Eureka Moment / Animated Films

---

• In 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure Patch is blue screening after his Broken Pedestal for Thunderbolt when one of his siblings references an episode of Thunderbolt's show where Thunderbolt escaped a cage like the ones they're trapped in, misidentifying the number. Patch dully corrects them before realizing that he can use his memories of the show to get out of his cage.
• In The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, during the Sleepy Hollow segment, Brom Bones is stewing on his Comically Lopsided Rivalry with Ichabod Crane when he spots Ichabod spill salt, then desperately throws some over his shoulder. Brom's expression goes from shocked to conniving as he clearly realizes he can use Ichabod's superstitious nature to his advantage.
  Narrator: ...And Brom knew there was no more firm, potent believer in spooks and goblins than Ichabod Crane.
• In The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Tintin is about ready to call it quits after the bad guys get away and Captain Haddock gives him a "You Are Better Than You Think You Are" speech about not letting failure get to him. It's this speech that gives Tintin an idea about how they can catch up with the bad guys.
  Tintin: You can call me what you like. Don't you get it? We failed.
  Haddock: Failed. There are plenty of others willing to call you a failure. A fool. A loser. A hopeless souse. Don't you ever say it of yourself. You send out the wrong signal, that is what people pick up. Don't you understand? You care about something, you fight for it. You hit a wall, you push through it. There's something you need to know about failure, Tintin. You can never let it defeat you.
  Tintin: What did you say earlier?
  Haddock: You hit a wall, you push through it.
  Tintin: No, something about sending a signal… [has an epiphany and reacts with a clap] Of course! Captain, I sent a message on the Karaboudjan! I know what frequency they're on!
• In Aladdin, Aladdin is fighting Jafar but making no headway. A taunt from the sorcerer gives Aladdin the answer he needs to win; playing Jafar's ego power-lust by calling him second best to the Genie.
  Jafar: Without the Genie, boy, you're nothing!
  Aladdin: The Genie...(Inspired) The Genie! (To Jafar) The Genie has more power than you'll ever have!
• In The Bad Guys (2022), Mr. Wolf and Diane are trying to figure out Marmalade's plot. Diane pulls up a heat map of the city, showing large herds of guinea pigs all over Los Angeles, but moving without an obvious target. Mr. Wolf notices the map on his copy of the charity gala program with each of the charities marked on it, and they realize it's moving targets: Marmalade is after the armored trucks carrying the one billion dollars of charity money.
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker:
  • When Terry tries to piece everything together, he first tries to reassure Bruce that he's got what it takes to fight him, saying "I'm a different Batman. I was never a Robin, I never…", when he realizes that while the Joker wrecked the Batcave, the Robin suit was the only one of the old suits which was singled out in being destroyed, which is what makes Terry deduce that the Joker is really the possessed Tim Drake.
  • The key moment where Terry realizes there's a different path to beating the Joker is when he asks Bruce for advice, and realizes that his particular style is one the Joker never faced... especially in the psychological department. This is what lets him turn the fight around by proceeding to wear the Joker down through well-aimed taunts, who goes nuts. For someone who loves to hear himself laugh even when others don't care, the clown ironically has No Sense of Humor when he's the punchline.
    Terry: He's tough… any suggestions, boss?
    Bruce: Joker's vain, and likes to talk. He'll try to distract you, but don't listen! Block it out and power on through!
    Terry: …Wait. I like to talk, too.
• Beauty and the Beast: Gaston is inspired by the townsfolk's mockery of "crazy old Maurice" in order to blackmail Belle into marrying him.
• A Bug's Life: Princess Atta thanks Flik for saving her sister Dot from the sparrow, stating it was very brave, adding that even the genuinely terrifying Hopper is terrified of birds. Which gives Flik the ingenious idea of building a bird decoy to scare off Hopper.
  Princess Atta: Not every bug would face a bird. I mean, even Hopper's afraid of 'em.
  Flik: Yeah, well you know it was— [beat] Say that again.
  Princess Atta: I said, even Hopper's afraid of birds.
  [Flik sprints off, then sprints back to Atta and kisses her cheek]
  Flik: Thank you. [sprints off again]
• Coco: Mamá Coco goes through one near the end of the film as Miguel sings "Remember Me" for her, restoring her memory and remembering her father Héctor.
