notes that Mulan wrote on her arm, "in case I forget something," Mulan explains sheepishly. Said notes are already smeared due to the ink mixing with the bathwater.
    You'd Expect: Fa Li would wipe off the notes and give Mulan a rushed lecture about how Cheaters Never Prosper.
    Instead: Fa Li rolls her eyes and leaves the notes alone when Grandmother Fa asks her to hold Cri-Kee the cricket.
    The Result: Mulan manages to read some of the notes and pass one part of her test, but the ink gets smeared on the Matchmaker's face, which is a bad omen of what's to come.
  • Cri-Kee is a cricket that Grandmother Fa gives to Mulan for good luck during the matchmaking test. Cri-Kee just fainted from how Grandmother Fa tested him, and is shown to be aware of human events.
    You'd Expect: Cri-Kee would stay in his cage until the test is done, or if they get out, to get back in as soon as possible.
    Instead: Cri-Kee, after getting loose from his cage, decides it's a good idea to take a swim in the Matchmaker's tea. Mulan trying to hide him leads to her setting the Matchmaker on fire.
    The Result: The Disaster Dominoes means that Mulan fails her overall matchmaking test gloriously. Mulan doesn't blame the cricket and sets him free, but out of guilt he follows her and watches until she decides to run away and save her father from battle.
  • To cap off the terrible day Mulan is having, her father is given conscription orders to join the army. She has a terrible fight with him over dinner where she says his life is not worth the honor. Fa Zhou hits his Rage Breaking Point after taking Mulan's failure and disrespect to the Emperor's Councilman Chi-Fu fairly well, and tells her he knows his place and she needs to know hers. Mulan runs outside in tears into a rainstorm.
    You'd Expect: Either Fa Li or Grandmother Fa would go out to get Mulan before she catches her death of cold, or at least check up on her. Yes, she messed up and spoke out of turn, but the latter part was due to fear of her father dying.
    Instead: The family leaves Mulan to sob in the rain for hours. They go to bed, and she watches her father blow out the candle.
    The Result: During that time, Mulan makes the decision to cut her hair, steal her father's armor and conscription notice, and ride off to join the army in his place. By the time a worried Grandmother Fa wakes up Fa Zhou and Fa Li, it's too late; Fa Zhou is only left with Mulan's flowered comb and the memories of their last fight.
    • For that matter, Fa Zhou cannot bring himself to blow off the draft notice outright in spite of his physical infirmity.
      You'd Expect: He, a veteran who has seen combat, would A) admit to himself that even if he hid his heart problems his bad leg would make him an obvious liability in the field, B) realize that any remotely competent commander would recognize this and give him a sit-down job to at minimum free up someone with four working limbs, & C) make 'B' plain to his family so none of them have a(nother) meltdown.
      Instead: Not only does he shout down his worry-wart daughter, but that night he attempts his old sword katas which make it plain he is seriously going to try fighting in the front lines.
      The Result: Even if he is not planning an outright suicide run, his family thinks so and his daughter is very likely to do something rash to forestall him.
  • The Chinese army that have defeated Shan Yu have discovered that their hero, "Ping", is a woman. Captain Shang is ordered to kill Mulan but spares her since she saved him and the entire army, leaving her and her horse with enough supplies to ride home. Mulan then comes to find them in the city to tell them the Huns are alive and coming for the Emperor.
    You'd Expect: Shang to realize that Mulan would have no other reason to return. She's been disgraced and told to go home. Although it may have not made much difference in fending off the Huns' ambush, at least the army could have put up a better defense.
    Instead: Feeling hurt about the law putting him in a difficult position about killing Mulan, who did save him, Shang dismisses her and says he can't trust her.
    The Result: The Huns proceed to attack and take the Emperor hostage in his palace. Only then does Shang wise up and let Mulan take the lead, knowing that her ideas are Crazy Enough to Work, in rescuing the Emperor and stopping Shan Yu.
  • Also, Mulan's plan is essentially to distract the guards and incapacitate them so that Chien Po can escort the Emperor to safety and Shang can take on Shan Yu to defeat him, thus earning the glory due to him.
    You'd Think: The plan would involve Ling and Yao staying behind so that they can help their commanding officer. While Shang is a badass, he still is only one man against China's greatest foe.
    Instead: Mulan doesn't consider that Shan Yu, being larger and more experienced than Shang, will overwhelm her captain.
    The Result: Sure enough, Shan Yu disables Shang in the few seconds it takes their comrades to escape with the Emperor, and Mulan has to cut their line to safety so that Shan Yu can't follow. Both Mulan and Shang very nearly get killed in the aftermath.
  • In Mulan II, Mushu has taken extreme levels in jerkass and taken to bossing around the ancestors to cater to his every whim. Understandably, they're not too keen about this whole scenario. Sometime later, Shang proposes to Mulan, much to the delight of everyone involved, before they go to strengthen relationships with Qui Gong by marrying the emperor's daughters to their emperor's sons. Mushu is genuinely happy for Mulan, while the ancestors are happy because it means Mushu will be stripped of his guardianship.
    You'd Expect: Since Mushu's gone on a journey to earn said guardianship already, that the ancestors would keep their mouths shut until Mulan is either well out of China or, to be safe, until the marriage is cemented and China's relationships are strengthened.
    Instead: They brag about it to Mushu's face, ruining his happy mood and prompting him to go and sabotage Mulan's relationship.
    The Result: A freak accident happens on Mushu's part, he succeeds in breaking the two up for a little while, Shang is almost killed, and Mulan lets the princesses elope with Yao, Chien Po and Ling and takes their place as the betrothed. It's only fixed at the end because Mushu impersonates a dragon god like he did before and abolishes the arranged marriages, while strengthening the countries' bonds himself. Even worse is that, despite Mushu's legitimately noble act, the ancestors still belittle him until Shang ensures that Mushu doesn't lose his guardianship. Enjoy a lifetime of servitude, guys!
• Oliver & Company
  • Georgette is the Spoiled Brat poodle belongs to Jenny's parents. She isn't Jenny's pet, however; they rarely interact and Georgette would rather have her space and stuff. Georgette takes offense when Jenny thoughtlessly offers the dog's bowl to a kitten she rescued, filled with a decadent cat meal. Oliver sensibly backs up on meeting the poodle and gives Georgette her space, but the dog isn't as forgiving.
    You'd Expect: Georgette would either make an effort to spend time with Jenny or with her dozens of dog admirers. If she's jealous, be upfront about it to Jenny who is the only owner in the house since her parents are at a conference and Winston is only the butler slash housekeeper. It's a giant mansion and Oliver is being well-behaved for a stray cat. He's not even visiting Georgette's room or bothering her.
    Instead: Georgette holes up in her room and grumbles. When Oliver's dog friends come to "rescue" him, Georgette assists them. This isn't just Jerkass behavior; it's downright irresponsible. You can't just get rid of someone's pet and expect them to be okay with it. Even Winston would have noticed once Jenny came asking where Oliver had been.
    Predictably: Georgette's thoughtlessness means that Jenny insists on going out to rescue Oliver on receiving a ransom note for her cat, late at night, taking Georgette with her. This leads in turn to loan shark Sykes kidnapping Jenny, making things go From Bad to Worse. Georgette only redeems herself when she takes part in the rescue.
