Forced Transformation / Western Animation

• In the Van Beuren Studios Rainbow Parade short "Spinning Mice", the evil little devils that the Wizard unwittingly created turn the wizard into a giant rabbit by spilling his own potion on him.
• The fate of many an individual unlucky enough to cross paths with the Magic Man of Adventure Time. The magic man does it solely because he's a jerk and admits as much.
• The premise of Atomic Puppet is based on the superhero Captain Atomic being transformed into a sock puppet by his former sidekick. He can still walk and talk, but can only use his powers when Joey puts him on his hand.
• Falina in The Amazing Feats of Young Hercules used to be a human princess, but when she claimed that Aphrodite was prettier than Hera, she was turned into a sable. She is returned to human form at the end of the movie.
• In the Amphibia episode "Cursed!", Anne and Sprig find themselves transformed into a bird and the frog equivalent of a sasquatch, respectively, after accidentally wronging a magic-user.
• In the 2006 revival of Biker Mice from Mars, the three-part episode "Once Upon a Time on Earth", ended with Lawrence Limburger and Napoleon Brie being turned into fish, Dr. Karbunkle being turned into a turtle, Cataclysm turned into a non-sapient mouse, the alien convicts Ronaldo Rump planned to disguise as world leaders transformed into puppies, and most of the Catatonian soldiers turned into harmless kittens.
• In the classic Disney short Magician Mickey, Mickey Mouse holds up a magic hoop that Donald Duck inadvertently jumps through several times, turning him into a different animal every time he goes through, including a kangaroo (with boxing gloves, yet), a walrus and a monkey.
• Bill Burnett revealed in an interview that, had ChalkZone been able to continue, Rudy would have encountered a human villain who was a victim of this. He stayed in ChalkZone for too long and became a zoner, and lost his ability to use the magic chalk.
• Cyberchase:
  • Wicked is implied to have turned the prince of Pompadoria into a raven. On-screen, she turns Hacker into a porcupine and a crow, and Sorcerer Abernathy into a firefly.
  • Hacker's schemes at Frogsnorts have also leveraged magic to turn Professor Stumblesnore into a salamander and a mouse.
  • The most extreme example comes from "The Fairy Borg Father". Delete makes a wish that turns everyone in Cyberspace, except for himself and Zanko, into bunnies. The Earthlies are also unaffected since they were in the real world at the time.
• Dexter's Laboratory has a direct American Werewolf parody called "The Laughing" (a reference to the werewolf movie The Howling) where Dexter becomes a "were-clown" after being bitten by a pair of dentures belonging to a clown performing at Deedee's birthday.
• A Time Travel episode of DuckTales (1987) included a meeting with Circe, who, of course, turned Scrooge into a pig. A Carl Barks comic also had Magica use Circe's wand to turn Scrooge's nephews into animals to blackmail him for his #1 Dime.
• Occurs a number of times in The Emperor's New School. Probably not surprising, given the movie that it's based on.
• One of The Fairly OddParents! pilot shorts had Cosmo and Wanda catching the Fairy Flu, causing their sneezes to turn people into various things, ultimately turning Vicky into a dragon. Most of their victims don't even notice.
• Fangbone!: In the episode "The Goat of More Goat", Venomous Drool releases the Curse of Mo-Ar Go-At on Bill's hometown, transforming everyone into goats Zombie Apocalypse-style.
• Parodied in an episode of Futurama titled "The Honking", which has Bender turning into a psycho werecar in one scene. But after a while he kind of gets used to it and it begins to actually feel quite nice.
• Garfield and Friends: In "The Fairy Dogmother" Odie's Fairy Godmother turns the episode's villain, a dogcatcher, into a cat. The dogcatcher-turned-cat is then immediately chased away by the very dogs he had been trying to capture.
• Gargoyles, "Metamorphosis". Elisa's younger brother gets transformed into a gargoyle-ish monster, and the only scientist who understood the process is killed. The episode ends with our cool veteran cop, Elisa, crying uncontrollably at the fate of her brother.
