Disney Death: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Bartman:''' We've defeated the aliens -- but at such a terrible cost! Radioactive Man is --

'''Radioactive Man:''' Ooooh!

 

Beloved major character is seemingly killed at the climax of the movie/episode, [[Tear Jerker|hearts are wrenched, four-year-olds are traumatized, grown men are reduced to tears,]] and then—oh look, the character is [[Not Quite Dead]] after all. "I thought you were dead!", [[Stock Phrases|they recite]] before walking off into the sunset.

== Disney Examples ==

 

* In the revival of ''[[Darkwing Duck (comics)|Darkwing Duck]]'', {{spoiler|1=GosmoDuck (Gosalyn in the GizmoDuck armor)}} pulls a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to stop the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Taurus Bulba}}, but after blacking out for a few moments, she turns out alright.

* ''[[Fables]]''. The more popular fairy tale entities gain this ability. Storywise, Disney is -causing- these Disney Deaths (at least for the characters they write about). For example; Toto is seemingly eaten by a lion. This infuriates his captors ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]) not because he is dead, but only temporarily dead and thus will return in some form out of their territory.

== Disney Exceptions ==

 

* Averted multiple times in ''[[Paperinik New Adventures]]'', the series about a superhero version of [[Donald Duck]] (it was [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|a big hit in Italy. Serious.]]) where a number of secondary characters AND a main one get killed fighting or sacrifice themselves for the greater good. But it's still a Disney comic after all, so whenever violence against intelligent enemies is depicted in the foreground it is slapstick and cartoonish.

 

 

 

* In ''[[Omaha the Cat Dancer]]'', Omaha's best friend Shelly gets shot in the first issue. A couple of issues later, we find out she [[Not Quite Dead|wasn't quite dead]].

** Also, Chuck was told by his (insane) dad that his mother had died when he was young. Guess who shows up in the middle of the story?

* Invoked but ultimately subverted in the ''[[Tintin]]'' series. Because of [[Executive Meddling]], creator Hergé was forced to imply the possibility of survival in the suicide note of astronaut Frank Wolff in ''Explorers on the Moon'', who stepped out of his space shuttle into space to [[Heroic Sacrifice|save oxygen for the remaining passengers]]. [[Word of God]], after the fact, confirmed that there was [[Killed Off for Real|obviously no way]] Wolff survived.

 

 

* In ''Mortality'', the first book of the ''[[Deliver Us from Evil Series]]'', [[Sherlock Holmes]] is believed to have been killed by his [[Arch Enemy]], [[Diabolical Mastermind|Professor]] [[Big Bad|Moriarty]]. It isn't until a few chapters later that the reader knows for certain that Holmes is still alive, but the heroes themselves don't know for sure until [[Inspector Lestrade]] and [[The Hero|Dr. Watson]] overhear [[The Dragon|Moran]] confirming it.

 

* Subverted amusingly in the movie ''[[Little Big Man]]''. Cheyenne chief Old Lodge Skins, Jack's blind mentor, has finally grown tired of life. He and Jack ascend a hill where Old Lodge Skins prays for his death and lies down with his eyes closed. It then begins raining. Old Lodge Skin blinks, then sighs. "Sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." and they both go back to their village.

* The heroine of ''Whale Rider'' nearly drowns in the climax (and her narration informs us she "was not afraid to die", since she's rescued the pod), but she is found and recovers in the hospital.

** See also the climax of the infamous ripoff ''[[Mac and Me]]''. Not only do Mac and his family seem to perish in an explosion when they get into a shootout with the police, but their young human friend Eric dies as well, as the kid was near the explosion. The filmmakers work ''hard'' to jerk the tears here, culminating in his mom arriving on the awful scene by helicopter (she'd been searching for him). But the aliens emerge from the flames unharmed, and use their powers to revive him.

* Toward the end of ''[[Crocodile Dundee]] II'' the hero appears to have been fallen off a cliff, but we later discover that {{spoiler|he and the villain had switched clothes}}. The characters figure it out before the reveal.

** In another story, Coyote dies twice trying to stop a hunter (each time having shape-shifted into a different animal and walked into the hunter's traps to lure the hunter into a false sense of security), then instead of dying a third time, transforms into a bear and kills the hunter.

* Prince Ivan.