Acrofatic: Difference between revisions

[[File:Rufus Acrofatic 1456.jpg|link=Street Fighter|frame|His kung-fu is stronger. And fatter.]]

 

 

Simply put, a fat character who can maneuver like a gymnast, sprint like an Olympic runner, or kick your ass like [[Chuck Norris]], despite being... you know... fat. These characters are also usually [[Lightning Bruiser]]s, although [[Fragile Speedster]]s are not unheard of. May intersect with [[Stout Strength]] for characters who aren't actually fat, but rather very musclebound. Originally just made to subvert the idea of [[Mighty Glacier]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[The Breaker]]: New Waves'' [http://www.mangareader.net/the-breaker-new-waves/28/10 Right here.]

* Subverted in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', because every notable fighter in the series in that show are fast and agile

** Lucky Roux, for a time fans were convinced that he's the fastest man on the OP universe, and well, he's fat.

** Also, Chopper's Kung Fu point; in it he's almost round and has very short extremities, yet it seems to be his fastest form.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'', the Millennium Earl, is a fairly rotund individual, but is capable of readily fending off the protagonist in a sword fight.

* ''[[Full Metal Panic Fumoffu]]''. In the [[Beach Episode]], Sôsuke battles an overweight bodyguard who does Neo's "bending over backwards to dodge bullets trick" from ''[[The Matrix]]''.

* Mr. Legend from ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' was the first Superhero ever and inspired the main character to become a superhero himself. Acts like Superman and has a Superman-like suit, but is fat and in his late 40s when he appears—however he's nonetheless the most badass Superhero out of all.

 

* Blob, foe of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', while in the shows and movies is a [[Mighty Glacier]], in the comics has the athletic ability of an Olympian. He has used cartwheels and gymnastic flips to place himself precisely where he wants to be as a blockade—or on top of a foe! Remember, Fred Dukes was a circus performer before he became a supervillain.

* A minor Western Marvel villain from ''Kid Colt'' called simply The Fat Man, who could roll and [[Foe-Tossing Charge|bowl people over]].

* ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]''. Buck is huge because he comes from a high-gravity planet, and yet surprisingly quick.

 

* Mr. Bobinsky from the [[Film of the Book]] ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]''.

* Po from ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'', after being taught how to fight. His being fat is actually why {{spoiler|he's able to defeat Tai Lung. The others fell when he started using his pressure point attacks, but, [[Chekhov's Gun|as demonstrated earlier]], Po's bulk makes it too hard to hit the nerves properly, and all it does is tickle him}}. Po was already quite agile, so long as his objective was the acquisition of food. Shifu simply needed to use this fact to his advantage in order to train Po to be so on command.

* In Disney's ''[[Mulan]]'', Chin Po went from anxiously balancing on poles above water to gracefully cartwheeling over them during training. See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqIsB98a1E here] at 2:46 and 4:16.

* In ''[[A Goofy Movie|An Extremely Goofy Movie]]'', Pete's rather overweight son PJ shows some surprising dexterity on a bike, a skateboard, and on the dance floor.

* The Kaiju, ''[[Gamera]]''. Just look at him working the parallel bars in ''Gamera vs Guiron''.

* [[Godzilla]]. Sure, he's normally content just lumbering at a relatively slow pace. But, when he decides to move fast, he ''does''. His surprising agility even allows him to kick his enemies, with both feet, while sliding on his tail.

* John Travolta described his ''[[Hairspray]]'' character, Edna Turnblad, in these terms. Tracy is this trope too; a significant part of the film is focused on her mad dancing skills.

* Chris Farley's Haru in ''[[Beverly Hills Ninja]]''—see [[Real Life]] below; Farley himself was pretty agile and did many of his own stunts in this and other films.

* Near the end of the direct-to-video comedy film ''Run Ronnie Run'', an overweight kid who was kidnapped by disgruntled Reality TV stars (don't ask) and spent his entire captivity playing [[Dead or Alive]] proceeds to beat the crap out of his kidnappers [[I Know Mortal Kombat|using the over-the-top "martial arts" moves from the game]] while the song "Ass Kickin' Fat Kid" plays in the background.

* [[Sammo Hung]] in everything he ever did.

