Pet the Dog in Animated Films.
- While Anita spends most of The Book of Life quietly agreeing with Carlos on the subject of Manolo's musical career, when Carlos clumsily attempts to galvanize Manolo, she tells him to be quiet and gently gives him the advice he actually needs.
- Catwoman: Hunted: Barbara Minerva makes a point not to harm Catwoman's pet cat Isis even after Isis claws her face, possibly because she has an affinity for cats, as a Cat Girl herself.
- Coco: Ernesto saving Miguel from drowning was said to be an act of decency. Furthermore, during their private moment alone, he seemed genuinely fond of the boy, giving him encouragement to seek his dream to be a musician and genuinely attempted to help him go home before Hector arrived.
- In the opening of Despicable Me, when Gru uses his Freeze Ray to cut in line at a cafe, he has the decency to leave the cashier a tip on the way out.
- Played for Laughs in The Emperor's New Groove when Kuzco and Pacha transform a group of soldiers into animals. One of the soldiers asks Yzma if he can leave due to being a cow, she politely complies. She also asks the remaining soldiers if anybody else wishes to leave before ordering them to continue chasing Kuzco and Pacha.
- Frozen (2013): Although he uses it to justify his demonizing of Elsa, the Duke of Weselton is among those saddened when Hans says that she used her magic to curse and kill Anna, and is unaware it was an accident or that Hans lied and she is still alive.
- Conversely, Hans is horrified that the Duke of Weselton's soldier attempts to kill Elsa and stops him from shooting.
- Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective is the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Criminal Mind; and yet he acts VERY kindly towards his pet cat Felicia, cuddling her face and calling her his "baby" and "Daddy's widdle honey bunny."
- Averted in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Frollo sparing Quasimodo's life in the prologue and raising him might have been an act of kindness for an otherwise wicked person and even become a redeeming factor if his reasoning wasn't screwed up in the first place and he did right by it. Frollo twists it around for the following reasons. First off, he only does it after the Archdeacon tells him to. Second, he does it simply because he fears God may punish him for his sins. Third, he refuses to allow Quasi into his household, and exiles him to the belltower for the rest of his life. Fourth, he simply sees Quasi as a pawn he may use later on, and never truly accepts him as his son and even thinks that this is the only possible reason that God would want him to. Fifth, he lies about the death of Quasi's mother instead of revealing the truth when Quasi's ready that he raised him to atone for her death. Sixth, he's completely emotionally abusive towards Quasi, drilling it into his head that he's just a monster whom no one but him could "love".
- It's fair to say that Frollo at least cares about his horse. When Phoebus steals it and tries to escape, Frollo orders his men to shoot him. He also says, "And don't hit my horse!" Implying this trope.note
- A subtle one in Kung Fu Panda is after Tai Lung's escape. Remembering the rampage in the Valley that he caused 20 years prior, the Furious Five work on evacuating all the villagers, but as they do so, Tai Lung bypasses the Valley entirely even as they're in the midst of their evacuation, heading up towards the Palace directly. In fact, Tai Lung never once harms any innocent people after his getaway. Even as he manages to escape and comes across as very threatening towards Zeng, he nevertheless smooths down Zeng's ruffled feathers and lets him leave unharmed, in part so he can deliver the message that Tai Lung's on his way.
- Zira has her moment in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, when she is genuinely broken up about Nuka's death.
- The Little Mermaid. In spite of her reputation as a notorious sea witch who thrives on the suffering of merfolk, Ursula was clearly fond of her pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam and treats them as if they were her own kids. She was also treating the final battle as a joke up until Flotsam and Jetsam were accidentally killed when Ariel made Ursula throw her aim off with the trident in order to save Eric. After a brief (yet sincere) moment of mourning for her pet eels, Ursula became extremely pissed off towards Ariel for causing it.Ursula: (shocked that she has killed Flotsam and Jetsam by accident) BABIES!! (cries while holding their remains out of remorse) My poor little poopsies!
- The Lorax (2012). Exploited: during the Once-ler's Villain Song "How Bad Can I Be", he sings: "Just look at me petting this puppy."
- In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington orders Lock, Shock and Barrel to kidnap Santa Claus so that Jack can be in charge of running Christmas this year, though he does so with the best of intentions. When the trio kidnaps the Easter Bunny instead and the poor thing is terrified of Halloween Town, Jack apologizes for the inconvenience and orders the trio to take him home first and apologize again when they do so. When they finally succeed in kidnapping Santa, Jack sincerely frames it as giving Santa a vacation as a reward, letting him take things easy this year while Jack handles the festivities. His last order to the trio is to make sure Santa is comfortable while he stays in Halloween Town. Unfortunately, the brats have no intention of following orders and give Santa to Oogie Boogie.
- In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension Doof has some of these moments in his interactions with the titular characters.
- In The Princess and the Pea, Helsa isn't exactly a good person, but she did have second thoughts when Laird wanted to switch their newborn daughter with their niece as part of his revenge, and she made him promise not to harm her.
- Ratatouille: It's mentioned offhand that Skinner respects Colette's opinion, recognizing her as a good chef. They have a few nights a week where they have a chat after the dinner rush, according to the chef that teases Colette when Skinner invites Linguini for a chat instead. In fact, this is why Skinner decides to give Linguini a chance to prove himself because Colette vouched for him and pragmatically pointed out it would look bad if they fired a garbage boy that made a review-worthy soup.
- Similarly, Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty cared quite a bit for her raven familiar Diablo, literally stroking him at least a few times. She's also quite horrified and saddened when he's Taken for Granite.
- A more heroic example — throughout the beginning of Tangled, Flynn steals a tiara from the royal family (one which is so highly valued because it belonged to the king and queen's kidnapped daughter, no less), betrays and abandons his partners in crime to keep it for himself, and constantly tries to weasel out of his deal with Rapunzel, which leads to him taking her into a bar full of thugs to try to scare her into going home. When the thugs find out that he's got a bounty on his head and trap the pair in the bar though, Flynn shields Rapunzel from them.
- In Strange Magic the first indication the audience has that the Bog King isn't as evil as he's made out to be is his treatment of the princess Dawn, who he admittedly kidnapped earlier in the film. Having realized she's been love potioned to be in love with him he is gentle with her, speaks softly to her, compliments her and accepts the gifts she gives him. It's easy to see that, magically induced or not, he's never had anyone love him before and it gives him a more sympathetic light.
- In Turning Red, in the astral plane, Wu hugs her daughter Ming, who apologizes to her, and Wu assures her she doesn't need to. It's implied Wu realized the way she treated her daughter nearly destroyed her and her family, and so has come to terms with Ming's feelings.
- In Wreck-It Ralph, that Ralph is merely a bad guy, not a bad person, is shown when he shares his stolen cherries with orphaned characters.
