"But someday, I'm gonna see the world. I'm gonna be an explorer! I'm gonna eat a hamburger!"
Yup, even the Mouse House can have some of the cute characters that can kick ass.- Pongo & Perdita in 101 Dalmatians, They travel half way across the country and back, braving the elements, all to rescue their Puppies, whilst bringing back Eighty-Four more than they had initially planned.
- True of the entire dog community really who only using a barking network and their wits, locate the missing puppies and coordinate a rescue mission over a hundred miles (in the teeth of a snowy winter) all in a matter of days.
- Then, there is Patch, one of their Puppies, in Patch's London Adventure. Who is able to come up with plans to escape from Cruella, needing to steer a Double Decker Bus through London, and taking Cruella on, one-on-one!
- Cubbi from Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Cute and badass. He dreams of being a knight and a hero, but he's proven himself worthy many times even though he's just a little bear cub. He's at his most badass when he dons a mask and takes a vigilante persona called "The Crimson Avenger". Heck, any of the Gummi Bears get a Let's Get Dangerous! moment anytime they use gummiberry juice to ward off foes.
- Wasp from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She's an adorable, spunky Moe/Action Girl who isn't afraid to fly right up to ultra-powerful Big Bads and blast them in the face while smack-talking them.
- One of the best aspects of Bambi II is evolving Disney's icon of cutesiness into a resourceful guardian for his herd, taking out an entire pack of hunting dogs by himself (bar one which is disposed of by the equally-adorable Thumper and Flower).
- Baymax from Big Hero 6 is a gentle, inflatable robotic nurse whose entire purpose is to be huggable and nonthreatening, and who routinely dispenses hugs and lollipops as treatment. He very closely resembles a walking marshmallow. However, he's capable of lifting 1000 pounds, and when Hiro upgrades him with armor and a chip that gives him combat capabilities, he becomes the powerhouse of the group. His adorable personality persists, even while punching through concrete, until Hiro takes out his healthcare chip against Baymax's will, at which point he becomes deadly.
- Hiro also counts; Along with his goofy gap-toothed smile, it helps that he is not only the leader, but also the youngest and smallest of the team. He is also the team member whose tech suit doesn't have any abilities.
- Honey Lemon is a nerdy, dorky Genki Girl who's as sweet as her namesake and has a wardrobe straight out of a 60's fashion magazine. She can do beaucoup damage when given a miniature chemistry lab (that looks like a pink purse with a heart-shaped display screen), and she's brave enough to face berserk!Baymax alone, with no chemical capsules ready, long enough to reinsert his healthcare chip.
- Brave: Aside from using Loophole Abuse to win the archery tournament for her own hand in marriage, climbing the Firefalls, facing Mor'du multiple times even when her arrows were having no effect, and facing her own father in sword combat to protect her mother... Merida manages to sew a tapestry while galloping on horseback through a raging thunderstorm. She gets it from both parents.
- The Brave Little Toaster has Toaster and Lampy as chief and they have badass Heroic Sacrifices.
- Lightning McQueen from the Cars franchise. Shiny red racing livery with signature #95 and lightning bolt motif? Check. Gorgeous blue eyes? Check. Warm smile? Check. Smooth voice courtesy of Owen Wilson? Check. Mad racing skills? Double check!
- All of the members of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers except for Monty have their moments, but none more consistently than the fly Zipper, who almost never shows any fear when something thousands of times his size threatens his friends.
- Webby Vanderquack in DuckTales (2017). She's a young and adorable pre-teen who has a fun and cute personality who loves her friends and families and is very thrilled by anything magic and cute but on the same time she's trained to be a One-Girl-Army you don't want to mess with. She's definitly capable of kicking some asses.
- In Frozen we have Anna and Elsa. Let's see - Cute? Check. Adorable? Check. Able to hold their own in a fight? Double Check.
- Lexington from Gargoyles: He's tiny by gargoyle standards (and none too big by human standards) and has flying-squirrel-like patagia for wings, owlish eyes, and a reedy tenor voice. He's also the team nerd. That said: he's still a gargoyle warrior. Don't piss him off.