• In the Gravity Falls episode "The Inconveniencing", two ghosts turn a teenager named Nate into a hot dog. In a later episode, a different ghost turns the guests at the Northwest's Party (including Dipper) into wooden statues with branches and leaves, then attempts to burn the place down with the wooden people inside.
• The obligatory appearance by Circe in Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series featured the personality polymorph, complete with Icarus, the resident weirdo, becoming a platypus. Alectryon, the soldier who fell asleep on guard duty and was punished by being transformed into a rooster, also appears in one episode.
• Jackie Chan Adventures:
  • The Monkey Talisman has the power to turn anything into any animal (and only animals; Jade found that part out the hard way when she tried to change a log into a death ray and got a manta ray instead).
  • There is also the Monkey King, an ancient mystical creature trapped as a puppet who turns people into puppets whenever someone pulls his leg. His first appearance features Jackie falling for it though Jade hits him with the Rat Talisman, letting him go around and eventually change himself back, while the second episode has a hapless construction worker fall victim to his curse.
  • During the season 1 finale fight against Shendu, Jackie steals the power of the Monkey Talisman and turns Shendu into a rabbit. Unfortunately Shendu still has enough remaining powers to be a Killer Rabbit, and promptly beat up Jackie and changes himself back into his demon dragon form.
  • The later episode "Mirror Mirror" has Jackie, Jade, Uncle, and Tohru cursed by four mirror spirits. While Uncle merely loses his voice, Jackie's head enlarges until he can barely hold it up, Tohru literally becomes his mother (including all her most unpleasant personality traits), and, playing the trope the straightest, Jade is simply turned into a donkey.
• Happens to Wonder Woman in the Justice League Unlimited episode "This Little Piggy". She still has her bracers, at least. They then made atoy of Batman walking a pig. Why, nobody will ever know.
• Kassai and Luk: One of the main trio, Princess Marana, has a curse on her. Togoum cursed her to turn into a gazelle by day. She turns back into a human at night, but becomes a gazelle again come the dawn.
• Kim Possible was cursed with transforming into a monkey, but she got better (at the very last second). Funnier in that the villain, Monkey Fist, intended the curse for himself.
• In an episode of Little Wizards, Phineas the Good Wizard punishes the Witch of the Petrified Woods for her recent mischief by transforming her into a horrible little monster after she loses a Wizard Duel to him.
• My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle: Tirac uses the power of the Rainbow of Darkness to turn captured ponies into monstrous draconic beings to pull his chariot. Scorpan, the villain Tirac's gargoyle-like henchman, is also revealed to have once been a human prince whom Tirac turned into a bestial minion after he conquered his kingdom.
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "Flight to Cloud Castle", the undine and the salamander were once two human(oid) men who were turned into monsters by a wizard and set to guard his daughter. Once she's woken from her magical sleep, the spell is lifted from them as well.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • "The Cutie Mark Chronicles": In a flashback, young Twilight Sparkle's Power Incontinence turns her parents into potted plants.
    • "Too Many Pinkie Pies": People keep interrupting Twilight Sparkle as she's practicing a spell for turning apples into oranges, resulting in unfortunate orange/animal hybrids of a bird and a frog when her aim is thrown off.
    • "Inspiration Manifestation": A party clown gets turned into a waiter and a mariachi pony gets turned into Octavia.
    • "Dungeons and Discords": Discord attempts to cast "Transform into Root Vegetable" to turn a guard into a parsnip while playing Ogres & Oubliettes. He fails, and the spell instead his claw into parsnips — although we don't see this (until the end), since it only happens in Spike's narration.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): In "The Shaping Staff", the titular magical item was used for just this — King Randor was turned into a goat, Orko into a cricket, Teela a frog, He-Man a gold statue, and the Sorceress a tree. At the end, Evil-Lyn accidentally turns herself into a winged snake when she tries to use the broken staff.
