Awesome (animation)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

You like cartoons, don't you? Don't be ashamed...it's okay. We like 'em here, too. We especially liked seeing these things happen.

Beware the spoilers, people! Unless you're a Spoiler Hound, that is...but still, mark 'em if they give away too much.

Series pages:


Tropes used in Awesome (animation) include:


Other Warner Bros. Cartoons

  • The Legion of Superheroes has one of these concerning Bouncing Boy in 'Chain of Command'- He somehow displays awesome powers of strategy, saves an entire planet from storms, is voted LEADER, and even gets kissed on the cheek by Triplicate Girl(AKA the girl in the striped miniskirt). Slightly negated by the fact nobody ever mentions this again in season 2.
  • The very first Duck Season! Rabbit Season! bit in the Looney Tunes episode Rabbit Fire. After the part quoted, Bugs pulls it off on Daffy two more times, but each time doesn't make the switch until just before Daffy calls on Elmer to fire. He's got Daffy figured just that quickly.
  • While Bugs Bunny's entire filmography is pretty much wall-to-wall Awesome, the second half of Chuck Jones' Long-Haired Hare stands out in particular to this Troper.
    • Honorable mention: The square dance at the end of Hillbilly Hare, arguably a Crowning Moment of Awesome for voice artist Mel Blanc, as well.
    • As awesome as many of the protaganist's victories were, it was even more awesome when one of the shorts' recurring Butt Monkeys finally got a victory over them (granted they were usually villains, but their sheer harmlessness and likable qualities made you desire at least one moment of triumph over their smug foes). Elmer Fudd (eg. Rabbit Rampage, Hare Brush) and Daffy Duck, even post-Flanderization (eg. Ducking The Devil, Mucho Locos) perhaps scored the most frequent and most satisfying victories.
      • To elaborate, Ducking The Devil involves Daffy luring the escaped Tasmanian Devil back to his zoo for a cash reward of "five hundred Gs"; Daffy succeeds, and when Taz snatches up a dropped dollar, Daffy charges into the Devil's cage, attacks him and WINS.

"I'm a coward, but I'm a greeedy little coward!"

      • Mucho Locos exists as perhaps the only cartoon where a foe actually defeats Speedy Gonzales, with Daffy whacking him with a mallet after hearing him tell one to many stories about "El Stupid Duck".
      • Rabbit Rampage basically involves Elmer beating Bugs at his own game he used on Daffy in Duck Amuck, taking the animator's chair and using his brush to morph Bugs and the cartoon to all manners of innovative torture.
      • My personal favorite is To Duck...or Not to Duck, with Elmer Fudd facing Daffy in a boxing match with another duck as the referee. Naturally, things are pretty skewed against him, starting from when the referee demonstrates all the illegal moves on him. Except at the end of the fight, Elmer points out that Daffy had done a few of those moves, and demonstrates the whole routine again against Daffy and the referee at the same time.
      • And of course Elmer seemingly killing the wabbit in the most dramatic and atmospheric manner possible in What's Opera Doc, avoiding crossing Moral Event Horizon by breaking into remorseful tears straight afterwards.

Elmer: "Typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes....SMOOOOOGGGGGGGG!!!!!"

    • Sylvester gets a Crowning Moment in the Chuck Jones cartoon The Fraidy Cat. Porky Pig and his pet Sylvester find themselves in a haunted house, where the mice terrorize Sylvester by throwing knives, bowling balls and other weapons at him and Porky. Porky, of course, is oblivious to the threat, until, fed up with Sylvester's seeming cowardice, heads into the kitchen to confront the source of Sylvester's fears. The mice end up leading him to the executioner's block, and Porky, tied up under a mass of ropes, can only hold a sign saying, "You were right, Sylvester." Sylvester runs to the hills, only to be confronted by his conscience(a pale blue Sylvester standing next to a reader-board). His conscience points out that Porky raised him from a kitten, and then shows a comparative size chart of Sylvester and a mouse, and finally produces a sign reading, "Now get in there and fight! Fight! FIGHT!!!". This starts Sylvester getting riled up, to the point where he runs up to a tree, rips off a limb with his bare hands and brandishes it like a club--before discarding the limb and uprooting the whole tree and charging back to the haunted house to kick mouse butt!
  • Although Quest for Camelot isn't much of a movie, its heroine earns a lot of points with this troper when she grabs a Mook's mace and takes a swing at the villain. She earns more when, at the movie's climax, she announces her arrival on the scene by declaring boldly, "I will not serve a false king!" and then knocking the villain clean out of the building by swinging a timber at him.
    • Even more awesome is that this phrase was repeated earlier by her father. The villain having heard this from two generations probably pissed him off for the remaining five minutes of his life.
    • Devon and Cornwall get theirs after saving Aden the falcon from the griffin...Cue the Superman Theme.
    • Sure, Sir Ruber is a Large Ham and Ambiguously Gay, but at one point he and his team are cornered by dragons. One of them backs Ruber up against a wall, and he looks with visible disgust at the saliva dripping from its jaws. Then, just as it's about to fry him, he punches it in the face. Ruber & Co. are later seen eating that dragon. Let me repeat: Ruber killed a dragon by punching it!
  • The final episode of Histeria! has a sketch in which the Kid Chorus shows off the basics of defense in siege warfare when a group of evil invaders with feminine names show up (the leader is named Loretta). The kids do everything they can to keep those invaders out, from deflecting their flaming arrows back at them (using a giant fan, for "giant anachronistic appliances come in handy") to offending their musical tastes (Aka plays a CD of elevator music on a giant amp), and finally sending out Big Fat Baby when they do break down the door. No gender-confused knights are getting into this kid-group's clubhouse.
    • Loud Kiddington, the poster child for No Indoor Voice, had one of his own in the "Presidential People" episode. When George Bush (the first) lets it be known that he is banning broccoli from presidential grounds, Loud starts following him around everywhere, Green Eggs and Ham-style, asking him to eat the piece of broccoli on the plate he is carrying. After repeated refusals, Bush finally does take a bite, and he naturally doesn't like it - but this, validity on his hatred of broccoli, is exactly what Loud and his buddies wanted to hear from him.
    • Froggo got one in the sketch where he befriends Joseph Stalin. As Froggo's big buddy, the Soviet dictator has quite a bit of fun with him and comes to torture anybody who does something wrong to him such as picking on him or giving him a bad grade on a school assignment. It's thanks to this sketch that we learn the important lesson to never pick on short kids because chances are they might have friends in high places.
  • The Iron Giant: "Superman..."
    • How about when he unfolds all of his weaponry?
  • Smaug making his Badass Boast in the animated version of The Hobbit, shortly followed by the battle against him at Laketown. The reason you don't see so much of evil dragon rampages in cartoons anymore is because they're scared to compete with these scenes.

