It's not just for puppies.
Hobbes: I still don't think giving your mom "Bambi eyes" is going to get you a flamethrower.
Calvin: Maybe I should sniffle a little too, huh?
Calvin: Maybe I should sniffle a little too, huh?
Be they cute little girls, or perverted old men, if they want to play on your sympathy, they will turn eyes huge and shining with unshed tears upon you.
Generally, the younger the character doing it is, the more effective.
The reason this trope exists is because in real life children's eyeballs will have grown to their full adult size by age 3, making them look disproportionately big at that time.
Often a forerunner to Ocular Gushers and Beautiful Tears. Tareme Eyes enhances the effect. Surprisingly, plays very well with a Cat Smile. Occasionally, the "victim" will respond with something along the lines of, "Don't try that trick on me: I invented that trick." Compare Resort to Pouting, which can overlap with this. It may be employed against someone who is Not a Party Person.
Example Subpages
Other Examples:
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Advertising
- In an old commercial
for Kellogg's Corn Pops a teen has to resort to this because there's nothing else he can use against grandma to get the last bowl of cereal.
- In one ad, the marionette mascot of furniture chain Bob's Discount Furniture said he uses these to secure distribution deals.
Anime and Manga
- Nagisa from Animal Detectives Kiruminzoo pulls this on Ken in a couple of the earlier episodes. While she's part puppy, actually.
- Bleach:
- Nel the Arrancar does this at times in the anime version, usually when she's talking to Ichigo.
- Ichigo, of all people, pulls this (something similar at least) with Captain Suì-Fēng in an episode of the Captain Amagai filler arc. It works.
- Anime episode 262. While Haineko is talking with the sword beast Narunosuke she thinks that he's using Puppy-Dog Eyes on her, but he doesn't appear to be doing so on screen.
- Akane of Castle Town Dandelion gets it relatively often, like when she was fangirling over Sacchan in episode 10 or thanking Karen and An for canvassing for her in episode 12.
- In Fairy Tail, Natsu uses this, while wearing an over-sized cat-head (so you can't see his actual expression), it works to get the cat-crazy opponent to loosen his magic-negating bonds.
- In Full Metal Panic!, the very young Sousuke (before becoming a Child Soldier). Very Moe and adorable. Just look at his big, beautiful eyes. No wonder Kalinin wanted so badly to make things up to him and make him smile from the bottom of his heart - with looks like those, even hardened soldiers' hearts would melt.
- He's still got it, even now. Especially◊ noticeable◊ in volume 10 of the Sigma manga... it really makes people just want to give him a big hug.
- He apparently (though unconsciously) does this quite often in the Light Novels, with Kaname regularly noting that he looks like a scolded puppy. He apparently pulled it on Nami as well when asking for a job, "like a large dog quietly begging for a treat by sitting politely and wagging its tail."
- He's still got it, even now. Especially
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, a bunny does this when the young Elric brothers are about to kill it for food. It works until a fox snatches it to feed her kits instead.
- Hanaukyō Maid Team:
- Episode 1. Taro's 3 personal maids make their eyes large when he orders them not to touch him while he's in the bath.
- Episode 2. Ikuyo Suzuki shows large eyes (with tears) to Taro when she thinks that she might be laid off.
- Episode 10. Taro's personal maids have large eyes when he asks to be allowed to dress himself and his maid cooks give him the eye treatment when he can't eat all the food they've prepared for him.
- Episode 15. Ikuyo Suzuki uses large appealing eyes on Taro again to persuade him to wear a maid's uniform.
- La Verite episode 4. Konoe meets a little lost girl who tears up and develops large eyes when Konoe asks who she is.* Mikuru from Haruhi Suzumiya often shows this whenever Haruhi turns her attention on her.
- Kotengu in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou does this when he gets caught by Inori (it looks quite cute on his "chibi" form).
- In episode 7 of Kotoura-san, Haruka gets an adorable set of these after Yuriko tells her to believe in Manabe anyway (who's suspiciously avoiding her in this episode). Yuriko is speaking from experience since her thoughts were centered around her own Dark and Troubled Past, and Haruka saw it all hence the reaction.
- Shinobu in Love Hina, to whom it seems so natural as to be an integral part of her character, done with unconscious ease. Her very character seems like perpetual Puppy Dog Eyes, as if the concept were incarnated as a character.
- Usui manages to pull this in Maid-Sama!. Bonus points for an actual dog being in the background and whining.
- Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia has a pair of large, round green eyes that give him a cute, juvenile look.
- A baby Onbaa in the Naruto filler episode "A Legend from the Hidden Leaf: The Onbaa!" does this when wanting to stay on Naruto's back.
- In one episode of Nerima Daikon Brothers, Mako used this to try to get out of being captured by the Villain of the Day, and even said the sound effect (uru uru) outloud.
- In Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo Ureshiko's eyes display the normal teary look, but they actually get smaller than usual.
- Tamaki in Ouran High School Host Club uses them to great effect to get the other club members to do what he wants.
- Kirimi did this. Holy crap was it effective.
- This is basically Hunny's default expression.
- Pokémon the Series
- Cute◊, childish, young Gligar often did this to Ash, usually when frightened. Unusually, it does this after it evolves.
- Ash does the same thing himself.
- Episode "Fangs For Nothin'". Jessie and James of Team Rocket do this while trying to persuade a Dragonite to help them.
- Episode "Having a Wailord of a Time". A Torchic is trying to escape from a building when Pikachu jumps in front of it to try to stop it. The Torchic uses this technique and when Pikachu is caught off guard it uses its Blaze ability on him and gets past him.
- In Pokémon Horizons: The Series, a shiny Lucario does this to convince Roy to join his team.
- Cute
- Pretty Cure:
- Mepple does this in two episodes of Futari wa Pretty Cure; in Episode 1 to convince Nagisa to let him stay, and again in Episode 9 while failing to convince Nagisa that he's sick.
- In the movie Pretty Cure Dream Stars, Ichika tries to use this on Akira to convince her to join her in watching the cherry blossoms, but it didn't work on Akira.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: Raiha Uesugi, the younger sister of Fuutarou, knows how to use these eyes to get what she wants. Not that she takes advantage of it too often, but when she does, they enhance her (already great) ability to induce Cuteness Overload.
- Happosai in Ranma ½ has been known to try this tactic. Seeing as how he's a Dirty Old Man, and usually using it to try to get a girl to let him grope her, it never works.
- In Reborn! (2004), Futa does this to Tsuna when he first appears to ask for Tsuna's protection.
- Used by Rei Ayanami, of all people, at Gendo Ikari in Rebuild of Evangelion. A bit more subtle than the average anime example, but still obviously present.
- The three sisters in R.O.D the TV do it en masse at least once.
- An episode of Sailor Moon has Minako make a sick Rei a bowl of porridge. Rei does not want to eat it, as Minako previously hinted at her being a Lethal Chef, but Minako leans on the edge of the bed and makes her self look even more adorable than usual. This begrudingly convinces Rei to try a spoonful, only to become a Fire-Breathing Diner, as Minako added way too much salt to the dish.
- In Saint Beast, Maya uses them on his brother Kira to strong effect.
- The titular protagonist from Steel Angel Kurumi gets these when she wants to get something done by her master - with varying levels of success.
- Rimuru in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime lampshades this trope when he finds himself on the receiving end of these. Probably the only time this trope has been done by a dragon of all things.
- Yotsuba in Yotsuba&! gets these when on the verge of tears. Fortunately, she hasn't learned how to do this on purpose. Yet.
- Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream has a running gag where, when Yumecantchi's Yume Kira Bag produces an item that seems bizarre for Yumemitchi and Kiraritchi to be using given the situation and the occupation they have transformed into, Yumecantchi makes a cute face at them - with her eyes all shiny - to convince them the item will work. Yumemitchi always falls for her cute charm, while Kiraritchi gets exasperated by it.
Asian Animation
- BoBoiBoy: In Season 2 episode 6, Probe, having trouble finding BoBoiBoy and wanting Adu Du to give him a chance, makes puppy dog eyes at him and asks if he's ever steered him wrong. Adu Du isn't quite that convinced, immediately bringing up the one time he purchased an electric spatula by selling their spaceship.