* Eddie Valiant from ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', especially in his song and dance number. Most impressive of all is when he performs several backflips across the floor of the Acme Gag Factory, despite wearing ''a hat, coat, and trousers''!

 

* In one of the ''Burke'' novels by [[Andrew Vachss]], Max the Silent has a brief spar with one. Although Max beats him, he is impressed with his skill. Also, in ''Terminal'', we get introduced to Gigi, who is a perfect example of this trope. Burke may qualify; he is described as large and slippery, but lacking the knockout punch power to be a full [[Lightning Bruiser]].

* [[Big Bad|Sunday]] from ''[[The Man Who Was Thursday]]''.

* Hern Heslin, in ''[[The Duel of Sorcery Trilogy]]'', is described several times as short and pudgy. The first time you see him, he's tied up...but not for long. After freeing himself, he quickly outmaneuvers and kills a bad guy who's much taller and trimmer. He ends up repeating both feats in ''Moonscatter''.

* In [[Glen Cook]]'s ''Dread Empire'' books, Mocker is noted for being very fat—and one of the deadliest swordsmen alive. His comrade Bragi Ragnarson, described as a giant of a man from a land of [[Horny Vikings]], flinches when Mocker threatens him.

 

* Randy from ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' despite being fat is actually a really talented natural gymnast. It is only brought up once a season or so though to preserve the [[Played for Laughs|comedy]] value of it.

* On ''[[Community]]'' when Buddy is discussing what he would bring to the study group, he says they need a chubby, agile guy. Though his actual invocation of this tropes is a bit messy.

* Sammo in ''[[Martial Law]]''.

 

* Arthur the miner, from the video for The Avalanches' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUyKdaNKHzo Since I Left You]".

 

 

* Pro wrestler [[Samoa Joe]] is a rare real life example. Any near-300-pounder who can run rings around [[TNA]]'s X Division, which is pretty much entirely made up of [[Fragile Speedster]]s, can definitely call himself Acrofatic.

* Along with Big Van [[Vader]]. 450 pound men usually don't do moonsaults.

* NXT Rookie Husky Harris (son of Irwin R. Schyster) is described as "an Army Tank with a Ferrari Engine," and has quite the speed and vertical leap.

 

* In ''[[GURPS]]'', having a Fat or Very Fat character give you no penalties to acrobatics and agility, at least not directly.

* The ''Book of Vile Darkness'' from ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' introduces a feat called "Deformity (Obese)" in which a character becomes "grossly overweight... now at least triple the normal weight of creatures of her kind." To be fair this feat does come with a -2 to Dexterity since someone of that size would have a harder time moving around, but really, in terms of ''D&D'', -2 Dexterity is a very minimal penalty and doesn't do much to stop a character from performing crazy feats of acrobatics and agility if they gain them with other feats or class abilities.

 

* Cheng Shin Zan of ''[[Fatal Fury]]''.

* E. Honda and Rufus in the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series. Mostly Rufus though. While Honda is no slouch, he's still got elements of [[Mighty Glacier]]; conversely, Rufus is not only strong, but among the most agile characters in the game. This combination makes many complain that he's broken (after all, the whole point of the [[Mighty Glacier]] is that he's powerful, but is slow, so as to give lighter and faster characters a chance). One fan theory states that Rufus is in fact [[Epileptic Trees|filled with Helium]]. The designers even gave Rufus [[Jiggle Physics]]. Yes, his body is basically treated as one giant boob. The designers said that the main reason they made Rufus fast was to [[Subverted Trope|subvert]] the typical "fat guy = [[Mighty Glacier]]" trope so common in video games, not to appease the Fat Acceptance movement.

** Big the Cat also qualifies. He's enormously fat but also [[Stout Strength|superhumanly strong]], and in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' he has no problems navigating the loop-de-loops with his teammates.

* Luther from the ''[[SSX]]'' games. Obese? Definitely. Capable of decatuple backflips under the right circumstances? Oh yeah.