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons

  • One particular Tom and Jerry cartoon ("The Million Dollar Cat") that comes to mind went something like this: Tom inherits a vast amount of money, but the inheritance comes with a clause that he will lose all the money if he ever harms a mouse. Jerry decides to be a complete prick about this: stealing Tom's money, eating the extravagant food right off of Tom's plate and even causing grievous bodily harm to the poor housecat, all because he knows Tom can't retaliate. Eventually Tom snaps and beats the crap out of Jerry, because there are some things more important than money. Like the happiness you gain from taking revenge on the little bastard that made your life miserable.
    • Great use of a seldom used speaking voice for Tom at the end - he stops in mid-smackdown and says to us: "Gee, I'm throwin' away a million dollars...[gleefully] BUT I'M HAPPY!!!"
    • There's another one where Jerry and another mouse keep tormenting Tom in his sleep with cruel pranks that make it look like he's trying to kill himself. In the end, he discovers them PULLS A GUN ON THEM, stuffs them in a bottle, and gets on with his nap. And it's glorious.
      • Pretty much every time Tom wins is a Crowning Moment, actually, since it usually means Jerry's being too much of an ass for the writers to justify letting him win (but once or twice it's just letting the villain win). Tom turning the tables on Jerry in "Mouse For Sale" kicks ass.
    • A Berserk Button that has to be mentioned here is Jerry's in "The Milky Waif". Tom learned the hard way that if you hurt Nibbles, Jerry will quickly turn into a Pint-Sized Powerhouse and give you a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. To put it bluntly, don't touch Jerry's nephew!
  • Fred and Daphne leading an army against what they thought was an army of the undead in "Scooby Doo and The Mummy's Curse."
    • Or the fact that the whole ghost plot of the movie was actually a scheme by Velma to catch the real bad guys. Though knowing that it was Velma behind the ghost-Cleopatra mask makes Scooby and Shaggy's Looney Tunes-esque antics/distractions completely hilarious.
    • Ben Ravencroft, played by Tim Curry, revealing that he had been playing the heroes for saps for the entirety of "Scooby Doo and The Witch's Ghost," and the proceeding to summon the Big Bad using real magic. The animation as he casts the spell... just... wow.
    • Shaggy beating the Ghost Clown with a mirror in "Bedlam In The Big Top".
    • Daphne's karate skills in "Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword".
    • Scooby-Doo and the Boo Brothers have the titular Boo Brothers, having acted as Plucky Comic Relief beforehand, fight against the ghost of the southern colonel, and for all of their antics, manage to chase him off. That's quite a feat for a trio that previously were merely expies for the Three Stooges.
    • Scooby himself gets one in the series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. He pretty much single-handedly destroys an evil robotic counterpart himself using a forklift while spouting Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner in what is essentially a Shout-Out to both Aliens and the Terminator.

Scooby: (After crushing the robot dog do death) Play dead.

  • In the Birdman episode bearing his name, Number One definitively cements his position as Birdman's greatest foe. After capturing Birdman, he gets Dangerously Genre Savvy and blasts Avenger with a laser before returning to base, heading off (or so he believes at the moment) the one factor that has ruined almost every other villain in the series. The whole episode is arguably the series' Crowning Moment, if such a thing is possible.
    • Falcon Seven's Crowning Moment of Awesome comes in "Murro the Marauder". Birdman is battling and losing to his own shadow, which has brought to life by Murko. His only possible hope is that it might share his weaknesses as well as his powers. After he is freed by Avenger, Falcon Seven acts on this and saves Birdman by hitting it in the head with a chunk of masonry.
    • Birdman himself gets a crowning moment of awesome, when he escapes from the giant cage the villain has put him in by tricking a giant robot into punching the cage, thus freeing him. Made more awesome by the fact that he does it without avenger's help.
  • The Flintstones in the "Dr. Sinister" episode. Fred and Barney, shanghaied into a terrifying James Bond like adventure, about to cast into a literally bottomless pit on the orders of the aforementioned Big Bad. In a desperate move to try to save themselves, Barney gets the idea of hitting the Mook about to throw them a judo chop. It works perfectly and the action gets wild and wooly as Fred and Barney start taking on a whole army of goons with "a Judo Chop Chop!" before making a break for it in a glorious chase, judo chopping all opposition until they use Sinister's treadmill trap against them for a spectacular knockout blow against the villains.
  • The Smurfs had a Moment for Gargamel in the opening credits for the syndicated Smurfs' Adventures:

Gargamel (with Power Echoes): Ravage the land as never before! / Total destruction FROM MOUNTAIN TO SHORE!

    • Actually, I believe that scene was from a special episode from the previous season of the show -- possibly that dealing with the Olympics, which I never saw fully.
      • Just to invoke a touch of Fridge Logic, when Gargy intones this spell--he is * standing* on a mountain.
  • The Jonny Quest episode, "The Robot Spy." Imagine an episode that begins with the ultimate in 1960s Nightmare Fuel with the Dr. Zin's spider like robot sneaking about, attacking any sentry in its way through the dead of night. Then when it is discovered, the episode changes to the wildest animated fight sequence in all of 1960s TV as the good guys furiously throw everything at the spider robot and it just keeps on going! Best of all, the episode avoids almost all the series' otherwise embarrassing ethnic stereotypes with a futuristic story that still feels reasonably believable and neat today.

Hey Arnold!