• Peter Pan:
  • In the opening, George and Mary Darling are getting dressed for an important party. It turns out their sons John and Michael took George's golden cufflinks and shirtfront, the former as treasure and the latter to draw a map on it with chalk. George is put out about the latter, as is Mary, but John interrupts and says that they were only following their big sister Wendy's story about Peter Pan. This leads to George blaming Wendy, who had no idea what the boys did, for putting the idea in their head.
    You'd Expect: Mary would continue to chide the boys, wipe off the shirtfront, and lecture them about being careful. If she takes charge, then George will be satisfied. He's not wrong that they shouldn't have taken his stuff
    Instead: She tries to dismiss the boy's antics as harmless, wiping the chalk off the shirtfront and fixing George's bowtie with a "Now George".
    The Result: George decides the best thing to do is move Wendy out of the nursery so that she doesn't fill the boys' heads with "silly stories" and since she's going to be a teenager soon. No one wants this, least of all Wendy, because she doesn't want to admit she's growing up. And of course, the boys don't get the memo that they would have avoided this if they hadn't used their father's things for playtime, which was the real problem.
    Fortunately: George has a good time at the party, especially when Mary retrieves his cufflinks, and realizes he was being unreasonable towards Wendy. He rescinds the order to move her out and gives her an apology hug when they see Peter's stolen pirate ship in the sky. Quite ironically, Wendy by then has matured from her experience in Neverland and says she doesn't mind growing up.
  • Tinker Bell isn't happy that a human girl that tried to kiss Peter is coming with the two of them to Neverland. She makes her Green-Eyed Monster tendencies blatant.
    You'd Expect: That Peter at some point would reassure her that Tink means more to him than to anyone else, as he does later in the movie. Humans come and go, but there's only one pixie.
    Instead: Peter doesn't do this. He smacks Tink on the butt to get pixie dust for the Darlings and ignores her during the flight to Neverland.
  • Tink then gets the bright idea that she needs to get Wendy out of the way, to have Peter to herself.
    You'd Expect: That Tinker Bell would, if she's going to go Yandere, make Wendy's death look like an accident and make sure the trail doesn't lead back to her. Or, she could let Neverland do the job for her. The mermaids are just as yandere and try to drown Wendy merely because she's with Peter, and the natives put her to collecting firewood for a ceremonial bonfire.
    Instead: In keeping with the source material, Tink Didn't Think This Through. She goes to the Lost Boys and tells them that Peter has ordered them to shoot down a "Wendy-bird".
    As a Result: When Peter finds out after saving Wendy from crashing onto rocks, the Boys immediately tell him what Tink said, which leads to her getting banished. He could have easily done worse if Wendy had actually been killed. Either way, Peter is now royally steamed at Tink.
  • After Wendy decides to go back to London, Peter receives a "present" from "Wendy" (In reality, it's a bomb sent down by Captain Hook), the tag says not to open it until six o' clock.
    You'd expect: That Peter would be suspicious.
    Instead: He still assumes it's a present, and only when Tink arrives and almost kills herself to get rid of the bomb, does he catch on.
• Pinocchio:
  • A kindly carpenter named Geppetto makes a boy puppet and wishes for him to come to life as a real boy. The Blue Fairy complies halfway, making Pinocchio sentient but still a wooden puppet. He's also naive about the world, as evidenced when he sticks his finger into fire to see what happens.
    You'd Expect: Geppetto would try and teach his new son more about the world before letting him explore it. Pinocchio is only a few hours old, and Jiminy Cricket can't protect him from everything. The workshop is safe enough for a young puppet with sentience.
    Instead: Geppetto tries to be a normal parent and send off Pinocchio to school, with a snack and without telling him where to go. This means that Pinocchio gets easily led astray, where he's sold to a nasty puppeteer. By nightfall, Geppetto is fretting about where his new son is, realizing he never made it to school.
  • Pleasure Island is a theme park that lures troublemaking boys with the promise of never having to go to school and being able to cause trouble without being stopped...but after spending a few hours there, they turn into donkeys, which the coachman then sells off to circuses and salt mines. The coachman hires two conmen named J. Worthington Foulfellow (a.k.a Honest John) and Gideon to lure boys to the park, promising to pay them handsomely. They just happen to stumble upon Pinocchio, whom the two had recently sold to a puppetmaster named Strombolli. After giving him a false medical examination, they tell him that he is ill and the only cure is a vacation on Pleasure Island.
    You'd Expect: That since taking their advice previously almost landed him in a life of slavery as Stromboli's star attraction with all profits going to Stromboli, Pinocchio would immediately refuse and leave. Not to mention if he was a bit wiser, he'd realize that the medical terms the two were giving were all mostly gibberish, even telling him that his medical condition was that he was "allergic", and see through their clearly obvious ruse.
    Instead: He chooses to take their advice again, resulting in him almost meeting the exact same fate he had just narrowly escaped earlier.
  • The other boys lured to Pleasure Island deserve special mention as well. Although most lose their ability to speak after being transformed into donkeys, a handful of them retain their ability to speak, which the coachman checks for by asking each donkey their name. If they have lost their ability to speak, they are put into crates to be shipped to circuses and salt mines. As for the few who retain the ability, the coachman puts into a pen with their ultimate fate being unknown.
    You'd Expect: The donkeys who can still speak to pretend that they have lost vocalization when interrogated by the coachman so that they will be able to leave the island and tell the humans they are sold to about Pleasure Island (after all, who wouldn't believe a talking donkey?). Not to mention that with the coachman arrested, they might be able to get information out of him about how to turn the donkeys back into boys.
    Instead: The ones who can still talk all foolishly speak when the coachman asks, telling him their names and begging to be returned home. They coachman then enacts on said fate for the donkeys, thus allowing the wicked coachman to continue luring more boys to Pleasure Island and selling them.
  • The parents of the town as just as much to blame. Many kids (particularly sons) are going "missing" from skipping school to chill out in Pleasure Island.
    You'd Expect: For the parents to wonder why their children haven't returned from Pleasure Island and make reports about their missing children to any type of authorities.
    Instead: They don't. This is why the Coachman will continue to get away with turning innocent boys into donkeys.
• Disney's Pocahontas:
  • Governor Ratcliffe has an obsession with gold ^note  why? What could being richer afford him? He's already the most powerful man in the colony. , but his first few days of plundering Virginia have yielded no results. His men dug up a large area without finding a speck and through his captain, he is informed the natives do not know of the existence of the shiny metal.
    You'd expect: After a few days, Ratcliffe and his men would leave Virginia and sail further south. From there they'd settle in uninhabited lands closer to where the Spanish found their own gold, where there'd be a better chance for the English to discover some. If unsuccessful, he would give up and sail back to England to be dishonored, having failed his mission.
    Instead: Ratcliffe constructs the Powhatan Tribe's attack on his camp as them acting in defense of the gold they have already mined and stored and proposes to annihilate the Native Americans in order to get their gold, choosing to make war with the people that could show him and his settlers the lands.
  • John Smith is shot in the abdomen protecting Chief Powhatan from a bullet fired by Governor Ratcliffe. He is heavily wounded, but survives.
    You'd expect: The Powhatan Tribe patches him up and lets him rest, knowing his chances for survival are slim but not nonexistent, since it is shown the tribe has adequate medical knowledge to treat wounds, even those that are "strange to them". Aside, at least a few of the Britishmen must know how to tend to gunshot wounds including the victim himself.
