Big Shadow, Little Creature: Difference between revisions

Sometimes a diminutive hero will [[Invoked Trope|invoke]] this trope to try to impress or intimidate someone. Whether or not it succeeds depends largely on the intelligence of the person being intimidated -- andintimidated—and on the [[Rule of Funny]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Mushu, the [[Non -Human Sidekick|dragon sidekick]] in Disney's ''[[Mulan]]'' does this: he casts a nice dragon-shaped shadow, until she realizes he's only a foot high. This scene is repeated in the game, ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' II, which Sora and the gang initially mistake for a heartless attacking Mulan.

* ''[[Dumbo (Disney)|Dumbo]]'': As Timothy Mouse approaches the ringleader's bed to whisper in his ear, he casts a huge shadow that is a direct homage to ''[[Nosferatu (Film)|Nosferatu]]''.

* Mama Odie's introduction in ''[[The Princess and Thethe Frog]]''. The [[DVD Commentary]] references ''[[What's Opera, Doc (Film)?|What's Opera Doc]]'' as an inspiration.

* In ''[[The EmperorsEmperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]'', when Yzma drinks one of the last potions, she briefly casts a huge shadow, and is then revealed to have transformed into {{spoiler|a cute kitten}}.

* The Galloping Goose (an old truck designed to run on rails) briefly seen at the beginning of ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]'', mimicking a freight train barreling through a tunnel to scare Lightning [[Mc Queen]]McQueen out of his old route.

* The introduction of movie mogul L.B. Mammoth in ''[[Cats Don't Dance (Animation)|Cats Don't Dance]]''.

* Oddly, the movie adaptation of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King]]'' turns Sam Gamgee sending Orcs running before him because they sense the power of the One Ring which holds into this, played entirely straight in the middle of a climactic scene despite still looking very funny.

* In the film version of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', the villain makes a giant shadow puppet with his hands on the city's skyscraper, tricking people into thinking that a [[Attack of the Fifty 50-Foot Whatever|giant monster]] is attacking.

* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', {{spoiler|before we find out that}} Dean {{spoiler|has been infected with a condition causing overactive panic attacks that might eventually kill him, the [[How We Got Here]] [[Cold Open]] starts as he}} runs from [[Continuity Nod|a ferocious canine]] with a large shadow, warning that it's a killer. It turns out it's a puppy.

* A ''[[Barney and Friends (TV)|Barney and Friends]]'' video where Barney and several children tour a farm had a scene where BJ tell everyone that's he's been chased by a large bull who's "black as night", has "eyes red as fire", and "roars like a lion." Cue a black lamb running out of the barn BJ's in and as a result everyone starts singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep."

* An early ''[[Dragon (Magazinemagazine)|Dragon]]'' article detailed a fan-designed shadowy monster called an "umbra", which could only be slain with the shadows of weapons rather than the weapons themselves. Shortly after it was published, the magazine's letters column included a reader's inquiry about what to do about a sneaky player who'd invoked this trope against it, having his PC hold a sword very close to his party's torch and create a gigantic sword-shadow.

* One of the secrets in ''[[Serious Sam (Video Game)|Serious Sam]] - The Second Encounter'' has a demon shadow on the spiral staircase room in The Pit. The caster of the shadow is a very tiny variation of one of the enemies.

* ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]'' sometimes plays this straight, but an interesting variation was in the classic episode "Mine Your Own Business," when as a plot to scare the old Miner '49er into a trap, the Miner runs when he sees and hears what appears to be a train approaching, but is revealed to actually be Shaggy making train noises while Scooby ran down the tracks with a flashlight and speaker Shaggy's train imitations were coming out of.

** The ''[[Beetlejuice (Animationanimation)|Beetlejuice]]'' cartoon also had a gangster named Mr. Big who initially appeared as an ominous looming shadow before turning out to be a midget.

* One of the [[Shadow Discretion Shot]] examples was the first appearance of Momo in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. Huge shadow. Little bat-eared flying lemur.

* Both played straight and terrifyingly subverted in the 1990s version of ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]]'' when the [[Killer Robot|Ultimate Sentinel]] Nimrod - ''[[Determinator|a robot that would give a Terminator nightmares]]'' - shows up. We see the massive shadow on the wall as [[Future Badass|Bishop]] yells '' [[Oh Crap|"Oh, no! It's Nimrod!"]] '' -- when—when a [[Real Men Wear Pink|man-sized, pink robot]] appears, and [[Hope Spot|everyone breathes a slight sigh of relief...]] which disappears completely as Nimrod [[Curb Stomp Battle|then promptly proceeds to beat everyone present like a red-haired stepchild.]]

* In ''[[Pippi Longstocking (Literature)|Pippi Longstocking]]'', two crooks see Mr. Nilsson's oversized shadow at Pippi's window, and mistake it for that of a large, formidable man. Mr. Nilsson is, of course, a small monkey. Unlike most examples above, the audience is in on the joke.

* Jerry's magician uncle at the very beginning of [[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|"The Haunted Mouse."]]

* The first appearance of [[Overlord, Jr.|Lloyd Garmadon]] in ''[[Ninjago]]''.

[[Category:Zany Cartoon Tropes]]

[[Category:Big Shadow, Little Creature]]

[[Category:TropeLighting Tropes]]