  • The entire show, for being a kids' show that does not veer away from difficult topics while not being preachy. The writing, voice acting, and characters will, in this troper's opinion, never be surpassed. And she loved Avatar.
  • Helga G. Pataki is possibly the deepest, most well-rounded nine-year-old girl ever to set foot in Western Animation. From negligent alcoholic parents to having a mental disorder (the majority of the fanbase has decided she has bipolar disorder), to putting all of her faith in Arnold... The list goes on and on. Her voice actress, Francesca Smith, actually won a Young Artist Award for her portrayal of Helga.
  • The episode "Helga on the Couch."
  • The episode "The Pigeon Man."
  • The episode "What's Opera, Arnold?"
  • Mr. Simmons, for being one of the first openly homosexual characters in an animated kids' show.
  • Helga memorizing Romeo and Juliet in one night and pulling off the performance with no rehearsal whatsoever. Even The Power of Love can't fully account for that one.
  • The freakishly huge amount of character development! For one thing, Chocolate Boy starts out as just a chocolate junkie, but then he gets his own episode, where he goes from being comic relief to being a chocolate addict with a back story (in an episode that perfectly parallels many real-life drug stories). There were characters like Tucker, who were one episode wonders, but still managed to get character development into just eleven minutes of airtime. Helga started the show out as a total douchebag who stalked Arnold, but her dysfunctional family made her into an epic tragic love story, all leading up to HOTC! Everyone living in the boardinghouse got their own episode at some point! Brainy is the only character who really never got character development, but his lack of character development totally worked bacause he is the ULTIMATE creeper! Ironically, the show's main character, Arnold, is the only character to really undergo any flanderization (turning into the city's savior in later episodes), but even he had an epic backstory and to top it off, being the city's savior is totally badass!

Other Nicktoons

  • In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron episode "Crouching Jimmy, Hidden Sheen", Sheen gets a singularly epic Crowning Moment of Awesome when he acquires the "Eye of the Tiger" and defeats Martial Arts master Yoo Yee...by dancing. This also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, since Sheen was doing it to to save Libby (not to mention that he only got the Eye of the Tiger after she declared herself to be his girlfriend).
    • Cindy gets her moment in "The N Men" when she goes one-on-one with giant Hulk-Jimmy, only to realize that the only way to quell his anger is to get down on her hands and knees and apologize.
    • Hugh arguably also gets one of these in "Win, Lose and Kaboom", when he saves Team Earth by answering the alien pop culture question on a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" reminiscent game.
    • Jimmy gets his in the movie, when he does a dramatic you-can't-walk-all-over-me monologue, uses the shrink ray to make himself huge, then simply blows away the villains' ship with a puff of air.
    • Earlier in the movie, he builds an entire fleet of spacecraft out of CARNIVAL RIDES in only a few days (Single-stage-to-Yolkius, too) and then leads all his school friends into space to battle an entire alien empire. With "Kids in America" playing in the background.
  • KaBlam!!: Henry and June's pledge of Blam-Legiance.
  • The Mighty B!: O Say Can Bess See. Bessie gets rewarded for being the top regional seller of taffy with a strange abstract art. She tries her best to relax in order to see what's in it and goes through a cool sequence of self-discovery to see what the picture was, but her dog Happy reveals it to be, well, a bee.
  • Rugrats: It's easy to say that whenever Chuckie Finster and/or his dad, Chaz, lose their usual docile nature, it's a Crowning Moment right there. Chaz's big one comes in the episode Family Feud: when arguments over tastes in movies lead to Tommy's parents getting into a feud with Phil and Lil's, the babies attempt to reconcile them, only for it to get worse when items the babies give them are mistaken as gifts from their normal families. When the babies decide to run away, Chaz is the only one who realizes it and lets the other parents know. When they still argue, Chaz blows up and delivers a Reason You Suck Speech that their petty arguments lead them to forget what matters most: their kids.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: The ending for Rocko's Happy Sack.

Rocko: You CHEAP little rotter! I have been run over by a car, made to drag around a gimp shopping cart, threatened by your Gestapo security guards, had me head set on fire, I was attacked by wild lobsters, beaten by a very LARGE woman, had me dog wrapped in plastic, nearly starve to death and I still made the twelve o'clock deadline! So if you don't change that total back to a dollar fifty, I WILL DO SOMETHING NOT NICE!
Filburt: (nervous) That'll be one dollar and fifty cents, please...

WITCH

  • After a Ten-Minute Retirement in the episode "The Mudslugs", Cornelia returns with a vengeance, picking up a huge section of earth that the mother mudslug is embedded in and tossing it into a nearly portal after a serious show of exertion.
  • Matt, combining "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight with The Power of Rock in order to fight off the possession of the demon Shagon in the episode "S is for Self". After attempting to overpower Shagon with his fists ("wrong weapon"), he materializes a guitar out of sheer willpower and blasts the demon out of his mind with a series of power chords ("right weapon"). After doing so, he not only regains control of his own body, but absorbs Shagon's powers as well, giving him the ability to take Shagon's form and use his nifty demonic attacks.
  • In the first-season finale "The Final Battle", Elyon unleashes the full extent of her powers on Phobos after learning his true nature. For half the season, Phobos had been manipulating Elyon, pretending to be a loving big brother to her as he prepared to steal her powers. Just before imprisoning Phobos in a magical cage, Elyon tearfully tells him: "You were never my brother."
  • Blunk also has one in "The Final Battle," when he bites Cedric's tail and declares "Not just scavenger! Warrior!"
  • The So Last Season battle in "J is for Jewel," culminating in Hay Lin taking out Phobos on her own.

Johnny Test

  • A small, cute Tinymon evolving into Shadow Lugia a badass Tinymon with the power of love.

Other

  • In My Little Pony And Friends, one of the serials involves the Ponies staving off the approach of a city from another dimension -- and this was a completely nonviolent adventure show for girls. If stopping an extradimensional invasion without any violence at all isn't awesome, this troper doesn't know what is.
    • By these standards, the Flutter Ponies' defeat of the Big Bad in the episode "Bright Lights" is truly made of Girl Power Awesome:

We are the Flutter Ponies!
Now you've met your match!
Faster than a lightning bolt,
we're impossible to catch!