{{quote|''Pandaren have a long tradition of mystic warfare and are exceedingly strong and agile. The traditional pandaren fighting style focuses upon mobility, speed and precision, as well as stunning acrobatic tricks.''|[http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren The WoWWiki]}}

* Executioner Smough from ''[[Dark Souls]]''; this Boss is not only fat, he's weighed down by full plate armor, yet can still make some pretty impressive leaps and [[Ground Pound]] attacks while swinging his massive hammer. He's not as fast and agile as [[Dual Boss|his slimmer partner, Ornstein]], but he's still a force to be reckoned with.

* ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' gives us Goro, a stout little boy who can climb a tree with a few well-placed jumps. Unfortunately, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|this agility doesn't carry over to his gameplay abilities.]]

* Tuba from [[Eternal Sonata]] falls under this banner.

** They can also trigger a party-wide movement speed boost with Stampeding Roar. [[Truth in Television|Bears can run at 30 mph]].

* Peater in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'' is rotund and looks incredibly out of shape, but is quick enough with his tiny sword to cut a stalk of bamboo upwards of 30 times before it falls. This odd combination is [[Justified Trope|justified]] as he was once a top-ranked Sky Knight but has since retired—presumably, Peater was once even better than he is now.

* Smough in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' isn't as fast as [[Lightning Bruiser]] Ornstein, but he's pretty quick for someone so huge and bulky. Of course, Smough might not actually be that bulky under the armor.

** Starmie is faster than both of those two, despite it being an echinoderm (whose movements, in [[Real Life]], are only visible through time lapse).

* Ballser speeds up during the last boss fight in ''[[Something]]''. In his last phase, Ballser gains a pair of wings. He flies into the air and drops down to create earthquakes and stun-lock Mario.

 

* Butch R. Mann of ''[[Chopping Block]]'' varies between this and just plain fat, depending on the joke. In general, he gains a massive boost of strength and speed when his life is in danger.

 

* Bat-foe The Penguin was controversially reimagined as very skilled in martial arts for ''[[The Batman]]''.

** With him it was less the agility and more the [[Wire Fu]]-esque jumps, especially since the character design had very stumpy legs.

** Homer and Flanders have a [[Le Parkour|parkour]] sequence in one episode. Flanders is quite fit, but Homer is, well, Homer. Then there was the time he was training for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQI3TTNR6AM Whacking Day]. He's even been shown to be able to walk with his hands.

** In a high school flashback, Homer was shown to be a talented gymnast until his father distracted him in the middle of a competitive floor routine, cutting his career short.

* All three members of the [[Super Duper Sumos]].

* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]''

* The overweight ninja from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' [[The Movie]].

* Tohru in ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', when he has the Rabbit Talisman.

* Peter Griffin in ''[[Family Guy]]'' is shown to be quite a good runner and jumper, and an ''excellent'' dancer, despite being extremely obese. It's very rare for Peter to actually be exhausted from any physical activity. Brutally injured maybe, but never ''exhausted''.

** Similarly, Cleveland in ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' is very overweight but can still run around as if his weight doesn't hold back while under pressure.

* Stan Smith in ''[[American Dad]]'' has a pot belly but is extremely athletic, which is most likely a requirement for his work in the C.I.A. His gut is only visible when he shirtless.

 

* The main reason fat people can be agile is because they rely on fast-twitch anaerobic muscles. This is why many of the early baseball heroes like Babe Ruth were a bit on the pudgy side. They didn't need endurance, just a quick burst of speed to get to first base.

* Sammo Hung, a legendary action superstar and frequent collaborator with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao in Hong Kong action cinema. He suffered an injury at 16 that left him bedridden for months, and the resulting weight gain has more or less become his calling card. Even nearing the [[Cool Old Guy|age of sixty]] and not getting any thinner, he can still go toe-to-toe with the likes of much younger action stars such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-zE2YFp7lU Donnie] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIg9l4TTIM Yen] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji7oSx6AhM4 Wu Jing.]

* Manx cats, as well as lacking tails, have a generally bulky body shape and faintly ridiculous long hind limbs that earned them the nickname 'cabbit'. However, they are still perfectly capable of the dainty athleticism cats are known for.

* While it's up to you to decide whether or not crocodiles can be perceived as fat, they are easy to mistake for sluggish predators on land. It's really downright terrifying to see how fast they actually run.

* Thais Carla, a hefty Brazilian teenager who's a skilled, graceful dancer.

 

{{reflist}}