Follow TV Tropes

Following

Big Damn Heroes / Western Animation

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/green_family_dramatic_entrance.png


  • Amphibia:
    • Marcy does this twice in "Marcy at the Gates"; once when she makes her Big Entrance to save Anne and the Plantars from the Barbari-Ants, and again when she saves Sprig from being eaten by the Queen.
    • Grime is this to Sasha in "Turning Point" when he saves her from being obliterated by the Golden Boss.
    • Dr. Jan in "Fight at the Museum" when she bursts through the museum doors with security and witnesses Anne about to be murdered by the Cloak-Bot, causing it to notice them and flee the scene, saving her life.
  • Arcane:
    • Pretty horrifyingly subverted when Powder unleashes her Hexgem loaded monkey bomb. Instead of coming in the nick of time to save her adopted family, it kills most of them while failing to permanently stop the threat attacking them. To rub it in further, they were getting close to escaping without her interference.
    • Caitlyn rescues Vi after she's severely injured by Sevika, shooting off the ampoules of Shimmer that power her mechanical left arm.
  • Atomic Puppet
    • Joey and AP do this a fair bit. For example, when an interdimensional portal constructed by a team of scientists goes haywire, putting the fabric of time and space in jeopardy, they show up to dispose the machine with the perfect line.
    AP: Take a deep breath, geeks. The help has arrived.
    • Pauline gets to do one when she takes on the mantle of Sword Sister, saving Atomic Puppet from a car chucked by Professor Tite-Gripp before delivering a Curbstomp Battle on Professor Tite-Gripp.
    • Mookie tries this fairly regularly to win the adoration of the citizens of Mega City. However, his own incompetence and the fact that he's usually the one who brought in whatever threat Mega City needs to be saved from means Atomic Puppet ends up taking his attempt at glory.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • "The Boiling Rock" has Mai saving the group from having the gondola they're in dropped into the boiling lake.
    • In "Sozin's Comet": Sokka and Toph are about to fall off an airship, and are surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers... in comes Suki, riding on top of another airship, giving them someplace to jump down to and destroying the first airship at the same time.
    • If Appa is not with the group in a battle scene, then when he shows up it is guaranteed to be a Big Damn Heroes moment.
    • Zuko saves Iroh from being crippled by Earthbenders early in Book 1. They then proceed to mop the floor with them.
    • Zuko also saves the Gaang from Combustion Man, the very assassin he hired to kill them at the beginning of the season, which helps show (most of) them that he is making a genuine attempt to atone for his past actions.
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King", Batman comes to save Mayor Hill from the Death Trap Just in Time.
  • Beast Wars has too many of these to list, generally set up by cutting to the good guys headed towards where they're needed, then cutting back to their destination and letting a scene play out until it's a good time for it to be interrupted by weapons fire. The best example of the trope occurred in "Coming Of The Fuzors, Part 2", when the Maximals are outgunned and surrounded. When it looks like they're done for (Megatron says, "Finish it."), the wall of the Maximal baseship blows open to reveal the new-and-improved Optimus Primal, Back from the Dead and ready for a fight.
  • Ben 10: Grandpa Max has seven words for you:
    "Get your claws off my grandson, Vilgax!"
  • Big City Greens:
    • The Greens are this in "Elevator Action", protecting Gloria's car from getting towed away after the parking meter expires. They do this again in "Impopstar", bashing down the locked door to the mannequin warehouse to free Cricket who is trapped by his Identical Stranger's Loony Fan.
    • Phoenix becomes this in "Cricket's Shoes" when the Greens get surrounded by vicious dogs and she tells them to leave them alone.
    • Tilly becomes this in "Remy Rescue", as part of a Brick Joke when she sneaks into the vents and bursts out, freeing Cricket from Vasquez's grasp long enough so he can save Remy.
    • Tilly becomes this twice in a row in "Rated Cricket", thanks to her delusions of being in another dimension. First, she comes out of nowhere to take the heat for Cricket sneaking into the projector room so Cricket can reach the theater for Kiss of Death. Second, she fends off the angry customers to save Bill from losing his homemade popcorn to them.
    • Keys, of all people, becomes this in "Reckoning Ball", stepping bravely in front of the Green family as Chip is about to destroy their house with a wrecking ball and threatening to arrest him for attempting murder, causing him to miss and hit part of the roof instead.