  • A Charlie Brown Christmas when Linus gives his recitation of the Shepherds' vision of the angels' announcement of Jesus' birth. The scene has a moving power that rivets you to the screen regardless of your beliefs, regardless of the fact it's a Talking Heads scene.
    • This is also Charles Schulz' own Moment of Awesome, because he put his foot down when Executive Meddling kicked in and said that if he couldn't have that part in the special, he would not allow it to be aired. Similar battles were waged over the lack of a laugh track, the use of child voice actors, and the sophisticated jazz soundtrack.
      • Which makes it all the more infuriating when the networks decided to cut down parts of that beautiful scene to make room for more commercials. * sigh* * WHAM*
      • I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight on ABC, and Linus' speech was left intact. Am I missing something?
    • It's even more awesome in the eyes of anyone who reads the Peanuts comics, and therefore knows that Linus has crippling stage fright and Lucy, every holiday season, without fail, signs him up to preform in front of the PTA, and then proceeds to drag him there under protest. He once spent an entire week sitting in a tree to avoid reciting publicly, and yet seeing Charlie Brown in such a state of despair makes him drop all that without a second thought.
  • Ozu's song from Kappa Mikey.
  • Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, in the episode "I Only Have Surprise For You", when he arranged a Xanatos Gambit to humiliate his friend Mac while celebrating his birthday, a move that just made him more of a Jerkass to some, but, to this troper at least, proved that a character often portrayed as having the IQ of a walnut, actually has some genius tendencies, when he's not being a Cloudcuckoolander.
    • The 1st of a Two Shorts Format episode, entitled "Where There's A Wilt There's A Way," is mostly just 15 minutes of Wilt missing a basketball game on TV doing favors for people because of his inability to say no, even getting him into jail and escaping twice. So at the end he gets back to Foster's, grabs Bloo a bowl of chips (the favor which, keep in mind, if Bloo hadn't asked in the first place, Wilt could have seen the entire game uninterrupted,) sits down the very moment the game ends, Bloo pettily complains that he didn't get the right flavor of chips and demands that he go back and get the right kind, and Wilt finally snaps and delivers a CLUSTER BIG NO.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOO! NUH-UH!

    • More Foster's Moments of Awesome - Mac gets one in "My So-Called Wife" just before the climactic jet-car duel. Bloo himself is terrified, and suggests that Mac simply drive them both and the jet-car out of there, but Mac responds with a grim speech about how the whole contest has become about truth, and honour, etc...Bloo comments bewilderedly, "What do you mean?" Mac's response? "I. DON'T. KNOW." And he slams the pedal to the metal...
    • "My So-Called Wife" also features Coco's Moment of Awesome. Following the fiery conclusion of the jet-car duel, she and Herriman are plummeting from the heavens to what seems like certain doom. She promptly grabs Herriman, pops open a parachute from nowhere, and saves them both in style.
    • And how could anyone forget Frankie's Moment of Awesome in "Frankie My Dear"? Having realised what a loathsome sleazeball her good-looking date really is, she faces him with a face like stone as he desperately tries to convince her otherwise, before concluding, "Hey, Frankie...did I ever tell you how awesome you look in that dress?" Without a word, Frankie balls her hands together, cracks her knuckles...and launches a piledriver straight into the camera lens and punches him out.

The last scene of the episode has Mac and Bloo comment how awesome of a beatdown she gave the guy, including a super-atomic-wedge, of sorts (and that he wore briefs.)

  • After Korgoth from Korgoth of Barbaria effortlessly disposes of a group of mooks he is threatened by a Giant Mook. When the big guy goes on for too long, Korgoth responds by ripping off all the skin on the front of his body, (mid-threat, no less) then reaches onto the bar, tosses a batch of alcohol into the open wound, then sets the guy on fire. Scene here.
  • The climax of most Super Secret Secret Squirrel episodes is basically Secret doing something awesome to outsmart the villain, but Secret beating One Ton, a villainous panda who Secret can't harm, since panda's are endangered and harming them is illegal, was the best. Instead of hurting him, Secret just sits on his head, not doing anything, nonchalantly jumping out of the way every time One Ton takes a swing, causing him to beat himself up instead. One Ton finally decides to smash him with a car, which, of course, just ends with One Ton knocked out and Secret arresting him... for illegally endangering a panda.
    • Also, tricking Hot Rodney. Also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.
      • Somewhat dampened, though, by the massive Idiot Ball that caused the titular opponent to fall for SS's last trick. An even slightly more intelligent Rodney would most certainly have taken one look at the "congratulatory belt", recognized it as the very bomb his assistant had strapped to Morocco earlier (or at the very least as an obvious bomb), said "Y'all must think I'm some sorta fool," and tossed the thing over his shoulder.
  • The American Street Fighter cartoon had a few, one comes when Bison is fighting both Cammy and Chun-Li. Cammy attacks, screaming all the injustices Bison has done to her, and he just knocks her away with "Business is business!" Then Chun-Li attacks as well, yelling "You Killed My Father", to which Bison responds:

"Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway?! I killed my father too and you don't see me whining about it!"

  • Megabyte and Bob jamming on their electric guitars at Enzo's birthday party on ReBoot. Hey, Megabyte's a Magnificent Bastard; he lives for scenes like this. May be a Crowning Music of Awesome and as well a Crowning Moment of Funny, due to the awesome riffs, and the crazy juxtaposition of the villain engaging in a rock-off with The Hero.
    • Also: Any time a protagonist says "I don't think so!" you know that the villain's just crossed a line and is in trouble.
    • Matrix defeating Megabyte by simply punching him into submission. It would seem Megabyte never met anyone physically strong enough to hurt him before.
    • Matrix beating a golf game, by pulling out his gun and attacking his opponent.
  • In Shrek (the first one) when the dragon punches out the window near the end.
  • In Shrek 2, the entire "Holding Out For a Hero" sequence is one big Moment of Awesome for all characters involved. To say nothing of Harold's Heroic Sacrifice afterward.
    • Puss in Boots does so many awesome things that it's hard to pick just one. Nonetheless, there's a scene where Puss decides to repay his debt to Shrek by staying behind to stall the enemy guards chasing the heroes and then disarms the guards (figuratively) by making an adorable sad kitten face. Before they can regain their senses, he whips out his rapier and goes to town on them.
  • Althought Shrek the Third wasn't all that better than the second one, it had its moments. The final battle between Shrek and Prince Charming, whose motivation is the search for his "Happily Ever After", ends with this exchange:

