Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing / Live-Action Films

• In Alice in Wonderland (2010), Alice is shrunk until only her dress remains. She, in fact, changes size several times in the film, justifying new outfits with each new size. This is a contrast from the original text, in which her clothes changed size with her. Presumably this was done for the sake of fanservice.
• Beyond Sherwood Forest: Alina turns into a dragon whenever sunlight falls on her. Every time this happens, she tears through her clothes, leaving her naked when she reverts back once the sunlight is no longer on her.
• In Big Fish, it's revealed that ringmaster Amos Winslow is a werewolf when he leaps out of his trailer one night in full-blown canine form, sans clothes; he turns up the next morning in human form and stark naked, and has to be lent a towel to spare his dignity any further damage.
• Conan the Barbarian (1982) features a sequence in which Thulsa Doom transforms into a human-size snake and slithers out of his clothes in the middle of overseeing an orgy, explained in the novelization as fleeing from Conan and his allies' raid on his lair.
• In Constantine (2005), when a half-breed demon's physical body is destroyed, it leaves behind only empty clothing and dust as is the case with Balthazar once the Big Bad is through with him. For good measure, the novelization clarifies that this isn't a permanent death, but the demon being deported back to Hell.
• During the climax of The Faculty, the head alien Marybeth shapeshifts multiple times between human and alien forms. The clothes don't come along, meaning that Marybeth spends the end of the film naked. She tries to use this to seduce Casey, the last non-assimilated character left standing, during her Breaking Speech to him.
• Allison in The Grudge 2 is pulled into her clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor in front of Jake. Kayako then manifests inside the clothes to menace her next victim.
• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell collapses to dust, leaving his clothes to fall empty to the floor.
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:
    • Pettigrew leaves behind his clothes after turning into a rat. Which is strange, because in an earlier scene in the same movie Pettigrew turned from an apparently naked rat to a fully clothed human. The books and the rest of the movies avert this, as Animagi always have clothes on when they turn human, and McGonagall's cat form is noted to have markings around its eyes which resemble her glasses.
    • Also played straight with Lupin's transformation into a werewolf, which completely shreds his clothing apart.
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Averted, but apparently this is a What Could Have Been for the scene when Draco gets turned into a ferret, and would have included a shot of his backside as he ran away afterwards. Tom Felton was apparently relieved when the filmmakers decided not to go with that idea.
• During the climax of Hellboy (2019), Gruagach is shrunk back down to his original size and then some when Nimue betrays him, so his gauntlet and armored shorts clank to the floor as he swiftly dwindles to infant-size. And then Nimue pops him like a blister.
• In The Howling, when Eddie Quist transforms into a werewolf in front of Karen, the resulting transformation rips off his clothes.
• In The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Pat shrinks until even a small pouch that she wears as clothing is all that's left of her.
• Also in Kingsajz when you change size your clothes don't change alongside.
• At the end of Love at First Bite, Dracula leaves his Badass Cape behind after turning into a bat, leaving Jeffery to stab madly at it with his wooden stake until Lt Ferguson tells him to stop because Dracula has long gone. The two of them then help themselves to the cape to impress women.
• In Maleficent, this was considered as an option for Maleficent's raven companion Diaval. However, they went with the Magic Pants version, as the movie is meant for children, and having Diaval put on clothes behind a bush whenever he is turned into a man would be a waste of time. Played straight when Maleficent initially turns him into a human — his feathers don't turn into clothes, he's naked. After robbing a nearby scarecrow of its clothes, Diaval remains dressed for the rest of the movie.
• Empty piles of bandages are all that is left after the protagonist of Mannequin is whisked across time and space.
• In Mom and Dad Save the World, an unpinned light grenade disintegrates anyone who picks it up, leaving only the victim's clothes behind.
• The climax of Nutty Professor II: The Klumps features Sherman Klump trying to reabsorb Buddy Love back into his body by tricking him into accidentally ingesting a dose of his Fountain of Youth formula. As a result, Buddy immediately regresses into a two-year-old and out of his clothes — leaving him completely naked in front of the executives he was trying to sell the formula to. For good measure, Buddy is annoyed at being stared at and angrily insists that "this is an impressive package for a toddler!"
• In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Pete is apparently transformed into a toad, which his fellow adventurers find in his otherwise empty clothing.
• When Santa dies in The Santa Clause, all that's left is his Santa suit, which Tim Allen must don.
• Parodied by Scary Movie: a bunch of rappers instead left their Bling behind. Somehow the people manage to get one and when they Reverse the Polarity it becomes The Nudifier.
• Star Wars:
  • A New Hope: At the end of Vader and Kenobi's lightsaber duel, Kenobi seemingly gives up and lets Vader slice him — but when he does so, we (and Vader) find his clothes empty. He would Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and leave his clothes behind. (Vader then stomps on the robe as if to make sure Kenobi is not just hiding in there!)
  • Return of the Jedi: This happens to Yoda when he dies, leaving behind a tattered robe and blanket to collapse after he joins the Force in death.
  • The Last Jedi: Also happens to Luke Skywalker. After tricking the bad guys with a Force projection, it is shown that Luke was sitting on a rock and soon vanishes seemingly into the Force, his clothes and cape being whisked away by the wind.
  • Attack of the Clones features Zam Wesell, a Bounty Hunter who usually has the appearance of a human woman, but is actually a member of a reptilian shapeshifter species called Clawdites. While she can change her physical appearance, her armor stays the same. Another Clawdite bounty hunter in The Clone Wars, works around this trope by having hologram projectors in her armor and combining them with her natural shapeshifting, allowing for further flexibility in her disguises than Zam showed on screen.
• Sword Of The Valiant, starring Sean Connery. An apprentice witch is turned into a red frog for being naughty by his character. The scene finishes as they converse while she is perched atop of her empty dress surrounded by her accessories.
• The creature from The Thing (1982) can absorb and perfectly replicate its victims, but can't mimic clothing and usually needs to rip through clothes in order to fully assimilate. As such, finding a character's shredded coat puts the rest of the crew on edge over who's really the Thing.
• In Unearthly Stranger, a woman turns out to be a member of an invading alien race. when she tries to stop them, her people, they kill her by fading her out of existence while being held by her husband, leaving only her clothes draped over his arms.
• Vice Versa involves a "Freaky Friday" Flip where the father and son changing into each other (rather than their minds changing places), so the two are left wearing their original and now ill-fitting clothes. As they get ready to switch back at the end, they get naked so they won't have to hassle with that again.
• In War of the Worlds (2005), the alien heat ray reduces people to ash, leaving their clothing behind, but not underwear, for some reason. Non-Magic Pants?
• The sorceress Fin Raziel of Willow has spent the last few decades trapped in the form of a possum courtesy of Bavmorda, and Willow's efforts to undo the spell only wind up transforming her into various other animals; towards the end of the film, however, Willow finally manages to get the spell right — leaving Raziel human and naked.
• In Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, a wounded thief who finds himself cornered by the Djinn is so scared that he wishes he was never born. Very bad idea. His clothes are all that's left of him after the Djinn has granted his wish.
• In The Witches (1990), when someone is turned into a mouse, they leave their clothes behind. When this happens to Luke, the witches immediately stomp on his clothes in an effort to kill him before he can escape. At the very end of the film, Luke is restored to normal by the Grand High Witch's assistant, he's naked — and he destroys his dollhouse apartment as well!

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