What An Idiot / Disney Live-Action Films

Just because they’re in live action doesn’t mean they’ve gotten any smarter.

• Aladdin (2019)
  • Jafar has figured out that "Prince Ali" is the same thief he coerced into stealing the lamp from the Cave of Wonders by logic: his country doesn't appear on a map, and Ali has a righthand man that stops Jafar from hypnotizing the prince. So he has a contingency of guards capture Ali after the latter's night out with the princess.
    You'd Expect: He'd have those guards rummage through the prince's chambers for the lamp while interrogating him. Or search his person. If anyone asks, he can claim the prince is a fraud and a charlatan. In the animated film, Ali had the lamp under his giant hat.
    Instead: He doesn't do this, instead preferring to toss a tied-up Ali into the bay when Ali keeps denying that he is Aladdin or has a lamp. His logic is that if Ali drowns, then he's innocent. If the genie saves him, then he'll know where the lamp is.
    You'd Then Expect: He would watch the water and see Abu toss the lamp into the water while riding a magic carpet, which would prove his point. Then he'd have the guards invade Ali's chambers and confiscate the lamp after he's rescued before the genie can save him a second time.
    Instead: He goes to the Sultan and hypnotizes him into believing that Ali left abruptly.
    The Result: Jasmine and Ali catch Jafar in a lie, and Ali figures out that Jafar is hypnotizing the sultan, breaking the man's staff. Jafar gets imprisoned on charges of treason, and only escapes because everyone forgot about Iago.
  • In the climax, Jasmine is coerced into marrying Jafar or her father and best friend Dalia's lives are forfeit. She then hears the familiar flutter of the magic carpet, and sees Aladdin in the distance making a dramatic return. Jasmine snatches the lamp from Jafar during the wedding ceremony before she can say "I do" and hops from the balcony to the carpet. Jafar uses his magic to send a powered Iago and then a cyclone after them.
    You'd Expect: Either Jasmine or Aladdin would rub the lamp and make a hurried wish: stop Jafar, undo his wishes, anything.
    Instead: Neither of them does this, while the chase becomes a giant game of Keep Away; as in, keep away the lamp from Iago and Jafar.
    The Result: Despite a great effort, Jafar succeeds in tearing up Carpet and recapturing the duo. He then tortures Aladdin, while a paralyzed Jasmine can only watch. If not for Aladdin tricking Jafar into wishing to become a genie, the former vizier would have won then and there.
• While The Book of Masters is more infamous for its world-building plot holes, sometimes, the characters' logic is also... odd.
  • Ivan is ordered to do a sculpted miniature portrait of the landlord's Spoiled Brat of a daughter. Both the landlord and the girl have a Hair-Trigger Temper.
    You'd Expect: Him to just do it, since he actually enjoys stone-cutting, and messing up the task will get him precisely nowhere.
    Instead: He makes a caricature with the girl portrayed as a pig. He is ordered to be publicly whipped, and the punishment is only stopped when the Stone Princess's soldiers raid the village.
  • The Stone Princess has a daughter named Katya whom she wants to help and serve her. But Katya is kind-hearted and refuses to do so. The Princess is able to put her under a brainwashing curse that makes her fully obedient.
    You'd Expect: Her to keep Katya under the curse all the time. She shows plenty of times she doesn't really care for the girl anyway.
    Instead: She plants the curse only occasionally, the rest of the time pretty much allowing Katya to wander around wherever she pleases. Katya ends up being Spanner in the Works for all her world-domination plans.
  • Baba Yaga knows about the magical diamonds that can reverse Alatyr's evil powers and lift the Stone Princess's curse if Alatyr is ever brought to life.
    You'd Expect: Her to tell Katya, her beloved granddaughter, about the diamonds and their location. In that case, Katya would tell Ivan about where the diamonds are kept before he even starts working on Alatyr, and they would calmly prepare some plan (maybe with Baba Yaga's assistance) to retrieve them. Or Katya can even try to retrieve them from Koshchey herself (as she actually does in the videogame).
    Instead: Baba Yaga never tells Katya anything and only reveals the power of the diamonds to Ivan when Alatyr is already almost completely brought to life. Ivan barely manages to find the diamonds in time and save Katya from getting her soul sucked out.
  • The Stone Princess needs a great stone-cutter to bring the magic stone Alatyr to life. She promises Ivan to give him Katya's hand in marriage if he manages it.