Charming: "This was supposed to be my happily ever after!"
Shrek: "Well, I guess you'll have to keep looking. Because I'm not giving up mine." *punches Charming into the air*

    • Or the scene in which Queen Lilly breaks all of the princesses out of jail. By knocking down a stone wall with her head. Twice.
      • Followed by a Crowning Moment of Funny when the dazed Queen (played by Julie Andrews) has to be helped up and led away...but she's singing to herself..."Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..."
  • Rare for a Disney Death to be a Moment of Awesome, but, lo and behold: "I FINISHED MY NAP!"
  • In Anastasia, Anastasia/Anya has one:

Anastasia/Anya: This is for Dimitri! This is for my family! And this... this is for you! Do svidaniya!

Kiva: (absolutely stunned) "Coop. You just destroyed the Glorft!"
Coop: "Did you really think anyone else was gonna do it?"

      • Actually, that was from the first season finale as well. Still kinda cool, though.
      • Actually, Coop's line was " So? What'd you think was gonna happen?"
    • The Regis Mark V. It was a walking Moment of Awesome.
  • Season 1, Episode 6 of Spawn: The Animated Series. Spawn gets one when he surfs on the antagonist's van, Clown gets one with this line:

Clown: You assholes, that wasn't in the goddamn script!

    • Clown gets another one when he reveals his true nature. Up until this point, he's been an obnoxious, trash-talking sidekick, but Spawn finally pushes him one step too far, and he announces "you don't know who you're dealin' with... but it's time you found out". Everyone who knew the comic book knew what was coming, and it didn't disappoint: he gruesomely changes into Violator, and everything about his mannerisms changes. Now he speaks telepathically in a much more formal, darker tone that's almost totally devoid of humor (starting with the ominous line "now begins your training"), while laying down not only Spawn's first defeat in a fight, but a Curb Stomp Battle at that. And the original HBO broadcast went one step further than the DVD's. Initially, his voice was a constantly shifting Voice of the Legion with both male and female elements; it practically required closed captioning to make out, but it really, really made Violator feel completely non-human. They switched to a more hissing, decipherable voice in reruns and DVD's that lost a little bit of the effect, but either way, it was the perfect demonstration that Clown's really, really Not-So-Harmless Villain after all.
    • Shortly afterwards, we have Spawn's utter wtfpwnage of Overkill and Tony Twist. After a brutal battle where Overkill solidly defeats Spawn (but not without getting a piece of rebar right through his artificial eye), Overkill is being repaired... cue Spawn interrupting. Shortly after, Spawn pays Tony Twist, Overkill's boss, a visit and lets loose a bag full of Overkill's severed limbs and part of his face, followed by shooting Twist's goons in the legs and making Twist shit himself.
  • The climax of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. Greatest wizards duel ever.
  • Don't laugh -- Baby Piggy in Muppet Babies: Animal disappeared while the babies were time travelling, and they find him in a mafia city. Animal refuses to open the door to the club he's hiding in for Kermit. Piggy steps up and sweetly says, "Let me try, Kermy"... and then karate chops the door down with a "HI-YAH!" that makes the others' eyes practically pop out of their heads.
  • Every chase scene in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Not to mention when Little Creek came out of nowhere and jumped the Colonel when he was about to shoot Spirit. It ends with the epic leap of Spirit and Little Creek over the massive canyon.
  • Samurai Jack: The episode featuring the eight adamantium (y' know, the stuff that Wolverine's skeleton and claws are made out of) robots, when Jack calls for strength enough to defeat the last... and the blow he deals is enough to make a robot say, just before utter destruction:

Lead Robot: UNBELIEVABLE.

    • Samurai versus Ninja.
    • The entirety of III. Jack in Feudal Japanese armor versus an army of robotic drones. The end result is too awesome for words. It ends with a pan shot of Jack on top of a mountain of enemies, covered in blood oil, waving the flag of the allies we was protecting. The end of the three part pilot, and the intro for many to just how amazing Samurai Jack was going to be.
    • The Scotsman's wife. That is all.
    • When Jack finally finds a time portal, he has to defeat the big blue guy guarding it. Said man pull out a gun and begans shooting. Jack tries to throw attention off of him by throwing some ninja stars left over from a previous fight at him. The guards' response? Pull out another gun and shoot the stars out of the air, a bullet apiece, all while keeping the other gun pointed at Jack.
    • "Jack and the Spartans". Samurai Jack plus Frank Miller's 300. Holy SHIT.
    • Episode XXXIV, "Jack and the Swamp Creature". In a bid to find another route to the past, Jack is led by a loudmouthed hermit, who is totally not Aku in disguise, to find the Armor of the Titan, Chronos. Jack faces numerous obstacles, but succeeds in gathering the helmet and gauntlets. The Hermit then summons Chronos to destroy Jack, berating the Samurai for being so stupid- until Chronos begins to fall apart. Jack emerges from the swamp, holding up the Eye of Chronos- the crystal from the helmet- and calls out Aku for his own complacency and laziness, telling how he saw the trap coming, before hacking at Aku with his magic sword. Aku manages to escape, but with the Eye, Jack may have the tool he needs to finish him once and for all.

Jack: "Run, you cowardly shadow! For you know your destruction is at hand. It is just a matter of time.

    • Episode XIV "Jack Learns to Jump Good". The beginning has Aku in a field taunting Jack by playing keep away with a time portal. The ending sees Jack returning, only now having gained the ability to jump very very good.

Aku: "Samurai fool! Your efforts are in vain again. This gateway to the past is once more beyond your rea-"
(Jack lunges 50 feet in the air at Aku)
Aku: "YOU CAN FLY?!"
Jack: (with a badass smirk) "No. Jump Good."
(Cut to credits)

    • Episode XLVII The Princess and the Bounty Hunters: The entire episode is about five bounty hunters teaming up in order to take down Jack. They're all made out to be pretty awesome. Jack himself only shows up in the last minute of the episode, with no dialogue, and proceeds to completely demolish them before leaving.
    • "Jack and the Lava Monster". Jack is attacked by a Norse warrior turned into the titular lava monster. At one moment Jack decides that their fight is pointless and decides to leave but the the monster pleads him to carry on as to fall in fair combat is the only way for him to rid himself of the curse and to ascend to Valhalla. Jack agrees.