• Frozen: Anna's Heroic Sacrifice and subsequent Disney Death near the end of the movie causes Elsa to have an epiphany as to what "True love can thaw a frozen heart" means, allowing her to gain full control over her powers and stop the endless winter threatening to freeze Arrendelle. Moreover, it's thanks to Olaf describing what true love means ("thinking of other's needs before your own") that subsequently brings Anna out to see Kristoff which then segues into the Heroic Sacrifice and Disney Death.
• The Great Mouse Detective:
  • When Ratigan realizes Basil is following Fidget to his lair, he growls "Oh, I can just see that insufferable grin on his smug face…" Then Ratigan grins evilly as he gets the idea to prepare an ambush, and says "Yes…I can just see it…"
  • Dawson struggles to snap Basil out of a Heroic BSoD while the two are stuck in Ratigan's death trap, then eventually snaps "If you've given up, we might as well set it off now and be done with it!" This gives Basil the idea to set the trap off early at just the right moment in order to not only escape certain death, but free himself, Dawson, and Olivia.
    Basil: Set it off…now? Yes…yes, that's it! We'll set the trap off now!
• How to Train Your Dragon: When Hiccup is bring grilled by Stock about his secret friendship with a dragon, he accidentally lets slip that Toothless took him to island containing the dragons' nest and that only a dragon knows where it is, which gives Stoick the idea to bound Toothless to his ship and force him to lead the tribe to it.
• In The Incredibles, the heroic family is trying to fight Syndrome's robot as it's wrecking the city, but it can counter all of their abilities. At this moment, Mr. Incredible recalls his own fight with the robot, where he discovered that the only thing that can hurt it is ... itself. He gets the robot to attack itself, causing enough damage to help him and his family win out against it.
• Inside Out has Joy breaking down and crying over Riley's forgotten memories, and one of the tears lands on a happy memory of Riley's hockey team cheering for her. Joy wipes away the tear, rewinding the memory and turning it sad, as she is sitting on a tree looking depressed because she missed the winning shot, losing the game. Joy fast forwards the memory slowly which shows Riley's mom and dad comforting her on the branch, followed by the team, which turns it happy again. Joy realizes how Sadness can lead to happy memories, and the role that Sadness plays in Riley's mind: "Mom and Dad... the team... they came to help because of Sadness."
• The Iron Giant:
  • As Agent Kent Mansley leaves the Hughes after borrowing their phone, he remarks about Hogarth's name, which leads him to…
    Kent Mansley: "Hogarth?" That's an embarrassing name. They might as well have called him "Zeppo" or something. What kinda sick person would name their kid "Hogar…? [stops and looks over to Hogarth's smashed B-B gun which Kent found at the power station; it reads part of Hogarth's name: Hog- Hug] "Hog Hug?" HOG HUG? HOGARTH HUGHES!!! [screeches his car to a stop]
  • Dean has one after Hogarth takes off after the Giant, who runs away after nearly blasting the kid with his Eye Beams. When Dean notices Hogarth’s toy gun on the ground, he realizes that the Giant has an automatic self-defense mechanism.
    Dean: It was defensive. He reacted to the gun!
• Justice League × RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen:
  • When Superman watches Ruby rescue Flash from being crushed by the Wyvern, Superman suddenly remembers the last part of their fight back on Earth, which involves Kilg%re capturing Flash in his hand. With this memory and noticing Flash hasn't been helpful during the fight with the Grimm, he confronts Flash to get answers from him, but more Grimm conveniently suddenly start attacking before they could talk.
  • When Kilg%re reveals themself and that they were the ones to capture the League, Ruby points out that they also caught Team RWBY and JNR and that part of the plan doesn’t make sense. It makes Batman realize they had help from someone on Remnant.
• Kung Fu Panda:
  • Po has one of these after learning the secret ingredient to his father's secret ingredient soup. There is no secret ingredient. It's this knowledge that allows him to understand the wisdom of the Dragon Scroll.