    Instead: Everyone agrees the victim has a better chance of surviving if he is sent across the ocean on a lengthy voyage of several months, to be treated in 1600s London. The victim and his lover have a teary farewell and the British ship leaves, also leaving the remaining Britishmen unable to escape or return to England for at least a year.
• The Princess and the Frog:
  • Tiana has been saving up for years to buy an old sugar mill to convert into a restaurant, a dream she and her father shared. She happily tells the real estate agents at a Mardi Gras party that she's ready to sign the papers as soon as possible.
    You'd Expect: That the agents would agree with her. Tiana believes in the value of hard work, and she won't default on the mortgage.
    Instead: From the way the agents are talking, it's implied that they don't want a black woman running an establishment in 1920s New Orleans, even an honorable one that would create more publicity for their city. The agents engage in Moving the Goalposts and claiming another buyer has the money and wants the place at full price, giving Tiana a few days to match the amount. Then they condescendingly say the work would be too much for a "woman of her background (and that she's better off staying where she's at)". When Tiana gets married later on, she's able to purchase the mill with the help of a friendly alligator and her royal husband, implying there was never another buyer in the first place. So they wasted her time, kickstarted the rest of the movie, and insulted new royalty all at once.
  • The mayor of New Orleans has invited Prince Naveen of Maldonia to court his daughter Charlotte. Naveen's family has cut him off, so he needs to marry Charlotte to main his wealthy lifestyle. Lawrence at least tells him he can either do that or get a job like a normal person.
    You'd expect: Naveen to do what his servant Lawrence advises and go to the mayor's house immediately. Naveen has no funds, on the practical side, and even on the etiquette side it's rude to show up late when you're a guest.
    Instead: Naveen wanders around New Orleans, trading his crown for a cap, with a guitar and offering to buy drinks for all his new friends. Lawrence, straggling behind with his bags, can barely keep up and they don't know where they are.
    As a Result: Dr. Facilier takes the opportunity to approach the two men and entrance them. When Lawrence tries to warn the prince that Facilier is a charlatan, the doctor shuts him up and leads them into his parlor to trick them into taking a deal. Naveen goes along with it because he thinks it's just a show, and Lawrence gets tempted into betraying the prince. As a result, Naveen is turned into a frog, and his blood is used to change Lawrence into Naveen's double so he can marry Charlotte and give half her money to Facilier.
  • Later that evening, thanks to Tiana's friend Charlotte lending her a princess gown, a talking frog who calls himself Prince Naveen mistakes Tiana as a princess and believes she can undo his curse. Charlotte is supposedly dancing the night away with Naveen, the guest of honor. A freaked out Tiana asks, "If you are the prince, then who is dancing with Lottie out there?"
    You'd Expect: Naveen to explain what happened with the Shadow Man, since he had to have seen Lawrence, his Beleaguered Assistant, disguised as him when the latter freed him from a glass jar. Thus, Tiana knows that the "Naveen" dancing with Charlotte is an imposter, and so she can warn her best friend.
    Instead: Naveen explains, "One minute I was dancing, the next I was green," which Tiana interprets to mean that Naveen was turned into a frog after dancing with Charlotte. He also never clarifies for the rest of the movie.
    As a Result: This lack of precise wording throws a wrench into his plans to become human again. Lawrence poses as Naveen successfully and nearly marries an unwitting Charlotte, and Tiana later on goes into a Heroic BSoD when she thinks Naveen has married Charlotte and she's had a Belated Love Epiphany.
  • Naveen then finds a storyboook showing the "Frog Prince" fairytale and is convinced Tiana can break the spell if she kisses him. Tiana's not keen, due to a childhood disgust of frogs.
    You'd Expect: Tiana to explain that she can't kiss Naveen because she's not a princess. Her dress is just a costume for Mardi Gras. Then they could wait for Charlotte to return and explain that her prince turned into a frog and figure out what to do from there.
    Instead: Tiana refuses on the grounds that she doesn't kiss frogs. Naveen then bribes her with money, which it turns out he doesn't have, and she gives into temptation to kiss him.
    As a Result: This gets her turned into a frog, since only a princess could break the curse, and probably because A Wizard Did It. Naveen lampshades this when Tiana moans about her Moment of Weakness.
  • Tiana tries looking for Naveen in New Orleans. During the Mardi Gras parade, she sees "Naveen" (who is actually Lawrence, Naveen's greedy valet, transformed with blood magic) ready to marry Charlotte on one of the floats during the Mardi Gras parade.
    You'd Expect: Tiana to be rational and remember that it was impossible to break the curse on Naveen without also breaking it on her, so it couldn't have been the real Naveen, or something was amiss. It also even helped that Ray even lampshaded that something was off.
    Instead: She immediately assumes that it was Naveen marrying Charlotte and goes to the French graveyard, completely depressed.
  • One part of Dr. Facilier's plans is to keep a transformed Naveen's "heart pumping" for the time being while Laurence impersonates him and has Naveen confined.
    You'd expect: That Faciler would have him placed in some sort of confinement that allows him to breathe or give the bottle he places him in holes so that Naveen cannot play a fast one and trick Laurence into loosening the bottle.
    Instead: He had Laurence bottle him up with no hole in the lid, which leads to Naveen tricking his former servant into loosening the lid which results in the prince's escape and putting a dent in Faciler's plan as the amulet that allowed Laurence to impersonate Naveen ends up running out of the blood sample it had for fuel the next day.
    Result: This plays a part in Facilier summoning the Friends on the Other Side to try and catch him with Facilier knowing full well that he'd be doomed if his debt is not paid off which eventually results in his demise when Tiana breaks the amulet after Naveen uses his frog foot to throw it to Ray so he can get it to her.
• Ralph Breaks the Internet:
  • Vanellope says she is getting bored of racing the same tracks every day, so Ralph decides to make a new one for her to race on.
    You'd Expect: Ralph to do this at night when the arcade is closed. Ralph and Vanellope both have jobs to do, and abandoning the game could lead to their cabinets being shut down, as they learned in the last movie.
    Instead: Ralph does this in the day when the arcade is still open, and Vanellope ignores the player's inputs to drive on the new track.
    As a result: The player assumes the machine is busted and the wheel breaks off, which nearly shuts off the Sugar Rush arcade cabinet for good.
• Raya and the Last Dragon:
  • Having discovered that Sisu has returned, Namaari suggests cooperating with them to get rid of the Druun. Her mother Virana, however, is concerned that the other tribes, who distrust them and blame them for unleashing the Druun, will come after them for revenge.
    You'd Expect: Fang Tribe to make a big show of helping Sisu so they can claim some credit for fixing the Druun problem. Alternately, they could negotiate with Reya to form a mutual defense pact with Heart Tribe.
    Instead: Namaari breaks the pact and attempts to kidnap the legendary, revered dragon as well as the Gems at weaponpoint so Fang can force Sisu to do the thing she was trying to do anyway. Because they think that will make the other tribes like them more. Two seconds of thought could have told them this plan was only going to make the other tribes hate and distrust them even more. Not to mention that Sisu tries to explain the whole point of getting Namaari on their side is that the Dragon Gem won't work unless someone makes a great show of trust.