Monster:(having smacked Jack into a wall) "Rise, warrior! Rise! Honorably must I be defeated! I cannot let up!"
Jack: (ominously) "Do not worry. I have only begun to fight!"

    • What about when he takes out the world's three greatest archers while blindfolded and then sacrifices a chance at going home to rid the world of the evil wishing well in VII Jack and the Three Blind Archers?
  • Billy and Mandy spinoff special Underfist had many of these for the central characters.
    • Irwin: Unleashing his monster powers and being able to hold his own against Hoss.
    • Hoss: Hoss was a living, breathing Moment of Awesome throughout the entire special.
    • Jeff & Fred: Their "I don't want to grow up" musical number.
    • Mindy: Her witch poition recipe musical number.
    • Bun Bun: Revealing that he was behind every major problem that befell everyone.
    • Skarr: His plan against Bun Bun, which results in Bun Bun's demise.
  • Roger, from American Dad, after revealing that forcing himself to be nice is slowly poisoning him due to his weird alien biology. The whole family wants him to live, and urges him to be a jerk again. He asks for Steve to perform one of his dance moves for him (he'd spent the entire episode bragging about being a great backup dancer) and tore into him with a line that left my ribs hurting for nearly an hour: "If you were trying to to create despair the likes of which have not been seen since Whoopi hosted the oscars, then BRAVO. I can see millions rising up, demanding legislation that would force your legs amputated, incinerated and buried next to Hitler. In short, YOU SUCK."
    • Also, when he accidentally inhaled a lethal (to a human) amount of cocaine and had a shootout with five gangsters (which he would have won if the cocaine had not worn off)
      • Also a crowning moment for Steve: Lavate los manos!
    • Hayley has one in Meter Maid when she gets back at Roger for painting a nude picture of her, let Steve borrow it and not telling him it was his sister, and auctioning it.

Hayley: You know what Roger? This is all your fault. I'm going kick your ass!
Roger: Think you got a shot porn star? Bring it! (Hayley punches him in the gut) I wasn't ready. (Falls to the floor in a fetal position, wrapping his arms around his stomach) That how Houdini died.

    • Also Stan's plan to save Roger from an autopsy in "Office Spaceman".

Roger: He switched the gas. Son of a bitch "Superman II'd" me!

Victoria: * after informing Barkis of the bad news that her parents are broke -- Barkis has not taken it well* Did things not go according to your plan, Lord Barkis? Well, perhaps, in disappointment, we are perfectly matched.

    • Emily gets one during the final fight sequence -- Barkis has got Victor down for the count, goes to stab him -- and Emily steps in front of him and takes the blow. (And this might just be this troper's opinion, but she's pretty sure that the rip in Emily's dress indicates this is how Barkis KILLED her.)
    • Victor's is "Take. Your Hands. Off Her." Though really, the fight sequence could qualify -- up until Emily's Moment of Awesome, he successfully holds off Barkis, armed with a sword, with a FORK. In fact, Barkis never touches him, but Victor scores at least THREE hits on him!
  • In the first Max Fleischer Superman cartoon short, a mad scientist is wreaking terror on Metropolis with his death ray. The Man of Steel acts as a human (well, Kryptonian) shield against the ray's beam, pushing it it back toward its source. When he gains the upper hand against the beam's force, the scientist jacks up the power level, and the ray pummels Supes with blasts of energy, knocking him about noticeably, and eventually slamming him back to the ground (remember, this is the less powered Superman of 1940). But just when it looks like he might be down for the count, Supes gathers up all his strength, and starts punching the beam back up to its source, his punches landing in time with the triumphant strains of Sammy Timberg's theme music. When this troper first saw this cartoon at age 10, this scene blew him away, and to him it is truly a Moment of Awesome.
    • Referenced in Justice League, I believe. Along with the iconic changing sequence.
    • For a hilarious re-edit/dub, check this out, still shows how awesome, if impossible that scene was: http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/43/Superman-and-the-Concentrated-Light-Ray
    • Let's not forget another Moment of Awesome for Supes in his other Fleischer short "the Bulleteers". Some gangsters with a rocket car are destroying various buildings, and the car has sprouted wings and is heading toward the Treasury when Supes literally punches the car out of the way and sends it flying out of control.
  • Superjail: The Warden gets one in the pilot episode when he reveals his Xanatos Gambit against the Twins. Made even more awesome in that this in the only time during the course of the series thus far in which a member of the Superjail staff actually scares the everloving crap out of the Twins.

The Warden: Bra-vo, a-bra-vo, hah-bra-vo.
Twin A: Bravo to you.
Twin B: We love the new uniforms.
The Warden: I think you boys need to...step it up, because it's time for the big show.

  • full moon starts rising, causing some of the inmates in wolf costumes to turn into werewolves*

Jared: Sir! We have to get out of here!
The Warden: Adios, Twins.
The Twins: ADI-5000.

