In cartoons, characters will sometimes change into something that symbolizes or is associated with the situation at hand. Common versions of this include:
- A lollipop emblazoned with the word "Sucker" (the character has just been tricked).
- A donkey, with optional braying (the character is stupid or being a (jack)ass). In cases where actually saying the word "ass" would provoke the censors, this can double as Getting Crap Past the Radar.
- A shoe heel (this example is often aligned with guilt and remorse akin to the trope My God, What Have I Done? rather than being embarrassed).
- A dumbbell (a more direct Visual Pun indication of stupidity).
- A wolf, complete with Wolf Whistle (the character is lustful).
- A Smelly Skunk (representing that the character is about to do something heinous).
- In Spanish-speaking media, a character with a cheating partner gets horns. This comes from the idioms "ponerle los cachos" ("put the horns on her/him/them") and "cornudo/a" ("horned/cuckold").
- In Japanese media, a character "turning into a tengu" (i.e. acting arrogant or boastful) will grow a tengu's long nose.
- An angel, or gaining typical angelic attributes like a Holy Halo, Symbolic Wings, or illumination by Rays from Heaven. This indicates their innocence, virtue, or good nature. In contrast...
- A devil, or gaining typical demonic attributes like Horns, a tail, or devilish red skin. This indicates their guilt, villainy, or evil nature. See Scary Symbolic Shapeshifting.
Because Tropes Are Flexible, this, of course, can be done in media other than animation. Any visual format can easily make use of this trope. Figurative speech such as similes and metaphors in written media serves the same function, if usually more frequent and at the same time done in a subtler manner.
Likewise, metaphoric transformations can and have been used for purposes other than comedy such as in Furry Lens (a character is drawn as an anthropomorphic animal, but is considered human in-universe).
The transformed character will almost always revert to their original form. If they realize they've been permanently transformed, you can expect an Oh, Crap! moment.
In any case, this trope often runs on Stock Visual Metaphors.
Supertrope to Scary Symbolic Shapeshifting, when someone is briefly shown morphing into a scary or disgusting form to show to the audience how loathsome they are. A specific form of Visual Pun (a play on words in the form of an image). Contrast Literal Metaphor (a character makes a figure of speech and they—sometimes sarcastically—say that they meant it literally). Compare Narrative Shapeshifting (a character shapeshifts while trying to describe something). Related to Shameful Shrinking (a character literally shrinks down due to embarrassment and shame) and Buzzsaw Jaw (eating so fast that your mouth turns into a buzz).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ranma ½: After Happosai announces that he's going to unseal his Happo Fire Burst technique (With the unspoken caveat that he's going to use it on the Tendo household's other men), Soun and Gemna turn into chickens as they panic.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: In "The Rose Signet", Utena has a dream in which Dios changes age every scene. When Utena first sees him, he looks like a young adult. When he tells Utena about Anthy, he is the same age he is in his flashback: about middle school-aged. And when he thanks Utena for her kindness and tells her that she will forget their meeting when she becomes a woman, he is back to being a young adult.
- Tomo-chan Is a Girl!: In Chapter 28, when Tomo is trying to rescue Carol from two flirtatious guys only for them to start flirting with her instead, she briefly turns into a lion (a male lion with a mane) to represent her Death Glare. It's enough to scare the guys off.
- Violence Jack: The manga features a very disturbing variation of this, when the evil men of sector B attack and rape the women of sector C, they metaphorically become wolves and hyenas.
Creators
- Marcell Jankovics's primary focus as an artist and animator is this. It shows up in practically all of his works: characters, objects, or entire sceneries are often in flux to express meaningful themes and ideas in visual form.
Fan Works
Crossovers
- Harry Potter and the Eternal Realm
(Potter Verse, Bewitched): Uncle Arthur promises to be "sweet as pie" while Hermione is having lunch with the Stephenses and then turns his body into a giant pie.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Genie turns into a sheep after realizing Aladdin tricked him into granting a free wish.
Genie: Well, I feel sheepish. Alright, you ba-a-a-ad boy, but no more freebies!
- Gay Purr-ee: As Meowrice taunts Juane Tom that he will never catch up with him on the train to save his girlfriend Mewsette, Tom calls him a dirty rat, which then gives him an idea to envision Meowtrice as a giant rat. This causes Tom's hunting instincts to kick in and take off like a bolt of lightning to reach the train.
- Háry János: When the titular character rejects both the banquet's main course and the princess's hand, stating that he'd rather eat something more traditional and go back to his peasant wife, the Emperor's face bounces back from human to skeletal to convey his thunderous ire.