• Over the Garden Wall:
  • Beatrice was originally a human, but she and her whole family were turned into bluebirds when she tried to throw a rock at one.
  • The Big Bad, a shadowy creature called the Beast, can turn people into an edelwood tree is they're near death or pass the Despair Event Horizon. He then uses the trees to keep the his Lantern lit, because it's his Soul Jar and he dies if it goes out.
• Played With in that no transformation actually occurs, but the cast believes it has: in the Pet Alien episode "The Boy with Six Legs", a series of Contrived Coincidences involving Tommy being locked out of the lighthouse and a crab sitting on the answering machine when he tries to call for help lead the aliens to believe Tommy has transformed into a crab.
• The Powerpuff Girls: In "Monkey See, Doggy Do", Mojo turns the the Powerpuff Girls into dogs, and their superpowers don't carry over. They manage to beat him anyway because they still have sharp teeth and human intelligence. In the Sequel Episode, Mojo refuses to change them again, believing it will keep them from beating him—which is even dumber, because then they're still superheroes who can beat him up directly.
  • In the 2016 reboot episode "Blue Ribbon Blues", a centaur (himself transformed into that form in a childhood accident) uses a machine to transform Bubbles into a bee, Buttercup into a pink flamingo, Blossom into a walrus, and the rest of the class into other assorted animals, with the intention of turning everyone else into animals as well.
• Rupert: In "Rupert and the Twilight Fan", the Conjuror's rival is punished for using a sleeping spell on Tiger Lily by being turned into a crow.
• Scooby-Doo:
  • Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King: This is Krudsky's major form of attack once he gains magical powers. He turns Gribbles into a rabbit, Velma into a werewolf, Fred into a vampire, Daphne into a witch and the Goblin King into a goose. Additionally, Shaggy and Scooby are turned into a snail and a mouse by the witches in the Dead Bogs.
  • Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf: Shaggy spends the majority of the movie as the werewolf in question.
  • The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show:
    • In the short "Scooby's Desert Dilemma", a magician seeks to turn Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy into monkeys for the sake of practicing his Black Magic. However, his spell backfires, and in the end he is the baleful polymorph victim.
    • In "From Bad to Curse", a gypsy tries to turn the threesome into the animals they're most like, which works as expected for Shaggy and Scooby (turning them into chickens), but it likewise backfires on him when Scrappy becomes a lion and attacks him.
• Samurai Jack: The "Chicken Jack" episode. The title pretty much sums it up. It is worth noticing though that Jack isn't exactly helpless as a chicken...
• The Smurfs (1981):
  • Besides a few times when humans have been turned into frogs, episode "The Noble Stag" has one instance where their friend King Gerard has been turned into a black stag by his cousin Malcolm the Mean, who desired to take over the throne.
  • And once Peewit was transformed into a talking dog. Also turned the son of a visiting king into a chicken, the plot of the episode finding and turning him back before his dad — who was there very reluctantly to discuss a treaty - found out.
  • "Bewitched, Bothered, and Besmurfed": Greedy Smurf transforms into a living fiddle after Smurfette, who is wearing a magic necklace, wishes that a sick Greedy Smurf would be "fit as a fiddle". Even after turning into a fiddle, Greedy is seen to be able to move on his own and talk.
  • "All Work and No Smurf" is another notable episode involving transformations. In the episode, several smurfs contract an illness that causes them to transform into living versions of the tools they use in their work. Although they are able to speak and move on their own, their mental faculties have been altered so they can only think of doing the function of the tool they have become (Painter Smurf becomes a paintbrush and only wants to paint things, Tailor Smurf turns into a pair of scissors and only thinks of cutting things, etc.) Because the transformed smurfs have no interest in turning back into smurfs, Brainy Smurf must find a cure for the illness.