    • Alice becomes this in "Shark Objects" along with the seagulls, when she comes upon Cricket about to be killed by the lifeguard, thinking he's a shark, so she takes the lifeguard far out to sea.
    • Bill becomes a last-minute one in the climax of "Quiet Please", when he sees Cricket about to get in trouble with the librarian for making noise after finding a book he likes and not even knowing it, so he willingly sacrifices himself by letting out a scream so loud it results in him getting in trouble instead, resulting in him banned from every library across the globe (and on his first visit nonetheless!), while simultaneously giving Cricket the gift of reading.
    • All of Big City become these to the Greens in "Chipocalypse Now", where they stick up for the family and show their true acceptance for them, which in turn makes Mayor Hansock realize the destruction petition was fake, cancels the demolition, bans Chip from Big City, orders the street to return to normal, and allows the Greens to stay for good.
    • In "Homeward Hound", Miss Brenda and Melissa show up just in time to stop Cogburn from destroying Saxon and defeat him, and to save Phoenix from his wrath.
  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "The Return of XL" hangs a lampshade on this practice.
    Booster: I just hope we're in time!
    Buzz: It wouldn't be a real rescue if we were too early.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Almost any time Captain Planet is summoned, he arrives just in time to save the titular team or sometimes people in general. The Planeteers also take turns pulling off last-minute rescues for each other or sometimes for Cap or Gaia.
    • "A Hero for Earth": Wheeler and Ma-Ti's Establishing Character Moments both involve them coming to someone's rescue. As Gaia sends Wheeler the Fire Ring, he's interrupting a mugger sticking up an innocent bystander and intimidating the thug into fleeing the scene. Ma-Ti receives the Heart Ring when he scares a jaguar as it encroaches on a monkey tangled in vines. The monkey hands Ma-Ti the ring.
    • "Rain of Terror": Ma-Ti, suffering an attack of self-doubt, stays behind on the latest mission, alleging he's useless. However, when the other Planeteers are trapped in an improvised Gas Chamber, he senses their fear and goes anyway (even managing to scale a wall bigger than the one he'd had trouble with earlier), arriving barely in time to keep the others from choking to death on the toxic fumes.
    • "Beast of the Temple", Gi gets attacked by a crocodile while looking for clues at the bottom of a river. Just in time, Linka picks the crocodile up with a small tornado and deposits it downstream.
    • In "Deadly Ransom", the team summons Captain Planet to deal with an apparent nuclear bomb on the verge of exploding. It's subverted when it turns out that the "danger" was never real and the villains just lured him into a trap to serve as leverage for their actual plan.
    • "The Big Clam-Up": Ma-Ti, who's gotten hooked on a detective noir series and been causing issues trying to emulate it, gets left behind when the others investigate a tip about the rash of food poisonings in San Francisco. He puts together a bunch of clues properly and figures out the culprit is Verminous Skumm, allowing him to arrive just in time to save his older teammates from being force-fed the same food that Skumm used to put the other victims in the hospital.
  • The Chipmunk Adventure has The Chipettes rescuing The Chipmunks from being fed to alligators.
  • Code Lyoko is the epitome of this. They're five teenagers fighting against an evil AI who wants to rule the world and can virtual monsters into the real world.
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog features this a few times. Just when things look hopeless, Courage figures out how to solve things and rushes to rescue Eustace and/or Muriel from the Monster of the Week.
    • Amusingly enough, in the first episode it's Muriel who saves Courage in "A Night at the Katz Motel".
    • Eustace manages to save the day at least twice: in "Klub Katz", Eustace (turned into a living wrecking ball) realizes Katz has stolen his beloved armchair and flies into a rage, attacking Katz and giving Courage and Muriel time to escape; at the end of "Mission to the Sun", he flies by the sun on a passing comet and gives Muriel and Courage a ride back to Earth.
  • The Cuphead Show!: In "Sweater Luck Next Time", Mugman arrives in the nick of time with the magic sweater he had knitted just as his brother's soul is being pulled out of his body, and distracts the Devil to stop him from killing Cuphead, whose life and soul is (literally) hanging by a tail thread. Mugsy then dresses the Devil up in the sweater that electrocutes the latter and zaps him back to the Underworld; and while the Devil is getting zapped, Mugsy places Cuphead's soul back into his nearly-colorless body, reviving him once again.