    You'd Expect: Her to be consistent with it and put on a sweet motherly façade (as she does initially, nearly fooling even Katya who knows what she's really like), until Alatyr is securely alive and she conquers the world.
    Instead: She decides to suddenly snap and go Obviously Evil, and only Ivan's own bout of idiocy prevents him from realizing what's going on immediately.
  • Related to the above. Katya tells Ivan her mother is tricking him (and she hardly has any reason to lie in this matter). Then, when they leave the Stone Tower, the Princess sends her army commander Yangul after them, who makes it pretty clear Katya is promised to him, and nearly kills Ivan. Then the Princess takes over Katya's body and kidnaps the girl, whisking her back to the Tower.
    You'd Expect: Ivan to get the hint that the Princess is evil, and at least refrain from working on Alatyr and try to figure things out.
    Instead: He still believes she'll let him marry Katya, brings Alatyr to life, and it's only thanks to a case of Psychic Dreams for Everyone he isn't killed by the Princess's army.
  • Ivan obtains the magic diamonds that, if put together with Alatyr, can lift the Princess's villainy curse. He reunites with Katya, who happens to have Alatyr in her possession at the moment.
    You'd Expect: Him to explain about the diamonds and them to quickly decorate Alatyr with them. After that, they can calmly leave the Stone Tower without any fear of the Princess.
    Instead: He doesn't say a word, and they rush to leave the Tower without doing anything with Alatyr. It leads to Yangul's Senseless Sacrifice when he stays behind to distract the Princess, and Ivan and Katya survive the Princess's wrath only by a stroke of luck.
• In Camp Nowhere, Mud and the other protagonists are pulling off an elaborate Con on their parents by staging a phony Parents' Day at their phony summer camp. Using Homemade Inventions, they have full video surveillance of the grounds, including the front gate. These kids know that anything could go wrong during the con. They also know that a debt collector named Polk is searching for Dennis, the man who helped them with their con. Indeed, said debt collector finds his way to the camp at the very end of the con.
  You'd Expect: The kids would catch Polk on camera at the front gate and manage to sidetrack him. They would keep an eye on the last group of parents to make sure that they leave the camp. Polk would be sent on another wild goose chase, the con would be preserved, and the kids would make it to the end of the summer without their parents being any the wiser.
  Instead: The kids don't pay any attention at the end. Polk gets into the camp and runs into Mud's dad right as he's leaving with the last group of parents. Both of them go looking for Dennis, and stumble into the kids right when they're toasting their victory. All the parents are notified, the kids are sent home, and Mud pays off Polk with the remainder of the camp money in order to save Dennis.

• High School Musical has a couple:
  • After Troy, the basketball captain and star player, blows off practice in favor of preparations for the school play, the coach (his own father) rags him out for it.
    You'd Expect: Coach Dad would say something like "It's great that you've got a girlfriend, and it's okay that you're exploring musical theater too. But you've already made a commitment to this team; you need to decide where your focus should be, and stick to it."
    Instead: He starts off verbally attacking Gabriella, the one person who shoulders approximately ZERO PERCENT of the blame for Troy's missing practice. This puts Troy on the defensive.
  • Later, Troy's teammates confront him over his lack of focus on the upcoming big game.
    You'd Expect: That Troy might apologize for his recent lack of focus, but then to tell them that he likes Gabby and he intends to try out for the school play, and that what he does on his own time is his own business.
    Instead: He allows his teammates to pressure him into renouncing not only the school play, but Gabriella as well.
  • Concurrent to the above: Taylor has on her laptop a live webcam feed from one of Troy's teammates; she shows this video to Gabriella, particularly the part where Troy dumps Gabby.
    You'd Expect: Gabby would, at the very least, be suspicious that Taylor should have access to this "Coincidental Broadcast" and to suspect a setup.
    Instead: She totally accepts Troy's words at face value, leading to their (temporary, but they don't know that) break-up.
    You'd Also Expect: That Troy would notice his teammate setting up a webcam in plain sight five feet in front of him.
    Instead: He totally Failed a Spot Check.
    Result: The Third-Act Misunderstanding.
• Hocus Pocus
  • The film starts in colonial Salem, where three witches need to eat children's life forces and souls to remain youthful and live forever. They live in the outskirts of town and try to keep a low profile to not alert the townsfolk, who are in the middle of witch hunts
    You'd Expect: They would either do what they do later in the film and compel all the children to come to the cottage, so as to suck out their life force and curb-stomp the town, or find those that won't be missed. If taking one child, they could carry them away on their broom to get a headstart and hide their tracks.
