Early Bird Cameo / Animated Films

• DC Animated Movie Universe:
  • Justice League: Throne of Atlantis:
    • John Henry Irons appears in the climax, aiding a fellow construction worker from Atlantian robots. Similarly to his comic counterpart, Superman saves him from death and he becomes inspired. The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen duology finally sees him become Steel.
    • A short attached features Talon, one of the villains in Batman vs. Robin watch Nightwing and Robin while they deal with the Scarecrow (a case Batman was working on in his first scene in Throne until Green Lantern forced him to break off from it to deal with the plot of the movie proper).
  • Batman vs. Robin:
    • A picture of Starfire appears in Dick's cellphone, with her face obscured by a text message. While she'd have a voice-only cameo in Batman: Bad Blood, she wouldn't make her official debut until Justice League vs. Teen Titans, released one year later.
    • Batwoman and Lucius Fox briefly appear in a Court of Owl-induced hallucination Batman has of a Bad Future before becoming part of the main cast of the aforemntioned Bad Blood.
  • Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay:
    • A character named Ms. Clay who is said to be a part of Clayface that became sentient appears as a member of the Suicide Squad in the tie in comic to the movie before Clayface himself appears in Batman: Hush.
    • Giganta appeared in the tie-in comic, recruited by enemies of Scandal Savage and then takes on the Squad, who take her down alive because Amanda Waller decides to also "recruit" Giganta. Giganta later appears as part of Villainy Inc. in Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.
• In Finding Nemo, a little boy in the dentist's waiting room can be seen reading a comic book with Mr. Incredible on the cover.
• In Frozen II during Elsa's "Into the Unknown", Elsa is shown making snow and ice creations come to life around her; among these are images of the creatures who represent the four elemental spirits.
• In The Incredibles, Doc Hudson from Cars appears in the background when Mr. Incredible is about to fire the robotic claw at the Omnidroid v.10.
• In Lilo & Stitch, as Pleakley and The Grand Councilwoman are using the lift to go to Jumba's cell, you can see Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel in a cell to the right. Hamsterviel would go onto become a major villain in the TV series.
• The elephants from Disney's The Jungle Book actually all made their first appearances in the 1960 animated short Goliath II. The designs for the short's titular character and his father Goliath I were even recycled for those of Hathi Jr. and his father Colonel Hathi, as well as the scene where the elephants actually all pile up on top of one another.
• Casey Junior, the circus locomotive from Dumbo, actually first appeared in the Disney animated short The Reluctant Dragon, where he is portrayed as pulling a passenger train (as opposed to a circus train) only to end up in a railway accident while attempting to jump a broken bridge during a thunderstorm. His Reluctant Dragon incarnation looked slightly different than the one in Dumbo: his drive rods are connected to the forward drive wheels, he was longer in appearance, and there was a bell on his roof. However in Dumbo, his drive rods are now connected to his hind drive wheels, he is now shorter and stockier in appearance, and his bell is nowhere to be seen, implying that he was actually overhauled during his repair between the two films. Bambi also made his debut there, even though his official debut didn't even happen until the year after.
• Aladdin has a unique example where what's being cameoed aren't characters, but the locations of future Disney movies: During "A Whole New World", the carpet is shown flying Aladdin and Jasmine past the Temple of Zeus and the scene following that has them watching fireworks at the Emperor of China's palace.
• WALL•E appears for a brief moment driving the lunar transport vehicle in the Ratatouille follow-up short "Your Friend the Rat".
• "Kid" from The Animatrix is a cross-medium example. He plays a significant role in the last two movies of The Matrix Trilogy but makes his first appearance in one of the shorts from the animated direct-to-DVD film.
• Margo, the oldest of the three orphan girls from Despicable Me, wears a Lorax T-shirt in the first movie; a movie version from the same producers premiered two years later. In the third movie, her shirt features The Grinch on it.
• An early bird cameo for a movie line: George Harrison's line in Yellow Submarine "It's all in the mind" was first said by John Lennon on The Beatles' cartoon show episode "Strawberry Fields Forever." (John delivered it as "It's all in the mind, y'know" which was said by George fully in a restored scene in Submarine.)
• In Moana, during his song (around 1:59), Maui flashes a tattoo of himself battling a giant crab, describing it as one of his "victories." Said crab, Tamatoa, appears as the antagonist of a subplot later in the film, with clear hints that he and Maui have a bitter history together. He also gets a show-stopping musical number called "Shiny".
• Raymond Briggs' father makes a background cameo as a milkman in Father Christmas. He later starred in his own graphic novel and movie called Ethel & Ernest.
• Monsters, Inc.: Randall Boggs actually makes an early appearance in the Monsters, Inc. commercial before his proper introduction in the locker scene, specifically the last shot where a group of Monsters, Inc employees state "[they're] working for a better tomorrow, today". Sharp-eye viewers will notice that Randall has a unpleasant look towards Sulley in contrast to the happy faces of the other employees, foreshadowing his rivalry and resentment of our main protagonists. Additionally, Nemo makes three cameos throughout the film: on the wall of the Harryhausen's sushi restaurant, as a mounted trophy in the mobile home Sulley and Mike banish Randall to, and as a toy in Boo's bedroom.
• Oogie Boogie, the villain of The Nightmare Before Christmas, doesn't show up in person until the final act, but appears in silhouette during the opening song "This is Halloween" as "the shadow on the moon at night".
  • Similarly, Santa Claus is briefly shown in silhouette during "What's This?", but isn't fully introduced until about thirty minutes later.
• In Toy Story, the Al's Toy Barn logo is seen and the store is mentioned in the Buzz Lightyear toy TV commercial. Al's Toy Barn would have a more prominent role in the story of Toy Story 2.
• In Turning Red, Carter Murphy-Mayhew briefly appears in the background during the opening sequence when another goth calls Mei a "major weirdo", a while before he's officially introduced, and Mei develops a crush on him.
• In Wreck-It Ralph, if you're paying attention, you can spot Vanellope Von Schweetz long before Ralph goes to Sugar Rush and she is introduced. The opening pan through the arcade clearly shows her picture on the side of Sugar Rush's game box. Hey, wait a second... why would a character never intended to be in the game be such a large part of the advertising?
  • In another turn of events, you can see a top-down racing game cabinet labeled Turbo-Time during that sequence, right at the start to the right side of Fix-It Felix Jr. That ends up being where the Big Bad Turbo is from, being so jealous of other racing games that he destroyed one of them and is trying to sabotage Sugar Rush.
• Arguable example from The Land Before Time: during the end credits sequence, which shows dinosaurs living peacefully in the Great Valley, a struthiomimus can be seen skulking in the shadows before quickly running off. It's possible that this was one of the "egg stealers" (Ozzy and Strut) who snuck into the Valley at the start of the first sequel, The Great Valley Adventure - it certainly shares their design and colouration, though on the other hand, every struthiomimus shown in the Land Before Time films looks essentially the same.
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The Wolf can be seen standing at the top left of the crowd who do the Wave while Puss is battling the Giant of Del Mar, around six minutes before his introduction in the bar scene. He's not kidding when he says that he witnessed Puss' eight deaths, as he is Death himself.

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