• The Rescuers:
  • Medusa succeeds in motivating Penny to find the Devil's Eye in the Black Hole cave, by taking her teddy bear hostage. Penny with Bernard and Bianca's help gets the diamond before they all drown from the incoming tide. Medusa already plans to cut her accomplice Snoops out of the deal, but Penny is a child. She threatens them with a shotgun to stay on the boat while making her getaway. Penny demands her teddy back since she found the diamond and Medusa "promised".
    You'd Expect: Medusa would hand over the teddy bear to Penny as promised. At this point Penny has served her purpose.
    Instead: Medusa has sewn the diamond into "Teddy," for no reason whatsoever, and declares the bear goes with her. While she doesn't know about the Rescuers, Penny attempts to grapple with her, despite Medusa having her shotgun, to save her bear.
    The Result: When the Rescuers and the local swamp critters distract Medusa and Snoops with an ambush, Penny naturally grabs her teddy bear, with the Devil's Eye inside, and runs to steal the swampmobile that she and the Rescuers decided to use to escape. The adrenaline and teamwork, which involves Luke's Gargle Blaster ale as swampmobile fuel, keep her ahead of a persistent Medusa, who angers her guard-crocodiles during the chase. Medusa ends up clinging to the boat's pipe, without her diamond, where Brutus and Nero wait for her to fall and wait to eat her. As an added bonus of positive Laser-Guided Karma for Penny, the publicity of finding the largest diamond in America allows her to finally get adopted by a loving couple.
  • Snoops, Medusa's accomplice, thinks that he has earned half of the diamond due to watching Penny in Devil's Bayou for months. He also thinks it's ridiculous that Medusa doesn't want to sell the diamonds that Penny has found, which amount to dozens.
    You'd Expect: That Snoops would know Medusa is dishonorable, given she won't even keep her promises to a child, and sell the diamonds that she doesn't want. Easy money on the side, and no more hanging around in Devil's Bayou.
    Instead: He's completely blindsided when Medusa double-crosses him and declares the Devil's Eye is all hers and she won't cut it for him. Then when the Rescuers launch their offensive, Snoops prioritizes fighting Medusa for the diamond the minute she loses control of the situation. This lands him in the crossfire when the owl lights fireworks aimed at him and Medusa. Said fireworks also cause the boat to explode, with Brutus and Nero inside.
    Fortunately: By the time the boat blows up, Snoops has the sense to float away on a handmade raft before the crocodiles turn on him as well. One can hope he pocketed the diamonds that would otherwise be sinking into the swamp.
• Return To Never Land:
  • Hook's crew corner Jane and the Lost Boys at the poop deck of the Jolly Roger just as they have retrieved their crafted weapons, so Tootles fires a diamond with his slingshot and it knocks a pirate before causing another pirate to fall into the water while trying to catch it. The Lost Boys and Jane opt to do the same and fire many jewels and coins off the board.
    You'd Expect: That the pirates choose to simply ignore the lost loot and proceed to attack Jane and the Lost Boys. It would be impossible to recover those pieces of loot since they will already have sunk by then and there's still much more treasure in the chest.
    Instead: The pirates immediately jump overboard to retrieve the loot Jane and the Lost Boys threw.
    The Result: All the pirates end up in the water, and Mr. Smee soon joins them when Tinkerbell knocks him off the ship, leaving their captain with no reinforcements aboard.
    For Added Stupidity: There's a man-eating octopus living in the bay where the Jolly Roger is anchored. The crew was absolutely lucky that the octopus was still asleep when they jumped overboard.
• Robin Hood (1973)
  • The movie starts when Robin Hood and Little John, after escaping the Sheriff of Nottingham, hear Prince John's royal coach passing through Sherwood Forest. Little John initially balks because they've never robbed royalty before, and tries to bail. Robin Hood convinces him, and they pose as fortune tellers. During this time, Prince John has usurped the crown in his brother King Richard's absence and has been taxing the poor due to his Manchild desire for gold.
    You'd Expect: They would be rather discreet about stealing so that Prince John doesn't notice that his carriage is a little lighter than it was before.
    Instead: Robin and Little John blatantly steal the prince's rings, with Sir Hiss noticing, and rob the carriage blind while reading his fortune, with Robin even grabbing the robes off Prince John's back. When Prince John sees them running off, Robin gives a mocking laugh, and thanks to Little John stealing the gold hubcaps, the carriage breaks down and tosses the prince and Sir Hiss into the mud.
    The Result: Prince John puts Robin Hood on a Wanted poster, and prepares to bait a trap for the ruffian, with all intents of executing him.
  • Vengeful and a Not So Harmless villain, Prince John sets the perfect trap: an archery contest where the prize is not just a golden arrow, but also a kiss from Maid Marian, Robin's childhood sweetheart. On hearing "kiss to the winner," Robin decides that they'll go since he is an expert archer.
    You'd Expect: Friar Tuck and Little John to realize that this is an obvious trap. When something is Too Good to Be True, it usually is. Tuck could have simply kept quiet about the tournament and let it go on with Robin none the wiser.
    Instead: Friar Tuck talks about the tournament, kiss and all. Little John's concern is that the place will be "crawling with guards". He and Robin decide to attend, albeit in disguise, so Robin can earn that kiss. Robin ends up winning the tournament while dressed as a bird, but Prince John quickly captures him. If not for Little John pulling a knife on the prince, Robin would have lost his head to the executioner.
  • Also, Prince John and Sir Hiss are in on the plan. They watch the proceedings with amusement. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also competing, despite the conflict of interest.
    You'd Expect: Prince John would tell the Sheriff that he's expecting Robin Hood to win the contest, and that he's going to capture the latter. Thus the Sheriff should hold back and let whoever the disguised outlaw is win. Or you think the Sheriff would deduct this, due to the Wanted Posters and archery contest.
    Instead: The Sheriff either isn't aware or doesn't care that the Prince of England is looking for Robin Hood. After earning a place as a finalist, he tries to fix his win and sabotage the disguised Robin's shot. Robin Hood ends up able to shoot the arrow in the center anyway, but it would rob Prince John of his opportunity to humiliate and capture Robin Hood for being the winner and the loser, as he puts it.
  • After this, Prince John is furious that despite his plan, Robin gets away due to sheer luck and having allies like Little John and Lady Kluck. Also, all of Nottingham hates him, and the Sheriff knows it.
    You'd Expect: For the Sheriff to have more tact about the prince's losses, since Prince John is his boss and tried to kill Robin for saying the crown belonged to King Richard, and not be stupid while doing his job.
    Instead: The Sheriff overhears the "town hit," a ditty that calls Prince John "The Phony King of England," and foolishly teaches it to Sir Hiss while delivering the taxes. Prince John happens to overhear, and nearly hits the Sheriff with a wine glass.
  • Thanks to the Sheriff's mistake about the ditty, Prince John's taxes land all of Nottingham in prison, since they can't pay their debts. Friar Tuck only has a farthing in the church's poorbox, and is doing what he can to keep the prisoners' spirits up by ringing the church bells on Sunday.
    You'd Expect: The authorities in Nottingham to remember that churches are tax exempt, and that only the Catholic Church can punish their priests. Not only that, but the Catholic Church in medieval England was much, much too powerful to anger unless you had an extremely good reason, and probably not even then. The murder and martyrdom of Thomas Beckett happened around this time, and John knows it. Also if Friar Tuck is sent abroad or even to another city for remonstrance, it means that Robin Hood and Little John can't rely on his help.