- 4 Angies: Kai-chan's magic spell amounts to her making adorable eyes at the person she's talking to so that she can convince them to do (or not do) something.
- Happy Friends: In episode 30, Little Cutie, a cleaning robot invented by Doctor H. that went rogue, attempts to distract Happy S. from attacking her by making cute-looking eyes at him. It distracts Happy S. for just long enough to give Little Cutie a chance to attack him back.
- In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 14, Tibbie has Wilie play a game called "Rescue the Hostage" (read: she wants to free the others from a cage Wolffy has them in). As they leave, Wilie makes puppy-dog eyes at his dad Wolffy when he refuses to let him and the goats play anywhere besides the area he points out, but it doesn't work and Wilie resorts to Crocodile Tears as a distraction.
Comic Books
- The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw: Dusty, an anthropomorphic dog, attempts this, but his partner is unaffected.
- Marvel Universe:
- Extreme Venomverse: The Venom in Black Cat's story in issue 2 gives Felicia a particularly sad looking expression, despite at that point being a swirling pile of goo in a jar, when she determines it's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood.
- Spider-Man: It's said that the reason why Peter Parker attracts so many women is because he has big brown puppy dog eyes.
- X-Men: The art style in the "Childhood's End" arc of New X-Men tends to give all of the kids these, but Comic Book/X23 particularly stands out. Especially when she comes to join them in the "Danger Cave" while the others are blowing off steam cosplaying old X-Men missions, as seen here◊.
- Depends on the artist, but Captain America, of all people, can put this to use when he is persuading someone on a personal level - especially effective on Tony Stark. Tony practically name drops the trope in a comic when he explains his involvement in a plan he disagreed with first claiming he can never refuse anything when Steve looks at him with those big blue eyes.
- Plastic Man: The one-short villain Sadly-Sadly uses his permanently sad face to sway crowds to his whim, even getting one to beat Plastic Man to death. He's done in when he laughs it up at the funeral, getting a sock from a very-much-alive Plastic Man (which, for good measure, paralyzes his face) and a trip to jail.
- Stray Dogs uses a particularly dark use of this trope, and the only time it's used in this canine-centered comic. As the Master is leading a leashed Victor out into the backyard, the Dalmatian nuzzles the man's leg while looking up at him with a glistening, pleading gaze. The Master coldly tells him that it's not going to work and he's "not getting out of what he's put himself into", proceeding to drag Victor behind the punishment shed and shoot him dead.
- Supergirl (Wednesday Comics): in the first page, a little child begs her father to buy her one puppy. Immediately her eyes become bigger, rounder and shinier as her blue irises and black pupils expand and dilate. Her father has no option but to give in and let her pick one.
Comic Strips
- Adam@home: In an August 2012 arc, Katie practices doing this in the hope of getting a puppy dog, aptly enough, and later she actually uses it on her father, to his dismay. Then Adam's wife demonstrates that she can do it as well.
- Buckles can get both his owners' whole meals this way.
- Calvin and Hobbes: Parodied in a strip where Calvin practices "Bambi eyes" in preparation for asking his mother if he can have a flamethrower.
- Garfield:
- In the August 4th 2013 comic, Garfield does this to Liz for a snack... and she does it right back at him. Garfield's response is to give his food to her and tell Jon "She's good."
- In the January 6, 2016 comic, Garfield scoffs at Odie for using a cute puppy face to beg for food. When Odie gets a sandwich, however, Garfield decides to try it too, asking Odie if he's doing it right.
- In the July 20th 2022 comic, Odie is asked by his "Dear Ask a Dog" audience if dogs have superpowers. Odie responds with one of these.
- Mutts
- In the strip for February 12th 2013, Earl and Mooch use this technique on a butcher.
- In the March 12th 2013 strip, Earl tries to use this tactic on his owner as part of his "When are we going to play?" face.
- In the strip for May 11th 2013, a dog in the pound does this to the reader.
- Overboard!: Louie (the ship's dog of the pirate ship Revenge) finds these very useful for persuading people to take him for a walk on a rainy, wet, and muddy day.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): The two hungry street children who gaze imploringly at the title character as he's about to eat some bread that he just stole for himself.
- Shows up a lot in Arlo the Alligator Boy thanks to the heavy eye animation, usually on Arlo himself during his more emotional moments.
- In the 2009 Astro Boy film, the title character has mastered this. One might almost think it a factor in Tenma's Heel–Face Turn, given how flagrant they were in that scene.
- In Big Hero 6 Tadashi (an 18-year-old college student) uses these when Hiro snarks at Baymax after Tadashi takes him to his college instead of a bot fight.
Baymax: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?
Hiro: Physical, [deadpan stare at Tadashi] or emotional?
[Tadashi does the puppy eyes] - Bolt has to be taught that, but once mastered the trope works marvels on campers, extracting huge quantities of "Awwwww" and half-eaten hot-dogs. It is significant (and hilarious) that his cat partner fails miserably in that.
- In "Brave", Merida's triplet brothers as bears sometimes do this:
- They do one notable example to Maudie before making funny faces, and two of them gaze at her after they sneak into the kitchen before they get a key to free Merida from the Tapestry Room and save her mother, who has also been turned into a bear.
- Guido and Luigi get them in Cars 2 when they read Mater's depressing farewell letter.
- Despicable Me 1:
- Agnes is very good at this, as is to be expected given her age and personality.
- At the amusement park, after the booth attendant refuses to give her the coveted unicorn plushie, she mutely appeals to Gru this way. It would take a much nastier heart than his to say no to her huge eyes and quivering lip.
- She does it again to postpone the start of the Swan Lake recital for a few minutes. Gru misses it anyway.
- Also near the end, after Gru kisses the girls good-night, the Minions are waiting outside the girls' room, and one makes such eyes while asking in Minionese if they can be kissed too.
- Agnes is very good at this, as is to be expected given her age and personality.
- Pacha's children Chaka and Tipo deploy these in The Emperor's New Groove, in an attempt to stay up late. Their parents counter with a deliberate display of Sickeningly Sweethearts.
- In Happy Heroes Multiverse Rescue, the children at the amusement park all make faces with sparkly eyes to convince Kalo to infuse his energy into a turtle kiddie ride, making it go much faster than normal.
- Hotel Transylvania:
- Mavis does this to her dad Dracula in bat form. Dracula doesn't fall for it and says, "Don't give me the pouty bat face."
- Dracula does the same thing to Mavis in the sequel, and gets the same reply from her: "Don't give me the pouty bat face."
- Dennis does this to Dracula in the short for the third movie so he can get a puppy. This time, it works.
- The LEGO Batman Movie: Robin lampshades his eyes by asking Bruce Wayne for adoption advice: "Should I surgically enhance my eyes so I look more cute and vulnerable?"
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: Several Systarians (specifically a Star, some Plantimals, and an unmasked Sweet Mayhem) use this tactic to try and garner sympathy from Emmet and Wyldstyle.
- Megamind can be too adorable for an Evil Is Petty villain with mostly nasty and smug attitude. He has some truly heartbreaking kicked puppy◊ sort of expression when Roxanne dumps him.
Roxanne Richie: [sees Megamind's puppy dog eyes] No, you... Did you think that I would ever be with you?
Megamind: [heartbroken whisper] No. - Migration: Gwen uses a very exaggerated version to convince Uncle Dan to join the migration. She, Dax, the penguins and Mack do the same at the very end when he refuses to go to the South Pole just to bring some penguins home.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games: Spike gives these to Human Twilight while she is Midnight Sparkle. It seems to snap her back to her senses long enough for Daydream Shimmer to blast her with her magic after Midnight gained the upper hand. Bonus points for Spike actually being a puppy and being able to help Sunset gain the advantage against Midnight.
- Gisela and Giselita do this to Serge and Deni to try and get them to find their mother Giselle in Open Season 3.
- In The Powerpuff Girls Movie, the girls have exiled themselves on an asteroid after they were tricked by Mojo Jojo into staging a monkey takeover of Townsville. Blossom stares up at Earth with sad puppy-dog eyes, then buries her head in her hands and cries silently to herself.