  • Happens here and there in Danny Phantom.
    Pariah: (holding Danny and Vlad in his hand, both knocked out) They're ghosts and humans! Is there no end to this day's surprises?
    Valerie: Hey, stoneface! Surprise! (shoots him in the face)
  • DuckTales (1987):
    • A double example from "Back Out in the Outback": Launchpad and the boys swoop in with a load of boomerangs just in time to prevent Dashing Duke from attacking Scrooge and Sundowner, and then Webby arrives, having teamed up with several of the Australian animals to come to Scrooge's rescue, and interrupts him and his men before he can resume the attack with the heavy-duty boomerang he has left.
    • In "Back to the Klondike", Goldie turns up astride her pet bear, Blackjack, just as Dangerous Dan and his mooks have gotten the upper hand on Scrooge and the boys.
    • In "Till Nephews Do Us Part", summoned by the triplets, Goldie interrupts the wedding between Scrooge and Millionara Vanderbucks at the last minute.
    • In "A DuckTales Valentine", Launchpad swoops in and hits Vulcan in the face with the missile just before he can fry Scrooge with a lightning ball. His defense doesn't last long, but it does help Scrooge survive.
  • Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera pulls this during the Ducktales 2017 season 1 finale, arriving just in time to rescue Lil' Bulb and Manny from Magica's shadow army.
  • In Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "For the Ed, By the Ed," when it looks like the Kankers would succeed in force feeding Jimmy a caterpillar, Plank comes out of nowhere and saves Jimmy.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • A few times in the series. In fact, it's the first thing Crash Nebula is seen doing.
    • A notable instant is Cosmo saving Timmy from Dark Laser Han Solo-style.
    • In "Dream Goat", when the citizens chase Timmy to a dead end after Timmy admits to freeing Chompy, Chompy (and his family) arrive at the last minute to save Timmy.
    • In "Christmas Every Day!" as Santa is about to be sent to the nonexistent date of February 33rd by the other holidays and Timmy is out of options, all the children from around the world he encountered show up last-minute to save the day.
    • In "Channel Chasers", Tootie somehow witnesses Vicky vandalizing the Turner house and blaming Timmy for it when she thought he was watching TV despite being grounded, so she meets up with Mom and Dad in the guise of "Deep Toot" and gives them the proof, allowing them to realize Timmy is innocent and Vicky is the real threat.
  • Briefly parodied for a gag in the Family Guy episode "Let's Go To The Hop". Peter sneaks out of the house through the roof, accidentally falls, but is suddenly saved by Spider-Man of all people breaking his fall with a webbed net.
    Peter: Wow, thanks, Spider-Man!
    Spider-Man: Everybody gets one. (swings off)
  • From Futurama: "How Hermes Requisitioned his Groove Back"
    Morgan: Bender's brain lost in the master in pile, and it would take some sort of giant, mechanical, atomic-powered sorting machine to find him.
    Hermes: You rang?
  • The opening title sequence of the animated G.I. Joe movie definitely counts. So awesome that it overshadowed the rest of the film.
  • Gravity Falls: In the Season 2 premiere, “Scary-Oke”, Dipper, Mabel and Waddles are cornered by zombies, with Dipper about to be eaten...until Grunkle Stan appears, ready to go Papa Wolf on the zombies.
    Stan: Alright you undead jerks, YOU READY TO DIE TWICE?!
  • Green Lantern: Emerald Knights: The entire Corps is collectively moving a planet toward their enemy using all their willpower, but it's not enough. And then, who shows up via portal but the Green Lantern who "doesn't socialize": Mogo who is not only a Green Lantern but a living planet. Heroes don't get much bigger than that.
  • In the 1982 animated film Heidi's Song, Peter the goatherd and his animal friends crash their way into the basement as Heidi is fighting off the rats. Complete with the "That's What Friends Are For" melody playing in the background, no less.
  • Hamster & Gretel: In "For Whom The Belle Tolls", Bailey and the fan club show up just in time to show the city the unedited videos of Hamster and Gretel, finally proving their innocence and arresting Belle.