    Instead: Sarah sings and lures Emily Binx out of her house, awakening her brother Thackery. He heads into the woods and sees Emily following Sarah, who is running toward the cottage and telling Thackery where to go to rescue his sister.
    The Result: While Thackery fails to save Emily and is turned into an immortal cat, he does tell his neighbor and friend Elijah to get help. Elijah gets Mr. Binx, who raises an angry mob to subdue and hang the witches to avenge his children. They're only revived three hundred years later when an "airhead virgin" lights their candle on Halloween, on a moonlit night.
  • When they kill the witches by burning them in a kiln, Max and Dani take in Binx as an honorary Dennison since he saved their lives. Allison, who was along for the ride, spends the night at their house since it's too late for her to head home. They also have the witch's book, which the witches need to make the potion that will let them live past dawn. Binx warned them that the book is dangerous and should never be opened. He's resting in Dani's room to watch over her.
    You'd Expect: Allison would heed the warning. Or wait until dawn proper to open the book since by then the witches will be Deader than Dead.
    Instead: Thinking they can find a spell to change Binx back into a human boy, which already would have a lot of problems if they succeed, Allison opens the book.
    Predictably: Binx wakes up and chews her out, and the book lets out a signal to the recently revived witches to notify them of its location. He also abandons his post, which allows the witches to kidnap Dani, and Binx for kicks.
  • Sarah has lured all the children in Salem to the cottage. Her singing has no effect on Dani, however, who needs to be tied to a chair and calls Winifred "ugly" for selling her soul. Max rescues his little sister and Binx, while leaving his bullies in the witches' cages. Sarah and Mary grab the Smart Ball and tell Winifred since they have the potion and all the children they want, including two who called them "ugly chicks," they've won.
    You'd Expect: Winifred would listen. She can force-feed one child with the last bottle of potion, kill them, and then torture Dani well past the dawn.
    Instead: She tells her sisters that Dani has to drink the potion for hurting her feelings.
    Predictably: The witches fail to do this, in part thanks to both Binx and Max pulling a Heroic Sacrifice each though Max lives, and turn into dust when the dawn rises for real.
• In It's Pat!, Kyle is obsessed with knowing what gender Pat is, to the point of stealing Pat's computer diary and figuring out the password, only to find nothing on Pat's gender. Eventually, a desperate Kyle confronts Pat, revealing he has the diary but has not learned the one thing he wants to know, and Pat, believing they put everything in the diary, wonders what else there is to know.
  You'd Expect: With how obsessive he is and how much trouble he's gone through to find out, he'd just flat-out ask Pat what gender Pat is.
  Instead: Kyle just tells Pat to take off Pat's clothes. Pat just sees him as a pervert and runs.
• In the 2005 film of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, and Lucy are trying to cross a river and being menaced by the Witch's Dragon, a big wolf named Maugrim.
  You'd Expect: Susan to listen to the Beavers, who have been guiding them at risk of their own lives, and try to get herself and Lucy across the fracturing ice while encouraging Peter, who is trying to fend Maugrim off with the sword he just got.
  Instead: She actually takes Maugrim's side and says Peter should listen to him and drop the sword... which was one of the weapons Father Christmas gave to all three of them, including herself. Side with the menacing wolf and arguing on melting ice. It's particularly absurd because she was the one who pointed out earlier in the film that they couldn't go to the Narnian police for help because of the "ransack this house" order that had been signed by Maugrim.
• Maleficent:
  • After being fatally wounded during his attack on the Moors, the dying King Henry offers the throne and his daughter's hand in marriage to whoever kills Maleficent and avenges him. Stefan, a royal guard and Maleficent's old childhood lover, seizes the task and goes to find Maleficent in the Moors, lying that he came to warn her about King Henry's scheme. He then drugs Maleficent and puts her to sleep so he can kill her.
    You'd Expect: Stefan, knowing how big of a threat Maleficent is and that she'd want revenge on him for betraying her, would just kill her right then and there while she's asleep and then claim the throne, which is already what he came to do in the first place.
    Or: If he finds that he can no longer bring himself to kill her at this point, he'd just get the heck out of dodge.