  • "Sassette's Bewitching Friendship" sees a young witch transform Smurfette into a mermaid (for a good reason — she was trying to save Smurfette from drowning). Smurfette is grateful, until the witch reveals that she hasn't actually yet learned how to undo transformations...
  • "Brainy's Beastly Booboo" involved a mishap with an African storyteller's magical powder, which changes two village girls and several Smurfs into various animals with their normal heads. The younger girl (now a giraffe) and Baby Smurf (now a tiny cheetah) promptly run off to play and get lost.
  • "Grandpa's Walking Stick" features the Smurflings, Puppy, and some others being turned into talking trees.
• South Park:
  • Done within the boy's fantasy sequence in "Good Times with Weapons", where Cartman (playing Balrog) gives himself too many powers, causing Kyle to take all his powers away until he can learn to play nice. When the gang meets up with Professor Chaos, he traps all of them except Balrog!Cartman. Kyle is then forced to give Balrog!Cartman his powers back. Cartman then immediately turns Kyle into a chicken for no reason.
  • In "Damien", the title character turns Kenny into a platypus after the latter called Damien's mother a bitch. Kenny stays like that for the rest of the episode until Jimbo, Stan's hunting-obsessed uncle, kills him with a hunting rifle.
  • Near the end of "The Vaccination Special," the "Hollywood Elites" (aka Trey Parker and Matt Stone) mess with Bob White's animation, giving him various different humiliating forms before eventually turning him into into a giant penis. They also turn Mr. Service into Mr. Hat.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open": Kayshon gets turned into a puppet by the defense system on the Collector's ship. (He gets better by the end of the episode.)
• Super 4: The fairy Twinkle's backstory is that she accidentally turned the Queen Fairy into a frog, and thus got exiled from fairy lands because of this. Note the Queen can still talk and govern under this form, but she naturally holds a grudge. Only Twinkle can revert the spell, but her attempts always end up thwarted. As she points out once, there are often risks of "frogization" when she tries any polymorph spell.
• Teen Titans (2003): One episode has the team transformed into various animals: Cyborg as a bear, Starfire as a tiger, Robin as a monkey and Raven as a rabbit. After an extended sequence of the villain transforming Beast Boy into various creatures, only for him to turn back, mocking said villain in the process until he finds a loophole. Even then, Beast Boy could still shapeshift, but only into various types of objects. Starfire being turned into a tiger may have been a Mythology Gag — in an issue of the comics the team was "de-evolved", and Starfire became a cat-like creature.
• Testament: The Bible in Animation: The king of Babylon is turned into a beast by God and sent to live in the fields. He gets turned back later but his son keeps his crown.
• The Tick: In one episode, The Tick gets turned into a two-headed bluebird who can only speak in High School French and lays chocolate eggs. Let us say that again. The Tick gets turned into a two-headed bluebird who can only speak in High School French and lays chocolate eggs. The Mad Scientist kid responsible for this has used his transforming machine for other purposes, like turning his entire PE class and coach into an ant colony (still doing the same climbing and running drills within their little ant farm, of course). When Arthur attempts to use the machine to turn the Tick back into his normal form, he struggles with the dizzying array of controls, turning the Tick into a blue dog, a blue sock, a blue houseplant, etc. before he finally notices the giant red button labeled "NORMAL" slightly to his right. Partially subverted when The Tick rhapsodizes about how one can lay an egg and still feel like a man and protects his egg. Later turned in to squick when the egg is broken and he eats the chocolate.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2012):
  • In "Field Trip", Thor is turned into a frog by Loki. He turns back to normal at the end.
  • In "Run Pig Run", Spider-Man is turned into a pig resembling Spider-Ham from an enchanted hot dog Loki gave him when he disguises himself as a hot dog vendor for him to get revenge on him and sends the hunters after him. He eventually turns back to normal at the end.
