The Disney Animated Canon uses Shoo Out the Clowns so much that it deserves its own page.
- In Aladdin, the Genie and Iago zig-zag with this: they are pretty much kept to the side as Jafar and Aladdin have their final battle occasionally coming to the spotlight to provide some comedically relieving cheerleading, and Abu and Carpet and taken out of the action by Jafar's magic as well. The Genie is eventually brought into the conflict when Aladdin points out that Jafar is not as powerful as him.
- Aladdin: The Return of Jafar is a little better in its treatment of the clowns — in the final confrontation, Abu and the Genie are thrown into peril along with the other heroes, and Iago manages to pull off a Big Damn Heroes. Jafar still manages to take out the Carpet again, though.
- Genie, Iago and Abu once more are absent in the climax of Aladdin and the King of Thieves which has Aladdin and Cassim confronting Sa'Luk.
- Alice in Wonderland has Alice lost in Tulgey Wood, leading to the saddest scene in the movie. As a result, The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, The March Hare and the Cheshire Cat are absent. After Alice finishes singing "Very Good Advice" and begins sobbing, the Cheshire Cat slowly emerges on top of a tree. Meanwhile, The White Rabbit, alongside The Mad Hatter and The March Hare don't show up until Alice arrives at The Queen Of Heart's castle.
- In Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Mole, Vinny, Dr. Sweet, Audrey, Cookie, and Mrs. Packard all provided humorous moments beforehand. None of them are present during Milo's fight with Rourke.
- During the scene in Bambi, when the eponymous character's mother dies, both Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk are not present. Minutes before that scene, Thumper is last seen telling Bambi that he should go home now in a very nervous tone while Flower is hibernating. These characters are also absent during Bambi's respective fights with Ronno, the hunter dogs and the climactic forest fire at the end.
- At the climax of Beauty and the Beast the Beast and Gaston have their fight alone. Lefou is last seen fleeing the castle in defeat; Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip and the footstool only reappear after Gaston falls to his death off the ledge of the castle.
- Big Hero 6: During the scene where Hiro and Baymax rescue Abigail, Fred is absent.
- The floating bubble from The Black Cauldron vanishes during the scene where the Horned King unleashes the dark powers of the Cauldron, and does not return until the three witches use their magic to take back said Cauldron and bring Gurgi back to life. This is also true with Hen-Wen the pig; the film starts to get darker after she runs away from the Horned King's castle. And of course, there's Gurgi's Heroic Sacrifice, which puts him out for most of the climax until the ending.
- Bolt: Rhino is absent when Mittens confronts Bolt about not being a real superhero (he excuses himself in a I Need to Go Iron My Dog fashion) and he's also absent when Bolt wants to return to Penny and Mittens is angry about it telling him she's not his real owner and then confesses about her own past being abandoned, and during the climactic studio fire.
- The two moose, Rutt and Tuke, are completely absent during the last part of Brother Bear, excluding the credits, just right before Kenai's vengeful brother Denahi has him cornered due to him seeing Kenai as the bear that killed their oldest brother, Sitka, having last appeared trying to persuade Koda to forgive Kenai for killing his mother and thus encouraging Koda to save Kenai from Denahi's attacks and allowing Sitka to change Kenai back into a human, and cause Denahi to perform a Heel–Face Turn, although Kenai chooses to remain a bear permanently so he can remain with Koda forever. The moose also disappear halfway into the movie, accompanying Kenai and Koda on their journey while riding on mammoths, and playing a game of "I Spy" (a tree), but when Kenai and Koda disembark after getting close to the Salmon Run, the moose are unable to get off, and are then carried away by the mammoth herd, after which Kenai and Koda discover the cave paintings at an abandoned village nearby, causing Koda to suddenly realize that to bears, humans were the monsters, "especially with those sticks." The moose don't appear until one last time where their mammoth crashed, causing Rutt to lose an antler and find a sad Koda angry that Kenai was actually the hunter who killed his mother, and persuade the cub to forgive, before finally disappearing for good, setting up for the final battle between Kenai and Koda and Denahi.
- Similarly, Koda doesn't appear during the final battle between Kenai and Denahi, only showing up just right before Denahi is about to kill Kenai, and thus allowing Kenai and Koda to start defending each other from Denahi's attacks until Sitka arrives and changes Kenai back.
- Before the final battle against Denahi, all of the other bears at the Salmon Run disappear when Kenai confesses to Koda that he killed his mother.
- Cinderella: The mice tend to be absent in most of the more dramatic or serious scenes, with the exception of the climax where Gus and Jaq carry the key up the stairs to free Cinderella from being locked in her room while the Duke is looking for the girl who lost the glass slipper.
- Near the end of Dinosaur, Eema, Baylene, Url, Plio, Suri, Yar, and Zini are all forced to stay behind in the Nesting Grounds (which they all entered via a secret passageway they accidentally discovered while they were still trapped in the cave) while Aladar immediately runs back outside to warn the rest of the Herd about Kron's idea for them to scale the ravine, and shortly afterward, the final confrontation with the Carnotaurus.
