Animation Tropes

Tropes which are exclusive to Animation as a medium, due to the unique freedom inherent in all Graphical Tropes combined with the ability to portray action. Thanks to the rise of CGI, animation can occur within and sometime barely distinguishable from live action, allowing a medium within a medium.

See Also: Japanese Animation Tropes and Animation Genres. Do not confuse with Graphical Tropes, its super-index.

Tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: A traditionally animated cartoon has elements that are made using 3D computer animation.
• Absurdly Bright Light
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade
• Accordion Man: Someone becomes flattened and folded into an accordion-like shape after being crushed by something. Actual accordion music playing when this happens is optional.
• Acme Products
• Acting for Two: It's common in animation for two or more characters to interact with each other who have the same voice actor.
• Action-Hogging Opening: The opening sequence is more action-oriented than the actual cartoon.
• Alertness Blink
• All Animation Is Disney: The misconception that all noteworthy animated works were made by Disney.
• Alternate Tooniverse: An alternate reality where everything's a cartoon.
• Amusing Injuries
• Animal Stereotypes
• Animated Actors: Fictional characters are portrayed as being actors on their show in-universe.
• Animated Music Video: An animated video accompanied by a song.
• Animated Outtakes
• Animation Bump: Periods where the animation shifts to a better quality.
• Animation Evolution: When the animation gets better or worse permanently.
• Ash Face: A character survives an explosion and ends up with a face covered in soot.
• Banana Peel: Someone slips after stepping on a banana peel
• Behind a Stick: Someone manages to hide behind an object that's slimmer than they are.
• Big Ball of Violence: Characters who get into a quarrel become a ball of smoke with fists and feet repeatedly poking out.
• Body Wipe
• Born in the Theatre
• Bullet Seed
• The Cameo: A character or real life person makes a brief appearance.
• Cartoon Bug-Sprayer
• Cartoon Juggling
• Celebrity Toons: A cartoon starring a real life person who is either played by the real person or is merely a fictional representation of them.
• Clip-Art Animation
• Comedic Spanking
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Animated works have a tendency to be adapted into Sequential Art or Comic media.
• Comic-Book Limbo
• Comic-Book Time: The amount of time that passes in-universe is much shorter than the time it takes for the series to continue in real life.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: A traditionally animated cartoon has the objects the characters interact with easily distinguishable from the parts of the background that remain stationary.
• Cranium Compartment
• Creator Cameo: The work features an appearance by the creator or a character voiced by the creator.
• Crush Filter
• Crush Parade
• Deranged Animation: Animation that is weird and unsettling.
• Detail-Hogging Cover: The cover of an animated work has more detail on the characters than the actual animation shows.
• Disney School of Acting and Mime
• The Door Slams You
• Double Take
• Dramatic Drop
• Drool Deluge
• Eat the Camera
• Elongating Arm Gag: Character's body part extends a ridiculous distance for the purpose of a joke.
• Everybody Do the Endless Loop
• Everything Dances
• Evil Living Flames
• Explosive Cigar
• Expressive Uvula
• Eye Pop
• Face Fault
• Faceless Masses
• Fade Around the Eyes
• False Teeth Tomfoolery
• "Far Side" Island
• Fat Flex
• Fight Unscene
• Fishbowl Helmet
• Flapping Cheeks
• Floating Clocks
• Foot Bath Treatment
• Forcibly Formed Physique: Sheer force causes a toon's body to change shape in some way.
• Funny Animal Anatomy
• Hammerspace
• Harmless Electrocution
• Harmless Freezing
• Harmless Liquefaction: A character goes from being a solid to a liquid.
• Heavy Voice
• Hit Flash: The screen flashes during fight scenes to avoid actually depicting punches and such.
• Hit Spark: When said punches aren't being covered up by the above trope, appears when they hit something.
• Hurt Foot Hop
• Idea Bulb: A lightbulb appears over a person's head to signify that they've come up with an idea.
• Improbable Hairstyle Sequence: A sequence where a character is shown with practically impossible hairstyles.