  • I ♡ Arlo:
    • Bertie becomes this in "Make a Fish" when she saves Marcellus' life before he completely dehydrates.
    • Two in succession in "The Uncondemning". First, Bertie and Alia shout for Arlo and swing into the Heart of the Swamp, causing Arlo to snap out of the Bog Lady's hypnosis and rescue Edmée while the girls fight the Bog Lady. Secondly, Marcellus and the others pick them up on a fan boat, the first having revealed he found them thanks to putting a tracking device on Bertie.
  • Subverted on Jimmy Two-Shoes, when Beezy is being forced to marry the Weavil Princess. First, Heloise bursts in, demanding the wedding stop...only for her to realize it wasn't the McPherson wedding and dismiss herself. Then Jimmy comes in to try and stop it, only for the wedding cake to distract him. The marriage goes through, though the Princess runs off anyway.
  • This happens a lot in Jonny Quest. One example would be in Manhattan Maneater, when an amoral hunter is about to shoot a white tiger. Just before he pulls the trigger, a gangster steps in the way and refuses to back down. And another happens not a minute later, when the tiger leaps to attack — only to be shot by a tranquilizer, thanks to Race and Dr. Quest who just made it to the scene.
  • Justice League:
    • Invoked. Batman is falling without a parachute after ejecting from the Batplane, and is saved by Superman at the last moment.
      Batman: (Completely Deadpan) Batman to all points. I could use some air support. Since I can't fly. At all... now would be good.
    • "The Secret Society": Batman is facing five supervillains after tracking down Clayface to a factory; when Clayface gloats that Batman is outnumbered, the latter replies that he brought reinforcements of his own as the rest of the League comes in.
      Clayface: You didn't think I would come here without reinforcements, did you?
      Batman: Wish I thought of that. (Garage door falls down, revealing the rest of the members) Oh, wait, I did.
  • Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Two in Mute-Eat-Mute World":
    • Kipo comes running to her friends' rescue armed with Wolf's stinger-tipped staff. Although Kipo doesn't manage to get them out of trouble, her willingness to put herself in harm's way for her friends is what convinces Wolf to get over her rejection of Kipo's half-mute status.
    • Not long afterwards, Jamack comes and helps them escape by luring a gigantic rabbit monster towards the Mutes that had captured the gang.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • In "Turning the Tides", this happens multiple times as the battle rages in multiple locations throughout the city.
    • The Fire Ferrets come to Tenzin's rescue as he is attacked by Equalists looking to kidnap him, along with the rest of the council.
    • Tenzin's three Airbender children storm in to rescue Lin Beifong during the Equalist invasion on Air Temple Island.
    • At the end of Book 2, Jinora's spirit comes to help Korra during her final showdown against Unalaq. Her spirit is what gives Korra the resolve to defeat Unalaq once and for all.
    • At the end of Book 3, Jinora and all the new Airbenders are up. The Big Damn Heroes make a Big Damn Tornado to ensnare the flight-capable airbender anarchist Zaheer, who had Korra dead to rights.
  • In The Magic Trolls and the Troll Warriors, Princess Celia saves Finn and the Magic Trolls by attacking from behind.
  • In the Season 3 premiere of Metalocalypse, a Corrupt Corporate Executive was trying to force Dethklok to sign a new contract advantageous to him. Nathan was going to put his signature on it when Charles Ofdensen, their thought dead manager, shows up in the doorway to stop them.
    • Later that season, when most of the band is captured by an evil sentient robot with a bomb inside it, and Ofdensen is powerless to help (possibly), Pickles pulls this trope off after resolving to Take a Third Option to fall off the wagon and save the band at the same time.
    "I AM BACK MOTHERFUCKER!"
  • Molly of Denali: In "Molly and the Great One", Joy and Atsaq arrive in a helicopter to save Mac during a blizzard at Mt. Denali.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
    • Pinkie Pie in the climax of "Swarm of the Century", who manages to get the Parasprites out of Ponyville and take them back to the Everfree Forest with her one-pony band.
    • Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in "Call of the Cutie" when they stick up for Apple Bloom at Diamond Tiara's cute-ceñera.
    • Princess Celestia becomes this in Part 2 of "The Return of Harmony", when she sends back Twilight all her friendship reports which breaks her out of Discord's Mind Rape and realizes how to stop him.