    Instead: He cuts off her wings and pretends he killed her so he can claim the throne.
    The Result: Maleficent goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and spitefully curses Stefan's infant daughter Aurora to fall into a death-like sleep on her Dangerous 16th Birthday by pricking her finger on the spinning wheel. This in turn drives Stefan into further villainy and madness as he spends the next 16 years obsessed with killing Maleficent.
  • To protect Aurora from Maleficent's curse, Stefan sends his daughter away in the care of Flittle, Knotass and Congrass.
    You'd Expect: They would be serious and responsible parental figures to Aurora and protect her with their lives.
    Instead: They were carelessly irresponsible and hardly paid any attention to Aurora, being more focused on trying to adapt to their human forms.
    Even Worse: They didn't even notice Aurora when she was chasing a butterfly and almost fell off a cliff. Aurora is only still alive because Maleficent was watching from a tree and chose not to let her die before the curse, even taking care of her herself because the fairies aren't able to.
  • With Aurora's 16th birthday approaching, she excitedly announces to her "aunties" that she has decided to stay in the Moors to be with Maleficent, whom she believes to be her Fairy Godmother.
    You'd Expect: The fairies to realize that if Aurora stays in the Moors, she won't be at the castle on her 16th birthday for the curse to take effect and grant her permission. They can even come with her to the Moors so they can keep an eye on her just in case.
    Instead: The fairies disapprove of Aurora's decision and even tell her the truth about her father, her curse and who Maleficent really is.
    The Result: A devastated Aurora runs back to the castle to find her father and, predictably, succumbs to the inevitable curse. Stefan even lashes out at the fairies for their failure.
• Mary Poppins: George Banks finds out that Mary Poppins is a wonderful nanny. His children are behaving, happily greeting him at breakfast and when he comes home, telling about the strange adventures they have. Ellen and Cook are getting along, and even the birds are chirping. George finds this all disconcerting, even though Mary is the first nanny that the kids aren't actively undermining.
  You'd Expect: George wouldn't complain and accept the situation as it is, and since the kids didn't specify wages for a nanny in their advertisement, he's not even paying her. Excessive cheeriness is a small price to pay when the household help is happy, the kids aren't running off into the park and into who knows where, and they are going to bed on time and all. Even Winifred looks less frantic, balancing suffragette duties with mothering.
  Instead: When he hears the kids' flighty stories about having a tea party on the ceiling, George gets angry and prepares to sack Mary Poppins because he thinks that her methods of caring for the children are a waste of time. He starts telling her how he thinks an outing should go, and what sort of things the children should learn.
  The Result: Mary Poppins is no fool, and as she tells the kids later, "I never get sacked." She starts out by agreeing with George, and implicitly saying Let's See YOU Do Better! by making him agree to take the children to the bank the next day to see his world. George after realizing that he had indeed suggested the idea seems keen, up until the kids get into a fight with his boss when the bankers outright steal Michael's tuppence after trying to talk him into starting a savings account. The children, who wanted to use the money to pay the bird woman, take the tuppence and run away, just like they did with previous nannies. On top of that, the fight leads to him losing his job later that night, hours after he had to help the bank manage the subsequent run on money. Then Mary Poppins leaves the next morning, after the wind has changed
• Pirates of the Caribbean
  • In the first film, the crew of the Black Pearl arrives at Port Royal in search of the last cursed medallion along with Bootstrap Bill Turner's descendant, whose blood they need to break the curse. They eventually find the coin in possession of a woman who gives them Turner as her last name.
    You'd Expect: The crew to make sure that she is Bootstrap's child. After all, Turner is a very common last name and she could've taken it from a man she married. Just possessing the medallion isn't conclusive proof as the crew mentioned spending the other coins across the Caribbean.
    Instead: They assume she is Bootstrap Bill's child and kidnap her to use her blood. When they do the ritual, it doesn't work and only then do they ask her if Bootstrap was her father, to which she answers no.
  • In the third film, Captain Jack Sparrow is visited in Davy Jones' Locker by his old friends, crew, enemies, and a load of Chinese pirates, all of whom want to get him out of there. They prepare to leave on the Black Pearl, but Jack refuses to take along Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, Pintel and Ragetti, since all five have attempted to kill him in the past. He discovers that Barbossa has in his possession a special map that is implied to be their only way out of the locker, seemingly leaving Jack with no choice but to take him and the other four along, since his magic compass doesn't work here.