- In The Princess and the Frog, Charlotte's dog, Stella, tries this on Tiana in order to get her to toss out one of her beignets. Tiana initially says no but quickly caves in.
- Ratatouille: Rémy pulls a mild version of these on Linguini when he is about to drop the jar holding him into a river.
- In The Road to El Dorado, Miguel deploys this technique to persuade Tulio to gamble for the map to El Dorado. Judging by Tulio's reaction ("Not with The Face") it's not the first time Miguel has used this method to get his way.
- Shrek: Puss in Boots will stare up at people with huge eyes to manipulate them with his cuteness. Played with rather subtly if you're familiar with kitty-cat behavior, since in real life those huge, adorable-looking dilated pupils indicate that a cat is about to go on the attack.
- In Shrek 2, he uses it twice, to devastating effect, as the first use◊ results in him joining Shrek and Donkey on their adventure (provides the image on the main page), the second right before he unleashes a major can of whoop-ass on some guards.
- Shrek the Third:
- He tries it earlier in the movie on Shrek after the latter puts him outside the window. Shrek just closes the curtains, thus making it the first time for Puss that it didn't work on others.
- He makes the same face after being body-swapped with Donkey, hoping it will dissuade his enemies from trying to kill him. It doesn't.
- He uses it on Donkey in Shrek Forever After to "borrow his tongue".
- The spinoff Puss in Boots (2011) has Puss using kitty-cat eyes on the prison guard, when trying to convince him to let him go. It almost works..
- The Direct-to-Video short "The Three Diablos" has three little kittens try to outdo Puss, leading to a kitty-cat eyes standoff. Puss wins.
- In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Puss uses the trick on Kitty Softpaws to convince her to give him the map to the Wishing Star, only for Kitty to counter with puppy eyes of her own. They even try to outdo each other with extra touches like Puss fluffing out his beard and Kitty showing her paws' toe beans. The standoff gets interrupted by Perrito gushing with Cuteness Overload until he passes out.
- Perrito later gets Kitty to teach the trick to him, only to make them bulge out in a way that looks like he has a hernia. He finally pulls it off on Jack Horner in the climax, but Jack isn't moved by the gesture (not only because he's an unrepentant sociopath, but also Perrito getting a nosebleed too). It still works out though, as it distracts Jack long enough for Puss and Kitty to get the map away from him.
- In Shrek 2, he uses it twice, to devastating effect, as the first use
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
- Peach's subjects all do this to emphasize how they're "too adorable" to fight Bowser.
- When Bowser (of all people) rehearses his love confession, he puts on a very innocent expression. Inverted when Bowser loses his temper, causing his pupils and irises to contract to pinpoints. In general, it's pretty obvious that he only puts on this expression in order to make him seem innocent in front of Peach despite her and the audience already knowing that he truly is very much the exact opposite.
- Parodied in Tangled with Flynn Rider's "smolder".
- Tarzan does this momentarily when trying to convince Terk to help him.
- In Turning Red, Mei's friends try this on her to convince her to go karaokeing with them.
Films — Live-Action
- Probably the most hilariously misfitting example is the freaking alien in Alien Resurrection, or rather the human-alien hybrid, who has more human-like facial features, including large black eyes with which he gives his "mother" Ripley a plaintive glance before he dies.
- In The Blues Brothers, Jake Blues is cornered by his jilted bride. She has a machine gun: he is unarmed... except for Blatant Lies and Puppy Dog Eyes. It's the only time we see him taking off his sunglasses for the whole movie.
- Eric in The Boy Who Could Fly. The sad-puppy face he wears through much of the film would be right at home in an ASPCA ad.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Lucy Pevensie does this in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (the first film) in order to get Peter to agree to play hide and seek. It's very effective, although that also might be because Lucy is supposed to be Peter's favorite sister.
- DC Extended Universe: In Zack Snyder's Justice League, Steppenwolf, the movie's villain himself, if you can believe it. Particularly the pleading look his eyes give when communicating with Darkseid.
- Judge Anderson in Dredd, particularly when her strong sense of empathy is evoked. She finds out that a Mook she executed has a wife and baby - and that the woman sheltering her and Dredd is that wife. Her attitude toward Clan Techie also changes from harsh to pitying when she reads his mind and sees how Ma-Ma has made him suffer.
- In Home Alone 1, Kevin is ordered by his mother to sleep on the third floor as punishment for ruining the family's pizza dinner. He waters his eyes with a half-assed apology, but his mother sees right through it.
- In Hopscotch, retired spy Isobel refuses to help unwillingly retired spy Kendig (played by Walter Matthau) publish a tell-all about the CIA's Dirty Business because of the danger. Kendig responds by giving her an increasingly pathetic hangdog look until she relents.
- In Hulk, the Hulk has these during his moments with Betty Ross.
- Surprisingly displayed by Richard Parker the tiger in Life of Pi when he jumps out of the boat and can't get back in and Pi attempts to let him drown.
- Frodo in The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. Although he doesn't do it too intentionally, he does do it for the entire trilogy.
- M3GAN 2.0: M3GAN gives these to Gemma via her Moxie robot face while Cady argues she should get another chance when they discuss giving her a proper new android body.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Loki in Thor in his last scene with Odin when he tells him that he did it all for his family and Asgard. The combined effect is tear-jerking. Loki also has a particularly epic one when he's ranting to Odin about his true parentage. Or when he watches Thor get banished. Face it, with his soulful blue eyes, Hiddleston is a master of this trope.
- Iron Man 1: Tony Stark, via Robert Downey Jr., is no slouch in this category either. It's not as overt as some examples, but in any movie he's in, if he gets teary-eyed (for instance, over the supposed deaths of Agent Coulson or Pepper Potts), the effect definitely is this.
- Captain America: The First Avenger: After Steve Rogers gets caught macking Pvt. Lorraine, SSR Agent Peggy Carter shoots at him to test his new shield's durability. All you can see behind the shield once she's done firing are his large, terrified eyes.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Winter Soldier, of all people, makes such a face when he starts to regain some of his memories and is told to undergo a mindwipe.
- Spider-Man, All Three incarnations have done this at one point or another. Especially notable in Spider-Man: No Way Home in the scene where all three of them meet each other and talk about losses they suffered in their lives, after MCU Aunt May's death at the hands of the Green Goblin.
- Noted in The Men Who Stare at Goats, explaining why the Army stopped shooting dogs to help medics learn how to field dress wounds, and instead went with goats, who evoked no such sympathy.
- Paul manages them quite well, which is helped by his eyes being freaking huge.
- Red Dog: "All the sad faces in the world ain't gonna work, so you can just stop", John Grant tells Red Dog when they first meet as Red Dog tries to hitch a ride in John's bus. John overestimated his resolve in the face of extreme cuteness.
- In The Santa Clause 2 and 3, Lucy is very good at this expression. In the third movie, her parents, Neil and Laura, demonstrate where she gets that ability. No wonder Scott/Santa caves in and takes the Millers to the North Pole, getting the treatment from all three of them.
- Star Trek (2009): This is pretty much Chekov's default facial expression.
- Star Wars:
- In The Last Jedi, Chewbacca stands at a campfire, trying to eat a couple of roasted porg, native birds that inhabit the island, only to find himself being stared at by several non-roasted porg. He gives a roar and scares them away, but one made of sterner stuff remains. It gives him these, but then he roars again and scares it away.
- Kylo Ren is the◊ master◊ of these.
Literature
- Bloody Jack: Jacky Faber calls this technique "the big eyes" and employs it to subvert the Double Standard in her favor.
- In one of Andrew Vachss' Burke novels, Action Girlfriend Flood pouts at Burke while she's sassing him. He thinks in response, I'd have given her a smack if I hadn't been afraid of permanent injury.
- The Camp Half-Blood Series:
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Last Olympian, Annabeth does "her big pleading gray eyes thing" on Hermes to get him to give her her mother's message.
- The Heroes of Olympus: In The Mark of Athena, Percy deploys it to get a favor from Piper. She wonders how Annabeth says no to anything coming from somebody who can make himself look like a baby harp seal.