    • Spike in the climax of Equestria Games, quickly leaping to save the stadium from the block of ice without a second thought.
    • In a non-human example, the Tree of Harmony plays this twice. First in the infamous "The Mean 6", it and the Elements immediately recognize the Mane 6's evil doppelgängers as not their true wielders, and in return, the tree protects itself by draining the spell that gave them life right out of them. Secondly in Part 2 of "School Raze" when the Young Six are close to being sent to another world with all the Equestrian magic, the Tree uses just enough magic to free them from the portal so they can foil Cozy Glow's plan to take over Equestria.
    • In the Grand Finale as Twilight is held in the clutches of Chrysalis, Cozy and Tirek who appear to kill her with the magic they stole with Grogar's Bewitching Bell, Rarity throws a rock at them just in time, causing them to drop Twilight, saving her life. Also, all of Equestria show up in the Final Battle to help them win the war.
  • The Owl House:
    • Eda and King arrive in time to save Luz from Adegast. It was a trap, but learning that they actually care about her gives Luz enough motivation to overcome Adegast's illusions and her own disappointment.
    • In "Escaping Expulsion", Amity saves Luz from being killed by her family's abomaton, enraging her mother. Alador counts, too, when he forces Odalia to keep her promise and talk Bump into accepting Luz, Willow and Gus back into Hexside.
    • In "Keeping Up A-fear-ances", Gwen arrives in time to keep a transformed Lilith from killing Eda in a fit of rage. She apologizes her older daughter for ignoring her, making Lilith cry and calm down, and gives elixir to both, making them turn back to normal.
    • In "Eclipse Lake", Eda grabs Amity to keep her from falling into the abyss.
    • In "Hollow Mind", Hunter arrives just in time to keep Belos from killing Luz by blocking his attack with some of the glyphs he found in her coat.
    • Luz and Hooty save King from being sacrificed by Titan Hunters in "Edge of the World".
    • In "Clouds on the Horizon", Alador frees Amity, Luz, Hunter, Gus and Willow by deactivating Odalia's camp of force.
    • In "King's Tide", Raine uses the last of their strength to keep Eda from being disintegrated by the curse by detaching her arm with the sigil. The Owl Beast curse destroys only it, leaving her alive. Later, the just-freed Collector saves Luz and her friends from being sliced by Belos, splatting him against a wall. King saves them and the entire population of Boiling Islands by persuading the Collector to stop the Draining Spell, although that means that now their world has become the playground of a self-centered child with powers that are apparently unlimited.
  • In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, Big Damn Heroes moments happen a few times. The first is Candace-2 saving Phineas, Ferb, Perry, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and Candace from a lava pit after they were being sent to their doom. She rides a giant lawn gnome, smashing into the Mecha-Mooks and throwing the Other Dimensioninator remote to Phineas, which he catches.
    • She then gets apprehended by Doof-2, and is sent to jail. But, Jeremy-2, Phineas-2 and Ferb-2 bust her out.
    • Next, in the film's climax, Perry comes to the aid of his fellow animal agents fighting off Doof-2's Mecha-Mooks. Phineas rescues Perry afterward. Finally, the kids come to their aid, using almost all of Phineas and Ferb's previous inventions.
    • At the very end, right when it looks like Doof-2 is going to kill Phineas, Ferb and Perry, our Doof of all people bursts in and gives Doof-2 the model train he lost as a kid which made him competently evil, causing Doof-2 to go through a Heel–Face Turn. But still gets arrested for his crimes against humanity, had slipped his mind at the moment.
    • Perry (and Doof somewhat) serves as this in "Phineas And Ferb Get Busted".
  • Ready Jet Go!:
    • In Back to Bortron 7, just as Celery and Carrot are about to fail their presentation, Jet, Sydney, Zerk, Sean, and Sunspot save the day by putting on a musical number about how Earth is full of water, which convinces Carrot and Celery's boss to let them stay on Earth for another season. Actually, Zerk didn't even perform in the musical number, but that didn't stop him from bragging about how it was supposedly his idea.
    • In the second special, One Small Step, Sydney and Jet 2 get their moment when they fix the super saucer together, allowing the gang to head back home. Mitchell also gets his moment when he saves the kids from drowning in the lake.