    You'd Expect: Jack to have the many pirates at his command overpower the five and get the charts, if he doesn't trust them enough to let them be in his crew. Then he can leave them in the locker while he uses the charts to escape.
    Instead: He decides to take the lot of them with him. While most of the immediate consequences are either comical (Jack and Barbossa both trying to captain the ship) or quickly overcome ( Will's betrayal of the crew), the film does end with Barbossa stealing the Black Pearl AGAIN.
  • In the third film's climatic big battle, Will Turner has gotten behind Davy Jones. Will is armed with a cutlass.
    You'd Expect: Will to remember that Davy Jones's heart isn't in his body, and instead target his limbs to try and immobilize him, or at least slow him down.
    Instead: He stabs Jones where his heart would be. Jones isn't affected, disarms Will, and fatally wounds him soon after.
  • Also during that battle, Captain Jack Sparrow manages to get his hands on said heart. Jack intends to stab it and achieve immortality, since whoever does so will take Davy Jones's place, and will have the job of ferrying those who die at sea to the next world for eternity.
    You'd Expect: Jack to immediately stab the heart.
    Instead: He reveals to Jones that he has the heart. Jones responds by stabbing Will, and Jack ends up making Will stab the heart, so that he can captain the Flying Dutchman, and continue to see Elizabeth.
  • Near the end of the fourth film, Barbossa has just stabbed Blackbeard with a sword, and left it in him. Angelica rushes over to pull the sword out.
    You'd Expect: Her to pull the sword out by the handle.
    Instead: She pulls it out by the handle AND the blade, cutting her hand as a result.
    To make matters worse: The blade's poisoned. Jack subsequently has to pull a Batman Gambit on Blackbeard to make him unwittingly give up his life for Angelica's.
• The Princess Diaries:
  • Mia wants to keep her princess identity on the down-low because she feels enough like an outsider already and doesn't want to stand out more than she already does. Clarisse agrees reluctantly, although Paolo outs Mia to the papers to show off his makeover. This means when Mia arrives at school, she gets harassed by the press and classmates alike. She, Clarisse and her mother go Mass "Oh, Crap!" when they realize Mia can't be a secret anymore.
    You'd Expect: Clarisse would insist that Mia has a bodyguard with her at all times, the way Mia does in the books. It's embarrassing for Mia in terms of having the princess status around her all the time, but it's a better alternative to ending up in a bad situation. Mia's dad, who was alive in the books, had a Brutal Honesty moment where he told her that she couldn't stop being a princess, no matter how much she wanted. Her bodyguard Lars was able to keep Mia from ending up in legitimately dangerous situations, with her embarrassing moments being private.
    Instead: Clarisse respects Mia's wishes to keep the princess stuff firmly away from her school and social life, and Mia gets no bodyguard.
    The Result: When Mia gets humiliated and harassed by paparazzi, the only adult available around to protect her is her gym coach, who quickly gets her out of there.
  • Mia had been invited by Jerk Jock Josh to go to his beach party, where the Alpha Bitch Lana and her posse also will be at. This clashes with the plans of Mia being a guest of Lilly's TV show.
    You'd Expect: For Mia to have been suspicious of the fact that Josh was acting nice to her all of a sudden, and politely reject his request. Or at the least, the last time he was nice to her, it was coaching her on how to relax as a soccer goalie. very different scenario here.
    Or: For Mia to remember that she already made plans to attend Lilly's show and stick to her word.
    Instead: She foolishly attends the party with Josh, and the paparazzi are able to find Mia.
  • Later at the party, Mia is running away from the paparazzi. She wants to change her clothes quickly. She comes across a tent, where Lana and her posse are standing next to. Mia tries to ask Lana and her friends to watch out for the paparazzi while she changes her clothes.
    You'd Expect: For Mia to realize that trusting someone like Lana to look out for her would be a foolish thing to do (considering how Lana takes pride and pleasure out of humiliating Mia) and find somewhere else to change her clothes. Especially egregious is the fact that Mia went on a beach date with Lana's ex, who broke up with Lana to be with Mia.
    Or: For Mia to just simply not change her clothing,leave the beach, and focus on getting far away from the paparazzi (her clothes weren't too inappropriate for the public).