- Hell-Bent for Election: Horace, the wrecker train and straw political opposition, briefly turns into Hitler while ranting against "Roosevelt's war."
- Kouka and Bibi: When Kouka convinces her to track the murderer by smell, Bibi rushes across the city to arrive at a several-store building. There, her body is shaped like an arrow with the head pointing to said building.
- Küzdők: The statue comes to life and begins sculpting away at its sculptor, rendering the sculptor into a shrunken old man. The metaphor of the artistic process of creation, and how creating art takes something out of the artist, is obvious.
- The Monkey King: During the climax of the movie, the Dragon King becomes a giant, bloated version of himself by gorging on seawater until he has the Toon Physics of a water balloon. This symbolizes his own inflated, bloated, excessive ego and self-image, which Monkey ends up literally bursting. And in return, the fact that the Monkey King gains the same glowing eye and an even bigger size than the Dragon King reveals that he is even more dangerous and destructive than him.
- Pinocchio (1940): Played for Drama since being on Pleasure Island for too long causes the misbehaving children to turn into actual donkeys, which in most cases seems to be permanent.
- The Princess and the Frog: Early in the song "Friends on the Other Side", Dr. Facilier's shadow briefly becomes a rattlesnake, symbolizing his untrustworthy and generally malevolent nature.
- The Shooting of Dan McGoo: When beautiful Lou first appears and says "Hello, boys", all the patrons howl with their heads morphed into wolf heads.
Films — Live-Action
Video Games
- The 7th Guest: Played for Drama. You're shown a scene after completing the puzzle in Martine Burden's bedroom. Martine is seducing Edward Knox, himself married to Elinor, to secure him as an ally in Henry Stauf's murderous game, and she pulls him in for a deep kiss. When he looks up, his head is replaced with that of a goat, showing how foolish he is to fall for her tricks.
Visual Novell
- Penthos: Played for Horror. In the finale, everyone transforms into a famous monster that represents their inner fears and weaknesses.
Web Animation
- The OMORIBOY Chronicles: Omoriboy calling himself "a potato" during his Weight Woe rant leads to him turning into an actual potato as he cries. Subverted, as it's quickly revealed to be a potato costume that he somehow conjured up.
Webcomics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: Mort transforms into a tombstone featuring a pictogram of a foot getting put into a mouth after he embarrasses himself trying to flirt with his crush. It has the added bonus of Mort being a Master of Illusion, therefore capable of pulling this In-Universe.
- I Love You, Little One, More Than Anything: The previously loving parent bunny turns into a wolf to represent them becoming abusive in response to their child trying to come out of the closet.
- Misfile:
- Ash appears in prison garb when feeling trapped.
- Emily, on the other hand, becomes analytical when curious, and wants to put a stop to hearing any TMI.
- Ash appears in prison garb when feeling
Web Video
- The Angry Video Game Nerd: When James decides he's done playing The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle games, Bugs Bunny uses Reverse Psychology and tricks him into continuing, with James turning into a lollipop after realizing he's been duped.
- The Chairman's Ear: Almost every character appearing in episode 11 is shown as an object alluding to their role. In particular, father Tadeusz is shown as a voting urn, representing his influence over the potential voters, and the chairman is represented by an ATM, as Tadeusz wants to fund another moneymaking scheme.
- Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City: Kugrash's curse has matched his "greedy rat" heart with his external form, turning him into a literal rat-man.
- JonTron: In his review of Bubsy, he turns into a lollipop sucker after taking a passage that sends him back to the start of the level.
Western Animation
- Betty Boop:
- "Swim Or Sink (S.O.S)": A pirate captain lusting after Betty briefly morphs into a snake.
- "She Wronged Him Right": Evil Debt Collector Heeza Ratt lives up to his name and transforms into a human-sized rat.
- Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid: In "Bosko's Mechanical Man", after accidentally breaking Honey's plates, Bosko briefly turns into a Sweet Sheep and even baas. For an extra punch, the music cue that plays is "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
- Classic Disney Shorts:
- "The Barn Dance": Mickey's head briefly turns into a donkey's after Minnie gets mad at him for his clumsy dancing.
- "The Clock Watcher": As Donald hurries to his post in the gift wrapping section of the department store, he runs past a sexy female mannequin, but briefly doubles back to stare in lustful ecstasy, his head turning into that of a howling wolf in the process.
- "Cured Duck": After Donald gets so frustrated from trying to open Daisy's window that he wrecks her living room, he finds himself transformed into a heel.