- The Incredibles and Incredibles 2: The three Parr children.
- Violet is a very cute teenager who can generate force fields from her hands, and can hold her own in a fight. She was able to save her brother by jumping in front of him and creating a large force field, something she didn't know she could do. She beats Voyd in a fight in the sequel, preventing her from being hypnotised by the hypno-goggles.
- Dash. As a precocious and mischievous ten year old, he has the adorable down pat. While he is still inexperienced and unskilled, he has the highest kill count of his family while on the island as he lures mook after mook into crashing their velocipods.
- Jack-Jack is a baby who can't even talk yet, but both Syndrome and the babysitter learn the kid won the Superpower Lottery, multiple times, with enough powers for a team in his own right. Edna and Frozone in the sequel make it clear that even by Super standards, he's abnormally strong.
- Kiff is an adorable little squirrel who's saved the day many times.
- Kristophe Buns, Barry's one-eared baby brother, chased a gang of crows away from Kiff in "Farley".
- Kim Possible: Rufus. He's a pink rodent that can ride in someone's cargo pant's pocket and an official member of Team Possible.
- Also, Kim and Ron themselves due to their dorky nature.
- Stitch from Lilo & Stitch, and specially in Lilo & Stitch: The Series. He looks like an adorable blue koala with big eyes and can act as such, but he's also the 626th experiment created by an evil scientist with the primary function of destruction, and that trait will show if he feels the need, such as messing with his 'ohana. Many of his experiment "cousins" also count, each with their unique adorable looks and incredible powers.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Steve Rogers of Captain America: The First Avenger is a sweet-tempered, well-mannered and kind-hearted boy-next-door who just happens to possess a body rebuilt to human perfection.
- Guardians of the Galaxy:
- Rocket Raccoon. The cutest little raccoon you'll ever see... and then you realize how good he is with guns.
- Groot as well. He's basically a living tree and a kind creature... but don't piss him off. This is turned up to 11 with Baby Groot in the sequel, who is six inches tall, utterly adorable, and can beat up full-size humanoids.
- Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, is a geeky teenager who happens to have superpowers, not only going toe-to-toe with Captain America and Bucky Barnes, but using his knowledge to best his opponents.
- Princess Shuri of Wakanda in Black Panther is a cheery teenage nerd — and a Badass Bookworm Gadgeteer Genius who kicks ass with Arm Cannons she built herself.
- Goose the cat in Captain Marvel, who eats about a dozen enemy soldiers and is responsible for Nick Fury's iconic missing eye.
- Mickey Mouse:
- Badass Adorable-ness is more or less Mickey Mouse's main characterization; he's cheerful and upbeat, but he always manages to save the day in the end. In particular, he takes a level in badass in Kingdom Hearts and Epic Mickey. He is like that in the comics, too, since the very start in 1930. Watch him fight crooks, pirates and the like with pistols, lead pipes(!) or just his fists. He might be a nice guy, but he's no sucker.
- His half-brother, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, ain't such a pushover himself. Notwithstanding his role in Epic Mickey, stunts pulled in Oswald's shorts included beating up a huge bear and relieving it of its fur coat and grabbing a gun and pumping a live lion full of lead.
- Mike, Julie and Tennie have shades of this in Motorcity, but it's R.O.T.H. who fits the "adorable" part best. Although usually timid, he/it has shown to be capable ("badass") in a few episodes.
- Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The former is one of the most adorable skeletons ever. He also is the scariest guy in town, and if you try to turn his friends into snake-and-spider stew, he will fuck you up. The latter is a sweetheart and also had the guts to go into Oogie Boogie's lair by herself to save Santa.
- Oliver & Company, where Oliver himself is adorable, and is somewhat badass.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Meap is an intergalactic cop who roams the universe busting people who do stuff they're not supposed to do. He's two feet tall, doe-eyed, pink, and all he can say without his translator is "Meap!" Meap's second appearance includes a look at his home planet, a society based on cuteness. This does not stop them from mobilizing for war. In tanks that skip
. - Perry the Platypus. As his theme song states, he's a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action.