    Instead: Mia foolishly trusts Lana to look out for her. As expected, Lana and her friends (being the assholes they are) lift up the tent, allowing the paparazzi to see Mia, and the paparazzi takes a lot of photos of her in a towel. As a result, Mia is humiliated. Later in the movie, her grandmother gets angry at her for (unintentionally) embarrassing the family. Lilly and Michael end up angry as well.
• The Santa Clause:
  • The Santa Clause stipulates that the role of Santa is passed down to the next man to put on his trademark coat in the event that the current one dies. This happens to Scott Calvin who continues delivering presents after the previous Santa falls off his roof. Scott is understandably confused by this, even after the elves explain the situation at the North Pole. He points out this is Not What I Signed Up For, that he has no qualifications to be a toy deliveryman once a year, and he doesn't even believe in Santa. Bernard tells him he has no choice but to do it or he'll disappoint millions of children, and says that he has a year to put his affairs in order. In the meantime, they'll give him and his son Charlie lodgings for the night, a fresh change of nightclothes, and hot chocolate.
    You'd Expect: The elves to be in contact with Scott all the way through the following Christmas. That way, he'll at least be better prepared for what to do when the big day arrives. This especially considering that Scott is divorced and took Charlie to the North Pole without the knowledge of his ex-wife Laura and her husband Neil. Rather, the reindeer did rather than dropping them off at the Calvin residence.
    Instead: They magically send Scott home on Christmas morning and don't even bother to say anything else to him until the following Thanksgiving, eleven months later. The only hint that what happened was real is that Scott is wearing the same pajamas from the North Pole, and normally he just sleeps in a shirt and boxers.
    The Result: Scott at first is forced to think the entire trip is a crazy dream, a claim that becomes less believable when he goes through the transformation into Santa. By the final stages, Laura and Neil think he's snapped and deny him visitation rights to Charlie.
  • In the second movie, Charlie has gone from a sweet preteen to a delinquent in the making. In fact, his school principal Carol Newman catches him doing graffiti on campus and showing she means business by busting him personally. We find out later that he admits that it's great that his dad has become the new Santa, but the charm has worn off for many reasons. First is that he can't tell anyone that his dad has the greatest job in the world, meaning everyone forgot the bit where Santa Clause got arrested in the first movie and flew off from his house in a sleigh. The second is that with Scott having to be Santa Clause that at best he can make short visits but it means that Charlie can't spend any time with his father, and that has taken its toll over the years. He has ended up on the Naughty List, however, next to Charlie Sheen ironically enough. Scott decides to go back home for a few days since he also needs to find a wife and fulfill the Mrs. Clause, and figures that if he talks to Charlie that they can get to the root of the problem before Carol is forced to suspend him.
    You'd Expect: Given that his father, stepfather, and mother want to ask Charlie what the heck is wrong and why he's committing vandalism, that he would come clean. Neil, while still playing psychologist at home, tries to defend Charlie to Carol and says that there is probably a logical explanation for this behavior, though Scott still mocks him (affectionately) for going with the professional psychotherapy route. Even if Charlie can't do anything about the fact that his dad can't quit the job — at least not until the third movie— they could probably reach a compromise where Scott could take a few days off to bond with his son or talk it out with him. It's also shown that Scott trusts Charlie, and asks him to promise in the principal's office, showing that even if Charlie is suffering from the puberty blues, his father wants a good relationship with him.
    Instead:  Charlie not only does more graffiti to impress his girlfriend but does it during a school day when class is in session.
    The Result: Carol busts Charlie again, with more disappointment than anger. Scott goes from Papa Wolf to What the Hell, Hero?, shouting in frustration that he trusted Charlie who promised he wouldn't do graffiti again. He then has to bargain Carol down from suspending Charlie to assigning him to Community Service, because he doesn't want his son to have a record but also admits that Charlie has to face the consequences for his actions. Charlie doesn't appreciate this and only blurts out his resentment when he realizes that his dad has the hots for Carol, and is considering making her the Mrs. Clause since they have a lot in common. Only then, after thinking it over and Scott has to race back to the North Pole to deal with another problem, does Charlie go to apologize to Carol and say that he approves of their relationship, proving to her that Scott is Santa Claus. 
• Signs:
  • There is a species of aliens for whom water is a lethal acid.
    You'd Expect: These aliens would stay far away from a planet that has a 70% water surface. Or, at the very least, they'd stay in their advanced interplanetary spaceships for the duration of the invasion, or they'd wear some sort of environmental suits to protect from the deadly acid that exists in gaseous form in the air and frequently falls from the sky.