- "Donald's Crime": Donald briefly turns into a skunk when he's about to steal his nephews' money to go on a date with Daisy.
- "Motor Mania": Mr. Wheeler deliberately drives slowly down the middle of a street, blocking traffic. When someone calls him a "Road Hog!" he temporarily becomes a large, lazy fat swine behind the wheel. When he presses his car horn, it oinks!
- "No Hunting": Donald briefly turns into a roaring lion as the spirit of Pappy, his grandfather, takes over.
- "The Sleepwalker": After destroying a female dachshund's dog house, leaving her and her puppies without shelter, a guilty Pluto turns into a heel.
- "Soup's On": After being dressed as an angel for the prank, Donald transforms into a Big Red Devil when he returns to get even with his nephews.
- "Tomorrow We Diet":
- Goofy claims he's as fit as a fiddle and mimes playing one. Then his body takes the form of a violin before his pot belly drops. His reflection then snarks, "a bass fiddle."
- After all the food that's bad for him is removed, all Goofy has on his plate is a carrot, and his head turns into that of a rabbit.
- "Two Chips and a Miss": As they watch Clarice perform, Chip 'n' Dale become so lustful that their heads briefly turn into those of drooling wolves.
- "The Trial of Donald Duck": As the defense attorney says that Donald found Pierre to be "hard and cold" about his situation, Pierre is shown first as a granite statue, and then an ice sculpture.
- Dexter's Laboratory: In "Comic Stripper", Dexter finds out that Mandark gets his robot fighting moves from the comic book Mister Misery, so he buys every copy of it to anticipate what he'll try next, only for Mandark to use different tactics from another comic as a result. Once Dexter realizes the hole in his plan, he promptly turns into a donkey's rear.
- Droopy: In the short "Wags to Riches", Spike briefly becomes a skunk when he plots to kill Droopy to get his inheritance.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "Gimme, Gimme Never Ed", Jonny warns the Eds that Plank is going to ram them on the bumper cars. Eddy then sarcastically says, "I'm scared stiff — stiff as a board!" while briefly taking the form of Plank.
- The Flintstones: When Fred is guilt-tripped by Wilma, he runs into Barney, who comments on his own still visible "heel" head, implying Betty used the same tactic on him.
- House of Mouse: Donald gets called a "ham" by Mickey, dramatically overreacts to this and is turned into an actual piece of ham at the end of the episode.
- I Cartoni dello Zecchino d'Oro: The boy in "Metti la Canottiera" briefly grows donkey ears to symbolize he's being overlooked in his team (in Italian, "asino" can mean "dunce").
- La Linea: In one episode, the cartoonist draws a lion in Mr. Linea's path, which roars at him. After he recovers from the initial shock, Mr. Linea responds by roaring back, which causes the lion to transform into a mouse and run away in fear.
- Looney Tunes:
- "A Bear for Punishment": At one point, after yelling at his wife, Henry becomes a "first-class heel".
- "The Big Snooze": Elmer Fudd turns into a sucker after repeatedly falling for Bugs' "run through a hollow log over the edge of a cliff" gag. This episode is basically a retrace of a scene from the earlier short All This and Rabbit Stew, with the black caricature hunter redrawn as the similar proportioned (but more politically correct) Elmer Fudd.
- In the Merrie Melodies short "Bone Sweet Bone", a bulldog steals a smaller dog's bone. The latter gets even by blowing up a giant bone-shaped balloon. When the bulldog sees what he thinks is the biggest bone ever, his greed is apparent when his head transforms into that of a lip-smacking pig!
- "Carrotblanca": Bugs turns into a sucker as Kitty is guilting him into helping her.
- "A Corny Concerto": When going after the buzzard, the Ugly Duckling briefly crossfades into a WWII fighter plane — specifically a P-40 Warhawk with the distinctive shark's mouth nose art made famous by the Flying Tigers.
- "Daffy's Inn Trouble": Daffy tries to put Porky Pig out of business by crushing his establishment with a boulder. He rolls the boulder off the edge of a cliff, only for it to land next to Porky's establishment, bounce in the air, and crush Daffy's own establishment instead, leaving Porky's intact. Again, when he sees what has happened, Daffy becomes "ass-faced" and brays like a donkey.
- "Falling Hare": When Bugs is tricked into running out of the airplane, he briefly turns into a donkey, complete with the words Jack Ass labelled on him. For an extra punch, the music cue that plays is the stock snippet "You're a Horse's Ass."
- "The Hep Cat": The cat turns into Victor Mature when he calls himself a "gorgeous hunk of man", and into a wolf while romancing a lady cat.