• Inaction Sequence
• Infectious Enthusiasm
• Inkblot Cartoon Style
• Ink-Suit Actor: An animated character who resembles their voice actor.
• In One Ear, Out The Other
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Good guys have huge chins.
• Limited Animation
• Limited Wardrobe: Cartoon characters are always depicted wearing the same clothes.
• Live-Action Adaptation: A cartoon is adapted to live-action media.
• Living Drawing
• Lustful Melt: Someone melts into a puddle after falling for someone else.
• Medium Blending: A cartoon that makes use of more than one type of animation.
• Medium-Shift Gag
• Metaphoric Metamorphosis: A Visual Pun in which a character transforms into something alluding to their current situation.
• Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: A cartoon with no sound aside from background music.
• Mismatched Atomic Expressionism: An art and animation style associated with the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by cheaply-made geometric stylization.
• Motionless Chin: An animated character's mouth moves independently of their chin.
• National Stereotypes
• Narrative Shapeshifting: A character changes their appearance when trying to describe something.
• No Flow in CGI: CGI works avoid using flowing objects such as long hair or capes whenever possible because of such things being difficult to animate.
• Not Quite Starring: A work is billed as starring a celebrity, but the person in question is really an impersonator.
• Ocular Gushers: Crying floods of tears.
• Off Like a Shot
• Off-Model: Moments in a cartoon where a character has mistakes or inconsistencies in their physical appearance
• Pacing a Trench
• Painted CGI: 3D animation made to look like traditional animation
• Painting the Medium: Font, interface changes, or camera or editing tricks convey things about the story.
• Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame
• Piano Key Wave
• Picture Drama
• Pintsized Kid
• Polka-Dot Paint
• Recycled Animation
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Animated characters interacting with live-action people.
• Rule of Animation Conservation
• Running Gag: A joke that repeats throughout the series or even through the course of a single episode.
• Running on the Spot
• Scooby Stack: A group of people look from behind a wall and their heads are somehow in a column.
• Screeching Stop
• Shadow of Impending Doom
• Shifted to CGI
• Shrunk in the Wash: Washing something too much makes it shrink.
• Simpleton Voice: A dumb character has a deep and silly-sounding voice to underscore their lack of intelligence.
• Solid Cartoon Facial Stubble: Stubble is illustrated as a solid color.
• Speed Echoes
• Stewed Alive
• Stuff Blowing Up
• Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
• Telephone Teleport
• Temporary Bulk Change
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Females are distinguished from males by having eyelashes and wearing lipstick and/or bows.
• Thick-Line Animation
• Thin-Line Animation
• Too Gruesome for Cartoon Physics: Sometimes Amusing Injuries go too far.
• Toon Town
• Toon Transformation
• Typewriter Eating
• Uvula Escape Route
• Vacuum Mouth
• Vocal Evolution: A character's voice changes in spite of still being voiced by the same actor.
• Voices Are Mental: Characters who switch minds also exchange voices.
  • Voices Are Not Mental: Characters who switch minds retain the voices of whoever's body their minds are in.
• Voices in One Room: All the voice actors record their dialogue in the same room and at the same time.
• Wackyland
• Wheel of Decisions
• Wheel o' Feet

Technical terms:

• Adobe Flash
• Cel Shading: 3D computer animation that is colored and shaded to look two-dimensional.
• Line Boil
• Motion Capture
• Mouth Flaps
  • Lip Lock
• Production Lead Time: Production often gets finished a long time before it actually airs.
• Rotoscoping: Animation achieved by painting over frames of live-action footage.
• Squiggle Vision
• Stick Figure Animation
• Stop Motion: Animation achieved by photographing three-dimensional objects and puppets while gradually moving them a little in each frame.
• Synchro-Vox: A cartoon has live-action lips edited onto a character when they speak.
• Three Shorts: A cartoon where every episode consists of three segments.
• The Twelve Principles of Animation
• Toon
• Toon Boom
• Toon Physics
• Underlighting