    Instead: The aliens invade water-soaked Earth, on foot, naked.
    You'd Also Expect: Aliens advanced enough to conquer interstellar travel would be somewhat intelligent, or at least technologically superior to humans.
    Instead: The aliens are unarmed, are outmatched by baseball bats and glasses of water, and are outsmarted by closet doors.
    You'd Really Expect: These hydrophobic creatures would finally be repelled in a scheme that makes use of the planet's prodigious water supply.
    Instead: News reports say that the invasion is repelled in the deserts of the Middle East.
  • This Entirely Sums It Up:
    Cracked Magazine: It's like humans landing on a planet where 70 percent of the surface is covered in molten lava, and the inhabitants are basically just moving sacks of lava. Even the atmosphere is so dense with lava vapour that often lava just rains from the sky with little to no warning. So what's your plan of attack? If you say anything other than "Jump out of the spaceship completely naked, your junk proudly flopping about, and engage the lava monsters in hand-to-hand combat," then congratulations — you are smarter than the aliens in Signs.
• In Sky High (2005)
  • The movie starts with a powerless Will attending his first day of high school. He finds out that Coach Boomer makes the students demonstrate their powers. The demonstrations determine who will be hero and sidekick, with "weak" powers like glowing in the dark, turning into a guinea pig, or becoming a beach ball get a student shunted towards the Sidekick track. Leila gets demoted to Sidekick when she refuses to perform for Coach Boomer and tries to argue that the dichotomy is stupid. After about half the freshmen go up, it's time for lunch.
    You'd Expect: Will would approach Coach Boomer at lunch and quietly confess that his powers hadn't awakened over the summer, so he doesn't know if they will awaken or not. Sure, Boomer may think he's joking but at least Boomer relegating him to sidekick won't be in front of his fellow classmates.
    Instead: Will waits until lunch is done, goes up on the gym stage, and freezes. Only then does he quickly whisper to Coach Boomer that he doesn't know if he got Super-Strength like his father or the joy of flight like his mother.
    The Result: Coach Boomer thinks that Will is joking at first and being Willfully Weak. He drops a car on the kid, and launches him in the air using a springboard. When Coach Boomer realizes that Will is serious that he has no powers, he announces to the whole school that "STRONGHOLD...SIDEKICK!" Will also has to go to the nurse's office to get patched up, though she reassures him that he didn't break any bones. His ego, on the other hand, suffered quite a dent. 
  • In the climax, Gwen reveals that she is Royal Pain aka the Commander's former archnemesis, and that she lured him and Jetstream to Homecoming as part of a trap. No one ever knew because she used a voice modulator and practical body armor that covered her figure. After getting over the initial shock, Commander snickers that a "toy gun" could kill him, and proves Royal Pain's point that he's an "idiot" by not dodging when the Pacifier beam hits him. It turns the target into a baby. Jetstream sees red as Stitches laughs and prepares to charge.
    You'd Expect: Given Jetstream is the smarter and wiser of the Stronghold Battle Couple, that she would use the Homecoming decorations as weapons while ordering everyone else to get back and out of the range of fire.
    Instead: She charges head-on, making no effort to dodge when Royal Pain uses the Pacifier on her.
    The Result: Josie nearly falls to her death since a baby hitting the floor from a great height spells disaster, and Mr. Boy opens himself up to getting hit by catching her in an awesome Diving Save. Before the teachers can mount a defense or figure out how to evacuate the kids, Royal Pain starts her rampage as the students degrade into Crowd Panic and don't even think to use their power. Warren is the Only Sane Man who finds an airvent, blasts it open, and silently orders the sidekicks to move it.
  • Near the end of the movie, Will's friends arrive at the hall, seeing him pinning Royal Pain, ready to finish her off.
    You'd Expect: They would wait for Will to finish her off before calling him.
    Instead: They call him right away, distracting him, allowing Gwen to break free.
• In Snow Dogs, A blizzard hits during the Arctic Challenge race and the mushers all bunk down at the Rusty Knife checkpoint.
  You'd Expect: Thunder Jack to bunk down with everyone else.
  Instead: After making the check-in, he heads off into the storm anyway, foolishly thinking he'll win if he does.
  As a result: Jack ends up crashing into a tree and breaking his leg, and although his dogs managed to get him to his secret cave, he'd surely have died had Ted not went after him.

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