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Time to find the nearest princess.
Sir Bedevere: How do you know that she is a witch?
Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
(beat)
Peasant: ...I got better.

Almost the first thing that everybody knows that about Wizards and Witches is that they turn people into amphibians. It's usually frogs and toads, with the occasional salamander or newt (possibly for use in potions), but your results may vary. It's their standard party trick, the sorcerous equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. This is so well-known that anybody faced with a Wicked Witch is likely to beg her not to do this, at which point she'll probably do something much worse instead.

Currently, this has become a partially Discredited Trope, and when faced with the stereotype, magic-users are more likely to irritably explain that turning people into frogs is impractical with so many other spells at hand. However, they're still quite likely to do it if it becomes convenient.

Whether the victim turns back when the spellcaster dies varies. A common variant, with reference to the tale of The Frog Prince, is that the spell can be broken by True Love's Kiss. Subversions usually opt for a mouse rather than an amphibian, playing on the association of witches and cats.

Subtrope of Forced Transformation. See also Amphibian Assault and Amphibian at Large.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Spoofed in a Capital One credit card commercial, where a princess kisses a frog... and he turns into a ferret, who starts rattling off legalese and provisos as the princess keeps trying to kiss him, turning him into different creatures. At the end, she leaves in disgust, leaving him as a portly centaur who protests that she's "just one kiss away" from a rich, handsome prince.
  • Also spoofed in an Australian beer commercial; the Farmer's Daughter sees a frog and hopes that if she kisses it, the frog will turn into a handsome sheep shearer. The frog does change accordingly, but then when he kisses her, she turns into a pint of beer. He then asks the girl-turned-into-beer if she has a sister.
  • Yet another spoof: in the "Princess" bumper for the Sci-Fi Channel, a pretty girl kisses the Sci-Fi channel logo for no apparent reason and is turned into a giant frog.
  • A series of Australian adverts in the 1980's had a man turning into a frog every time he got a "frog in his throat", to everyone's embarrassment, until he ducked into the Typing Pool or Croakroom so he could take the advertised cough drop.

    Animation 
  • Lamput: "Witch" ends with the witch angrily turning the docs and Lamput into frogs after the docs spend the episode riding her broom. That doesn't stop the docs from chasing after Lamput as usual when the latter starts to run off.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Bastard!!, Arshes Nei has a curse put on her that will turn her into a toad unless she kills Dark Schneider.
  • A variant occurs in Dragon Ball Z when Captain Ginyu tries to switch bodies with Vegeta, but accidentally switches with a Namekian frog instead.
  • Played with in Naruto: Jiraiya interrogates two ninja he captured by turning one into a toad and threaten to do the same to the other. However, the databook entry for this technique states that all he did was summon a toad and put the guy inside the toad.
  • Ojamajo Doremi: Reversed — due to a curse, whenever a human discovers a witch and calls her out on it, the witch becomes a blobby Magic Frog. The one who discovered the witch will then have to work as her apprentice in order to change her back.
  • In Tamagotchi! Miracle Friends episode 1, Miraitchi and Clulutchi call out their father Doctor Future for installing functions in his inventions without telling them, bringing up a specific incident where he added some sort of "witch" mechanism to their makeup kits that temporarily hypnotized them into thinking and acting like they're frogs.

    Board Games 
  • The children's board game Bewitched has the players take on the role of a group of princes who have all been turned into frogs. The goal is to have your prince reverse the spell by finding the right spell book while dodging the witch's cat minions and deadly snakes. (Fortunately, one frog of each colour is non-magnetic so won't get attached to any of the deadly/also magnetic snakes so no player is caught out due to rotten luck.)

    Card Games 
  • Magic: The Gathering:
    • "Turn to Frog" causes a target creature to lose all abilities and become a 1/1 blue Frog until end of turn.
      "Ribbit."
    • "Polymorphist's Jest" is a more powerful version of this, turning all creatures under another player's control into 1/1 blue Frogs until end of turn.
      "The flies were bothering me." — Jalira, master polymorphist
    • And made into a set mechanic with the "Cursed Role"note , one of the Role enchantment tokens introduced in Wilds of Eldraine. As long as a creature is enchanted by a Cursed role, its base power and toughness are set to 1/1. Many cards that create the Cursed role, such as Spiteful Hexmage, specifically suggest through their art that flavor-wise the target becomes a frog, although in terms of game mechanics the creature remains whatever kind of creature it was before (unlike some other "transformation" effects which pointedly alter a creature's type).

    Comic Books 
  • Black Moon Chronicles: When Lucifer organizes an invasion of the second Earth after humanity has vacated the old one, he turns himself into a frog and turns back into his demonic self after Hellaynnnea kisses him.
    Lucifer: Oh, I'm a prince alright, just not a handsome one...
  • The DCU:
    • Wonder Woman:
      • Wonder Woman (1942): When Maj. Keith Griggs stumbles into Circe's jungle abode he passes several of of her "Beast Men" who have been turned into animals outright, including a frog and salamander.
      • Wonder Woman (1987): When Diana first meets Circe in this incarnation the witch is surrounded by her Mix-and-Match Critter Bestiamorphs (men transformed into her animalistic slaves), several of whom have salamander and toad bits.
    • Zatanna:
      • Zatanna is a magic-user who loves punishing people with forced transformations, once casually and (half-)jokingly threatening to turn Batgirl into a toad if she doesn't go on a girls' night out with her.
      • In Zatanna: Everyday Magic, the evil magician Nimue seduces men for one night stands, and then magically turns them into frogs, and keeps them around as pets. Zatanna is pretty disgusted by this "hobby" and turns them all back to human by the end of the story.
      • Less played for laughs in Zatanna (2010), where she comes across a scene of mobsters who've been brutally killed via magic. One of the victims is someone who's been turned into a still human-sized frog.
  • Garulfo subvert and play with the trope by having the protagonist being a frog turned into a man. Garulfo is later paired with an actual prince turned into a frog to form an unlikely duo.
  • In Hellboy, one of the potential effects of exposure to an Eldritch Abomination is transformation into monstrous frog-men. The BPRD spin-off series introduces an epidemic of these frogs.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Operation: Galactic Storm: While fighting some Skrulls, Sersei decides to use her powers to turn them into frogs (an oldie but goldie). She's quite surprised when at the moment of imminent frog-ness, they suddenly disappear in a burst of light.
    • The Mighty Thor: In "The Fight for Asgard", Loki turns Thor into a frog to keep him out of the way of his latest scheme. Thor eventually gets hold of his magic hammer again, which as usual transforms him into an armored, muscular, six-foot-plus heroic figure — who is still a frog. (This led to a cover which asked the question, "What do you call a six-foot-six fighting-mad frog?" Open the comic and the first page, in huge letters, answers, "SIR!") The spell is only broken after Thor confronts Loki.
    • Pet Avengers: In a prequel to "Avengers vs. Pet Avengers", Fin Fang Foom turns Thor into a frog, along with Captain America and Iron Man. Thor actually facepalms and actually says "not again", while Tony freaks out. Bucky, oddly enough, is rather calm about it and his frog form even keeps his bionic arm.
  • Mélusine: With all the witches around, of course some people turning into amphibians is bound to happen.
    • In fact, the very first spell Mélusine is seen to use is changing the Count into a toad, to demonstrate her powers to his wife.
    • There is one drunkard who gets into the habit of antagonizing Adrazelle, so that she'd turn him into a frog — which allows him to swim through the river separating his house from the tavern. Then he looks for a maiden (usually Mélusine) to kiss and return to human form.
    • A peasant is depressed because he's been dumped, and he ends up insulting Mélusine because she's not helping enough. She turns him into a seductive toad, who attracts plenty female toads.
    • Also, the fate awaiting any boy getting too forward toward Mélusine and kissing her without her consent.
      Frog: [to another frog] Welcome to the club.
    • Even Mélusine's classmates aren't safe if she's in a really bad mood. When Gothika accidentally drops ink on Mélusine's test copy, she finds herself changed into a toad — like the rest of the class (even Cancrelune).
    • Mélusine herself, soon followed by Cancrelune, are changed into toads by Malicella doing a demonstration of her powers. And unfortunately, the younger witch has no idea how to revert it (good thing Aunt Adrazelle does).
    • In "Hypnosis", Mélusine is looking for a Prince Charming to go to a ball. She believes she's in luck when meeting with a talking frog, and promptly kisses it... only to find out it was a cursed princess, to her dismay.
  • Played with several times in fairytale-themed Monica's Gang stories. One such story had Monica encounter a bewitched worm instead, and another plays the trope straighter, but is more about the consequences of the spell being undone.