- Demon World Boba Shop: Lily isn't tall enough to lean confidently on the counter while negotiating with a shopkeeper. So instead, she puts her chin on the counter and looks up at him with wide eyes. He immediately gives in and sells Arthur the seeds he wants.
A cute owl child was, he had learned, a powerful weapon.
- Eli's List: Eli gives this look to Iria to persuade her to take her up Mt. Corcovado.
- Family Skeleton Mysteries: Sid is somehow able to give off this look, despite being a skeleton.
- The Fire Rose: As said in Chapter 5, this is part of Paul Du Mond's outlook on children as manipulators:
No point in thinking anyone was innocent; even the tiniest children were supreme manipulators, using their big eyes and ready tears to extract what they wanted
- Lonely Werewolf Girl: A curiously literal version is performed by Kalix when she transforms fully into her wolf form to look cute for Moonglow at one point.
- Magic Hour: In "Troll Job," Heidi busts out puppy dog eyes (along with a big grin and clasped hands) to persuade Jermaine to join her in returning to the enchanted forest and tracking down the male troll Zulkis. Her braces and large Nerd Glasses add to the effect. Jermaine sighs, says he can't say no to her face, and agrees to go with her.
- In Maximum Ride, Fang lets Angel keep Total when she gives him "the bambi eyes".
- Toon-Up: Ajay Kumar gives his parents puppy dog eyes and also pouts when he tells them he wants to be a superhero following his defeat of Zane Emerson/Anvil Man. His parents are only able to resist for so long before relenting.
Music
- The Beatles:
- Paul McCartney... though we are quickly moving into basset hound territory.
- Ringo Starr. These days he keeps them hidden behind a dark-lensed pair of glasses, but they were probably his most noticeable feature in the old days (well, besides the huge schnozz).
- Garth Brooks and his enormous, soulful, bright blue eyes. He's particularly puppyish around wife Trisha Yearwood, with whom he is absolutely besotted — when he looks at her he's basically the human incarnation of the Hearteyes Emoji, particularly if she's singing at the time.
- Israeli singer/actor Gidi Gov is well known for his large, expressive dark eyes.
- The Pillows released a song titled "Tokyo Bambi" that seems to imply this trope. Roughly translated, a line from the second verse is "Whatcha smiling about with those Bambi eyes?"
- TVXQ Jaejoong, who's known for his Puppy-Dog Eyes. Can't really help it if he looks◊ like this◊ on a daily basis.
- SHINee's main vocal Jonghyun◊ and their youngest Taemin◊ can give pretty good ones. Leader Onew◊ could be added, but he's mostly described as a bunny◊.
Podcasts
- Cool Kids Table: In the Harry Potter-themed game Hogwarts: The New Class, Jake tries to convince McGonagall to buy him a pygmy gryphon by giving these to her, stating that he was adorable at eleven.
- In Wolf 359, Eiffel's attempt at an intimidating expression is described by Hilbert as his "angry kitten face".
- Sibylline Sounds: Oreo the skunk threatens to use the skunky eyes on Vincent while begging for him to read a story from his manor's collection of one-of-a-kind books.
Tabletop Games
- Arduin: Kill Kittens look like normal kittens. They pretend to have broken limbs and use whimpering and their big soulful eyes to lure victims into picking them up.
Video Games
- Alice in the Mirrors of Albion: Enforced. Cheshire Jr. would show up near the end of a limited-time sale to convince the player to buy the "gift set" he's worked so hard to prepare.
- Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore: Zazie the demon girl often gets close-ups of her eyes that make them very big and cute-looking. It's a surprising contrast with the Gross-Up Close-Up approach taken with most other characters.
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts: The titular pair does this in an attempt to have the Lord of Games give them their old powers from previous games back... it fails. He winds up giving them back in the end, however, in case Nuts & Bolts didn't sell well. Not surprisingly, it did, lampshaded by Mumbo in game no less.
Mumbo: Need to put floaters on boat, otherwise, boat sink like this game at retail.
- Dragon Age: Origins: Your Mabari war hound can do this to anyone. It even works on Morrigan. Maybe they should have tried it against the darkspawn horde...
- Dragon Age II: Fenris of all people has a tendency towards this now and again, at least on a Hawke who's his friend; Merrill (a master of it herself) even namechecks the trope in a bit of party banter if Fenris is Hawke's love interest. It's remarkably effective, too...
- Final Fantasy XIV: During Shadowbringers, Ryne turns these against Thancred and Urianger. And then the Warrior of Light. The first two capitulate instantly. The third... might require a bit more than that. (No matter how you choose, it's a Foregone Conclusion.) Afterwards, the three gather to commiserate.
- Genshin Impact: Discussed. One of Beidou's voice-overs has her talking about how Yaoyao gives off the puppy eyes when she is told it is time to leave the Alcor.
Beidou: Yaoyao always comes on board to play when we're in the harbor. Trouble is, when it's time for her to go she gives you the puppy eyes, and no one has the heart to send her away... Means we're always cutting it quite close by the time we manage to set sail.
- Katawa Shoujo: Emi is rather good at this. Even when Lilly has hardened Hisao, he still falls for it when Emi pulls it.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Ventus proves he knows how to do these when he asks Terra and Aqua to kill him to prevent the χ-blade from being formed.
- In The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, Agnès uses these on a merchant in Langport hoing to get information out of him about a Genesis. Van even comments that he wasn't expecting her to bust out the puppy dog eyes, but whatever works.
- Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis: There's a humorous subversion. In one of Pamela's Character Quests, she enjoys making medicine that are actually dangerous to anyone who drinks it. Problem is, all the victims (even ROXIS!), although they know of the med's effects, cannot refuse Pamela's offer to test them, because of Pamela's Moe eyes.
- Little Busters!: At one point, Komari and Kurugaya are fighting over what nickname Kurugaya should have. She claims that even if Komari calls her Yui-chan she'll just ignore her, and demonstrates. In response, Komari gives such a sad, tearful look that Kurugaya takes a significant amount of damage.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
- Wendy Oldbag attempts this on occasion. She's in her seventies, so it's not exactly successful. Its chief effect is to cause here most common target, Miles Edgeworth, to lose his composure and demand that it stop.
- Larry Butz also has them when doing his Ocular Gushers bit. It virtually never works.
- Phoenix Wright is said to have them too. Particularly effective when getting information out of the soft-hearted detective Gumshoe. Phoenix actually does have them in the flashback case "Turnabout Memories", but their effect is lessened by him being a dorky emotional college student.
- Dahlia Hawthorne does this, and it does tend to work until her true nature is revealed.
- Her ex-boyfriend, Terry Fawles, does this in the courtroom lobby.
- Detective Gumshoe has a more subtle version of this as one of his default expressions, and it's arguably the most effective example in the game.
- Detective Fulbright also has these with a shy finger twiddle if he messes up in an investigation. They work until it's revealed that he doesn't actually feel any emotions.
- Pokémon:
- The move Baby-Doll Eyes, which goes first regardless of speed and lowers the foe's attack.
- Some Pokémon have this as an inherent aspect of their design. The oddest example would be Anorith, a Rock/Bug-type modeled after the prehistoric seagoing predator Anomalocaris.
- Sam & Max Save the World: Max tries to pull this off in "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" to get into the War Room, but fails.
- Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Sky talking to Shantae when getting a needed rotten egg from Sky, because Shantae messed up taking care of it:
Don't bother with the puppy dog eyes.
- South Park: The Fractured but Whole: Parodied. Unlocking new classes usually involve your character giving Cartman their typical blank stare, which Cartman treats as this. Coupled with how sad the backstory he came up with you for is, he just can't help but give you some more classes.
- The Walking Dead:
- Clementine has the option of breaking these out to win over any survivor of the player's choice in season 2. Even when she's not intentionally doing it, she's still adorable as can be.◊
- Luke isn't bad at the puppy eyes himself, as he displays if Clementine chooses to sit with Kenny instead of him in episode 2 of season 2.
- Clementine has the option of breaking these out to win over any survivor of the player's choice in season 2. Even when she's not intentionally doing it, she's still adorable as can be.
- World of Warcraft: Mylune, a quest giver, says that she'll "give you the big eyes" if you don't save the fawns trapped in a burning forest.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Larry Butz does a rather odd variant when he's sobbing.