- Dumbo: When Dumbo accidentally causes the Pyramid of Pachyderms to collapse, Timothy Mouse escapes with the crowd and the Ringmaster as the collapse worsens to the tent falling to the ground; later Timothy just remains silent and only drops a Single Tear during the Tear Jerker song "Baby Mine".
- The Emperor's New Groove first plays this straight when Narrator Kuzco actually stops narrating the film once we see Llama Kuzco stranded in the middle of the South American jungle (the film's opening shot) once more, but inverts this during the climax.
- In The Fox and the Hound, Dinky and Boomer migrate to the south at the last quarter of the movie when things are becoming more dramatic and don't appear at the dramatic Bears Are Bad News climax.
- In Frozen:
- During the climactic blizzard where Anna rushes to Kristoff, and Hans runs to find and execute Elsa, Olaf is quickly blown away by the storm and Sven ends up stuck on broken ice. On a similar note, the fact that the trolls seem to avert this trope by having a comedic song about love when Kristoff comes to them to seek their help in saving Anna from freezing to death is part of the reason why some people dislike them.
- Olaf himself is actually a bit of an inversion. In the first half, Anna and Kristoff were the primary sources of comedy, but as the First Law of Tragicomedies sets in and the characters start to become more serious, Olaf is brought in to keep some lighthearted comedy, due to Olaf not being quite as invested in the drama as they are. (Then again, Olaf's Silly Song winds up being Black Comedy at its finest, further highlighting the darker tonal shift). Olaf does however start taking matters more seriously himself once he finds Anna freezing to death, and stops joking altogether when he helps her escape to find Kristoff.
- Played straighter in Frozen II, where Olaf has a Disney Death as a result of Elsa also having one, right before the film's climax.
- An intentional, in-universe example also happens earlier in the film, when Elsa decides the rest of the journey is too dangerous for Anna and Olaf and creates an ice canoe to send them away against their will.
- In The Great Mouse Detective, none of the comedic characters partake in the dramatic (and brutal) fight between Basil and Ratigan, as Fidget was literally Thrown from the Zeppelin before by the latter, and Dawson remained in the pursuing zeppelin just as Ratigan's crashed into the Big Ben with Basil on board.
- In Hercules, Phil and Pegasus are absent while Pain and Panic remain quiet and sulking behind Hades when Hercules goes to the Underworld to save Meg's soul from Hades.
- In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Clopin and the rest of the Gypsies excluding Esmeralda disappear without any explanation whatsoever when Quasimodo is tied to a torture wheel and splattered with fruit, and the gargoyles Victor, Hugo and Laverne are only seen again when Quasimodo retreats to the cathedral. Later, after participating in a comedic battle against Frollo's soldiers, the gargoyles exit Quasimodo's room when he is mourning the apparent death of Esmeralda and are not seen again until after the more dramatic final battle with Frollo. Djali the goat (Esmerelda's animal companion and sidekick) is also absent midway through the film and doesn't return until after Frollo's death and Notre Dame's fires are extinguished.
- The Jungle Book (1967) zigzags this, Baloo is knocked unconscious by Shere Khan. The vultures attack and pester Shere Khan which buys Mowgli time to tie the burning branch to his tail. However, Bagheera is absent during the whole fight.
- In Lady and the Tramp both Si and Am and Jock and Trusty are absent from the rat's arrival in the baby's room and the subsequent fight Tramp has in defending the baby from the rat.
- The Lion King:
- The Lion King (1994): In the stampede where Mufasa is killed, Zazu is knocked out by Scar before he can fly off to get help. Timon and Pumbaa are around while Simba and Nala rekindle their love, but they are absent when the two are arguing. This is done loosely in the climax; after a scene in the cave of Pride Rock where Pumbaa saves Timon and Zazu from the hyenas, the three disappear until Scar is dead and Simba is king again. The midquel at least explains what they were doing, however. Also, when Scar lets the hyenas into the pride lands, the three who usually provide comic relief are nowhere to be seen.
- The Lion King II: Simba's Pride was established as Darker and Edgier than the first movie as well as most Disney direct to video sequels. In the movie, it gets darker as Nuka is killed in the ambush, which causes Zira to go completely over the edge, physically harm Kovu and set forth with her plans to take over the Pridelands.
- The Little Mermaid: During the dramatic sea storm where Prince Eric's ship sinks, Sebastian and Flounder are last seen dragged beneath the waves and Scuttle the seagull is blown away by the wind, and near the end of the film the first two aforementioned characters are seen cowering in fear at the bottom of the ocean upon watching Ursula's One-Winged Angel transformation, and they are not seen again until the final scene.
- In Meet the Robinsons, as Carl is bringing Wilbur and Lewis back with the mind-reading machine, Doris stab him through the back with her claw, killing him. Then the timeline has been changed and Wilbur is erased. From that point until Lewis fixes the timeline, the movie takes a very dark turn with his entire family being controlled by Doris’ clones and the visuals being mainly red, black, and green. Even Goob is killed offscreen in the past, just to drive home the point.