    Comic Strips 
  • One early Dilbert arc has him dating a witch who turns him into a frog to get rid of an annoying fly.
  • Happens in Nodwick a lot. In one stand-alone comic, it happens to Nodwick, Yeagar, and Artax when they get into a witch's apple tree, and Piffany has to take them to a princess for hire to kiss them and change them back. (Her fee is rather steep.)

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm mentions this in the sequel, with Harry mentioning the possibility when talking down Jean after she's been cheated on by her boyfriend, Duncan Matthews, before noting the ethical issues note , and referencing Belgarath's point that frogs breed like crazy -- better one annoying person than a million annoying frogs. He's clearly still tempted, however.
  • In Dumbledore Dreams when Fudge tries to install Umbridge as Headmistress of Hogwarts after Dumbledore's death, the castle turns them both into toads.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: Happens a few times:
    • Speculated about a frog in Strategy Meeting:
      Ami sighed, busy with removing the fat frog from her ear. The animal had clamped down on one of her small blue earrings, which added some pain to the general discomfort of being attacked by a slimy amphibian. Both of her hands closed around her diminutive attacker when she finally got a firm grip on it, and the frog croaked angrily as she held it out in front of her. "This isn't normal frog behaviour."
      ...
      "Well, well. It is possible that this is not a frog at all, but another victim of the evil warlock, transformed into this unappealing form."
    • From Creepy Crawlers:
      "Mercury," Cathy's agitated voice shouted in Ami's head, "Jadeite just got turned into a frog! Do something!"
  • Facing the Future Series: In the Halloween Episode, Tucker is transformed into a frog when Prince Aragon takes over Amity Park. Catching on to Prince Aragon's ways, Tucker suspects that he can change back if he's kissed by a maiden. He's right.
  • The Frog Houshi features Miroku of Inuyasha being turned into a frog by a frog demon.
  • In Harry Potter and the Clean Slate Harry turns Umbridge into a toad and then keeps her as a pet.
  • In Harry Potter, the Metamorphpagus during a Wizengamot emergency meeting a deity known as Heka proclaims Bellatrix's innocence of her crimes due to a marriage contract and binding runes which subjugated her free will. When Dolores Umbridge refuses to accept the verdict and claims that it was trickery, Heka turns her into a toad. Despite the Unspeakables' best efforts, she never regains human form.
  • RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: At the beginning of "Longest Night, Longest Day", Trixie threatens to turn Lyra into a newt if she keeps teasing her about her hated second name. Later events in the setting make clear that while Trixie has many talents, turning those who displease her into newts is not one of them.
  • In Spiders Make Good Friends Harry uses a Black family curse to turn Umbridge into a toad, then keeps her in his creature suitcase.
  • Star Wars: Galactic Folklore and Mythology: In Bothan legend, one version of the punishment for drinking from the Fountain of Youth without being pure of heart is to be turned into a toad-like amphibian, forced to eternally keep watch over the sacred waters and eat any bugs that stray too close.

    Films — Animated 
  • The Black Cauldron: Fflewddur Fflam gets turned into a frog by Orgoch (one of the witches of Morva), who wants to eat him, but he gets changed back by Orwen, who has a crush on him.
  • Cinderella III: A Twist in Time: Lady Tremaine attempts to turn Cinderella into a toad with Fairy Godmother's wand, but the magic blast ends up bouncing off a sword and hitting her and Drizella instead.
  • Freddie as F.R.O.7: The film is about a French prince who is turned into a frog by his evil aunt (who herself turns into a snake to try to kill him, making this transformation pointless), only to be saved by the Loch Ness Monster, grow into a human-sized frog and proceed to become a secret agent. He is kissed (by said Loch Ness Monster and a human woman), but he doesn't cease to be a frog.
  • Lúdas Matyi: The witch turns accidentally turns Döbrögi's second-in-command into frogs. One person into several frogs, that is.
  • The Princess and the Frog: Tiana meets Prince Naveen when he's bewitched into a frog by the evil voodoo con-man Dr. Facilier. Thinking it'll turn him human again, she kisses him — but instead, she now transforms into a frog, as well. They both are in frog form most of the movie.
  • Inverted in Quest for a Heart; The Rollis and Millie meet a frog princess who has been turned into a humanoid princess by a witch and needs to be kissed to be turned back into a frog.
  • Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School: During the final battle with Revolta, she turns Scooby into a frog. When Tanis gets the wand away, she uses it to turn Scooby back into his usual self.
  • Shrek 2: King Harold gets turned back into a frog after being turned into a human by the Fairy Godmother.
  • The Swan Princess: Averted — Jean-Bob the frog only thinks that he is a cursed prince. He gets briefly turned into a prince from a stray bolt of magic in the second movie.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In A Field in England, the alchemist O'Neill threatens to turn Jacob into a frog if he doesn't help search for the treasure. Later on, Jacob is afraid that this is happening, but Whitehead has a look at his crotch and determines that he has a nasty case of syphilis instead.
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie tries to justify Adam having the Frog as his animal totem by appealing to the idea that it's a bewitched prince. (The actual basis for it in the source material, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, is the Frog Ninja; but that trope isn't as known in America so the movie opted for an alternate explanation.)
  • During the "burning the witch" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sir Bedevere is suspicious of the peasant who claims the accused witch turned him into a newt.
  • In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Delmar is at one point convinced the three "sirens" (seductive washerwomen) have turned Pete into a horny toad. In fact, they've turned him in to the authorities. As the film is inspired by The Odyssey, this correlates with Ulysses' encounter with Circe, who turned his men into pigs.
  • Thor: Ragnarok alludes to the above-mentioned incident when Loki turned Thor into a frog, with Loki-actor in the hilariously terrible In-Universe play, The Tragedy of Loki of Asgard (which Loki himself wrote), mentioning it alongside "trying to conquer Earth and that thing with the Tesseract."
  • Near the end of Werner - Beinhart!, in the last live-action part, Brösel (Werner's Real Life creator As Himself) kisses the beautiful bride that Rumpelstiltskin has transformed into. She transforms again — into a frog. Oh well, there's still his nurse.