- Dick Gumshoe has a sprite with this expression for whenever he's getting picked on... which is often.
- Maggey Byrde also does this when she is extremely happy.
- In Spirit Of Justice, Rayfa does this a few times, but only in the last case.
- Also in Spirit of Justice: Ellen Wyatt in the bonus case does this in a manner similar to Larry when her Ocular Gushers start flowing.
- Doki Doki Literature Club!: Sayori is also guilty of this, and tries to get the player character to buy her a snack. Unfortunately, she's tried this trick so many times that the player character doesn't fall for it.
- Johanna from Double Homework seems to give these whenever she’s visibly sad.
- Katawa Shoujo: Emi Ibarazaki is very fond of this trope. Hisao notes just how effective it is at making him relent.
- Tavern Talk: In Tempest Tantrum, the Innkeep can convince Archie to become Melli's substitute assistant by telling him that she'll be sad without him. Melli then pulls off an adorable crying face, and Archie gets moved by it.
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "lady...ing", The Cheat goes from having Black Bead Eyes to big, blue eyes when trying to be "holy-crap-adorable" for Strong Bad.
- Isabelle Ruins Everything: Isabelle (an actual dog) makes this expression while the Mayor is trying to calm down the angry crowd.
- RWBY: Marrow Amin, a dog Faunus, pulls this on Jaune in one episode to get the latter's coffee from him.
Web Original
- Chakona Space features a mouse trying it on a coyote starship captain. It doesn't work quite as planned.
[Penny] gave Yote her best wide-eyed helpless waif look, which might have worked a lot better if she wasn't so well-fed and sexy.
- A live version of the page image appears here on Cute Overload.
- Parodied in this lolcats picture. The cat has a solution to this situation: Just shut the door and don't look at the culprit. Nobody asked to see those sad eyes.
- The Whateley Universe has Jade "Generator" Sinclair and Bunny "Bugs" Cormick. The former looks like a 11 year old girl (she's 14) and the latter, at first glance, appears to be your typical teenage blonde bimbo (when not in Mad Scientist mode). Both are both so good at this that their friends often joke that it's one of their mutant powers (such jokes are especially common regarding Jade). Bugs even managed to win her combat final just by crying.
Webcomics
- 8-Bit Theater: Fighter supposedly used them on one occasion, but because of the art style of the comic, we don't actually see them. As he tried to use them on Black Mage, they didn't work.
- Alien Dice gives us Swiftpaw, who has clearly mastered the trope. It helps that he's based on a fox.
- Beyond the End: End has a tendency to break out the puppy dog eyes, just by his nature.
- By Mistake On Purpose: Nevil does this a few times. In the Mother's Day special he makes the expression at his mother, who promptly feeds him all the Yorkshire puddings. His partner Vivien tells him to do his 'best puppy dog face' after he breaks a chair in the spinoff Gastropub Saga so she can take a picture of him and sue the pub for negligence.
- Carry On: Kathy can do these, but as Scooter puts it, "Somehow, "big Bambi eyes" just don't look authentic on a hyena."
- The Chapel Chronicles: Chapel uses them in the strip, Chapel Guevara, to try to guilt her parents into getting, well, a puppy.
- College Roomies from Hell!!!: Satirized with Marsha Hart's 'anime eyes, which is almost superhumanly persuasive to the opposite gender.
- Code Name: Hunter: Prince Matthew can pull this trope off convincingly despite being a mouse.
- Curtailed: Fox attempts this on Seley in this strip. Too bad Seley's immune.
- Cyanide and Happiness: Subverted in this comic. One guy says he gave Anna the "puppy eyes" while apologizing after breaking her window. It's then revealed that he gave her the eyes of an actual puppy.
- The Cyantian Chronicles: Used effectively by Tae and Kea, the Akaelae Twins and ineffectively by Khaelis. Ironically, that's both literal and figurative Puppy Dog Eyes in both examples. Tae and Kea are wolves and Khaelis is a fox.
- Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Jyrras Gianna generally employs these, helped in part by being the same age yet half the size of most of the cast. Lampshaded twice, in one strip where the other character is immune and in another where they are used on him (prompting a bemused "That's my gimmick!" when he recovers).
- Abby of Dangerously Chloe pulls them off intentionally to stop Pandora from driving her father to a murder suicide in order to get a mansion.
- El Goonish Shive:
- In this strip the rest of the main cast uses it for enhanced peer pressure. That is, to get Susan to sing karaoke.
- In this one to get the principal to help cover up Elliot's being turned female.
- In this one, in which Sarah, intentionally or unintentionally, uses puppy dog eyes to make the principal allow her to wear a beret. In this one, Sarah does it to show off her general cuteness... err... that is, distract Susan... Yes.
- In this one, where Catalina Bobcat used them to get out of trouble. And just because.
- Even the ads make use of it.
- Susan has finally used them too...inadvertently, when she learns that Justin doesn't have a version of her on his bridge crew in the Star Trek Online game. She's so surprised when told she's doing it that she feels her face to confirm it.
- Grace managed to "convince" Ellen and Nanase to agree on a double date with her and Tedd.
- Tedd, shocked by his own bout of badassery and in need of a hug.
- In this early non-canonical NewsPaper strip, Grace has a dream about being a goddess in Black & White (2001). When she meets her opponent (a version of Tedd), she convinces him to be her friend instead by using this technique.
- In this
- Erma has a curious sort of inversion in "Terry's Gift". Terry does a magnificent puppy-eyes expression near the end of the strip, but it's not an appeal. Rather, it's an expression of joy that he's getting a free shot at Erma with a snowball.
- Faux Pas:
- Randy can make it impossible to talk to him about sex with this.
- Deliberately "turned on" to get help in searching for a missing rabbit.
- Forestdale: Being an actual dalmatian puppy, albeit an anthropomorphic one, Dallas Burnside can pull this off quite easily.
- Freefall:
- In a subversion, Florence replies to an enormous terraforming robot's use of puppy dog eyes by saying, "Sorry. Puppy dog eyes only work when the eyes aren't bigger than my head."
- Inevitably, Florence is ordered to use them at weapons-grade intensity. Being a canine, they work as designed.
- In a subversion, Florence replies to an enormous terraforming robot's use of puppy dog eyes
- Furry Experience: Used by Cat and Dawn to get Ronnie's father to take them to a nice restaurant they both want to go to.
- Girl Genius side story has an accident where a Mad Scientist overdid it:
- Grrl Power:
- Halo does this to reduce Maxima's anger at her, thereby proving herself a Tomboy with a Girly Streak. (The cartoonist says it's about 50% effective.)
- Anvil later uses her own set to convince Maxima to wear a thong on her not-date with Deus, though Maxima calls it creepy for an adult woman to pull it off.
- Gunnerkrigg Court: It's not sure whether she's aware of it or not, but this page really accentuate Annie's eyes when she's apologizing.
- Hello from Halo Head: Achilles employs these when pleading with Clair for a job in #141.
- L's Empire: Parodied. Carnation uses her eyes to hypnotize her brother Void (she uses her voice to hypnotize everyone else).
- Misfile: Despite being a boy turned into a girl and refusing to act even slightly girly, Ash has a nice line in puppy dog eyes. Of course, s/he is vulnerable to them, too.
- Monsters Can Be Heroes Too!: In "Jiggle", that's how Lime the Slime convinces Coal that she's a friend, when her previously dark eyes start sparkling and we get a zoomed in panel of them.
- The Order of the Stick: Both Elan and Sunny use this trick simultaneously on Lien after asking her if now they're all friends. Apparently, even a paladin cannot resist eleven puppy-dog eyes at the same time. Yes, Sunny is a beholder with eight eyestalks. With the central eye and Elan's pair, that's eleven.
O-Chul: There may be those that would shame you for failing to resist eleven puppy dog eyes, but I stand not among them.
- The Other Grey Meat: Both Beth and Sylene have tried this tactic on John. (It didn't work.)
- Penny Arcade used this in "The Unhorse", although as an expression of sadness instead of persuasion.
- Pixie Trix Comix: New character Zadie demonstrates the tactic here.
