Stating the Simple Solution in Animated Films.
- Aladdin:
- The titular character, posing as Prince Ali Ababwa, asks Genie how to win Princess Jasmine's heart. Aladdin has already met the princess as a street rat and charmed her just fine. Genie's advice for Aladdin with this in mind is to just tell Jasmine the truth about who he is. Too bad that when an opportunity presents itself for Aladdin to tell the truth, Aladdin digs himself in deeper and tells another lie to try and sustain the original lie.
- There's a law that says Jasmine has to be married to a prince by an appointed time. Only by the end of the film does it dawn on the Sultan that he has the power to change the law, which he does to allow Jasmine to marry whoever she wants. Admittedly, the sultan found out that this was the actual issue instead of Jasmine's suitors just not interesting her.
- The sequel, The Return of Jafar, even has a bit of this. Jafar, now a genie himself, can't kill Aladdin because a genie is unable to kill people with their powers. But, as Jafar quickly rationalizes, even though a genie can't kill someone directly, he can just get someone else to do it for him. And if all else fails? Just summon a lava pit. Hey, it's not like you would technically be the one killing him.
- Inverted in BIONICLE 3: Sidorak wants to drop the Toa, who are held captive in cocoons, from atop the Coliseum, but his viceroy Roodaka convinces him to make the event more "legendary", so they wait until the Toa are mutated and disfigured by the cocoons' venom and then let them drop, by which time the Rahaga have arrived to save them mid-fall. Explained in the books as Roodaka wanting their last moments to be realizing how utterly they had failed in their goal to rescue the Matoran and as a bit of karmic vengeance for their imprisonment of Makuta Teridax.
- In The Emperor's New Groove Yzma does it to herself immediately after her first plan without even realising it:Yzma: I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea. Then, I'll put that flea in a box, and I'll put that box inside another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself. And when it arrives, Muhahaha! I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER! [BAM] ...Or, to save on postage, I'll just poison him with this!
- In The Incredibles, villain Syndrome has just launched his personal rocket towards the city to begin his campaign of facing a threatening enemy, his latest model Omnidroid, that only he can dispatch. Bob and Helen Parr are at a loss at first of how to get back in time to stop him; Dash points out a standby rocket ready and prepped in another launch bay. Helen points out that she doesn't know how to pilot a rocket; Violet just says to use the previous launch's coordinates. Finally, when they're mulling over how to work the computer consoles for the launch, Mirage offers her assistance.
- In Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, when Zim teleports the Earth in the Irken Fleet's path so that the Tallest will have to meet him (and inadvertently creating the Florpus, a multidimensional, planet-destroying tear in reality, in doing so), the two Tallest are horrified of the idea of encountering Zim again (far more so than colliding with the Florpus), but when one of the pilots states they can simply turn out of the way, they just moan and groan like children.Purple: Earth? That means Zim! This is the worst news I've ever heard!
Irken Pilot: Sirs, we still have quite a bit of time to change course.
Red: But we're going straight!
Purple: Yeah, turning's no fun! Why is this happening? Make it not happen!
(Both Tallest groan very loudly) - Isle of Dogs: Chief's pack and a rival dog pack are ready to fight over a sack full of leftovers when Rex pipes up and says that they should open the sack and see if it's worth the trouble. They do just that, and Rex lists all that's in the sack before Chief finally declares, "Okay, it's Worth It", and they all start fighting anyway.
- Peter Pan. Mr. Smee asks why Captain Hook insists on using a bomb to kill Peter Pan when just slitting his throat would be "more humane". Captain Hook responds that I Gave My Word not to lay a finger — or hook — on Peter. He never breaks a promise.
- In the 1970s Disney animated film The Rescuers, when Madame Medusa returns to her home in Devil's Bayou, her minion Snoops points out that they don't have to stay here and continue forcing Penny into the Black Hole to find the Devil's Eye Diamond when she's already retrieved them a fortune in "lesser" gems and jewels. Medusa just swats them out of his hands and screams at him, because she wants the Devil's Eye itself, not the money she'd get for selling it.
- Sleeping Beauty: King Stefan's initial plan to save his daughter's life from the curse Maleficent placed on her? Have all the spinning wheels in the kingdom burned! If there are no spinning wheels, then she can't fatally prick herself on her sixteenth birthday, can she? Unfortunately, Maleficent, being an evil fairy with magical powers, just counters with a simple solution of her own: just conjure one into existence.
- In Song of the South, Br'er Bear points out that Br'er Fox's plans to catch Br'er Rabbit never work and suggests that they just "knock his head clean off." He may be a fool but even he can judge the results after a certain number of times.
- The main plot of Trolls Band Together centers around BroZone (Branch's old band with his brothers) reuniting to save their brother Floyd from Velvet and Veneer. Both Bruce and Clay, when they learn of this plan, suggest just calling the authorities. Admittedly, it is explained why they can't just do that (Floyd is being held in a diamond prison, and the only thing that can shatter Diamond is the perfect family harmony, hence why they need the band back together).
- Zootopia: Nick and Judy find a train car full of vital evidence. Nick suggests taking a small briefcase containing relevant evidence and leaving before the bad guys realize they're there. Unfortunately, Judy impulsively wants all of the evidence delivered to the police. So she hijacks the train car. And crashes it, destroying all of the evidence. Fortunately for her, Nick still has the briefcase on him.