    Gamebooks 
  • Zigzagged in Dungeon of Dread, a pick-a-path book based on the D&D game, the first in the Endless Quest series. The Evil Sorcerer turns innocent villagers into animals, including one who became a toad... not a helpless one, as this trope usually features, but a giant toad large and fierce enough to guard his lair.
  • The Fighting Fantasy series of books has the recurring lawful wizard, Gereth Yaztromo, who is feared by evil-doers because of his various transmutation spells. Right off the bat in The Forest of Doom, players can seek Yaztromo's assistance (which he'll gladly accept) or attack him, at which point he turns the player into a frog and drops them into the river at the edge of the forest.

    Jokes 
  • A man takes the day off work and decides to go out golfing. He is on the second hole when he notices a frog sitting next to the green. He thinks nothing of it and is about to shoot when he hears, "Ribbit. 9 Iron." The man looks around and doesn't see anyone. "Ribbit. 9 Iron." He looks at the frog and decides to prove the frog wrong, puts his other club away, and grabs a 9 iron. Boom! he hits it 10 inches from the cup. He is shocked. He says to the frog, "Wow that's amazing. You must be a lucky frog, eh?" The frog replies "Ribbit. Lucky frog." The man decides to take the frog with him to the next hole. "What do you think frog?" the man asks. "Ribbit. 3 wood." The guy takes out a 3 wood and Boom! Hole in one. The man is befuddled and doesn't know what to say. By the end of the day, the man golfed the best game of golf in his life and asks the frog, "OK where to next?" The frog replies, "Ribbit. Vegas." They go to Las Vegas and the guy says, "OK frog, now what?" The frog says, "Ribbit. Roulette." Upon approaching the roulette table, the man asks, "What do you think I should bet?" The frog replies, "Ribbit. $3000, black 6." Now, this is a million-to-one shot to win, but after the golf game, the man figures what the heck. Boom! Tons of cash comes sliding back across the table. The man takes his winnings and buys the best room in the hotel. He sits the frog down and says, "Frog, I don't know how to repay you. you've won me all this money and I am forever grateful." The frog replies, "Ribbit, Kiss Me." He figures why not, since after all the frog did for him he deserves it. With a kiss, the frog turns into a gorgeous 15-year-old girl. "And that, your honor, is how the girl ended up in my room."