    Instead: The Sheriff pettily takes the farthing from the church's poorbox and says he's Just Following Orders. Friar Tuck then shoves him out of the church and starts assaulting him in a rage. Then when Friar Tuck is imprisoned for this, Prince John gets plans to hang him, "a man of the church" as Sir Hiss puts it with horror, to lure out Robin Hood. Not only do Robin Hood and Little John rescue Friar Tuck and the debtors before the hanging can happen, but King Richard returns and makes an example of Prince John, Hiss and the Sheriff, by setting them to work in a rock pile, ostensibly for damage control with the Church.
  • It's the night before Friar Tuck's scheduled hanging. The sheriff and his watch vultures have built a scaffolding. Trigger, a vulture with a crossbow that he keeps firing by accident, senses that a jailbreak is going to happen. He's completely right; Robin Hood and Little John are waiting for the prime opportunity to bust out all the inmates.
    You'd Expect: The Sheriff would listen. If he's exhausted from being up at 3 in the morning, he could increase the guard retinue and instruct the rhinos and jackals to let no one into the cell, or trust the key to someone who will stay awake.
    Instead: He yells at Trigger for setting off his crossbow too many times, at Nutsy for announcing the time incorrectly and keeping him awake, and dozes off with the jail keys around his belt.
    The Result: Robin Hood and Little John incapacitate Nutsy, the Sheriff, and Trigger, in that order, break out everyone in the cells, and start robbing Prince John of his gold thanks to a makeshift assembly line.
  • Dawn is breaking, which means everyone at the castle will wake soon. Robin Hood has been stealing all the gold from Prince John and Sir Hiss's bedchamber. He manages to get all of it, except for the ones that Prince John has in his bed.
    You'd Expect: Having come this far, he would just bail and leave. Robin earlier had a close call where Prince John accidentally woke up Sir Hiss by kicking him in the face.
    Instead: Robin steals the last few gold bags from Prince John's bed, including one that the prince is clutching in sleep.
    The Result: The noises that Prince John makes wakes up Sir Hiss, who sees Robin making off with the last bag of gold. Sir Hiss alerts John by accidentally dragging him out of bed and crashing him into the jail cell. Cue all the castle guards chasing down the fleeing inmates, shooting arrows even at the children, and Robin turns around to mount a rescue when he sees that in the panic that Skippy's little sister, a baby rabbit, has been left behind. He barely escapes the castle with his life, though it does increase his hero's reputation at defeating near impossible odds.
  • The Sheriff leads the guards to chase down Robin Hood. Earlier, Little John stripped the Sheriff to his underwear and disarmed him.
    You'd Expect: The Sheriff would grab another sword, spear, or some such weapon, from one of the other guards. He technically outranks them and should be practical about stopping the jailbreak that he ignored earlier.
    Instead: He wields a torch against a cornered Robin Hood.
    The Result: The Sheriff fails to kill Robin Hood with it and sets the entire castle on fire. This nearly kills him, Prince John, and Sir Hiss, and probably does get a number of castle residents killed.

S-Z

• Sleeping Beauty:
  • A chistening is held for the newborn Princess Aurora, with the three good fairies planning to bestow one gift each on her. Flora and Fauna give theirs, but just when Merryweather is about to give hers, the evil fairy Maleficent crashes the party, not too pleased that she wasn't invited.
    You'd Expect: Someone to simply make up some excuse like, "We didn't think you'd be interested", "Your invitation was lost in the mail" or "We thought you were on holiday". Maleficent is already angry enough as is, and so it's best to try and cool her down so she does not do anything drastic.
    Instead: Merryweather says right to Maleficent's face, "You weren't wanted!"
    The Result: Enraged at this, Maleficent places a curse on the infant where on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Thankfully, Merryweather is able to redeem herself somewhat by modifying the curse so that Aurora will fall into a sleep where she can only be awaken by true love's kiss, but that still doesn't change the fact that it was largely her running her mouth that set off Maleficent in the first place.
  • The king decrees that all spinning wheels in the kingdom will be destroyed, but the fairies are doubtful about the success of this plan. So Flora proposes that the three of them raise Aurora in the forest as a peasant named Briar Rose without any knowledge of her royal heritage to throw Maleficent and her henchman off her track. The king and queen sadly approve of the plan, but Maleficent still has her henchmen look for Aurora to ensure that the incident does take place.
    You'd Expect: Her henchmen to realize that Aurora would start to get older and search for girls that would be around Aurora's age (or at least a trio of ladies that would resemble the three good fairies).
    Instead: A good sixteen years of searching is wasted all because Maleficent's henchmen assumed that Aurora was still a baby. The villainess is understandably ticked off.
  • Maleficent herself qualifies to a degree in how she organizes her search.
    You'd Expect: She would, at some point during the sixteen years, go out to search for Aurora herself, or that she would send out her pet raven to search for her like she does later.
    Or: She would, at the very least, make absolutely certain her henchmen knew what they were looking for. Maybe even inform them as the years pass that they should look for a girl that would be the appropriate age.
    Instead: She sends her not-so-intelligent henchmen to search for her alone, assuming they would know what to look for, only to find out after sixteen years that they had been searching for a baby the whole time.
  • Also, on Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Merriwether puts her foot down and insists on using magic to make Aurora's cake and gown because doing it by hand isn't going well and will appear as a mess to their foster daughter. Flora reluctantly agrees and the fairies close all the doors and windows and plug up most of the holes in the house. As Merriwether cleans up the room, she's disappointed to see that Flora has chosen pink for the dress color instead of blue.
    You'd Expect: Merriwether to wait until the dress is done, and then surreptitiously turn it blue before Flora can notice. She actually does do this later on, and Flora doesn't realize until the end of the movie.
    Instead: Merriwether carelessly turns the dress blue, and starts a color war with Flora. This alerts Diablo the crow, who sees the magic pouring out of the chimney, the one place the fairies didn't plug (which also begs the question of why they didn't double-check to make sure that they had sealed every opening in the house before using magic).
    As a Result: Maleficent finds out Aurora's location and makes the curse come true.
  • Also, the fairies return to the castle with Aurora. Aurora is still upset about not getting to see her true love again (not realizing at this point that he is, in fact, her betrothed).
    You'd Expect: The fairies would stay in the room and continue to keep an eye on Aurora until after the sun set. If they wanted to give her some time alone, they could have just moved to another corner and let her cry while still keeping watch over her since she was still vulnerable to the curse.
    Instead: The fairies decide she needs some time alone and exit the room leaving Aurora completely unattended. This gives Maleficent the perfect opportunity to make the curse come true, even calling the fairies out for letting her down in return.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
  • The Queen finds out from her magic mirror that her teen stepdaughter Snow White is the "fairest in the land". She decides Murder Is the Best Solution after opening her curtains and seeing a random prince serenading Snow White from outside.
    You'd Expect: The Queen would do the deed herself, or find an assassin who is a heartless killer that Would Hurt a Child.
    Instead: She orders her Huntsman to kill Snow White, on the pain of death. The Huntsman at first protests and begs for Snow White's life. This doesn't placate the Queen, who also demands that the Huntsman bring back Snow White's heart.