  • Bob in ReBoot gets to do one of these right when the Web Riders are about to slaughter everyone on the Saucy Mare. But instead of fighting the Web Riders he orders them to stop, having gained their trust offscreen.
  • In an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle Bullwinkle refuses to put out the fuse of a bomb until the last moment because "Heroes always arrive in the TA-DA! nick of time."
  • In the first Rose Petal Place special, after Rose Petal's been captured all of her friends rally to save her.
  • Believe it or not, Scooby-Doo gets one in episode 10 of Mystery Inc. He rescues Velma and Shaggy from a demonic robot dog by beating it senseless with a forklift. Think about that for a second. Scooby Doo beats a robot dog that would make the terminator proud to a pulp with a forklift. Words cannot describe how awesome it is.
    • Possibly a nod to Shaggy and Scooby's Big Damn Heroes moment in Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders.
  • In The Simpsons, when Bart is being mauled by a wolf (on school grounds, why not) when in steps Groundskeeper Willie, shirtless and ready to kick ass.
  • Skull Island (2023): When two of the main leads are being pursued along a river by a man-eating crocodilian beast, the creature is right on their tail and ready to eat them when King Kong shows up in person for the first time, plucking the crocodile out of the water and eating it.
  • South Park: Al-Qaeda of all people in "It's a Jersey Thing".
  • Spongebob Squarepants:
    • In the first episode ever, SpongeBob becomes this to Squidward & Mr Krabs when the Krusty Krab is attacked by many anchovies.
    • In "Valentine's Day", Sandy shows up at just the right time to save SpongeBob from a love-demanding Patrick's wrath.
    • In "Bossy Boots", the titular sponge gets rescued from several fish competing to have him as their employee by a masked figure in a Krabby Patty suit. In a Big Damn Anti-Heroes moment, it's Squidward.
    • In "The Smoking Peanut", the zookeeper is this to both SpongeBob and Patrick as they are being admonished for throwing a peanut at Clamu and making her bawl, revealing the real culprit is Mr. Krabs and the reason why Clamu cried in the first place is he stole her pearl egg while she wasn't looking.
    • Squidward at the end of "Waiting" when SpongeBob thinks Patrick broke his free Kelpo toy, prompting him to show the two it's supposed to do that.
    • SpongeBob becomes this in "Free Samples" last-minute, by selling regular krabby patties but calling them new and different, which in turn wins back the customers and saves the Krusty Krab.
    • In The Movie, both SpongeBob and Patrick become this when David Hasslehoff launches them back to Bikini Bottom with Neptune's crown and they burst into the Krusty Krab just in time to save Mr. Krabs from his execution.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks:
  • Super Friends had a story where a time traveling alien was forced by the Phantom Zone prisoners to take them to Superboy's time to kill him. They are nearly successful until Superman and Green Lantern suddenly appear out of nowhere to stop them; it turns out that as soon as the alien was freed, he alerted the Super Friends about what their enemies are attempting and guided them to the proper time to intervene.
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) cartoon has at least two such moments:
    • The first occurs in "City at War", when Raphael, who had abandoned the turtles after an offer to join forces with The Foot, returns for the final battle with Splinter in tow.
    • The second occurs in "The Day of Awakening", when Cody, who had been left behind on Earth, burst into Moonbase Bishop to save the turtles from Sh'Okanabo.
    • Splinter gets one of his own in the first battle with the Shredder, though given it was Shredder who killed his master and was now trying to kill his sons, it makes sense he'd want a piece of the guy.
    • This continues in the 2012 series. Basically, if the Turtles end up in over their heads (especially after the Shredder arrives in New York), expect Splinter to show up and even the odds.
  • Teen Titans: Way, way too many to list, considering it's a show about heroes. There are a few notable moments, however:
    • Red X, of all people, has one of these when he shows up out of nowhere Just in Time to prevent Robin from falling to his death by snatching Robin out of thin air and tossing him to safety on a catwalk.
  • Frequently in ThunderCats (2011) but most notably:
    • Deconstructed in "Omens Part One" when Lion-O, Tygra and Cheetara attempt to save some stockaded Lizard prisoners from abuse, only to turn the Powderkeg Crowd of Thunderian Cats into an Angry Mob in the mood for a Vigilante Execution, triggering a brawl which Lion-O's father Claudus has to stop. He is none too pleased that his son's been protecting Lizards.