    Literature 
  • Zibella in The Ancestral Trail turns the Trio into frogs in one issue. Fortunately, the counter-spell happened to be that day's prophecy.
  • Whenever the various sorcerers of The Belgariad are in trouble, the first thing nearby muggles suggest is that they transform the enemy into something harmless, usually with a mystical hand gesture. Polgara once turned a Cherek king into a man-sized frog so that he would take her seriously. Eventually one of the muggles asks if they can actually do this, to which Belgarath states that yes, they can, but frogs breed quickly and he'd rather have one human enemy instead of a lot of annoying frogs.
  • In Charmed Life, Gwendolen turns one of the maids into a toad, having previously claimed that her bulging eyes make her look like one already.
  • Witches and Wizards alike in the Discworld can do this, but tend not to because it takes a lot of effort.
    • In Sourcery, Lord Vetinari spends most of the book as a small yellow lizard after refusing to submit to the Sourcerer. Technically a reptile rather than an amphibian, but same general idea.
    • In Mort, Alberto Malich argues with an innkeeper about a two-thousand year old bar tab. When next we see him, the old wizard is carrying a depressed-looking frog and grumbling that it served him right for talking back.
    • In Witches Abroad, Lady Lilith inverted this trope, turning a frog into a prince so he could rule as a figurehead under her control. The book also reveals Granny Weatherwax prefers to simply make the victim think they've been transformed, which is technically less cruel but a lot more entertaining, and wears off after a few days.
    • In Soul Music, Mustrum Ridcully deals with an angry man complaining about the Librarian taking the wheels off his cart for a secret project by turning the man into a frog until his temper cools. He also implies that a boy suffered this fate for daring to post a Music With Rocks In poster on the Unseen University gate. In addition, the little old lady who runs The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday belongs to a "Neighborhood Witch" scheme that has the power to do this to intruders, like Glod and Cliff on an after-hours visit.
    • Interesting Times mentions that there's a sort of truce between Ridcully and Vetinari because Vetinari could have Ridcully executed, but Ridcully could turn Vetinari into a "small amphibian" and squish him while jumping on a pogo stick.
    • In Going Postal, one of the bankers threatens to sue Unseen University in the heat of the moment. Archchancellor Ridcully's reply?
      Ridcully: Oh, please sue the University! We've got a pond full of people who tried to sue the University!
    • In The Wee Free Men, it turns out the toad who joins forces with Tiffany and the pictsies used to be a human lawyer, until he helped a client sue her own fairy godmother. Bad move. Earlier, Miss Tick tries to threaten the toad with transformation into a frog, but he merely replies that it'd be an improvement.
    • Later in A Hat Full of Sky, a hiver-controlled Tiffany actually does turn someone into a frog... which results in a disgusting floating pink balloon of the excess mass resulting from the transformation.
  • Dora Wilk story Toadies is about Dora and Witkacy searching for a person who's been turning muggles into toads.
  • In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden has jokingly threatened to turn people into toads. Though it's an empty threat as unwilling transformations are against the White Council's laws.
  • In Alethea Kontis's Enchanted, Sunday meets a talking frog who's this in the forest.
  • Enchanted Forest Chronicles:
    • Morwen, the resident good witch, is offended at the suggestion, although she considers doing it to Arona Vamist because he irritates her so much. Her cats encourage it as they want something to play with.
    • Played straight in the series' Dragon Lore. When a dragon does something so horrible that s/he is officially deemed "Not a dragon" by the Dragon King. They transform into frogs. The talking frog that Cimorene met at the beginning of the first book could very possibly have been one, as he knew where the Dragons lived. Within the books this happens to Woraug as a result of his attempt to usurp the traditional dragon king-naming ritual, with Cimorene later musing that she thinks a snake ate him.
  • In Tom Holt's Falling Sideways, intelligent alien frogs who came to Earth long ago have the power to make themselves seem human, and to make humans appear and act like frogs. The prince isn't really a frog, but the princess is!
    • It also Deconstructs the notion that the Delusions of Doghood variant is more benign than this trope. As one character puts it, a person made to think they are a frog is as good as dead, because how long would you expect the average adult human to survive subsisting on nothing but flies?
  • Goblins in the Castle:
    • Discussed briefly — Ishmaelnote  reveals his presence to William for the first time when he threatens to turn William into a toad if he doesn't set down the strange carving he's looking at.
    • : In Goblins on the Prowl, while examining the giant stone toad, Fauna finds a hidden spot on its base with a mirror. The mirror then shows her a video replay of a man getting hit by a spell and turning into a giant stone toad (the very toad in the Great Hall, as it turns out later).
  • Subverted in the King's Quest Tie-In Novel King's Quest: The Floating Castle. A witch turns Prince Alexander into a frog against his will, but he later realizes it was so he could more easily sneak into the Evil Sorceror's castle he needed to infiltrate, then simply get turned back by a kiss from a captive princess also within and finish his mission from there.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, when Sam is caught eavesdropping on Frodo and Gandalf's conversation about the One Ring, he begs the wizard not to turn him into "anything unnatural", and Frodo insists it'll be a warty toad if Sam doesn't keep his mouth shut. Since it's a fairly low-magic setting, by modern fantasy considerations, it's unlikely that Gandalf could actually do it if he wanted to.
  • Magic Shop: Used in Jennifer Murdley's Toad, a couple of times.
    • When Bufo (the titular toad) kisses a human, the human gets transformed into a toad. Strangely, if he kisses the transformed toad again, the toad merely grows bigger. The only way to cure the transformation is to have another human kiss you, but the catch is that the person who kisses you gets transformed into a toad in your place; the increased size doesn't transfer over to other people.
    • Notably, this trope also plays out in reverse in the same book: there is in fact a toad that was turned into a human and isn't terribly happy about it.
  • In Patricia C. Wrede's Mairelon the Magician, the lower-class slang for wizard is "frog-maker". At the end, Mairelon says he'll turn his brother into a frog for a few minutes if it would make him feel better, but he'd rather not.
  • This trope is referred to jokingly in The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart. Merlin usually responds that bats are his specialty.
  • Moongobble and Me: When Edward's mother first meets the toad Urk in book 1 and hears him talking, she asks him if he's one of these. He's not, and seems rather offended by the notion.
  • Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep: During "The Wizard", the wizard forces a wandering bullfrog through a series of transformations such as a pair of mice and a single chalk before returning the critter to normal and either teleporting it away or erasing it from existence. After this display of magical might, the poem warns that if the reader encounters "a toad or a lizard," that might not actually be the entity's true form and rather a form brought about by the wizard's doings.
  • Oddly Enough: Inverted and played straight in "In the Frog King's Court", wherein main character Dennis discovers his distant grandfather was actually a frog who turned into a human when a maiden kissed him, and that he has the potential to turn into a frog himself with the help of a potion (which lets him change on the nights before and after a full moon from then on), which he does in order to carry out a mission for the frog king Urpthur.
  • In the Spanish children's novel Érame una vez ("Once upon a time me"), the protagonist is a solitary Medieval prince who spends his free time kissing the frogs in a pond. He begins with the pretext that one might be a bewitched princess, but he continues long after he has forgotten about the original purpose. Then a frog turns into a princess. And she's a bitch who promptly tells his adoptive family that he is not a real prince.
  • In The Runaway Princess, a witch routinely turns princes who come to bother her into frogs. Although she's perfectly willing to turn them back into princes, most of them prefer to stay as frogs.
  • In Pamela Dean's The Secret Country books, a character uses "Shan can turn you into a toad!" as an expression of annoyance, referring to a legendary wizard named Shan.
  • Lampshaded in A Song of Ice and Fire when the young sellsword nicknamed Frog reveals himself to Daenerys Targaryen as Prince Quentyn Martell. Daenerys thinks it's due to this trope; but it's actually what the other sellswords called him because of the way he always leapt up when given an order. The Prince Charming scenario is then horribly deconstructed when (after being spurned by the Princess) Quentyn goes to tame the dragon, gets crispy-fried and takes three days to die from horrific burns.
  • Played with in Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch. Margery Device, the Witch, is rumoured to have turned a badly-behaved guest into a toad. Edwin says what actually happened is that he contracted a rare tropical skin condition that gave him a toad-like appearance.
  • In Wen Spencer's Tinker, there is talk of elves able to turn people to frogs.
  • In John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince, the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
  • Whateley Universe: As mentioned in "Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind": When Phase is worried about angry girls:
    someone like Nikki getting pissed off at me and turning me into a frog.
  • Gogu the frog a.k.a. Costi in Juliet Marillier's novel Wildwood Dancing.
  • In Wizard and Glass the local witch Rhea sends a message demanding booze, and the owner of the saloon says they better attend to it or "she might turn us all into frogs". Rhea has a pet snake that apparently used to be a human rival, so she appears to have some powers of transformation.
  • The Worst Witch: In A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch, Mildred tells Sybil and Clarice that she thinks Miss Hardbroom did this to a girl who became the frog she's seen in the school pond. Later in the book, Ethel turns Mildred into a frog. Whilst in her frog form, Mildred meets the frog in the pond who it turns out is a wizard who got into a fight with another wizard and ended up stuck as a frog when the latter cast a spell on him.
  • In Yendi, it's mentioned that Sethra Lavode, one of the world's most powerful sorcerers, sometimes turns intruders into jhegaala. The jhegaala is an animal that metamorphoses repeatedly in its life, but resembles a toad at one of its life-stages. Also, the Sorceress in Green threatens to turn Vlad into a newt in the same novel; his retort is a Shout-Out to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Beauty and the Geek Australia had a "medieval" challenge for a season finale, which included the beauties having to kiss a frog.
  • Bewitched:
    • Darrin claimed to have seen his mother-in-law do this.
    • Inverted in another episode, where Samantha meets a man who used to be a frog and wants her to turn him back.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • A sign in the Magic Box warns customers against blocking the back alley when they park, saying TRESPASSERS WILL BE TURNED INTO TOADS.
    • Anya also suggests doing this to Glory, with one of the two witches on the team.
      Anya: You know, a little hoppy toad and then we hit her with a hammer.
    • When a member of Tara's family brings up this trope, Xander responds sarcastically, "Yeah, we're building a race of frog people."
    • Averted in "Gingerbread" when our heroes threaten an angry mob with being turned into rats, or fish. "Yeah, you in the back will be fish!"
  • Turning people into toads is brought up occasionally in Charmed, but Piper actually does it to an unruly Magic School student. While she was just a head, no less.
  • In the first season of Dark Oracle, there's a character who was trapped in the shape of a frog, and can be changed back and forth by being kissed.
  • In Grimm all myths and fairy tales are inspired by shapeshifting creatures known as Wesen. The Bewitched Amphibians myth comes from the Folterseele who may kill someone if kissed.
  • Mahou Sentai Magiranger and Power Rangers Mystic Force had a Knight in Shining Armor (Sungel/Hikaru in Magiranger, Daggeron in Mystic Force) who was trapped as a frog; he became the Sixth Ranger after he was freed thanks to being kissed by the Blue Ranger: Urara/Madison respectively.
  • On My Babysitter's a Vampire, after his mother is possessed by a haunted mask, like the rest of the people at his Halloween party, and turned into a Wicked Witch, she turns Ethan into a toad. Benny tries to turn him back to normal, but based on Sarah, Erica and his horrified reaction, he wasn't able to turn Ethan's head back to normal. Thankfully Benny gets it right the second time.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
    • Witches who kiss mortals turn them into frogs. They must go through trials to prove they're their true love to turn them back.
    • Dreama also plans to turn Mr Kraft into a toad to stop him from cancelling Senior Skip Day.
  • It's something of a Running Gag in The Worst Witch TV adaptation that the girls will threaten to do this but never get around to it. In Jadu's letter home in Episode 2, she writes "Call this a witch school? I haven't turned anyone into a frog yet." Ethel dares Mildred to turn her into one, but Millie gets the spell wrong and turns her into a pig. Mildred later encounters a trio of Wicked Witches whose plan is to turn everyone else into frogs. Rounding this off, Mildred tells a story to Ethel's younger sister that the frog in the school pond is really a bewitched student. Ethel responds by turning Millie into a frog — and she then discovers that the frog in the pond is actually a human.