    The Result: The Huntsman tries to go through with the deed but can't do it. He apologizes to Snow White, begs for her forgiveness, and warns her that the Queen wants her dead. He shoos her into the woods and tells her to run, while he kills a pig and uses its heart instead. By the time the Queen finds out, she has to resort to trickery to get close enough to Snow White to poison her.
    To Make Matters Worse: In the expanded versions where the Queen imprisons him and the Prince — the Huntsman for disobeying her orders, and the Prince for eyeing Snow White — the two men bust out, and in revenge the Huntsman burns down the Queen's castle.
  • The dwarfs inspect their cottage after finding out it had been broken into while they were mining. Bashful discovers some freshly-picked goldenrod flowers in a vase.
    You'd Expect: Bashful to keep the flowers away from Sneezy, since as his name suggests, Sneezy has allergies.
    Instead: He shoves the flowers in Sneezy's face. You can see where this is going.
  • Also, the dwarves near the climax leave Snow White alone at home to go to work at the mine and to surprise her with a new bed. They all warn her not to let anyone into the house or talk to strangers, since the Queen wants her head on a platter, or at least her heart in a box.
    You'd Expect: The birds and animals would appoint themselves as an informal day watch for Snow White and keep an eye out for the Queen, or anyone that may appear suspicious. The dwarves could also do this, leaving one dwarf like Dopey behind for the day until they have an alarm system in place. Dopey may be, well, Dopey but even he can swing a hammer like nobody's business. Snow White is only fourteen, and while she's an Action Survivor she also is too kind for her own good. The birds are shown as highly able to fly long distance in a short amount of time.
    Instead: The dwarves do not think of leaving one of their own behind, because they don't think of changing their routine. In addition, the birds help Snow White make gooseberry pies for the dwarves, setting up no guard whatsoever.
    As a Result: When the Queen does come, disguised as an old peddler, she surprises everyone in the kitchen, animals included. The birds immediately spot the danger given the vultures and go on the attack. Snow White then shoos them away, and is forced to abide by Sacred Hospitality when the Queen feigns a heart attack and begs for water.
  • Also, Snow White has been warned about the Queen wanting to kill her. The birds and animals have been protecting her for a good part of the movie and have good instincts.
    You'd Expect: Snow White to shed her naivete and kindness for some self-preservation instincts and trust the animals.
    Instead: Snow White gives into her kindness, shoos the birds away, and lets the peddler into the house to give her water. This gives the Queen the perfect opportunity to poison Snow White with the apple.
• Tarzan
  • Kala has adopted an orphaned baby human after her gorilla baby was murdered. Tarzan has since grown into an excitable child, who yearns to be like the other apes, including his adopted cousin Terk. Terk wants some alone time to hang with her friends, the other ape younglings that are their age.
    You'd Expect: She'd have told Tarzan this honestly that she doesn't want to hang with him for the moment but they can later. Tarzan would have been upset but not misled.
    Instead: Terk outpaces Tarzan and says that he can hang with the others if he can catch up. When Tarzan catches up, much to the others' annoyance, Terk facetiously says that Tarzan can't be an ape until he gets an elephant's hair, due to hearing an elephant herd bathing in the river, expecting that the Impossible Task would dissuade her cousin.
    The Result: Tarzan nearly wipes out while jumping into the river to get the hair, and causes an elephant stampede that endangers every animal in the area. Terk goes Oh, Crap! and My God, What Have I Done? when Kerchak confronts Tarzan, who successfully obtains a hair but gets no respect for it. The only benefit is that they befriend Tantor, a nervous elephant calf, as a result of Terk and Tarzan's foolishness.
    Fortunately: Character Development sets in, and Terk sincerely helps Tarzan as he works to be the "best ape ever" and impress Kerchak. She's also more upfront about her feelings, especially after Tarzan manages to kill Sabor and then spends time with the humans.
  • Jane is a scientist and animal artist. While in the jungle, she sketches a young baboon. The baboon is so flattered that he steals the drawing. Jane is annoyed and wants it back, though she gets her sketchbook back.
    You'd Expect: Jane to remember these are wild animals. She can just make another sketch and walk away.
    Instead: She tricks the baby into looking away and snatches away the drawing. Expectedly the baby gets upset and cries.
    The Result: The baby's cries alert its baboon pack, which nearly maul Jane. Tarzan has to rescue her, ask the baboons why they attacked her in the first place, and give back the drawing to placate the baboons.

• Tangled:
  • It's Rapunzel's 18th birthday, and she very clearly tells her mother Gothel that she wants to leave the tower to see the lights that only appear on her birthday. Gothel refuses, and Rapunzel instead asks for Gothel to get her special paint that will take several days to obtain rather than reveal the person in her closet (a locked-up Flynn Rider).
    You'd Expect: Gothel, who is a very good liar, to see through this obvious deception and make some kind of excuse to put off her trip for a day or two, causing Rapunzel to miss the lantern festival and thus be less interested in leaving for another year.
    Or Even: Gothel to tell Rapunzel that the floating lights are lanterns celebrating the Princess' birthday (thus deflecting Rapunzel's curiosity once she finds the tiara because she'll think the princess is someone else), or to just satisfy her and take her to see them, making sure to keep her under strict supervision at all times to ensure she doesn't go astray. This is all Rapunzel wants, and once she's got it, she'll be content. She has no reason to question her life at all, and will be quite happy to return to the status quo once her curiosity has been assuaged.
  • Instead: Gothel first snaps at her, causing the first crack of doubt in Rapunzel's trust of her, then buys the lie and leaves. Predictably, this makes Rapunzel leave the tower, setting off a chain of events that ends up costing Gothel her beauty and her life.
  • Flynn starts the movie helping to steal the tiara that belongs to the Lost Princess. He wants the crown so he can buy his own island and never worry about money again.
    You'd Expect: He stay as quiet as possible when making the raid, since the guards aren't the most competent and could take hours to notice the crown is missing.
    Instead: While stealing it, he snarks about one guard's hay fever after the latter sneezes. This reveals his and the Stabbington's brothers' plans, giving them less of a head-start to escape, and enough time for the guards to put up Wanted posters.
  • Also, the horse Maximus wants the crown back, and he leads the hunt for Flynn Rider after the guards get a lead that Flynn's in a tavern with a longhaired blonde accomplice. Eventually the hunt leads Flynn, Rapunzel, Maximus and the guards to a nearby dam. Flynn and Rapunzel manage to make the long jump over a gap where the horse can't follow.
    You'd Expect: Given the dam appears old and rickety, that Maximus would find a way across without compromising its structural integrity. The guards have rope and chains, after all, and you can't arrest Flynn if you're dead.
    Instead: Maximus kicks down a beam supporting the dam so as to create a makeshift bridge. This more than Flynn riding down on the dam's supports leads to the entire dam collapsing, and the ensuing flood nearly drowns everyone.
  • When the flood happens, Flynn and Rapunzel are barely outpacing it. The flood is causing rocks to collapse as well.
    You'd Expect: That Flynn and Rapunzel would go for higher ground and stay out in the open. Rapunzel has enough upper-body strength to get herself and Flynn upward.
    Instead: They run into a mine shaft, which is in the collapsing rock.
    The Result: The rocks and rising water trap Flynn and Rapunzel in the dark, and for a few moments it seems like they're going to drown because they can't find an opening. If not for Rapunzel remembering that her hair glows when she sings, they would have died before their journey had begun.