  • In War Planets (aka Shadow Raiders), the heroes are fighting the Beast Planet as it about to fire one of its weapons and destroy one of the Allied worlds while Tekla is refusing to participate while she investigates some strange findings inside one of the planets. At the climax, the heroes are failing, the weapon is about to fire, but Tekla finds out a major secret as the Beast's weapon is fired; each of the planet is designed with it's own propulsion and navigational control system. When Tekla realizes what the planet can do, she orders an evasive maneuver and the heroes in space are stunned to see a whole planet suddenly dodge the Beast's shot! They also realize only Tekla could have brought this miracle about and now they have more options fighting the Beast than they ever imagined possible.
  • In the short-lived request-a-cartoon-series, JBVO, Johnny Bravo actually does a recap of an ENTIRE episode of Dragonball Z in fast-forward.
  • In the semi-series finale of Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, Edd had been subjected to not only becoming the most feared boy in his entire school (which well and nearly killed his friendship with Ed), but also suffered the most brutal of beatdowns at the hands of Jimmy, the resident peace-lover. Before the Kanker Sisters were about to give him a "reward" for the fight, Eddy promptly yells HE'S! HAD! ENOUGH ALREADY!! at them, before telling them to beat it. Dumbfounded, they leave.
  • Nothing from The Tick (animation) yet? I guess I'll start things off with "The Tick vs. Filth" being one big sustained one for Sewer Urchin, who after years of taking everyone's crap and being regarded as moronic and useless, is revealed to be just as much of a hero as everyone else in his native environment, living in a luxurious apartment with all kinds of gadgets to take down sewer dwelling monsters. "Down here, I'm the apotheosis of cool."
    • "PUT THE MOON BACK, DEMON WAIF!"
  • G.I. Joe Resolute. Yeah, I know, it's G.I. Joe, bet you didn't expect that. Except Warren Ellis got his hands all over it and you know what happens then. So far it's all awesome after awesome, but especially the scenes with Snake Eyes. After everything else he did during Part 2, the end when Snake Eyes flicks the blood from his blade made me go "OH SHIIIII!" in ecstasy of awesome.
  • In the 2007 TMNT film: Leonardo vs. Raphael. The two franchise-long rivals, finally getting into a real fight where they get to bawl each other out - first with words, then with weapons. And even though the plot demanded a particular winner, both combatants made a good show of it.
    • It's possible that this scene blew the budget on Awesome for the whole film, which could be why that quality only shows up in a couple other scenes, in lesser amounts.
  • Brain shows his inner Trickster Archetype in the Pinky and The Brain episode "Brain of the Future" when the two are taken prisoner by a race of humanoid cockroaches. Brain bets the queen he he can hold more in his two arms than her two guards can hold in their combined twelve, and if he's right, she'll let them go. She accepts his challenge, and of course, there's no way he can top the mountain of stuff the guards end up holding... but now that they've got their hands full, he's free to grab the MacGuffin and escape! Classic! El-ahrairah andBr'er Rabbit would be so proud.
    • What about the time Brain fought with Snowball in the episode called 'Welcome to the Jungle'?
  • Gormiti: The Lords of Nature Return: Nick, The Short Guy with Glasses, gets a Moment of Awesome in the first episode already, which may be one of the reasons why he's such a popular character. As Lavor is boasting in front of his own men about his plan to conquer Gorm and the Earth thanks to the Sulphur Stone, and showing off a captured Toby for good measure... Nick leaps up to the Sulphur Stone with a little help from Jessica and proceeds to single-handedly absorb it. For the record, the Sulphur Stone was at least twice as big as Nick in his Lord of Earth self is... and the resulting display is such that Lavor and his minions are sent running away in panic! And when all is finally over, Nick also adds a touch of funny by 'tagging' his brother! Watch the scene in its entirety here.
    • Jessica gets a good one in Episode 9. As Nick is busy trying to save Toby from the Volcano Gormiti (Toby seems to have a habit for getting captured, huh?), and the Sea Gormiti are trying to hold off Magmion's minions, Jessica is forced to fight Drakkon, Magmion's massive pet dragon, in a pitched battle above Mount Volcano... a battle which she handily wins through a combination of superior speed, quick thinking and the right dose of Super Strength! Click here to view it.
  • At one point in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Robotnikland", Robotnik beans Sonic with a monkey wrench mid-Spin Attack.
    • Another one would be the conclusion of the Chaos Emeralds episodes. Sonic and Tails vs. Supreme High Robotnik, anyone?
  • Secret Saturdays When Fiskerton saves Zack's life by beating some webbing out of one of Argost's henchmen to stop a train, and is dragged off by Argost afterwards.
  • The Secret of NIMH. Mrs. Brisby isn't a Mama Bear in the sense of 'hurt my kids and I will beat you down,' but the lengths she can and will go through for them is astonishing. In particular:
    • Facing down The Great Owl at sunset, when she knows full well "Owls eat mice!"
    • Venturing into the Rosebush, with all its Disney Acid Sequence goodness, including a leering face made of lights and a giant sentry rat with a huge freaking halberd! And then, after being chased away by said halberd-wielding rat, going back in to do what she came to do.
    • And finally, using The Power of Love to save her kids in the most visually amazing Deus Ex Machina ever.
    • Given his Butt Monkey role throughout most of the film, one couldn't help but cheer Jeremy after directly attacking the Nightmare Fuelish monster cat Dragon to protect Ms Brisby. After later finding her sobbing, heartbroken at having lost Timmy's vital medicine, Jeremy seems to ultimately lose concentration of the whole matter and rambles on to himself, before grabbing something from out of his wing; "Oh, by the way, you dropped this back there..."
  • In Don Bluth's other animated film starring mice, An American Tail, we get the Giant Mouse of Minsk. Nightmare Fuel, yes, but in terms of seeing the bad guys getting their asses handed to them, a very satisfying scene indeed.
  • King Julien (Yes, that King Julien) gets one in an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar during a hockey game against the sewer rats. It can be summed up in six words: "NONE MAY TOUCH THE ROYAL FEET!"
    • Private has his own during Untouchable: how do you beat an enemy you can't touch? Simple: build a robot suit so you can hug him. Or pop him like a grape if he doesn't repent.
  • Wallace and Gromit. The Wrong Trousers. The titular heroes are locked into a deadly train chase with the evil penguin thief Feathers McGraw. The aforementioned dastard switches tracks, leaving our heroes destined for a painful crash. However, at the last possible second, Gromit notices a nearby box of "spare track". He grabs it and begins laying track in front of the speeding train, guiding it to safety, his paws a blur.
    • At the beginning of the scene, Wallace, normally The Load, ends up stuck in his Tencho-Trousers standing on the caboose in the parallel track. As he rolls by Feathers, he snatches the pengiun's gun out of his flipper with a "I'll take THAT, if you don't mind!"
    • For this troper, it's that one moment after Feathers has pulled off the heist, and locked Wallace in the wardrobe. He turns around, and there's Grommit, with a rolling pin in hand, looking very cross. Of course, the next moment has Feathers pulling a gun, but still...awesome.
  • The Prince of Egypt has several, particularly the parting of the Red Sea (obviously), and the film is in itself is (at least in This Troper's opinion) a Moment of Awesome for Dreamworks traditional animation. But one scene that was particularly awesome was right after Moses talks to God through the Burning Bush and rushes to tell Tzipporah about it. There's no dialogue; just Stephen Schwartz's sweeping score and Moses telling what happened through gesture.
    • While it doubles as Nightmare Fuel, the entire sequence of the first 9 plagues, along with the amazing musical number, featuring a Dark Reprise of the song "All I Ever Wanted," is nothing more than awesome, even if it is one of the scariest things God has done since leveling Sodom and Gomorrah. The song itself is great, especially the lyrics, such as "I sent my scourge! I sent my sword! Thus sayeth the Lord!" The 10th plague though...
  • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: In "100 Percensus", Captain K'Nuckles is constantly bothered by Flapjack to take a census and be accounted for. K'Nuckles, being K'Nuckles, thinks Flapjack wants him to count to four, which he can't do. Eventually, he comes around and takes the census, only to find that Stormalong has been taken over by pirates. He gives the census to the pirate captain (long story), who then proceeds to mock it:

Pirate Captain: Pbbbbbt! You don't know how to read or write! Or draw. Ha! You probably can't even count to four!
Captain K'nuckles: I can't count to four, but I can count to three.

  • Home Movies - in Guitarmageddon, Duane enters a guitar competition, but his dad takes his guitar away because of bad grades - already intimidated by nemesis Jimmy Monet, whose blistering performance he follows, he has to resort to using Brendon's trashed, untuned rental guitar - after a few crashing bits of noise and nearly going down in flames he pulls out and makes the guitar SING. He loses anyway, but gets Jimmy's girl, who thinks he was robbed.
    • Coach McGuirk popping up in the back seat of his heckler's car.
  • Say what you want about Sid from the Ice Age movies-- you wouldn't be the first-- but the guy repeatedly stands his ground against an angry mama T. rex in the third movie.
  • Beethoven urinating on the bully guard dog Killer in Beethoven the Animated Series.
  • The Cleveland Show - in Cleveland Junior's Cherry Bomb, there was a scene where Cleveland, upset by his son's pledge of virginity, asks his step-daughter's boyfriend Federline to get him laid. Federline takes Cleveland, Jr. to the mall and sends him after a group of easy-looking women. The boy tells them that they need to improve their self-image, which prompts Federline to slap him. Cleveland, Jr., of all people, grabs Federline by the collar and threatens him. Federline is visibly intimidated.

Cleveland, Jr.: I may be a virgin, but you do that again and I'll kick your ass.

    • Oh, come on! Nobody is going to mention the time when the guys' wives all teamed up to give an abusive woman a beat-down? Double-points for Lester's wife and her flying tackle.
    • Cleveland Jr. does this CONSTANTLY. Who can forget his rap battle with Kenny West?

Cleveland Jr.: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.... someone should at old you not to fuck with me!"

  • Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! has a good half of what Antauri does, especially when he returns as the silver monkey.
    • Nova's refusal to give up on Sprx in the final episode to the point of being a Determinator. Crosses into heartwarming when he finally comes back.
    • Gibson drilling Mandarin's claw off in an effort to save Otto.

Gibson: TRY FIGHTING HIS DISARMED!

  • Chaotic. Nothing is as awesome as facing down an entire wave of melted polar ice all by yourself, casting a time-freezing spell to keep the whole world and everyone in it from being drowned, and then getting frozen inside the subsequent ice in the process. Heroic Sacrifice to end all Heroic Sacrifices...that is, until the most recent episode, wherein the power of the First Tree was drawn upon to completely obliterate Vitog, thus saving Perim again. After that, Tangath Toborn did indeed deserve to "go to a world where an old warrior like him can live to fight another day". Besides being quite the Tear Jerker, it also included a very nice Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:

Tangath Toborn, to Heptadd: Stay strong... Maxxor makes a lot of enemies.

    • Tom's victories over Codemasters Crellen and Hotekk were pretty sweet, even more so with the fact that Tom is the only known character on the show to beat two codemasters.
  • No love for Storm Hawks? What about Stork's sequence in the episode "Fire and Ice"? First, he evades the (pissed-off) Raptors, then, back on the ship, they finally catch up. He looks his usual, pessimistic, paranoid self, until, well...Oh, this could be bad...for them. He begins loosing off traps on them until they find him at the bridge, and, well, his 'last request' pretty much sums up the scene. "Get off my ship." Cue violent ejection of the Raptors.
    • What about the The Lesson? The Storm Hanks managed to whup the Cyclonians one on one, or in the case of Stork vs the Raptors one on three, who were beefed up on enhancement crystals by using moves they learned through playing carvinal games. Aerrow's was the best, he pulled of a Batman Gambit by giving his skimmer a huge speed making the Dark Ace think he was running away until he saw that Aerrow had him at point blank range on his own skimmer.

Dark Ace: Just one question. How?
Aerrow: How else? We've been training.(Blasts the Dark with his Lighting Claw Maneuver).

Nicole: Don't you DARE run away from your mother!

  • From Johnny Test, Dukey's rant at Johnny, Susan, Mary, and Hugh for risking their lives for money. Plus getting Hugh to think he's only imagining Dukey was talking.
  • The Magic School Bus. Arnold fighting against a freking T-REX! Granted, he was "grown up" at the time, but still- that was a T-REX!!!!
  • Arthur "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!" (D.W. gets owned).
  • What about the episode of Cyberchase where the Cybersquad gets tricked into going to Tick Tockia because they think Hacker's sent Slider through the portal to the realm in question? Slider manages to pull out a screwdriver and get the floor to fall out from under him without Hacker noticing and then attempts to stop the giant clock to save his friends. Granted he failed at the last bit but it is still AWESOME!
  • Is it wrong that this troper cheered inside everytime the usually pitiful Urpneys actually did something genuinely competant or fearsome in The Dreamstone? Most notable examples probably include "Albert's Ailment" and "The Spidermobile", where they not only steal the Dreamstone and bring it to Zordrak but manage to foil the heroes attempts to swipe it back.
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