    Magazines 
  • MAD had a cartoon where the frog turns into the prince only to drown because the lilypad he's standing on won't hold his weight.
  • A cartoon from the National Enquirer depicts a man in a crown talking to a large frog and several smaller ones.
    Ex-frog: Don't worry, as long as I'm king I'll make sure you and the kids are provided for.

    Radio 
  • Dead Ringers:
    • When Andrew Neil ("brought to you by Jim Henson's Children's Television Workshop") accidentally summons the mysterious entity Tetchy Jeremy to his show by saying "Brexit" six times, he irritates him by asking him what his position on Brexit is, causing Tetchy Jeremy to flounce out, but not before he turns Andrew Neil into a toad. Diane Abbott, who's present, only remarks that she thought it'd make more of a difference.
    • In a parody of The Apprentice, Lord Alan Sugar turns anyone who fails their task into toads.
  • In the 1990's spoof The X Fools a Wicked Witch turns Agents Fax Smoulder and Donut Sulky into frogs. Realising his agents can't investigate crimes if they can't hold a gun, a badge or (most importantly) a flashlight, Assistant Director Skinhead has to resort to kissing both frogs to turn them back into FBO agents. Not that he's terribly bothered at kissing Mulder, even as a frog.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Champions: In the 5th and 6th editions, the superheroine Witchcraft is built as a standard superhero-mage... but has a spell to turn people into frogs. One of the "cure" conditions is even being kissed.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Forgotten Realms got some of this:
      • From the introduction of Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, 2 ed. —
        Elminster: To readers who trust in the sword or the dagger and hope to find in these pages a guide to how to lay mages low, I tender the following piece of very good advice: "Wizards? Avoid 'em. Life's better when ye're not a frog." That anonymous trail saying of the Sword Coast lands has been around a long, long time, but it is best never forgotten — if ye take my point.
      • Used as a Noodle Incident in Elminster at the Magefair by Ed Greenwood.
        "Why, Dhaerivus, I recall my first magefair!" He nodded in reflection and added dryly, "Ye made a most fetching toad."
      • Pages from the Mages describes how, in the course of a feud between the wizards Phelpar of Rassatan and Selvar of Taruin, Phelpar turned Selvar into a frog. Selvar had to hop many miles to reach a cave where he had hidden a cache of magic that could return him to normal.
    • Rich Burlew, author of The Order of the Stick, wrote a revamp of the shapeshifting rules for 3.5 that replaces the standard baleful polymorph spell with one simply named turn to frog. At DM's discretion, you can substitute another small harmless creature, but the spell is more limited (and temporary) and intended to more closely match the classic frog transformation of fiction.
  • Exalted has a high-level Martial Arts skill that lets the user do this as one of the possible effects and it is very popular in Memetic Mutation to turn people into ducks using it.
  • Talisman has several things that can temporarily turn the player into "a slimy little toad", at which point he loses all his equipment and companions and is almost helpless for a couple of turns.
  • Warhammer: Morgiana le Fay carries around a toad Familiar said to have once been a wizard who displeased her.