  • Shifu has an earlier one; Tai Lung is coming, and Po has proven to be completely inept at learning martial arts. He then sees Po perform athletic feats in order to get some Comfort Food, and realizes that he can use this fact to train him.
    Po: [up in the ceiling, doing a perfect split to hold himself up while eating cookies] No, this? …This is just an…accident.
    Shifu: ...There are no accidents.
• The LEGO Movie:
  • While escaping the Old West, the wheel to Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius' carriage gets shot off and Vitruvius suggests to Emmet they should attach the wheel to something that spins around. When Emmet rotates his head in complete circles struggling to find something, he gets the idea to attach the wheel to his head and use his body as a wheel well.
  • After Emmet performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the Master Builders, they struggle to find hope with him gone, with MetalBeard bemoaning "If only there were more people in the world like he...". Wyldstyle looks upon the citizens of Bricksburg and gets the idea to convince them to fight back against Lord Business and his forces.
• Meet the Robinsons: Lewis is surrounded on all sides in the middle of a Bad Future brought about by an invention his future self will create. He complains to himself, "Why did I invent that stupid hat!?" which gives him the idea to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by swearing to never create the evil hat.
• Migration: After everyone else is taken by the Chef, Gwen starts crying, and blows her nose into some fallen feathers. This gives Dax the idea to stick the feathers to his ruined wings, allowing him to fly again.
  Dax: Gwen… You’re a genius!
  Gwen: [despondently] Am I?
• Monsters, Inc.:
  • Mike and Sulley try to escape from Randall and Mike says that they'll start a new life far away, shouting "Goodbye, Monsters Inc.! Goodbye, Mr. Waternoose!". This gets Sulley the idea to tell Waternoose about Randall's plot and hopefully solve the dilemma. That turned out to be a big mistake, as Randall is working for Mister Waternoose on the "scream extractor" project.
  • At the end of the movie Mike, realizing that in getting the Big Bad arrested they've gotten the factory closed, put hundreds of monsters out of work and made the energy crisis worse, tries to downgrade the events by saying, "But hey! At least we got a few laughs, right?" This causes Sully to make the connection that the energy produced by a child's laughter is ten times more powerful than the energy produced by their screams.
• Monsters University: Chet tells Mike that some monsters aren't cut out for the big leagues. "Big leagues" inspires Mike to go on a little "field trip".
• "Jack's Obsession" from The Nightmare Before Christmas leads up to an Eureka Moment, with Jack even shouting "EUREKA!!!"
• Patlabor: The Movie: Asuma figures out Hoba's plan is to use resonance between the Ark and Tokyo's buildings to make Labors go berserk across Tokyo after the whistling from a teakettle makes a glass cabinet door in Shige's apartment rattle.
• Peter Pan:
  • After Smee tells Captain Hook about how Tinker Bell got banished after she almost got Wendy killed out of jealousy, Hook gets the idea to prey on her emotions to get her to reveal the location of Peter's hideout.
    Hook: Did you say Pan has banished Tinker Bell?
    Smee: Aye-aye, Cap'n. That he has.
    Hook: But why?
    Smee: On account of Wendy, Cap'n. Tink tried to do her in, she did. Tink's terrible jealous.
    Hook: Well, well...
    Smee: And that's why we ought to leave, Cap'n. This ain't no place for a respectable pirate.
    Hook: That's it, Smee! THAT'S IT!
  • Hook later fakes one as part of his act to trick Tinker Bell by offering to help her get rid of Wendy.
    Hook: But we mustn't judge Peter to harshly, my dear. It's that Wendy who's to blame! Mr. Smee, we must save the lad from himself! But how? We've so little time. We sail in the morning. ...Sail! That's it, Smee! We'll shanghai Wendy!
    Smee: Shanghai Wendy, Cap'n?
    Hook: Take her to sea with us! With her gone, Peter will soon forget this mad infatuation!
• In Pinocchio, just when Pinocchio and Gepetto think they'll never escape Monstro the whale, Gepetto says that they should forget it and start a fire to cook some fish. This gives Pinocchio the idea to start a fire that will make Monstro sneeze them out.
• In Robin Hood (1973), Sir Hiss tells Prince John that Friar Tuck is in the jail, and P.J. is initially furious that it wasn't Robin Hood until the realizes that he can use the Friar as bait to trap Robin and then hang them both.