- Planescape Survival Guide: Milny's puppy dog eyes convinced three demons to help her save her friends in this strip.
- Platinum Grit: Jeremy MacConnor doesn't even know he has these, but they're his default expression.
Kate: Oh, God, can you try not to look so young?
- Precocious: This is Yvette's reaction to the prospect of being water-ballooned.
- Questionable Content:
- Dora pulls this on Marten to get him to take her side in a dispute. Immediately Lampshaded.
Marten: Cute, pouty girl... in close proximity... brain... melted...
- Shortly after that, Marten offers to take the couch until Faye gets a real bed.
Faye: Really? Can...can I have a pony too? Pleeeease?
Marten: The puppy-dog eyes will only get you so far, Faye.
Faye: Pleeeeeeeease?
Marten: Well I guess we could turn the second bedroom into a stable and DAMMIT STOP CONTROLLING MY BRAIN. - Dora (again) uses her powers on Tai when Faye "replaces her."
- The AI "Spookybot" pulls one on Roko, complete with broad smile, while discussing becoming friends with Roko. Spookybot's red eyes, slitted pupils, and incomprehensible personal power undermine the effect.
Spookybot: Because we're so immensely charming!
Roko: No, that's definitely not it.
- Dora pulls this on Marten
- Sandra on the Rocks: Puppy-Dog Eyes have an unfortunate effect on Lavali in this strip, rendering her incapable of telling Aaina that Sandra isn't gay.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: Defied in "Cute", where a scientist doesn't want puppies to do this all the time regardless of their mental state and invents a way to make them look more like how they're actually feeling.
- Schlock Mercenary:
- For being a carbosilicate amorph, Sergeant Schlock is distressingly good at doing these. It even works when he has more than two eyes.
- Para Ventura does this too, though it doesn't always help.
- For being a carbosilicate amorph, Sergeant Schlock is distressingly good
- Sequential Art:
- Kat uses this, albeit sparingly, when she needs some help from her house-mate.
- Kat herself is resistant but not immune to this effect.
- Kat uses this,
- The Silver Eye: This sort of pleading, pitiful look is described as the "orphan face".
- Skin Horse: The cloying critters of the Whimsy Corporation pull this on Sweetheart — who is herself a dog.
- Sleepless Domain: In a guest comic, Sally deploys these when asking Undine to give her and the others a ride with her Making a Splash powers. Undine, reluctantly, agrees.
- Sticky Dilly Buns: Julian gives Dillon big sad eyes to convince him to do a Practice Kiss with him.
Dillon: AH! NO! The puppy eyes! My kryptonite!
- The Story of Anima: Just one look at Penelope's is enough to make Dante spill his backstory to her.
- Tales of the Questor: Quentyn is somewhat infamous in-universe for deploying these. When his long-time bullying nemesis is finally confronted about why he's always hated Quentyn so much, his regular successful use of them is listed as one of the reasons.
- Two Guys and Guy: Played with when Guy's "puppy eyes" turn out to be a glare sufficient to intimidate the cop who just pulled her over for speeding.
"Lord Jesus! What breed of puppy is that? Hell-hound?"
- Wapsi Square: This strip has Monica using puppy dog eyes to convince Darren to watch her dog while she's on vacation.
- Welcome to the Convenience Store: In this chapter, when a daughter is asking her dad to buy her a snack (when he only has enough money for said snack or his cigarettes). STA—ARE
- Wyvernspell: When Argent checks Auryn's nest after she failed to meet up with him the previous night, he finds her abandoned pet cats, with one yellow-furred cat sporting an especially pitiable expression.
- Yokoka's Quest: Raya sports these together with blush stickers to maximize her cuteness, when convincing Kagi and Yfa to let her go and look for a mushroom with Yfa. Grace also develops these in reaction to seeing Raya for the first time.
Web Videos
- American High Digital: Invoked in "Asking For Sleepover In Front Of Friend", where Hyde uses his friend showing adorable expressions and playing with plushies to make it more likely for his mom to say yes. It works, but the mom is also fully aware of what he's pulling.
- In The Blockbuster Buster's review of Shrek 2, the title card artist E-Joy pops in, much to the shock of Eric, who wonders who she is and asks for one reason why he shouldn't fire her. She invokes this trope and is able to stay, much to her delight.
- Channel Awesome:
- The Nostalgia Critic's pretty blue eyes have a tendency to go puppy-wide whenever he's suffering. This is particularly noticeable in Kickassia, where he stays like that for at least three scenes. (The ham-tastic conversation with Spoony, after he accidentally kills Santa Christ and when he's pinned to the fridge by the others.)
- Spoony is not too bad at these himself. The wide-eyed "traumatised rape victim" look he has on in the scenes relating to his "dark secret" is quite stirring once you stop laughing.
- Linkara also pulls some rather epic puppy eyes while reviewing the Doom comic. (It Makes Sense in Context).
- The Nostalgia Chick also does this occasionally, complete with pout.
- Luke Mochrie and the Inners. All of them.
- Doug's talent for this isn't just limited to the Critic. Chester does it, Ask That Guy with the Glasses is also good at them and Doug himself pulled some in the Breaking Dawn VLog that made you want to cuddle him.
- Doug's new character, Donnie Dupre from Demo Reel, knows how to manipulate his long-suffering male writer with them.
- The titular doctor in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog at the beginning of act two. Oddly, he's not trying to garner sympathy. He's just crushed that he inadvertently introduced his archnemesis to the girl of his dreams. He also has the puppy-eyes after telling his viewers about the failure of his latest crime ("Captain Hammer... threw a car... at my head").
- Gaea in the Noob webseries and comic, as one of her Manipulative Bastard tricks. A couple of her male guildmates have tried to imitate her, only to be told they look silly doing it (for the Butt-Monkey) or can't measure up to her (for the Manchild). One of her minions tried to pull them on her in the first movie.
- Outside Xbox:
- This is Ellen Rose's most powerful strategy. For example, on the "Show of the Weekend" episode discussing the "Kobolds and Catacombs" expansion for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Luke discusses the effect of King Togwaggle, who lets you hold the opponent's deck to ransom, by getting Ellen to go to the kitchen and then stealing her seat:
Luke: Ellen, I have stolen your place on the sofa, like the sneaky King Togwaggle. Ellen, what ransom will you give me to switch back?
Ellen: Sad puppy eyes.
Luke: ...Ugh, fine. I would have liked to hold out for more than two seconds.- As of 2020, "coronavirus pandemic" plus "Ellen's janky immune system" means that the Puppy-Dog Eyes are the only part of her face showing when she leaves the house. No word yet on whether she's using this power for good or evil.
Western Animation
- 101 Dalmatian Street: Doug does this a few times in the show but here are the highlights: In "Girls' Day Out", he tries to get Dolly and his wife to go to a spa together.
Delilah: Aww, Doug that's...sweet, but I'm not sure it's quite the right time, maybe we should wait and...
When she looks back at Doug, she saw him looking at her like a kid really wants some candy but their mom said no...Doug: But it's all arranged...
He also does this when Dolly said that his job was boring and he was hurt and looked her like he was about to cry.Doug: But I thought you were psyched to... (Starts to tear up) share in my world. (Whimpers sadly)... - The 7D: Hilda Gloom often does this to convince her husband Grim to steal things for her.
- The Adventures of Puss in Boots: As he does in the movies, this is Puss' specialty in the show. His mastery of the technique has given him an extremely high resistance to it, and anyone who tries it on him just causes him to do it back to them to demonstrate how it's really done.
- ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks: Near the end of "Family Spirit", when Alvin learns from Dave in a "Shaggy Dog" Story he knew he was Playing Sick and Julie wanted to sell him tickets to the soccer game he wanted to see, he pulls his "boo-hoo eyes" on the 'Munks to convince everyone to go to the game for Family Day. Simon even lampshades them.
Simon: Spare me the boo-hoo eyes, Alvin.
- American Dragon: Jake Long: Fu Dog claimed to have invented the puppy eyes... and yet a chihuahua managed to use them on him.
Fu Dog: Now I wish I never invented that trick. It’s just too good!
- Animaniacs:
- Skippy does this after learning Bumbie's mom died.