    Video Games 
  • In Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse, your aunt has a house full of magically-produced frogs, although they didn't start as humans and weren't meant to be frogs. Rather, she was trying to turn chickens into beautiful white stallions as a present for you, but got frogs instead (that is, after first getting fish, leopards, and monkeys).
  • This trope is referenced in Animal Crossing: New Horizons if you give Blathers a frog as an exhibit donation.
    Blathers: Ribbit! My prince has arrived!
  • Subverted in Battlerite's lore for Croak. In the game, Croak is an anthropomorphic frog, but in his origin story, he's a human hired to assassinate a witch. You'd expect the witch to curse him into his current form, but instead she just curses him with decay. The transformation into a frog only happens at the end, as an Emergency Transformation done by the Soul Jar he's stolen to undo his other curse.
  • Jean in Breath of Fire II is introduced to Ryu's party as a giant frog in a lake, and he mentions a curse that needs to be undone. When this is accomplished, he proved to be... an anthropomorphic frog prince.
  • In Camelot Warriors, you need to get Aznath, the forest druid, to turn you into a frog so you can go exploring the lake.
  • In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the witch protagonist Charlotte learns how to cast a Toad Morph on herself and Jonathan to aid their progress. Backtracking with the spell is required to reach the best ending.
  • In Cave Story, Misery turns Balrog into a giant frog for a boss battle.
  • Chrono Trigger: Frog got his moniker and his shape from Magus, the Disc-One Final Boss, who saw the young Glenn as a harmless foe and wanted to humiliate him. While Magus thinks he's using this trope, it's actually a subversion, since Frog loses none of his strength or abilities through this and becomes even more badass after that. He actually ends up thanking Magus for cursing him with awesome. If you let Frog kill Magus in the Duel Boss near the end of the game, he will have reverted to his original form by the end credits.
  • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: Among The Many Deaths of You, getting hit by a wizard's "energy blast" in Medieval stages turns him into a frog, costing you a life. In those same stages, Crash can also be accosted by giant frogs, who lay a big wet kiss on him while he's pinned down and transform into a prince. Dying the former way in the N. Sane Trilogy version of the game gives you a Trophy.
  • The Crystal of Kings have a Poison Mushroom pickup that transforms your character into a frog. You're unable to attack while stuck as a frog, and can still be injured by onscreen enemies, but thankfully it lasts only for a few seconds.
  • In Discworld II, when the Rite of AshkEnte fails to bring Death back to Ankh-Morpork (as he's taking a holiday in Fourecks), Arch-Chancellor Ridcully sends Rincewind on a quest, and it's implied that if he doesn't, he will be transformed into a toad.
    Rincewind: You want me to go find out where Death has gone?
    Ridcully: Oh, only if you don't want to spend the rest of your life staring out across a pond at all the other toads.
  • The second chapter of Dark Parables, The Exiled Prince follows the tragedy of Prince James, the "Frog Prince", whom along with being turned into a frog, was cursed with immortality. Thus after his Princess, in this case the Princess Ivy, sister of Princess Briar Rose, delivered the magic of True Love's Kiss on him and became his bride, the day she died of old age, he turned back into a frog. Over time, more Princess's broke his curse, but every time James would see them to the end of their life, and be transformed back into a frog once more. After centuries of this, he became cold and cruel, becoming the antagonist of the case, as the detective is called to find out what happened to a noble-man's daughter and her escort, both of who James callously turned into frogs for invading "his" forest. With the help of the ghost of Princess Ivy, the detective breaks the spell over Prince James, breaking his curse of immortality, and as his spirit leaves, his body turns into the "frog prince", but is finally reunited with Ivy in death. In doing so the spell over the Noble-Woman and her escort is broken as well.
  • Mages have a reputation for doing this in Dragon Age. In fact, Alistair can say that he prefers to know his odds of becoming a toad at any given moment. Word of God is that mages are not actually capable of turning other people into toads, or anything. It's just one of many superstitions born from mages being isolated from everyone else. At most, a specially trained mage might turn themselves into a toad.
  • Dragon Quest IV: One appears in the prologue claiming to be a cursed princess, but it’s quickly subverted when the "frog" reveals herself to be Eliza, your childhood friend, using her Morph ability.
  • The Sorceress in Dragon's Crown has Curse, a crowd-control spell where she conjures up to three frog images that would temporarily turn any non-boss enemy they touch into frail, hapless frogs, including elite enemies like assassins. Late in the game, she could also get Serpent-eyed staves that let her deal even more damage against these frogs.
  • In Dungeon Keeper wizards and similar creatures get turned into a frog and back while being tortured.
  • Elvira II: A wizard can turn you into a frog, which is one of the few goreless "deaths".
  • The Interactive Fiction game Enchanter features the CLEESH spell: change a creature into a small amphibian. In the third game, Spellbreaker, the antagonist casts this on the Guild of Enchanters; they continue the meeting without much difference, despite being frogs and newts.
  • In Escape From Moonbase Alpha, Deadly Doris, an animated television set, has a chance of turning the player into a frog when she attacks.
  • Final Fantasy: The Toad/Frog spell is a recurring spell in the series that turns its targets into frogs and sometimes vice versa.
    • In Final Fantasy III you can turn your enemies into frogs with the Frog spell and, at several intervals, have to turn yourselves into frogs to progress. In the DS remake (where the previously-Featureless Protagonists are given actual characters), Refia is dismayed at the prospect of needing to transform into a frog when it's required to proceed, as she hates frogs and toads.
    • In Final Fantasy IV (II in the US release), not only are there in-battle frog (and pig) transformation spells, but at one point the townspeople turn you into frogs and pigs for revenge for your earlier actions as the Dark Knight.
    • Additionally, there is an enemy called the Bog Witch, who enters battle with several Bog Toads and orders them to cast Toad on you every round. When they're all killed, she turns herself into a Toad.
    • Final Fantasy V: The Blue Magic Frog Song/Pond's Chorus debuts in this game, typically cast by frog-like enemies like the Elf Toad. The boss Halicarnassus uses the "Ribbit" ability to attempt to turn the party into toads right at the start of the battle.
    • Final Fantasy VI: While the biological classifications of youkai are often ambiguous, there is a strong case for a spell that can turn your characters into kappas. (The SNES US release as Final Fantasy III refers to them as imps.)
    • Final Fantasy VII:
      • Touch Me and Toxic Frog have an attack called Frog Song, that not only turns one party member into a toad, but puts him/her to sleep. You can acquire this power from them as a form of Blue Magic. They can also turn party members into frogs with their basic physical attack (Frog Jab). Fortunately, applying the status "Frog" will actually cure anyone already affected by it. Fights with these enemies tend to involve a lot of getting switched back and forth, which can throw off any battle command more complicated than simply attacking them physically. Fortunately, they don't do much damage so the only significant danger comes from any other enemies accompanying these little guys. Unfortunately they tend to show up alongside enemies that can mess you up pretty bad if they aren't dealt with quickly.