- In Moana, whenever Heihei the chicken gets shoved in the cargo hold, you know things are about to get serious.
- In Mulan, Mushu and Cri-Kee just remain silent during the "torched village" scene, and again when Mulan is outed as a woman and is facing execution. This is downplayed in the climax, where they help Mulan deliver the final blow to Shan-Yu, also before the showdown Ling, Yao, and Chien Po are instructed to take the Emperor to safety.
- In Peter Pan during the climax, Mr. Smee is seen escaping into a life boat while Peter and Captain Hook have their duel. He is seen later with the rest of Hook's crew on the life boat while the crocodile is chasing Hook into the distance.
- In Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, along with Figaro and Cleo all but vanish in the movie's climax with Monstro the whale, only to wash up safely on the shore next to Geppetto once it's over. How Cleo managed to stay in her fishbowl the whole time is anybody's guess. Also, Jiminy is absent in the scene where Lampwick turns into a donkey.
- In Pocahontas, Grandmother Willow separates Flit, Meeko and Percy from John Smith and Pocahontas as they share their First Kiss, just before they are attacked by a jealous Kocoum. Later, said characters stay with Grandmother Willow when Pocahontas makes up her mind and goes to confront her father and the settlers. Similarly, Wiggins is seen dressing Ratcliffe and then disappears for most of the last twenty minutes of the movie.
- The Princess and the Frog had a disturbing variation of this: Toward the end of the film, Ray the firefly is crushed to death by Dr. Facilier while trying to smash his talisman in order to turn both Tiana and Naveen back into humans, Louis the alligator stays behind to tend to the dying Ray.
- In Raya and the Last Dragon, Sisu is apparently slain by an arrow shot by Namaari which causes the Druun to overwhelm Fang's defenses, in the chaos the rest of the comic relief characters, Boun, Little Noi and Tong, alongside Raya are all turned into stone. So it's up to Namaari to save the day.
- The Rescuers has Orville absent from when Bernard, Bianca, Evinrude and the swamp critters save Penny from Madame Medusa.
- The Rescuers Down Under has Wilbur staying at Marahute's nest to incubate the eggs while Bernard and Bianca rescue Cody and Marahute from Percival McLeach.
- In Robin Hood (1973), Little John, the Sheriff, and the villagers do play a part in the jail escape, but they are nowhere to be seen when Robin Hood escapes from Prince John's castle as it burns.
- Both Maid Marian and Lady Kluck disappear after the "Phony King of England" sequence, only showing up again during the epilogue when Marian and Robin finally get married.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs downplays this trope. In the third act, the dwarfs learn from the animals that Snow White is in danger. Quickly, their comical personalities are dropped in order to pursue the Queen. After the queen is defeated, the trope then gets zigzagged as the dwarfs are mourning Snow White. The comical Dopey's face is obscured in the scene as he instead is sobbing quietly on Doc's shoulder. Even poor Grumpy drops his comical curmudgeon act and appears to be in tears over Snow White's supposed death. They return to their comical personalities when the prince kisses Snow White, effectively proving to be the antidote to the Queen's curse.
- In The Sword in the Stone, Merlin literally blows himself to Bermuda in a fit of pique before the jousting tournament. (What makes this work even better is that his pet owl Archimedes, who stays behind with Arthur, stops being funny for once and acts almost as somber as Arthur does.) He does come back when Arthur is crowned king, complaining about the modern years.
- During the climax of Tangled, Pascal the chameleon runs away and hides when Rapunzel starts to have a conflict with Gothel, and Gothel's murder of Flynn shortly afterward. He eventually comes back to kick Gothel out of the tower just right when Flynn sacrifices himself by cutting off Rapunzel's hair.
- In Tarzan, both Terk and Tantor are completely absent when Tarzan fights Clayton, and Tantor's also absent during Kerchak's death (Terk is briefly shown mourning with the other gorillas). No explanation is given.
- Treasure Planet: Every time the movie takes a dramatic or serious turn, Morph disappears. This doesn't apply to B.E.N. though, but that's because he's plot important. Most noticeable when Morph is sucked away in a pipe while Jim takes out the Big Bad.
- Winnie the Pooh:
- In The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Tigger are absent from Pooh's Heffalumps and Woozles nightmare. They also are absent during the scene in which Rabbit gets lost in the woods.
- Pooh's Grand Adventure has Kanga and Roo completely absent from the darker Winnie the Pooh adventure.
- Wreck-It Ralph: Fix-It Felix and Sargent Calhoun (not exactly the clownish type) disappear from the climax as Ralph fights Turbo/King Candy.
- In Ralph Breaks the Internet, the viral advertisers are absent in the scene in which the virus creates bastardized clones of Ralph, which combine into a giant.
- In Zootopia, Clawhauser is reassigned to a basement job early on during the film's final act, right as it takes its darkest turn. He isn't seen again until the very end.