    • Played straight in "Omens Part 2" during the siege of Thundera with Claudus and Tygra saved by the Super-Speed Speed Blitz of the Clerics, then by Lion-O toting Sticky Bombs, when the pair are twice-surrounded by turncoat General Grune and his Lizard-manned Walking Tanks.
    • And again in "The Song of the Petalars", when the cats look hopelessly outnumbered and about to die, who should arrive to say them but Panthro in the Thundertank. Made even more awesome by the fact that he was declared as a dead hero is the opening episode.
  • The Transformers: Full of moments like these, mostly when a character is either first introduced, or appeared to be at death's door previously. One of the best examples has to be the episode "Key to Vector Sigma" where Menasor has Superion pinned and is about to impale him on a large spike - only for Omega Supreme, nearly destroyed earlier in that episode, to show up and KO him.
    • In fact, Optimus Prime's entire fight scene against the Decepticons and Megatron from the 1986 Animated Movie is a Big Damn Heroes moment. This is acknowledged when Kup says "Optimus did it. He turned the tide".
    • Also from 1986 Movie: when Hot Rod and Kup are almost being devoured by lots of sharkticons, the Dinobots (and Wheelie) arrive in Dynamic Entry, save their autobot friends and turn the sharkticons against their masters, the Quintessons.
  • This happens fairly often in Transformers: Prime. One particularly memorable one had Ratchet saving Jack from Knock-Out with a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
    Knock Out (coming at Jack with a drill): Say "ah".
    Ratchet: I'm here to offer a second opinion! (punches him in the face).
    • Bumblebee gets the biggest moment in the final episode "Deadlock". After he is blasted repeatedly by Megatron, he falls into the Omega Lock and dies. Enraged, Optimus Prime gives Megatron a serious beatdown, but the Decepticon leader is able to the tables on him using the Dark Star Saber. Just when Megatron is about to finish Optimus off, he hears someone shout his name, turns around, and is fatally impaled with the Star Saber by a resurrected Bumblebee.
  • The Van Beuren Studios cartoon shorts used this a few times;
    • Subverted for laughs in "Jungle Jam"; Tom and Jerry seem like they're going to be rescued from the cannibals cornering them on the beach; but as soon as their leader sees who they're rescuing, he immediately does a 180 with the rest of the navy, leaving Tom and Jerry to wing it and swim for their lives under the fire of the cannibals spears.
    • In "Rough on Rats", two of the kittens save their third sibling from an evil rat this way.
    • In "Along Came A Duck", the frog saves the duck he was messing around with from drowning, as his shenanigans got the duck tangled in seaweed underwater in the first place.
    • Molly Moo Cow pulls this to save Robinson Cruesoe from a tribe of cannibals in "Molly Moo Cow and Robinson Cruesoe". She swims back to the island after Robin had scared her off, and grabs all of his rifles with her tail and uses them to scare off the cannibal tribe.
  • Wander over Yonder:
    • Double Subverted in "The Fugitives"; Sylvia arrives just in time to save Wander from getting taken to jail by the Watchdogs, but she too gets captured. Then all the people that Wander has helped return the favor by helping the two escape the planet.
    • In "The Lonely Planet", Sylvia enters just in time to save Wander from being in the Ax-Crazy clutches of Planet Janet.
    • Sylvia again at the end of "The Buddies" when she frees Wander from the prison dimension, who decides to also free Hater and the thugs.
  • Like in the film, the bunnies get to be Big Damn Heroes in Watership Down (2018), epecially when Hazel lures a Big Damn Dog to the warren, just in time to save Bigwig's life by decimating Woundwort's troops.
  • Winx Club: In "Welcome to Magix", Bloom's attempt to eavesdrop on the Trix's briefing with Nut (the ogre who attacked her and Stella) backfires, getting her encased in ice. Bloom's suitemates find it suspicious that she hasn't returned yet, so they decide to look for Bloom. When they arrive at the aforementioned scene, Stella yells at Icy to "leave [Bloom] alone! Take us on instead". They transform into their fairy forms and attack the Trix.

Top