- In "Plane Pals", the Warner siblings use puppy dog expressions on Ivan Blowsky, causing him to feel bad about yelling at them... for about half a second, whereupon the Warners switch to making grotesque faces at Blowsky.
- Batman and Harley Quinn: To stop Ivy from going through with her plan that may wipe out all life on the planet, Harley unleashes puppy dog eyes combined with crying, calling it the Nuclear Option, (with a lead-up to make it sound like she's about to cross a Godzilla Threshold in doing so).
- Big Hero 6: The Series: In "The Dog Craze of Summer," Hiro uses this to convince his friends to help with Granville's dogs.
- Bluey: Naturally for a world of dogs, it has quite a few instances where the title character and her sister will do this, usually to their parents. Bandit admits the "please face" always gets him.
- Bounty Hamster: Played for Laughs when Cassie attempts to coax Marion into letting her keep a robot dog by giving him Puppy-Dog Eyes, speaking in Baby Talk... and threatening to continue doing so forever unless he says yes.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: The Rescue Rangers' client of the week in "Pie in the Sky" is Midge, a sparrow who has lost her flock. Every time one of the Rangers voices concern about the dangers they get drawn into, another points to Midge's eyes, and qualms are silenced.
Monty: You want m-me to t-t-take care of the c-c-c-cats, Chipper?!
Chip: Don't do it for me, Monty... do it for Midge!
[Midge turns her doleful gaze on Monty.]
Monty: (ducks one of the cats' paws) Those eyes ought to be registered as lethal weapons. - Chowder: Chowder attempted this on Mung to get his permission to make a dish on his own. He caved less because of the eyes but more so to learning that Endive had let her apprentice, Panini make a dish on her own before Chowder, not to say that the stretched out please wasn't irritating him.
- Detentionaire: Holger has used these, like in the episode "The Hydra" to get Cam to put on a disguise.
- The Dragon Prince: Bait the glow toad has his "innocent eyes", used on the baker Barius while swiping jelly tarts.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy:
- Eddy, being the sleazy person that he is, uses this in order to fool people. In one episode, he tries to use this on Jimmy to get him to give up his piggy bank. Sarah sees right through it and tells him to get lost as she takes Jimmy away.
- Ed also does this on occasion. One example is to Eddy after he kicks Edd out of his house. They were pranking him with fake sticky notes supposedly made by his parents and Edd decided to run away and stay at Eddy's house to escape from the madness.
- Elena of Avalor: Elena can turn these on full-bore when she wants something from someone. Skylar cannot resist them.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Bloo does this many times. Mac has also done it similar to Bloo, though much cuter.
- House of Mouse: One episode has Max trying this in order to convince Goofy to buy him a car. It works.
- Invader Zim: Gaz occasionally does this when you least expect her to do it; she usually does it when she is feeling enraptured such as when she sees that there is one more slice of pizza left in the box or when she sees a video game commercial on TV.
- Jelly Jamm:
- In "Queen Rita", Rita frequently gives the other kids these to get them to do what she wants.
- In "Royal Frame", when convincing the King to let them paint a picture to go inside the titular frame, all five of the kids give him the cutesy eyes (including the one whose bangs cover his eyes).
- Jimmy Two-Shoes: Heloise tries doing this, accompanied with the phrase "I feel bad about it now", to try and appease Jimmy when she does something he disapproves of. It rarely works.
- In fact, she's tried doing this several times when trying to attract him. Jimmy, being Jimmy, doesn't notice.
- Johnny Test parodies this when the title character gives multiple people this look, which is referred to as simply "The Look", with a sad song on a tape player.
- KaBlam!: June will do this sometimes to get what she wants.
- Kaeloo: In several episodes, Mr. Cat (and Stumpy on occasions) will try to use these on Kaeloo. Whether it works on her or not depends on the episode.
- Kim Possible: One of the many running gags was the "puppy dog pout".◊ While it doesn't look the same, it's used to the same effect, and it apparently works on every non-villain she knows; besides, Kim has too much self respect to use it on a bad guy (except for in the Grand Finale where she used it on Shego and it worked... they were friendly enemies at that point). Her mother, Ron, Rufus and even Shego have all appropriated it at one time or another.
- King of the Hill: In one episode, Hank's friends are trying to find out why Alamo Beer isn't in stock and Peggy knows the secret, and Hank says "Aw Boomhauer don't give me those basset hound eyes" and Boomhauer has his usual expression.
- Les Sisters: Marine does this to Wendy when she needs her to help with something. Wendy tries to resist, but she always ends up giving in.
- Let's Go Luna!:
- Carmen does these to Luna in "Good Knight" so Luna could make her a knight suit.
- Andy, Carmen, and Leo do these to Señor Fabuloso in "Gaja's Birthday" so he could take them to Gaja's birthday party.
- Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Zoe Trent naturally has mastered this talent to get humans to cave into her whims. Though how well it works varies, with Blythe she caves in, with another little girl it didn’t work at all.
- Looney Tunes:
- Charlie Dog uses the "big, soulful eyes routine" when wooing prospective owners.
- In Broom-Stick Bunny, Bugs Bunny pulls this on Witch Hazel, who is about to cut him in half with a meat cleaver. She relents because Bugs reminds her of Paul, her "pet tarantula".
- There's also the little penguin Bugs ends up protecting against his will. Chuck Jones couldn't resist using 'em.
- The Scarlet Pumpernickel opens with Daffy Duck pleading with the studio head to consider his self-written screenplay, momentarily resorting to this. Another Chuck Jones example, of course.
- Done by Bugs Bunny (towards the audience) in What's Opera, Doc?, after he hears Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the wabbit".
- Milo Murphy's Law: Melissa has "doe eyes", which are very effective, but which she says are for "emergency use only".
- Mixels: Scorpi has near-permanent ones◊ that only disappear when he's scared (where they shrink down). He even manages to make them larger at times, gaining irises when he does.◊
- My Life as a Teenage Robot: Tuck, especially when he’s really upset and crying, or about to cry.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Apple Bloom: "Aren't you gonna stay for brunch...?" See this vid.
- Pinkie Pie does this too out of sadness that she's being ignored: "Oh no! My friends don't like my parties, and they don't want to be my friends anymore!" See this short vid.
- Sweetie Belle deliberately invokes this. "If you don't want to spend time with me..." See this vid.
- As of Season 4, Fluttershy has started showing a tendency to use these to get her way from time to time. For example, during "Filli Vanilli", she uses them to convince Big Mac to let her be his voice for one last concert. and later, on "Trade Ya", she and Rainbow Dash (of all ponies) try this to convince a trader to go back to his stall to speed along a trade in a long, strange Chain of Deals. In this case it fails, however, as the trader is more concerned about filling his belly.
- Even Angel pulls this off in "Filli Vanilli".
- Gallus the griffon pulls this off on Grampa Gruff in "School Daze - Part 2" in order to convince him to let him enroll in the School of Friendship.
- Apple Bloom: "Aren't you gonna stay for brunch...?" See this vid.
- Nella the Princess Knight: In "Sir Clod", Clod loses his invitation to the Royal Cafe Breakfast Buffet, so he tries to get in using simply politeness and these.
Clod: Please?
Knight: No.
Clod: Pleeeease?
Knight: No.
Clod: But I can't make my eyes any bigger or cuter than this.
Knight: I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. - The Penguins of Madagascar: Kowalski sports a pair of these in an animatic for Time Out.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In one episode, Dr. Doofenshmirtz's evil plan of the day involves giving himself big, sad eyes in order to emotionally manipulate the citizens of Danville into giving him what he wants. They work, but only in the dark where his eyes look huge and sad. When the power comes back on they look swollen and bloodshot and have zero effect on his brother (the mayor), other than creeping him out.
- The Fireside Girls use their "big pleading eyes"◊ as a way of getting people to buy their cupcakes.
- Major Monogram pulls this on Agent P in "Perry the Actorpus".
Major Monogram: I know that we gave you some time off, but would you please come back to work, please? I can't hold my eyes like this much longer.
- Pound Puppies (2010): Used quite often by the dogs. Shocking, huh?