- Isabella has proven herself to be quite the Action Girl at times. In "Meapless in Seattle", she uses her cuteness as a weapon to beat Mitch.
- The Fireside Girls as a whole. They look darling in their scout uniforms and one of their accomplishment patches is wrestling an alligator.
- Phineas and Ferb themselves. If they wanted, they could invent a Kill Sat or Humongous Mecha in their free time. They built fifty foot tree house robots to have a rock'em sock'em robot battle with their teenage sister. They used the cumulative might of their inventions to stop an invasion of killbots from another dimension! They also built a space laser when the got the blueprints mixed up for their giant sundae maker. They just left the giant laser unattached before launching it into orbit.
- Their older sister Candace is a cute teenage girl who has shown time and time again that she's capable of amazing feats given enough motivation (often when she's trying to bust or protect her brothers).
- Meap is an intergalactic cop who roams the universe busting people who do stuff they're not supposed to do. He's two feet tall, doe-eyed, pink, and all he can say without his translator is "Meap!" Meap's second appearance includes a look at his home planet, a society based on cuteness. This does not stop them from mobilizing for war. In tanks that skip
- Recess:
- Spinelli is one of the most triumphant examples in the series, as she's a small adorable nine-year-old girl with her hair in Girlish Pigtails, yet she's the toughest kid in school.
- T.J. Detweiler. Short, chubby, wide-eyed, sweet, and adorable. He's also the leader of the gang, who's responsible for all of their awesome moments.
- Naïve Newcomer Gus Griswald, who is one of the cutest kids among the main six, being the sweetheart of the gang. He can be a bit of a fraidy cat at times though when he stands up for what he believes in, he's extremely badass.
- El Diablo, the best dodgeball player of his generation that one day mysteriously disappeared. When the Kindergartner Hector gets hit in the face by a dodgeball he returns to avenge him and leave as soon as he came. His name is Gus Griswald.
- Outside the main six, Miss Grotke is the kids' fourth grade teacher who is absolutely adorable and a martial arts expert.
- Robin Hood (1973): Skippy Rabbit is a cute rabbit with an adorable admiration of Robin Hood, and he fires an arrow at Prince John's butt.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil has the title character, Star Butterfly. She's a perky teenage princess with hearts on her cheeks who likes cute animals, pretty dresses... and beating up monsters. And this is before she inherits her mother's magic wand which, in the wrong hands, has the power to destroy the universe, and which tends to malfunction in hilariously dangerous ways when Star uses it for any purpose besides combat.
- Star Wars:
- Yoda, probably the most iconic example of an old Badass Adorable ever. Short height, big cute eyes and his wisdom knows no limits. And yet, one of the most powerful Force users and sword fighters of the Star Wars universe.
- R2-D2 gets to show more of his badass attitude throughout the installment in addition to being very cute.
- Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. Born of the Immaculate Conception, incredibly sensitive to the Force, a mechanical genius on his spare time and one of the best podracer pilots in the galaxy, not to mention his instant mastery when it comes to pilot a Naboo royal starfighter, destroying the Trade Federation's mothership thus putting an end to the conflict on Naboo in the process. And he was only 9 years old.
- His son, Luke Skywalker, especially in A New Hope, is also a great example himself despite starting much older; a young, sweet, small-framed, cheerful, sheltered farm boy of 19 with big Innocent Blue Eyes and Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold, an All-Loving Hero who genuinely wants to fight for all that's right; and also the last hope of the Rebel Alliance with bottomless potential as a Jedi, and one of the most iconic heroes of all of cinema for a reason. While in A New Hope he is untrained and often needs the help of others, he still shows good skills with a blaster against professional soldiers, rescues Princess Leia, a high-profile prisoner, and most impressively with the aid of the Force singlehandedly destroys the heavily fortified Death Star, exploiting an extremely small design flaw, on his first mission in the Rebellion, finding himself a Commander by the time he’s 20. By the end he saves the galaxy and takes down the Empire by sheer force of will and the goodness of his heart, and in the pre-Disney canon of Legends he goes on to become the strongest Force user to ever live, though his canon counterpart isn't far behind.
- Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars is a female Togruta that fits this trope. Considering she is in her early teens during the first two and a half seasons, and a large number of her enemies are at least twice her size, not to mention her large eyes, voice, personality, general appearance, and small frame in comparison to the rest of the main characters make her very adorable, she can be very cute yet badass in the course of the same episode.
- The younglings introduced during the Young Jedi arc also count because they are younger, cute, and less sure of themselves but still Jedi in training.
- The Ewoks. Cute fluffy teddy bears in hoods. Fierce warriors (with teeth) willing to take on the Stormtroopers with nothing more than slings and rocks. They kick some serious rear.
- Rey in The Force Awakens. A cute Plucky Girl that geeks out in the presence of Han Solo, she could still kick your ass a staff and even bests the film's Big Bad in a lightsaber duel!
- Chewbacca the Gentle Giant. He's a giant, lovable ball of fluff who gives the best hugs and can turn anyone who threatens him or those he cares about into swiss cheese.
- Grogu from The Mandalorian is an incredibly cute baby. He's also very strong in the Force and has saved his adopted father's life multiple times.
- Kit Cloudkicker of TaleSpin, master of Sky Surfing and Hyper-Competent Sidekick to Baloo.
- Rapunzel of Tangled was fully capable of bringing down any of the thugs in the Snuggly Duckling with her all-purpose whip (i.e. her hair) and Frying Pan of Doom but she didn't have to. They were already subdued by her pretty, endearing, 'I have a dream' adorableness.
- Jessie from Toy Story 2 is a Fiery Redhead cowgirl doll who acts optimistic and courageous. She even loves to ride horses and fight villains in Andy's playtime.
- Morph on Treasure Planet. Seems like a cute, little blob reminiscent of Ditto, right? Not only is he capable of transforming into any given person or object (still remains the same size when in normal form), but can utter very snarky phrases like a parrot, and, when against Ax-Crazy Scroop, is able to put up a decent fight for several minutes. Badass Adorable, indeed.
- In battle, Quorra of TRON: Legacy knows how to kick ass with her kickboxing and dogfighting abilities. When she's not fighting however, she's naive and has a childlike-innocent view of the world.
- In Turning Red, thirteen-year-old Meilin Lee acquires the ability to transform into an eight-foot-tall red panda which is cuter than a box of kittens — an effect which is only magnified by Meilin's bubbly high-energy personality. However, under that cute exterior is a warbeast created to fight off bandits in ancient China, with large teeth and claws, and the speed, strength, agility, and toughness to use its weapons very effectively.
- Twisted Wonderland:
- Grim is a small feline creature who can spit infernos of blue fire. In fact, the giant flaming monster the player fights and is guaranteed to lose against in the tutorial is implied via design to be Grim in overblot state.
- Lilia Vanrouge is a Token Mini-Moe with a buffoonish personality, but he's also retired military personnel who can beat up multiple bigger bullies well into old age.
- Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit has some of his moments, such as when he gives Judge Doom a short statement on his blatant hypocrisy and lack of responsibility for his career.
- Half of the core four in Wreck-It Ralph — Vanellope von Schweetz, a Plucky Girl Badass Driver and Fix-It Felix Jr., a Nice Guy with enough guts to take on a Cyborg bug invasion, despite being armed with a weapon that can only fix things.
- Judy Hopps from Zootopia. As a bunny she's got adorable covered and during her Training Montage at the police academy it is shown that she developed the agility and skill to take down a rhino in the boxing ring. Her strength is also impressive as she is shown clinging to the Sky Tram platform with one paw and able to hold onto Nick's paw while swinging on a vine despite his larger size.
