Few things in life are better than a great movie plot twist. The best twists come out of nowhere and hit us like a truck, turning the film's story and everything we've seen so far upside down. Over time, we may come to forget every detail of the movie -- except for that incredible twist. Cinema's greatest twists can usually be found in thrillers and suspenseful dramas, like The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, and The Usual Suspects, But children's films can have them, too.
Every now and then, these family-friendly movies wallop us with a twist that we never see coming. They make us grab our faces in surprise, gasp at the screen, or excitedly nudge our viewing partners, as if they had somehow that epic reveal on screen. Here are ten plot twists in kids movies that blew our minds.
10 Shrek (2001)
Shrek pokes fun at the fairy tale genre and everything you've come to expect from a classic Disney movie. It includes a ton of fairy tale references and clichés, like the enchanted princess who's trapped in a tower, waiting for her knight in shining armor to come and rescue her. Except here, Prince Charming turns out to be an ugly, rude ogre named Shrek (Mike Myers). Interestingly, the curse on Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) turns her into an ugly ogre at nighttime. But the movie's bigtwist comes when Fiona finally gets her true love's kiss from Shrek -- but the curse doesn't lift. Instead, she permanently transforms into an ogre. But in Shrek's eyes, she's still beautiful.
9 Back to the Future (1985)
Universal Pictures
For a movie that time-travels between the '60s and '80s, Back to the Future is a timeless classic. It focuses on the old-school perception of time: time exists in one linear path, where the past, present, and future can be altered to change the course of history. After Marty (Michael J. Fox) hooks up his parents, preventing his own annihilation in the process, he's finally able to go back to the future. But when he does, Mary finds that everything has suddenly changed. His dad is confident and successful, his mom is healthy and not an alcoholic, his siblings are more mature, and his house is a lot nicer. It seems that Marty's time-traveling has affected his life in the future -- but thankfully for him, it was for the better.
8 Coco (2017)
Regarded as one of Pixar's best films, Coco explores Mexico's colorful and beloved holiday, Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) is convinced that his musical idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), is his great-great-grandfather. After traveling to the Land of the Dead, he meets a family-less skeleton named Hector (Gael García Bernal) and comes face-to-face with his idol Ernesto. In typical Disney fashion, Ernesto is revealed to be the villain and a fraud, who stole Hector's music for his own personal gain. It's also Hector, not Ernesto, who turns out to be Miguel's great-great-grandfather. While the tears are still streaming down your face, Pixar hits you with another emotional twist: Ernesto's most famous song, "Remember Me", was a song that Hector made for his daughter, Miguel's great-grandmother, and the film's titular character Coco.
7 The LEGO movie (2014)
Long before there was a movie about Barbie, there was a movie about Legos. The Lego Movie was a computer animated hit thatbrought the toy brand's most popular minifigures to life. It dupes us into thinking that we've entered the Lego universe, where everything is awesome. But the film's ending takes its story to a much deeper level. As it turns out, these Lego characters aren't truly alive; they're just LEGO toys that are being played with by a child, inhabiting an imaginary world that lives only in the boy's mind. And the story's antagonist, Lord Business (Will Ferrell), represents the boy's workaholic father. Interestingly, Ferrell also plays a business-oriented and somewhat villainous role as Mattel's fictional CEO in 2023's monster hit Barbie.
6 Wreck It Ralph (2012)
Disney and Pixar love plot twists that turn harmless, seemingly good characters into the film's secret villains. Toy Story 2 and 3, Zootopia, and Monster's, Inc. were all guilty of this repetitive cliché. Wreck It Ralph also falls into this trip, though the film pulls it off in a unique way. Fed up with being the villain of his own video game, Ralph (John C. Reilly) "goes Turbo," as they say in the video game world. This refers to the cautionary tale of Turbo, a race car character who invaded other video games when his own lost popularity.
