Friend or Idol Decisions made in Animated Films.
- Aladdin and the King of Thieves: Cassim finds and takes the Hand of Midas with help from Aladdin, but his treacherous former underling Sa'luk crashes the party and threatens to kill Aladdin unless Cassim hands it over. Cassim could very well escape with the Hand and leave Aladdin to his fate, but he throws the Hand to Sa'luk, knowing full well that he would be Taken for Granite. The end result is that neither he nor Sa'luk can claim the Hand, but it saves his son's life.
- Near the end of All Dogs Go to Heaven, Charlie is forced to choose between saving either his watch from sinking or Anne Marie from drowning. Keep in mind he's literally living on borrowed time — he stole the watch from heaven to resurrect himself after being killed by a car, and if the watch stops, as watches tend to do in water, he will die. And worse, he'll be sent to Hell since he "can never come back". Ultimately, he chooses saving Anne Marie while sacrificing both the watch and his life, earning his way back to Heaven.
- Barbie films:
- Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia: Elina either has to give Max the Immunity Berry, or he'll poison Mermaidia. She goes with the former, but he denies his promise and drops the poison anyway. Thus, Elina decides to save the vial from poisoning the water, but risks her chance to regain her wings and remains a mermaid forever in return. Luckily, it turns out the Immunity Berry was swapped out with another berry that reveals one's true self, and when Elina consumes it, she gets her wings back.
- Barbie: Princess Charm School: Delancy has to pick either Dame Devin or Blair to give the crown to; she chooses the latter, which reveals her as the kingdom's missing princess.
- In Brother Bear, Kenai finally achieves his goal of changing back into a human. However, when he learns he cannot talk to Koda, whose mother he killed, Kenai realizes his true responsibility. After all, given what he did to Koda and the options that are available, changing back into a bear to care for the bear cub is the only moral thing to do.
- In Pixar's movie Cars, Lightning McQueen gives up first place in the Piston Cup race to help The King cross the finish line after Chick Hicks causes him to wreck out. Hicks still wins the cup, but everyone knows that Lightning would have won, and Hicks' dishonorable tactics lose him any regard the win would have brought. In a mild Double Subversion and An Aesop, McQueen gains the adulation he had desired but discovers that he doesn't really need it anymore — the events of the movie have taught him that there are more important things than fame.
- In the climax of Cars 3, Lightning realizes his former trainer Cruz Ramirez wanted to be a racer just like he is, and resigns from the race halfway through so she can take over. When she wins, she turns down the deal to race for Sterling and chooses to race for Dinoco instead, and when Lightning is about to accept his fate that he didn't win the race and has to retire immediately, he is considered a winner along with Cruz due to both sharing the number, thus he wins the bet and gets to keep racing. Not only does he help a friend, he gets the idol as well!
- This happens twice in Despicable Me. First time, Gru has to make the decision of choosing between the girls' ballet recital and taking the moon, which was his lifelong dream. Originally, he wanted to push back the date for taking the moon, but Nefario called Miss Hattie so she could take the kids back to the orphanage and Gru could focus back on task. The second time, Vector kidnaps the girls and demands that Gru gives him the moon. Gru gave up the moon, but Vector didn't hold his side of the bargain.
- In The Emperor's New Groove Kuzco, who starts the movie as a spoiled brat, gives up the potion he needs to change back into a human in order to rescue Pacha. In a subversion, the pair uses The Power of Friendship to get it back not two minutes later.
- At the climax of Frozen, Anna wants to get a kiss from Kristoff that would hopefully thaw out her frozen heart; but then she sees her estranged sister about to be murdered by her own treacherous fiancé, who wants them both dead so he can become the new King of Arendelle. Immediately she abandons the chance to save her own life and rushes to Elsa's aid, shielding her from the killing blow. Since this counts as an Act of True Love, she ended up thawing out moments later.