  • To ensure that Rapunzel will be traumatized by going outside so that she'll return to the tower, Gothel proposes an alliance with the Stabbington Brothers, as part of her Batman Gambit. She hands over the stolen crown to the Brothers, but mentions that she knows of a treasure worth several times more, and that her plan to get it would involve revenge on Flynn Rider.
    You'd Expect: That after Flynn double-crossed them the Stabbington Brothers would try to figure out the catch, and turn Gothel down. She's a random stranger who happened to have the MacGuffin. They have the crown, and have essentially cut Flynn out of the deal. They could easily go on their way and settle down.
    Instead: They decide to trust Gothel to get their revenge, not commenting when she sings to the long-haired girl that calls her "Mother". She tricks them into delivering the valuable crown to the Royal Guard with a knocked out Flynn, then double-crosses them so that they don't end up with the treasure she mentioned— Rapunzel's healing hair. They realize that they messed up when Flynn confronts them and they confess it was the "old lady's" idea.
  • Much later on, at the Festival of the Lanterns, Flynn realizes that he has started to fall for Rapunzel, and she has feelings for him as well. She gives him back the satchel with the crown, nullifying their earlier deal but it doesn't matter to him anymore. Just as they're about to kiss, he sees the Stabbington brothers waiting onshore. Earlier they had tried to kill him and Rapunzel to get the crown.
    You'd Expect: Flynn to point out the Stabbington brothers to Rapunzel and tell her that he's going to give the crown to them so that they won't go after her and him anymore. She may object and insist to go with him, but he in turn could point out he promised to escort her back safely to the tower, and that's what he's going to do. Also you'd expect he would tell her that if anything goes wrong to run, row away, or wield her frying pan. It's not like Rapunzel is a Damsel in Distress; she can take care of herself if she knows the danger.
    Instead: Flynn doesn't do any of this. He tells Rapunzel to wait by the boat, and goes to give the crown to the brothers without informing her of their presence.
    As a Result: The brothers knock him out, tie him up in a boat with the crown, and make it appear to Rapunzel that he's betrayed her while delivering him to the Royal Guard. Flynn nearly gets hung, and Rapunzel's not ready to fight off two grown men while emotionally distraught.
  • After all of this, Rapunzel by studying the sun handkerchief she got and the imagery she's painted all over the tower, as well as flashbacks from the Festival, realizes she's the lost princess. Rapunzel confronts Gothel, whose Oh, Crap! response reveals that she's not really Rapunzel's mother and has been keeping her prisoner for selfish purposes.
    You'd Expect: Rapunzel by this point realizes that Gothel is a monster and possessive about her flower leaving, and thus should not make her suspicious. She should pretend to accept her mother's justifications about protecting her and hightail it out of the tower as soon as Gothel is distracted and make it back to the kingdom.
    Instead: Rapunzel delivers an epic Calling the Old Man Out, refusing to listen to her adoptive mother and turning her back on Gothel after knocking her down. This gives Gothel, who realizes that Rapunzel will no longer listen to her, an opportunity to sneak up on her and chain her.
• The Tigger Movie:
  • It's the end of fall, and everyone is preparing for a freezing winter. While Tigger is trying to find bouncing buddies, he accidentally topples a giant rock on top of Eeyore's house, a pile of sticks. Rabbit comes to help because Eeyore needs a home for the upcoming long winter, and all the toys consider Rabbit as their leader since he is the smartest.
    You'd Expect: They'd realize that the rock would have squashed the house flat, and build a new one. It's Eeyore's home, but it would be simpler to make a new pile of sticks.
    Instead: Rabbit orders everyone to help in moving the rock. His plan involves rudimentary physics and a pulley system to create a giant lever.
    You'd Then Expect: Rabbit would get off the top of the rock once all the ropes are secure. It's a very dangerous position. Or at the least he and the others would clear out when Tigger offers a lending bounce to move the rock.
    Instead: He stays on the rock to survey the pulley system and laughs when Tigger uses his Whoop-De-Dooper-Super-Duper-Alley-Ooper Bounce.
    The Result: The ropes entangle everyone when the rock moves, and they end up in the mud, except for Tigger and Roo, who lands safely on a tree branch. While Roo goes to Tigger and tells him he wants to learn the bounce, everyone else is mad at Tigger even though he was just doing what he could to help.
  • After this, due to a series of wild events, all the toys write a letter to Tigger from "his family," because he has been searching for other Tiggers. Tigger is so happy that he thinks the family is coming the next day for a celebration, even though there was nothing like that in the letter. Everyone meets to figure out what to do, with Kanga and Owl being the sensible ones of the group after Rabbit goes to make more winter preparations since heavy snow is coming later that night.
    You'd Expect: They would tell Tigger, as they do at the end of the movie, that they wrote the letter because they love him, and they consider him part of their family. Even if they aren't Tiggers, they want him to be happy and they will try their best to be his family.
    Instead: They get the bright idea to dress up as Tiggers to Maintain the Lie.
    The Result: While in a later film Tigger looks fondly on the event, at the time he is hurt when he finds out his friends pretended to be Tiggers, as Roo's mask comes off during the party. He goes into the oncoming blizzard with only a scarf around his neck and tells them, "TTFE, Ta Ta For Ever." After some minor hesitation, Rabbit leads everyone in a search party through the snow to find Tigger, and an avalanche nearly buries them all alive after Tigger fights with them to let him find his family.
• Treasure Planet:
  • Our hero, Jim Hawkins, overhears a conversation that John Silver will start a mutiny when they find Treasure Planet. However, Scroop taunts him about his friendship with Jim, which leads Silver to claim it was just to not get Jim suspicious. After the mutiny of the ship, Jim and his partners are trapped on Treasure Planet and John Silver eventually finds them. He goes alone to negotiate with Jim, and Silver admits he said those things about Jim because if the other mutineers knew about his weakness, it would result in another mutiny against Silver and they would most likely eviscerate him and the others. Silver proposes a plan to betray his own comrades and join forces with Jim to find the treasure themselves.
    You'd Expect: Jim to understand the odds of not siding with Silver and accept his plan. He may even convince Silver to bring along his friends as they can help against the mutineers. Silver gets to find his beloved treasure, Jim gets a share of it to rebuild his home, his friends are okay, and everybody is happy.
    Instead: Jim still resents him for having said those things about him (or the greed gets the better of him) and rejects the offer. He even goes so far as to tell Silver he won't get a piece of his treasure, as Jim has the map.
    The Result: Angry with Jim, Silver aims his gun at Jim's back and prepares to shoot, and the only reason he doesn't is because he's grown attatched to Jim. Additionally, despite Jim's efforts to find the treasure on his own, Silver and his crew of pirates find his hideout, captures his friends, and force Jim to lead them to the treasure, rendering Jim's efforts to find the treasure on his own pointless.
  • Eventually, Jim (under duress from Silver) leads the shore party to the treasure room at the center of the titular planet.
    You'd Expect: The pirates to look around before entering the gate, and avoid anything that looks like it might set off a booby trap. Captain Flint was a pirate captain, and even when they're dead, pirates are not too willing to give up their loot.
    Instead: They walk right on in with their eyes glued to the giant ball of loot, completely ignoring the trip laser across the entrance that they set off.