Ralph escapes into the kart racing game Sugar Rush, which is ruled by King Candy. There, he meetsVanellope (Sarah Silverman), an outcast that's regarded as a mistake and a glitch of the game. But Sugar Rush isn't as sweet as it seems. In one of Disney's most clever twists, Vanellope is revealed to be the rightful ruler of and a playable character in Sugar Rush. King Candy had reprogrammed the game to turn her into a glitch. But the twists and turns don't stop there. King Candy is then revealed to be none other than Turbo, who took over Sugar Rush and made himself its ruler.
5 Encanto (2021)
Encanto is Disney's latest animated phenomenon that had fans all over the world singing "We don't talk about Bruno." Like most members of the Madrigal family, Bruno (John Leguizamo) has a magical gift: to see the future. His dark premonitions, however, vilified him and turned him into an outcast. We're led to believe that Bruno has mysteriously disappeared. But in a twist that's both sad and eerie, we learn that Bruno never actually left the Madrigal's house. He's been living within the walls all this time, eating dinner alone and spending time with rats. Sure, Bruno is a bit...weird. But he's certainly not the villain that the film makes him out to be.
4 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory stars Gene Wilder as the eccentric chocolatier. After finding the golden tickets that will grant them access to Wonka's secret factory, each of the five children are approached by Wonka's candy-making competitor Slugworth, who asks them to bring him back Wonka's latest invention: the Everlasting Gobstopper. But this character isn't really Slugworth. He's a factory employee, who's a part of Wonka's test in selecting the winner of his contest -- and the ultimate successor to his factory. The iconic candy maker is set to make his return in the upcoming film Wonka, played by Timothée Chalamet.
3 Frozen (2013)
Motion Pictures
Frozen was another animated phenomenon from the House of Mouse. After Elsa (Idina Menzel) uses her magic to accidentally freeze her sister's heart, Anna (Kristen Bell) learns that she'll soon be frozen solid. The only way to reverse this fatal spell is with an act of true love. Ana, as well as the audience, is expecting her love interest, Hans (Santino Fontana), to save her with Disney's most famous cliché: true love's kiss. But Frozen subverts those expectations and flips the traditional Disney formula on its head when Hans reveals himself to be the villain. When he tries murdering Elsa, Anna leaps into the way at the last moment, just as Elsa's spell turns her into a frozen statue. Devastated, Elsa mourns her sister, which actually ends up thawing Anna and bringing her back. In one of Disney's most surprising and beautiful twists, it was family love, not romantic love, that saved Anna.
2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
J.K. Rowling's beloved franchise covers seven tumultuous years in Harry Potter's life. As Harry ages, the stories become noticeably darker and more mature. Although they still have their dark moments, the first two movies are definitely more kid-friendly than the others. The second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, has one of the best twists in a series full of notable plot twists. And unless you read the book first, then you probably didn't see it coming. Here, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is guided by the consciousness and memories that have been magically placed into a diary. These memories belong to a former Hogwarts student named Tom Marvolo Riddle (Christian Coulson), a handsome youth who shares many similarities with Harry and tells him the true story behind the mythical Chamber of Secrets.
As it turns out, his story isn't true at all. It was actually Tom Riddle who opened the Chamber of Secrets and set his monster on Hogwarts. But the goose bumps really come when Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to reveal his true identity: "I am Lord Voldemort."
1 The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Kids movie or not, The Wizard of Oz is one of the greatest films of all time. After being whisked off to the fantastical (but dangerous) world of Oz, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto are determined to get back home to Kansas. The only person who can help is the powerful wizard of Oz. For most of the film, the wizard is shrouded in mystery, and when Dorothy (and the audience) finally meet him, he's anything but wonderful. He's a giant, bellowing face with fire blazing around him. But it's all a ruse. The face is controlled by a man behind a curtain. The true wizard of Oz, who really isn't a wizard at all. Eighty-four years later, and this moment remains one of the most legendary twists in cinema.
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