      • Sephiroth, in his One-Winged Angel form, can inflict multiple status changes on your entire party in one attack, including Toad.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, Regent Cid was transformed into an oglop (a beetle-like insect which is reviled by many people in the game) by his wife as a punishment for infidelity. Dr Tot attempts to concoct a potion that will restore him to human form... which turns him into a frog instead. Played for laughs in a few scenes following this, as one of your party members is an Extreme Omnivore with a particular taste for frogs. Thankfully he patches things up with his wife, who cast the first spell, and she turns him back.
    • Final Fantasy Dimensions:
      • The witch Styx turns the world-famous bard Eduardo into a frog after promising him a way to be together with the mermaid he loves. The spell is only broken by the mermaid's kiss, with the twist being that the mermaid is actually his mother and the kiss is on the forehead.
      • There is also a dungeon where the party must turn themselves into frogs to proceed, probably as a deliberate Mythology Gag to Final Fantasy III.
  • In For the Frog the Bell Tolls, the main character and his rival Richard can turn into frogs due to a suspicious potion a witch woman named Mandola sold to them.
  • Red Oktober, of Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, can transform opponents into toads with one of her attacks.
  • Glover: You can cast the frog spell onto witches, but they will reverse the spell right back at you.
  • Merlin in Guenevere protects his tower with an number of wards, some of which have this affect. King Arthur himself has been an unfortunate victim at least once.
  • Subverted in I Frog-ot, in which the malicious entity known as Dreameater only pretends to be transformed into a frog to those in its dream realm.
  • In Jazz Jackrabbit 2, there's a witch that turns you into a frog, and being kissed by Eva Earlong turns you back into a hare. There is only one only place where this happens, and it is in the demo levels.
  • Partial example in Jitsu Squad, where the four human protagonists are transformed into animal-people as result of a curse. The Bare-Fisted Monk, Jazz, turns into a frog-man.
  • In JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island one of the tasks involves using chemistry and math to mix a potion to turn a frog back into prince, before Miss Grundle catches you.
  • Killer Instinct: The Game Boy version of the original game gives Orchid a Finishing Move which turns the opponent into a frog that Orchid then stomps on.
  • CLEESH also appears in Kingdom of Loathing, as a spell you can get from the adventure game-themed "strange leaflet". It turns your opponent into a frog, newt, or salamander, but replaces the monster's normal item drops and experience gains, and it won't work on boss monsters, creatures that are already reptilian/amphibian, or the Kingdom (yes, you can pick a fight with the whole of Loathing and try to turn it into a frog).
  • In King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!, the witch in the forest has turned numerous people into frogs, and can turn Graham into a frog as well.
  • Lusternia's Wiccan class has Toadcurse, transforming players into an ineffectual (and easily stomped) toad for a period of time.
  • Trope applies both ways in Monster Hunter (PC), who contains evil witches as enemies that transform the heroic Monster Hunter into frogs. The only way to defeat witches is by reading an incantation from a Spell Book, which transforms them to frogs as well... in levels containing multiple witches, expect the floor to be full of stray frogs in the Level Complete screen.
  • In Multi-User Dungeons the game's administrators are called wizards, so naturally banning a player from the game is represented by turning them into a toad. Usually used as a verb: "He kept breaking the rules, so I had to toad him."
  • Somewhat inverted in Path of Exile: when you fight Doedre Darktongue the curse-spewing witch in Act IV, she turns into a frog to escape the fatal blow. It can be seen crawling from under the huge disc she was levitating on.
  • The Witch Hazel from Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time normally zaps zombies and turns them into Puff-Shrooms. If fed a Plant Food, however, it'll turn a zombie into a Toadstool, which is a cross between a toad and a toadstool that eats zombies whole.
  • Quest for Glory has Baba Yaga use the standard trick of turning heroes into frogs. In a later sequel, she instead has the hero turn into a hedgehog, but reverses the spell once she remembers the hero has to give her something.
  • In the ZX Spectrum game Rana Rama, the player character is a sorcerer's apprentice named Mervyn who accidentally transformed himself into a frog by experimenting with potions.
  • The third Rastan game have a wizard Assist Character who backs you up with his spells, one of them which turns all onscreen enemies into frogs that you then stomp on to squash instantly. They turn back to normal after a short while, however.
  • In Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Bégoniax during her boss fight can briefly turn Rayman into a frog. This can also be used against her by punching the cauldron's contents at her when she jumps up on it, turning her into one in the process and thus leaving her vulnerable to the player's attacks.
  • Toad Man in Rockman 4 Minus ∞ can turn Mega Man into a toad if the rain he summons hits him. After Toad Man is beaten, Mega Man gets said ability and can turn said ability against Toad Man during the Boss Rush for an easy One-Hit Kill.
  • In Scribblenauts, the magic wand (which is the default weapon of witches and wizards) shoots bolts that change living things into frogs.
  • In The Sims: Makin' Magic, one of the first spells Sims can learn is Toadfication, which, naturally, turns another Sim into a toad. If your Sim tries a spell on a magic user that is more powerful than them, the target will realize what is about to happen and whip out their own wand, quickly using Toadification on the person trying it before they can finish casting the original spell.
  • The first boss of Spyro: Year of the Dragon is Buzz, one of The Sorceress' minions turned into a toad monster by Bianca's magic.
  • The old platform game, Super Frog, have you playing as a prince cursed by a witch into becoming a frog, who then abducts your bride. You spend the whole game collecting enough coins in order to defeat the witch and restore yourself back to normal.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3: The Frog Suit is an aversion, as Mario is wearing the suit willingly, but talking to any of the Kings after getting their wands back while wearing the Frog Suit has them mistakenly believing that Mario is cursed.
    King: Oh me, oh my! You've been transformed! Shall I change you back with this wand?
  • In the kart racer Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour, one item you can get is The Frog Spell. Using it turns all your opponents into slow-hopping frogs, allowing you to speed past them. The effect wears off after a few seconds.
  • Wildermyth has a Random Event where the enchanted creature is a snapping turtle, who claims to be a prince or princess to a hero/ine in need of a kiss. While skeptical, you can acquiesce, which reveals they were telling the truth - but notably did not specify what they were royalty of, leaving the character a bit put out as the newly uncursed Drauven warchief runs off into the woods, swearing furious revenge on their rival.
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Played with in the Hearts of Stone expansion. Rumors began about a prince transformed into a toad in the sewers of Oxenfurt that could be turned back by True Love's Kiss. Women would rush into the sewers in search of romance and a better life, and the lucky ones that weren't eaten by drowners would discover that said prince had been turned into a gigantic, man-eating toad monster before being devoured. Geralt is unable to lift the curse, and ends up killing the Toad Prince in self-defense.
  • In the point and click adventure Witchs Prank Frogs Fortune an ugly Wicked Witch, in her bid to bag a rich, handsome husband, curses all the beautiful Princesses in the land and turns all the Princes into frogs, only offering to change one of them back if they marry her. The player must help all the Princes escape the witch and get them to their Princess, to break the curse over both of them. In the end the player also turns the witch into frog to avenge the Princes.
  • World of Warcraft plays this straight as an arrow with the Shamans' Hex ability. Mages get something similar, but it turns their targets into sheep... or monkeys, penguins... you get the idea.