    The Result: After a few minutes, BEN (a former robot member of Flint's crew) reveals that the planet was booby-trapped - right before the center of the planet starts falling apart, causing in many of the looting pirates to fall into the crevices. Additionally, BEN informs Jim and his friends that the planet was also rigged to explode, causing them to get off the planet just seconds before it blew up. Had anything gone wrong in their rush to leave, they would have been killed in the blast.
• Wreck-It Ralph:
  • At the 30th Anniversary party for Fix-It-Felix, Jr., Ralph, the game's villain, is trying to argue that his decoration has just as much right to be on top of the celebration cake as the others do.
    You'd Expect: Ralph to avoid doing anything to disrespect Felix, the game's hero, and the guy that every other character in the game loves.
    Instead: He takes the decoration of Felix and plonks it right down in the mud next to the building, where his decoration originally was. The Nicelanders^note  NPC's of the game are all understandably offended.
  • The Nicelanders aren't much better. While Ralph does repeatedly wreck their home as part of the game, outside of the arcade's opening hours he's actually a pretty nice guy. Also, he needs to play the bad guy role because without Ralph, there's no game.
    You'd Expect: That at some point during a period of 30 years, someone would have talked to Ralph and figured this out, and that they'd show him a bit more respect as a result. Even from a pragmatic standpoint, you shouldn't isolate or insult your coworkers when they're essential.
    Instead: They refuse to have anything to do with him outside of gameplay. And while Felix is civil towards Ralph, he doesn't make any attempt to befriend him or build bridges between Ralph and the Nicelanders. When they refuse to invite him for the game's thirtieth anniversary and Ralph crashes the party, Gene says that Ralph isn't heroic enough to get a medal and sarcastically says he'll give him the penthouse if Ralph wins a medal.
    As a Result: Ralph hits his Rage Breaking Point and gains a desire to become a hero, after seeing the respect and adoration Felix gets, and leaves. Not only does this nearly cause the game to be unplugged, but Ralph sets off a chain of events that nearly includes the corruption of an unrelated game, and could have wrecked the entire arcade.
    Worse: While Felix gets a Jerkass Realization when he suffers one of what Ralph handles every day of being "rejected" and treated like garbage, at no point do we see the Nicelanders acknowledge their responsibility for what happened. Sure, things were partly Ralph's fault, and they do start treating him better at the end of the film, but still.
  • King Candy has a colossal one soon after he's introduced. It's revealed that he can use the Konami Code to gain special user privileges in Sugar Rush, allowing him to, among other things, take possession of any object in the game. Ralph comes into Sugar Rush, and King Candy has Officers Wynchell and Duncan capture him and bring him to the castle. When asked for an explanation on what he's doing in Sugar Rush, Ralph explains that he's trying to get his hands on a medal that Vanellope stole from him, and used to buy her way into a race.
    You'd Expect: King Candy to simply hack the code to get Ralph's medal back, give it to him, and then send him on his way.
    Instead: He lies about not being able to get it back, tries to have Wynchell and Duncan forcibly remove Ralph from the game and then expects him to stay out afterwards. The result is that Ralph escapes from his clutches, and stays in Sugar Rush long enough to team up with Vanellope (in order to get his medal back), and ends up causing King Candy quite a bit of trouble that he could have avoided if he'd just given the medal back in the first place.
    Worse Still: King Candy does resort to this, but only after Ralph has forged a bond with Vanellope and thus has a greater investment in her success than he would have if King Candy had been polite about the intrusion to begin with.
  • In the scene after King Candy tells Ralph what will happen after Vanellope wins the race, Ralph is upset and Vanellope discovers he has his medal:
    You'd Expect: For Vanellope to listen to Ralph and understand why she can't win the race.
    Instead: She gets angry at Ralph and calls him a traitor.
  • Ralph then decides to explain why she can't race: if she finishes high enough, she'll become a selectable character, but players will see her glitching. Because of that, gamers might think the game's broken and it'll be unplugged, killing Vanellope as a result.
    You'd Expect: Vanellope to actually take this explanation seriously.
    Instead: She pretty much ignores it and insists on racing, even when Ralph had warned her of the consequences of doing so.
    As a Result: Ralph is practically forced, against his own wishes, to trash the kart.
  • After retrieving his medal, Ralph returns to his own game, only to learn from Gene that after Felix disappeared trying to find him, all the Nicelanders have abandoned it, knowing that the game will be unplugged in the morning. When Gene asks what Ralph was hoping to gain from this, Ralph explains that he didn't want to have to live alone in the garbage.
    You'd Expect: Gene would realise that he and the Nicelanders also had a role in causing this mess, and either apologise to Ralph or acknowledge it.
    Instead: "Now you can live alone in the penthouse."
  • The racers of Sugar Rush have previously been downright horrible to Vanellope, who eventually ends up in the perfect position to make them suffer for what they did. The racers acknowledge that what they did was wrong, and Vanellope starts to talk about what she'll do to them.
    You'd Expect: That it would occur to the racers that whatever Vanellope has planned for them is probably going to suck.
    Instead: They get EXCITED, then gasp in shock when Vanellope declares that she'll have them all killed. Luckily for them, she's just joking.
• Zootopia
  • Judy Hopps has made it through academy training to join the Zootopia Police Department as an officer. To her disappointment, she's relegated to parking duty.
    You'd Think: Judy would quietly accept the posting as part of being new to the job.
    Instead: She lets herself get carried away with her zeal over being a cop, leading to further boneheaded decisions on her part throughout the movie.
  • One day, while on parking duty, Judy witnesses a robbery. The thief, Duke Weaselton, has just stolen a duffle bag of plants from a nearby florist. Said florist spots Judy, and frantically begs her to stop the fleeing weasel.
    You'd Expect: Judy would radio it in, and then work to calm the florist and get the details about what had just happened while more experienced officers took care of Weaselton.
    Instead: She doesn't radio in, and abandons her post to pursue the weasel.
    The Result: Not only does this nearly get her fired (and even then, only by the skin of her teeth and through pure luck), but it deprives the ZPD of information that would later prove much more critical.
  • While investigating, Judy and Nick end up captured and brought before Mr. Big, Zootopia's most notorious crime boss. The three of them are surrounded by Mr. Big's henchmen, all of whom are very large and tough-looking polar bears.
    You'd Expect: Judy to be respectful of Mr. Big, and calmly and politely explain that she was working a missing-persons case that led to his limo. Mr. Big is a shrewd don, but he does return respect for respect.
    Instead: Judy tries to play bad cop and threatens to take Mr. Big down. She and Nick are seconds away from being executed on the spot for this when Mr. Big's daughter (whose life Judy saved earlier) talks him down.
  • After the above situation is defused, Mr. Big fills Judy in on what happened with Mr. Otterton. At one point, he mentions that Mr. Otterton was concerned about "night howlers". Neither Judy nor Nick are familiar with the term.
    You'd Think: Judy would ask Mr. Big to elaborate on what "night howlers" are. Or, failing that, use her smart phone to look up the term.
    Instead: She does no fact checking whatsoever, and later assumes "night howlers" meant wolves. Had she done her research, she would have made the connection with the "moldy onions" Duke Weaselton stole earlier in the film, the ZPD would have tracked down and caught the real culprit, and Zootopia wouldn't have been plunged into a panic over predators going savage.

---