- The end result of Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension. After the events of the movie, Major Monogram appears and reveals Perry has to be assigned to a different family because his cover was blown. Phineas is upset and wishes there's another way, but Monogram declines as it's not safe. When Carl suggests Doofenshmirtz's Amnesia-nator, Phineas is given a choice: remember the events of today but never see Perry again, or use the Amnesia-nator to forget the entire adventure and forget learning Perry's agent life. Ultimately, he chooses the latter.
- Also the end result of the second movie, Candace Against The Universe. As Candace sees her Mom pulling up towards her, Stacy points out that there is virtually no way to hide the collateral damage done during the final battle and that Phineas and Ferb will finally be busted once and for all. After hearing this, Candace runs up to her Mom and talks of Phineas and Ferb while her leitmotif plays...and tells Mom that they want pizza for dinner from a restaurant on the other side of town, preventing her from seeing everything. Noteworthy considering the heartfelt moment between the three a little while before said final battle.
- Puss in Boots: A subversion of the trope, in which the friend (Humpty) sacrifices himself so Puss can recover the idol (a monster goose's chick).
- Played Straight in the sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish where Goldilocks comes into possession of the Wishing Map while her adoptive bear parents try to save Baby Bear from being vaporized by the Wish's aura. She ultimately gives up the map to rescue him while accepting that the Three Bears are her true family.
- In The Road to El Dorado, Tulio is forced to sacrifice almost all of the enormous pile of gold that he and Miguel acquire by posing as gods in El Dorado in order to save the city's people from advancing Spanish soldiers. Though he is very choked up about the decision.
- Shrek 2, this is a parental example. Harold is forced by the Fairy Godmother to give Fiona a love potion in order that Fiona will fall in love with her son, Prince Charming, and marry him as per his promise to her decades earlier. Harold knows if he does not, he will expose himself to the Fairy Godmother's wrath. But if he does, he will be tearing Fiona away from her real love, Shrek, and forcing her into a fake love with what is treated as essentially a date rape drug. After reluctantly putting the potion into some tea to give her, she expresses to him how much she wants Shrek as himself, making him ultimately decide to go back on his promise to the Fairy Godmother and not give her the spiked tea. Turns out later though, his fears of the Fairy Godmother were completely justified.
- In The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit, Strawberry has to rescue her friend Mr. Longface Caterpillar and The Great Geyser Stone (which will provide water for her town) after both fall over the side of a cliff, landing on a ledge. In order to do so, her friends lower her, using a rope, so she can grab the stone first, and then Mr. Caterpillar. However, as she's being lifted with the stone, the ledge that Mr. Caterpillar is standing on crumbles, and he starts to fall. She grabs hold of his hand with her free hand, but can't hold onto him with just one hand. She briefly considers which to give up, but drops the stone in favor of her friend.
- In Toy Story 2, Woody has to choose either to stay with Andy and his friends or be taken to a museum to be worshiped as a collector's piece, along with the rest of the Roundup Gang. He chooses the former, but brings the other Roundup members (minus Stinky Pete) along with him.
- At the end of Toy Story 4, Woody has to pick either Bonnie or Bo to go with; he chose the latter.
- In the climax of Treasure Planet, the movie's resident Anti-Villain has to choose between saving a boatload of gold that's about to drift into a laser beam or his surrogate son Jim who's holding on for dear life over a raging inferno. He chooses to save Jim, saying that he'll get over giving up his lifelong obsession.
- In Turning Red, Mei finds out the concert she and her friends have been working to attend is the same night as a ritual her family (whom she places great value in honouring) expects her to undergo. She initially chooses the ritual only to back out of it right before its completion in order to attend the concert. She gets a second chance to complete the ritual but rejects it; this time, with her family's approval.
- In The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Eliza has to make a Sister or Idol decision when the Big Bad has Debbie and wants to know how Eliza could have known about his plans. She saves Debbie by revealing the thing she cannot tell: she can talk to animals. It costs her the power. She gets it back later with a heroic sacrifice.
- In the climax of Winnie the Pooh (2011), Pooh must decide between finally having a smackeral of honey from Owl or bringing Eeyore's tail back to him. He chose the latter, which in turn is what wins the contest and he is awarded an even bigger honey meal than he thought.