    Visual Novels 
  • Inverted in Leap of Love, a story about a talking frog (called Kaheroux, a play on kaeru, the Japanese word for frog) who dreams of being able to marry a beautiful human princess. When he gets caught by an evil magician to use as a potion ingredient, he's intrigued by Kaheroux's ability to talk and his wish, and enchants him with a spell that will turn him into a human if he can get a princess to kiss him, which he does when he meets a drunken Princess Charlotte partying in the local tavern, who kisses him for a bet. The magician provides him with an elaborate fake identity as a foreign prince and sends him into the kingdom to court a princess for himself (either Charlotte, her two sisters Diane and Blanche, or one of a number of other beautiful women who meet the criteria of a "princess"), with the threat that if he can't marry one (or more) before 30 days are up, he will revert to the form of a frog forever. And it turns out that the magician has not-so-benign reasons for wanting to help Kaheroux with his quest...

    Web Animation 
  • AstroLOLogy:
    • In "Hocus Pocus", Aquarius inadvertently turns Pisces into a toad after drinking one of her potions and belching a gas cloud in her face, but it wears off quickly.
    • Happens to Aquarius himself at the end of "Fairy GodAquarius", courtesy of an angry Pisces, Cancer, and Virgo. It wears off during the fortune message, only for him to immediately get turned into a toadstool by another spell.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Spoofed in an animated segment or perhaps ad bumper, depicting a royal chef wading in a pond and bashing frogs to serve to the princess. At dinner, the princess takes up a frog leg and kisses it, causing it to flop back down onto her plate as a severed, freshly-cooked prince's leg.
  • Adventure Time: In "The Pods", Finn and Jake meet a tiny frog dressed as a knight, who reveals he was a gnome transformed into a frog.
  • Arthur:
    • One of the episode title cards that were commonly used from Seasons 1 to 15 shows D.W. as a fairy who magically turns Arthur's head into that of a frog.
    • In the episode "Muffy Gets Mature," Muffy, while trying to fit in with a bunch of teenagers, has an Imagine Spot where she kisses Buster, transforming both of them into toads.
    • In the episode "Kiss and Tell," D.W. has an Imagine Spot where she kisses her classmate James, which turns him into a frog, after which their teacher places him into a terrarium with other frogs who are D.W.'s other classmates also transformed by kissing. D.W. then turns into a frog as well and is placed in the terrarium.
  • Avengers Assemble: In a flashback episode in series 5, Thor gets turned into a frog by Morgan le Fay. Since this is Thor pre-Character Development, he actually takes a while to notice.
  • In one episode of Blazing Dragons, Sir Loungelot is transformed into a newt by a witch pretending to be a Damsel in Distress. Later on, when Princess Flame goes to confront said witch about restoring Loungelot, the witch responds by turning her into a toad, which she bemoans as being "predictable".
  • This makes up much of the plot of the Bubble Guppies special "Bubble Puppy's Fin-Tastic Adventure": Bubble Puppy spends most of the special having been turned into a frog by a witch, who plans to fly a rocket into space and deliver a payload of a potion that will do the same to the whole planet. When the witch's plan is thwarted, she's turned into a frog herself, but quickly decides she prefers it this way.
  • In the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Good Times, Bat Times", the cleaning woman-turned-witch Winifred temporarily changes Dale into a frog. He even accidentally almost devours Zipper.
  • In one of The Fairly OddParents! pilot shorts, Cosmo briefly and accidentally turns Vicky into a frog... a giant, anthropomorphic frog. Wanda changes her back before she notices.
  • The Fanboy and Chum Chum episode "Strings Attached" ends with Boog being turned into a frog.
  • In The Wizard of Oz parody in the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II", when Leela (Dorothy) is about to wish that she was back home, she suddenly changes her mind and decides to become a witch, then turns Fry (the Scarecrow), Bender (the Tin Man), and Farnsworth (the Wizard) into frogs.
  • In an episode of Gotham Girls, Zatanna turns three men into toads. The other spells she casts wear off quickly; it's not clear whether this one will wear off, but since they were as clear as the format would allow in their intention to rape her, it's not a pressing concern.
  • A Honey Half Witch cartoon involves Honey helping out a talking frog who claims to have been a king cursed by a wicked witch. She eventually gets him back to normal, but it turns out by "king", he meant "king of the beasts"... as in, he becomes a ferocious lion who tries to eat Honey.
  • In the old The Legend of Zelda (1989) cartoon, there's an episode where Ganon turns Link into a frog. As in a human-sized bipedal frog knight. Ironically, this gives Link a legitimate need for him to get Zelda to kiss him for once, which he still can't quite manage to do, but fortunately it turns out Sprite is actually the daughter of the king of the fairies, so her kiss can restore him instead.
    Witch of the Wall: Yes, Ganon may have his faults but he does do the classics well.
  • A variant occurs in the Martin Morning episode "Martin's Magic Potion," where Martin, who is a witch that day, comes across a frog on the way to school that asks him to kiss it. When he does, it turns into a Princely Young Man who seems to attract Martin's Love Interest Roxanne, much to his jealousy. He turns back into a frog when he kisses Martin under the influence of the Love Potion he had prepared for Roxanne.
  • Mighty Magiswords:
    • Helmut at one point gets turned into a frog and remains that way for the remainder of the series, not that he minds being stuck that way.
    • The episode "Warts and All" has Witchy Simone accidentally turn Vambre into a frog while trying to brew medicine for King Rexxtopher's indigestion. Prohyas and Witchy Simone then try to find a way to return Vambre to normal, oblivious that Vambre is trying to bring their attention towards the required ingredients (unlike Helmut, Vambre can't speak in frog form and can only ribbit).
  • Inverted in one episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey, where Principal Pixiefrog gets kissed and turns into a miniature human.
  • Nate Is Late: Subject of the appropriately named "The Enchanted Frog" episode. Nate and Malika meet a man who got turned into one by a witch to keep her away from her daughter he was courting. Nate tries to help by kissing him (yeah he's... not bright) and ends up turning into a frog himself.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle:
    • In a Fractured Fairy Tale, a princess finds a prince who has been turned into a frog. He wants her to kiss him to turn him back into a prince but she refuses. "A talking frog! I'll make a fortune!"
    • Another episode inverted the idea. Due to a shortage of Princes to turn into frogs a witch finds a frog and turns him into a prince. In the end, the princess who falls for him ends up turning into a frog so they can be together without sacrificing his happiness.
  • In The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show, a witch turns Shaggy into a frog — partly, as he retains his (green-tinted) human face.
  • The Simpsons: An inversion in the Treehouse of Horror parody of Harry Potter: students are expected to turn frogs (presumably of original frog descent) into princes.
  • The Smurfs has a few princes turned into frogs, twice by sorcerers and once by Hogatha the witch.
    • One prince-turned-frog is Prince Theodore, whose human appearance is switched with that of a frog by Morlock the wizard, who sought to control the prince's kingdom by using the frog-in-prince-form as his lackey.
    • In "The Good, the Bad, and the Smurfy", a king and his court are turned into frogs by a treacherous sorcerer, who himself is turned into a frog by Papa Smurf.
    • In an alternate ending for "The Lure of the Orb" which was shown in markets outside the United States, Papa Smurf alters Jokey's surprise so that it turns Allura into a frog.
  • Super 4:
    • The backstory of Twinkle the Fairy is that she got exiled from Enchanted Island for turning the Queen Fairy into a (talking) frog. Attempts to turn her back all fall short thanks to Status Quo Is God. The one time it works, the Queen then tries to punish Twinkle only to have her spell bounce, turning her back into a frog.
    • Although Twinkle can't quite be called an Inept Mage, when attempting any other kind of transformations, a mishap most commonly defaults to "turned into frog" (sometimes a giant one, though).
  • In one episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, Loki turns Thor into a frog so he won't interfere with his Frost Giant invasion of Earth. He's not as strong as he once was, but he still has power over Mjölnir and human speech in this state. At one point, one member of Spidey's team suggests that White Tiger (the only girl of the group) kiss "The Frog Prince", an idea she immediately dismisses. Spidey gets Thor back to normal by tricking the Trickster God himself — he points out that nobody would be impressed by a god killing a frog, and reverting Thor gives him the opportunity to kick Loki's ass.
  • In Wakfu episode 4, "The Ugly Pagent", plenty of weird frog hybrids can be found in the tower of the Ugly Princesses. They are all former princes who tried to break their curse with a kiss, except it happened to be insincere.

 
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Nate is Late [Nate Turned into a Frog]

Scene from "Nate is Late", Ep 6A - "The Enchanted Frog". Nate and Malika are heading to school as usual when they come across a talking frog named Gideon who was cursed by a witch to keep him away from her daughter. Nate tries to help, but the witch turns out to have been pretty genre savvy to certain fairy tale cures.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

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Main / BewitchedAmphibians

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