• The Rugrats Movie: When Chaz & Howard notice baby footprints and wheel tracks in the woods, the adults realize the kids are in the woods, on the Reptar Wagon. When Drew angrily calls Stu out on this, it gives Stu the idea to search for the kids on his Dactar Glider.
  Stu: They must be in my Reptar Wagon!
  Drew: "It's the perfect children's toy!" You and your stupid inventions!
  Stu: My stupid inventions... That's IT!
• In Shark Tale: When Oscar decides to save Angie from the mob, Lenny lets it slip to Sykes that Oscar is a phony. Sykes is horrified to discover this (earlier, Sykes joyfully told Lino, the head shark, to shut up), and begs Oscar to say he is a real Sharkslayer. Oscar admits he isn't, then realizes that the sharks don't know he's a fraud and gets the idea to keep his charade long enough to rescue Angie.
  Sykes: Tell me you didn't make the whole thing up! T-T-Tell me that's not Lenny! Tell me you're a real Sharkslayer! PLEASE!
  Oscar: I'm sorry, Sykes. I'm not. (his eyes widen in realization) But the sharks don't know that.
• At the end of Space Jam, Swackhammer is laying into the Mon-Stars for losing the game. Michael asks them why they take so much abuse from him and they respond that it's because Swackhammer is bigger...than they used to be. After this revelation, they send Swackhammer packing.
• Tangled:
  • When Rapunzel and Flynn are trapped in a dark cave filling rapidly with water and need light to see by, this exchange occurs:
    Flynn: My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. I figured someone should know.
    Rapunzel: I have magic hair that glows when I sing — I HAVE MAGIC HAIR THAT GLOWS WHEN I SING!
  • Near the end of the movie, Rapunzel realizes who she really is when she sees the royal symbol for Corona subconsciously hidden in her murals. "I'm the lost princess…"
• In Toy Story 2, Buzz is trying to figure out who stole Woody with only a Vanity License Plate to go by; LZTYBRN. The other toys are dismissive of this, and Mr. Potato Head just says, "Let's leave Buzz to his toys." This makes Buzz realize that the kidnapper is the Al from Al's Toy Barn, especially when they make Etch-a-sketch do a composite of the suspect in a chicken suit (which Buzz had figured out from a feather that came out of Al's trunk while he was chasing his car earlier).
• In Toy Story 3, Andy has put his old toys in a trash bag to put them in the attic. His mom mistakes the bag for garbage and takes it out to the curb. The toys try to tear their way out of the bag, with Mr. Potato Head asks, "What's the point?" This inspires Buzz to have all the toys push on Rex so the point of his tail will puncture the bag and let them escape.
• In Turning Red, Mei and her friends get the idea to hustle Mei's panda form after Stacy Frick says she'll give them anything for experiencing more of her panda form including money.
• The War to End All Wars – The Movie: While agonizing over how to keep the Germans from finishing off the Belgian Army, King Albert accidentally knocks over a glass of water onto his battle map. This inspires him to order the Yperlee Canal locks opened and flood the area to block the German advance.
• In Wreck-It Ralph:
  • Ralph realizes who Vanellope really is when he sees the Sugar Rush video game and discovers her picture on the console.
  • Vanellope gets her own when she sees Ralph hammering away at a seemingly indestructible Jawbreaker. The second she mentions it's indestructible, Ralph splits it in half, and Vanellope's eyes light up as she gets the idea to get Ralph's help in breaking into the cart factory to make her a race car.
• Zootopia:
  • Nick gets the idea to check the traffic cams after spilling some of his backstory to Judy and trying to Change the Uncomfortable Subject.
  • When Nick and Judy look at the traffic cam footage to find where Manchas was taken, the scene of the timber wolves howling leads her to conclude that Mr. Otterton's phrase "Night Howlers" was in reference to them.
  • When Judy is in Bunnyburrow during her 10-Minute Retirement, she finally learns what the Night Howlers really are from overhearing Gideon Grey talking with her parents.
    Judy: Night Howlers aren't wolves…they're flowers. The flowers are making the predators go savage! That's it! That's what I've been missing!

---