- "Don't do that too long, or your face might stick that way!" The faces of Precious Moments figurines and the characters of the five Precious Moments animated specials did stick that way. Not only are they stuck in a Super-Deformed proportion, but the upper eyelid is at such an angle that the shape of the whole eye suggests a teardrop, and the iris and pupil are large enough that the white shows up only at the bottom of the teardrop.
- Producing Parker: Massimo does this in the episode "Dog Dee Afternoon" after Parker yells at him when he sabotages Doggy Day on The Dee Show by doing a trick and Dee kicked him (causing the show to be hated by the dog-loving audience)
- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: This, plus a quick peck, is how Velma convinces Scooby to investigate the school janitor's workshop in a Clear My Name episode.
- Ready Jet Go!: In the episode "A Visit to the Planetarium", Jet and Sunspot make these eyes◊ at Sean and Sydney in order to convince them to let them go to the planetarium show.
- Recess: Back in season one, this was pretty much T.J.'s default set of eyes.
- Ren & Stimpy subverted this — Ren's eyes are already bugged out of their sockets; this takes it a few disturbing steps further.
- Stimpy can do it better; just watch the pilot for proof!
- The Replacements: Riley Daring tried it out◊ when asking her parents if she could get a digital video camera.
- Ruby Gloom: Scaredy Bat does this. A lot.
- The Smurfs (2021):
- In the episode "Adventures in Smurfsitting", Baby Smurf does this when Papa Smurf calls him to stop disturbing him with his experiment.
- In the episode "Smurfy Day Care", many Smurfs (including Papa Smurf) that turned into babies do this as they're about to cry. Smurfstorm also does this when Smurfblossom and Smurflily also turn into babies.
- In the Spliced episode "The Mutants Who Cried Monster", Melvin makes cute eyes at a mob of mutants who are after Peri and Entrée, working to convince them to let them go off easy for their actions. They take his advice, letting Peri and Entrée down from a tree, but then they keep beating them up like they did before.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton, of all people, is able to successfully do this twice in "Grandmum’s the Word".
- Steven Universe: Steven, being the adorable little kid he is, can break out an impressive set of Puppy Dog Eyes and knows how to use them. Garnet, despite being a no-nonsense Stoic most of the time, is particularly susceptible.
Pearl: Why did you agree to this?note
Garnet: I lost a battle of will.- Steven retains this ability as a teenager, as he manages to stop Lapis from attacking two gems just by staring at her and holding a cute animal. Subverted, though, in that he rarely uses this power anymore due to how angry he is all the time.
- On Stomp! Stomp! Rhinos, in "Baking Blueberry Muffins," when Mom protests being too busy to join the marching rhino band, all three of the kids give her the puppy dog eyes, which make her give in.
- Teen Titans (2003): This is taken a step further in "Forces of Nature". Beast Boy can morph his entire body into that of an adorable kitten so he can do puppy dog eyes with his entire face◊
- Teen Titans Go!: The episode "Breakfast Cheese" is all about Starfire using this to make her teammates into pacifists (complete with a wallpaper full of puppies whenever she does it). It works so well, the other even help her pull this on the H.I.V.E. Five.
- Tom and Jerry has Spike give his son Tyke a few lessons about being a dog in one short. The first lesson is being "man's best friend", which consists of the begging position and lying at the master's feet. Both "with the big, sad, soulful eyes".
- Total Drama:
- An episode of Total Drama World Tour had Cody do this to Gwen to try and convince her to carry an epipen for him instead of his Abhorrent Admirer Sierra.
- Total DramaRama: The kids would often use this to get what they want.
- Totally Spies!: The girls have used this more than once on Jerry to try and persuade him to do things for them.
- Transformers: Prime: Believe it or not, Starscream seems◊ to◊ be◊ a◊ master◊ of this trope!
- Bumblebee too. He manages to stop Arcee from killing Starscream just by looking at her sadly.
- T.U.F.F. Puppy: Dudley does this often. Since he's an actual puppy, it's funnier that way.
- Wolverine and the X-Men (2009): Toad of the Brotherhood breaks out the most pathetic cutie-face an anti-hero has probably ever worn when Quicksilver refuses to rescue him from mutant-jail. The large eyed pout is accompanied by a small-voiced "You... you're dumping me? But... but why?" It doesn't work, but that just might be because Quicksilver is a cold-hearted bastard.
- Work It Out Wombats!: In "Helper For the Day", Zeke makes these eyes at Super while begging her to let him be Mr. E's helper.
- X-Men: Evolution has Kitty Pryde, to the extent that Wolverine once snaps at her: "Don't give me them puppy-dog eyes, half-pint!"
- Yin Yang Yo! has Yin and Yang use this to get master Yo buy them stuff.
Real Life
- Funnily enough, cats avert this in real life. If a cat ever opens its pupils really wide like Puss is in the page image, it means the cat is tense and/or excited (as in, just about to attack something -- possibly you). The cat's way of enticing a human to do something does not involve much direct eye contact at all — they purr and rub their heads/bodies against you or nearby objects.
- That is, unless they simply meow/howl at you until you cave in just to shut the cat up. This is a common problem for owners of Siamese and other very vocal breeds.
- Unless you are this fluffy kitten.
- It's been suggested this is an evolutionary trait; humans are more likely to protect and feed dogs with this trope, therefore increasing their chances of survival, because a dog with Puppy-Dog Eyes resembles a human baby, subconsciously activating our maternal and paternal instincts. In fact, wolves don't possess the ability to raise their eyebrows in this manner, and neither do huskies, the dog breed that is genetically closest to wolves. This strongly indicates that domesticated dogs faced evolutionary pressures to develop a slightly different facial structure to make them "cuter."
- A Russian experiment relating to breeding silver foxes based on tameness revealed the process of domestication tended to result in "cute" juvenile traits: multicolored coats, playfulness, floppy ears, and naturally large puppy eyes.
- Baby jumping spiders. Even an arachnophobe might look at this◊ and go "d'awwww!"
- Jumping spiders in general have such Puppy-Dog Eyes that Samsung was able to air an effective and wholesome ad campaign their of Galaxy S22 Ultra mobile, with its mascot being a jumping spider falling in love with the phone thanks to its multiple lenses (in response to detractors claiming they were creepy and “spider-like”).
- Jumping spiders in general have such Puppy-Dog Eyes that Samsung was able to air an effective and wholesome ad campaign
- When people comment about Jeff Goldblum's "odd" appearance, beyond his height (6'4½") they're usually consciously or unconsciously referring to the way his eyes are, as described by film critic/podcaster Steven Benedict in an episode discussing The Fly (1986), naturally "slightly protruding" from his slender face. One reason that film served as his Star-Making Role was because his expressive eyes served so well as indications for his increasingly hideous character (in fact, one looks even larger [via a contact lens] in his final humanoid stage). During a 1987 Tonight Show interview, guest host/personal friend Garry Shandling had Goldblum's co-star/girlfriend Geena Davis sit down with them as well, and quipped:
See Jeff, you look in love...yeah, although you're looking at me, which is confusing! He has that, he has that look in his eyes, you know, like a dog gets when you save them from the Humane Society, that they just, you know...'Please take me home!' You know that look? That's what he has. You know, that kind of searching, distressed look.
- Dutch lib-dem politician Alexander Pechtold is known (and occasionally satirized in the media) for sporting these eyes. Some campaign posters from his own party will just show him staring directly at the viewer with his big eyes◊.
- Pedro Pascal and his live-action characters, such as Joel Miller and the bluntly-nicknamed "Brown Eyes", endear when he widens or glistens his eyes. In this Esquire article, the reporter can't help but notice how wistful or worried they look throughout the interview.
- Many women in the past invoked this on themselves by dripping sap of the deadly nightshade into their eyes (this practice being the source of its scientific name), which caused the pupils to dilate and give this effect. Naturally, Side Effects Include... very blurry sight, which they took in stride. Nowadays the extract (atropine) is still in use by doctors for aforementioned effect (i.e so they can inspect the pupil better) albeit in a way lowered dosage.
- Chinese actor Zhu Zan Jin (best-known as Jin Guangyao in The Untamed) has very◊ large◊ eyes◊. They're one of the reasons he's so popular among the series' fans, even those who hate the character he plays.