• Winx Club:
  • This becomes a story point in the first season, where Mirta is turned into a pumpkin halfway through by Icy for both foiling her plan to break Bloom's mind and making an illusion so terrifying that it scares Darcy and Stormy and keeps them from killing the other Winx. The rest of the season contains several references to Flora trying to figure out how to change Mirta back; she manages to do so in the second-to-last episode, though she plays it up as being very difficult to do.
  • In the third season, Miss Faragonda is turned into a tree, but she gets better.
  • Stella gets briefly turned into a monster by her would-be Evil Stepmother and stepsister to stop her from talking her father out of the engagement.
  • Near the end of Season 7, Brafilius is turned into a regular puppy dog by the Trix after failing to stop them with the Ultimate Power.
  • Princess Sapphire of Dyamond was turned into a white fox cub by a shaman witch who seized control of the planet.
• In the rebooted series of YooHoo & Friends it is the central theme with polluting corporate executives being turned into cute, cuddly animals by Father Time and sent on missions to fix up the environmental damage they have caused.
• Dungeons & Dragons (1983):
  • Used as the central plotline of the episode "Prison Without Walls": after a long trudge through the swamp looking for the gnome wizard Lukion, they ultimately learn that Venger decided to humiliate the gnome by transforming him into a Shambling Mound ^note A D&D expy of vegetation-based humanoid Muck Monsters like Man-Thing and Swamp Thing instead of simply putting him in a normal prison. In a weird zigzagging of this trope, though, Lukion the Shambling Mound is actually much stronger and tougher than in his original form — however, his inability to speak or make magic gestures prevents him from using his magic, so it's still a form of Blessed with Suck.
  • "Beauty and the Bog Beast" finds Eric transformed into the titular bog beast. The kids even find a way home, but the magic to change Eric back doesn't work there, so they return to the magical world.
  • "The Garden of Zinn" features Solarz, who is actually a knight named Sir Lawrence transformed into a beast. At the end of the episode, he's transformed back into his human self while the curse rebounds on the sorceress who placed it on him.
• Wakfu:
  • In season 1 episode 4, the four Ugly Princesses are victims of this, thanks to a curse from the god Osamodas. Also applies to the princes turned into frogs.
  • Grany Smisse was permanently changed into a bow-meow (think housecat) sometime in the backstory of season 2. He still retains the power of speech, though.
  • In season 2 episode 5, Amalia, Evangelyne and Yugo are all changed into cute piglets by a magic trap, leaving Sadlygrove to save the day.
  • In season 2 episode 16, all the inhabitants of a village were turned into Ridiculously Cute Critters by a cursed spring.
  • In season 2 episode 21, Yugo, Ruel and Sadlygrove are turned into simians by the Bellaphones.
  • In season 3 episode 4, Yugo, Ruel, Sadlygrove, and Amalia are temporarily turned into Tofus (little birds like Az) by Coqueline/Mishell.
• Wallykazam:
  • In one episode, Hattie turns Bobgoblin into a cute bunny after she catches him riding on her broom. Bobgoblin thinks that being turned into a bunny is disgusting.
  • In "Keeping Cappie Happy," Baby Cappie has started to speak and keeps unwittingly casting magic each time she says something. She says "spoon" and changes Bobgoblin into a talking spoon. Spoongoblin pleads with Wally to use his magic stick to come with a word to help him out. Unable to immediately think of anything, they decide to just keep trying anything until something works, and change him subsequently into a pot, a cob (of corn) and a spinning top. They finally realize that since all the magic words for the day have the letter "O" and the "ah" sound that Bobgoblin is a magic word. Later, in the episode's endcap, Hattie spells out the word "hat" and calls over Bobgoblin, offering to make him a hat. He agrees because he feels he looks good in hats, but she turns him into a hat instead. She then shouts that the segment is over and starts rifling through her spellbook for a spell to turn a hat back into a goblin.
    Bobgoblin: sigh Hatgoblin.
• The Trap Door: In "The Thingy", the monster starts randomly transforming the characters into various bizarre forms for its own entertainment.

---