- "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt": After Hiawatha realizes he's hanging in midair, Bugs calls out " Sucker!" while Hiawatha momentarily becomes a sucker, just before gravity kicks in.
- "The Million Hare": After Daffy Duck inadvertently donates his million dollar prize to his "best buddy" Bugs Bunny. The touched announcer asks Daffy for some words, to which an "ass-faced" Daffy donkey-brays.
- "Plane Daffy": After telling valuable military secrets while being drunk to a Femme Fatale Spy, one of the pigeons briefly changes into a jackass.
- In the short "Tom Turk and Daffy", after realizing he's been had by Daffy, Porky first wears a Dunce Cap, then turns into a bottle of dope, and finally a sucker.
- Norman Normal: A childish argument where Norman's boss tries to pressure him into making a sale easier by getting a potential client drunk results in Norman and his boss both regressing into children.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "Special Delivery", Rad is suddenly wearing clown gear after he's humiliated by Enid bringing up the failure of his Radwing.
- Plastic Man: In "Puddle Trouble", Plastic Man shifts his head into a donkey after realizing he stuck the Human Puddle in a cell with a toilet. His dumbass mistake allowed the crook to escape.
- Popeye: A recurring gag has Bluto become a Wolf when he lusted after Olive Oyl and in another instance, he became a rattlesnake when he eavesdropped on Popeye and Olive’s treasure-hunting plan.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: In "Stimpy's Fan Club", Ren turns into a human ass, accompanied by a donkey braying, when he realizes he's being a jealous jerk to the only person who appreciates him.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- "Fools In Aprill": One of Squidward's failed attempts to apologize to SpongeBob has him braying as his head morphs into that of a donkey — in other words, he feels like a jackass.
- "Christmas Who?": Squidward initially revels in SpongeBob's promises about Santa Claus visiting Bikini Bottom being proven wrong, which leaves the sea sponge a sobbing, heartbroken pariah. However, upon seeing that SpongeBob made him a custom mechanical clarinet as a Christmas present (in case Santa didn't give him anything when he showed up), Squidward realizes how cruel he acted and states that "I feel like a... I feel like a...," at which point a braying donkey is superimposed on his head — in other words, he feels like a jackass. Squidward then finishes his sentence with the words "...big jerk!"
- Superjail!: The Warden exploits his shapeshifting ability to make a lot of Visual Puns.
- There's that time when he turns himself into a beer glass when talking about coworkers spending quality time in a bar and, shortly after, into a worker bee when declaring that it's time to go back to work.
- In another episode, the Warden intends to miniaturize a couple of inmates so they can battle the forces of nature. Cue to him dressing them as a gladiator and a XIXth century soldier.
- While lamenting over how he and fellow prison guard Alice have ruined the purest thing in Superjail, aka love (born of convenience and limited options), he is suddenly wearing baby cupid's typical diaper and feathery wings.
- Teen Titans Go!: Subverted when Beast Boy transforms into a wiener after claiming Trigon is one.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In old Tex Avery cartoons, men would often bug out and even literally turn into wolves at the sight of an attractive woman.
- Tom and Jerry:
- "The Framed Cat": After Tom tricks Spike into putting the bone on his nose, Spike realizes the trick and his head turns into a donkey.
- "Pet Peeve": Tom tricks Spike into leaving the house with a Bindle Stick. This time, when Spike realizes he's been duped, his head briefly morphs into a donkey, before he turns his gaze back with an angry snarl and races back into the house, and ends up flattening a laughing Tom underneath the front door he knocks down in his anger.
- "Polka-Dot Puss": Tom momentarily morphs into a "jackass" once he realizes Jerry tricked him into thinking he had measles after seeing a jar of red paint near the mirror.
- "Solid Serenade": When Tom tricks Spike into playing a game of "fetch", Spike is about to pick up the stick when he realizes what he's doing and momentarily morphs into a "jackass".
- "Puppy Tale": Tom has an Imagine Spot caused by his guilt from casting Jerry and an abandoned puppy out into the rain, with him becoming a skunk.
- Win or Lose:
- Whenever Rochelle feels confident or acts "like a boss", she grows a few inches and wears a green suit with shoulder pads.
- Whenever Frank feels confident or defensive, a blue knight's armor appears on him. He sheds the armor when he goes to Monica.
- Woody Woodpecker: Woody and Buzz Buzzard turn into wolves when they see a beautiful woman. When they realize they are unable to buy her expensive gifts, they turn into giant ice skates with $1 price tags- a pair of cheapskates, if you will.
