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Hollywood Chameleons: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Pascal tangled.jpg|link=Tangled|thumb|400px|Ah! ''There'' you are.]]
In [[Real Life]], Chameleons have only a limited colour changing ability which is primarily dictated by the lizard's mood. It is only rarely used for camoflage, despite the common perception, and even then only in some species. In reality, the colours they change into (shades of green, brown, and grey, with bolder psychedelic patterns usually reserved only for courtship/[[Game Face|frightening rivals and predators]]/etc.), just happen to be the same as their surroundings most of the time.
As a side note, the most well-known animal that actually does this is the octopus (along with cuttlefish), a trait rarely attributed to it in fiction. Meanwhile, the camouflage thing isn't the only behavior which has been falsely attributed to chameleons: in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was popularly believed that these lizards lived by eating nothing except ''air''. The title character of Shakespeare's ''[[Hamlet]]'' references this, claiming to to the same thing himself (during his period of feigning madness).
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', a giant one of these a person can hide in is one of Animal Pain's many summons.
* In ''[[Digimon]],'' Chamelemon can appear to disappear even if they're not standing up against anything.
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* Anole from ''The [[New Mutants]]'' has this ability.
== [[Film]] ==
* Subverted in ''[[Doctor Dolittle]] 2'', with Papito the chameleon, who thinks he has the ability to blend completely into the background, but never can. At the end, Charisse paints a room completely green as a surprise for Papito, and it looks like he finally got his dream.
* [[Played With]] in ''[[Tangled]]'' with Pascal, who mostly changes with his mood, it's just that half the time he happens to be in front of something of the same colour.
** Except the first scene with him, when he tries to blend in with a colourful pattern by appearing as this pattern, as seen in the page image. It doesn't work.
* Randall, a monster based off a chameleon
* Averted with the main character in ''[[Rango]]'', whose colour-changing abilities are more in keeping with a real chameleon's ("It's an art, not a science!"), which doesn't do him any good when trying to hide in the desert. He does a moderately better job at imitating a packet of licorice while hiding in a sweets machine, although he's found out anyway.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''[[Jurassic Park|The Lost World]]'', the Carnotaurus had extremely complex colour-changing abilities, being able to mimic the appearance of its surroundings, including a chain-link fence.
** As an aside, Chrichton was aware of how -to put it gently- unlikely this would be. He explained that he decided to essentially turn Carnotaurus into [[Predator|the Predator]] just to see how [[Steven Speilberg]] would handle the effects in [[The Film of the Book]]. (And then they aren't included in the film, which goes in a completely different direction. Cue sad trombone.)
* Similarly, it appears as though Ceratosaurs have this ability in ''[[Age of Reptiles]]''. It's a tad bit jarring.
* The Eric Carle story ''The Mixed-Up Chameleon'' has a chameleon that behaves as a normal chameleon does, until it visits a zoo one day and suddenly starts wishing to be more like the animals it sees, which ends up turning it into a [[Mix and Match Critter]].
* A storybook by Leo Lionni was also about a chameleon that can change colour this way. He angsts over it because he feels this means he doesn't have an identity of his own. Until he meets a lady chameleon, who explains that "we can be all different colours ''together''". D'aww.
* The protagonist of the picture book ''Chameleon Was a Spy'' by Diane Redfield Massie is capable of matching backgrounds and reproducing complicated patterns; it's a plot point that he's even capable of manipulating his pigment to form ''writing''.
* Exaggerated in ''[[Xanth|A Spell For Chameleon]]''
* Justified (?) in [[Stationery Voyagers]] when the devil himself assumes the form of a chameleon. He has a different colour for every limb, just to flaunt that he can look like whatever he wants to.
* In [[The Sword of Shannara|The Wishsong]] we get one of these... As a giant tiger. (The Cheshire Cat reference is obvious.)
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* In [[Dark Life]], this is {{spoiler|Shade's Dark Gift.}} Interestingly, Dark Gifts are based on the abilities of sea creatures, so this fits under the octopus example.
== [[Tabletop
* The [[Our Dragons Are Different|Mokole]] from ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' have this as a possible character trait. This error feels rather blatant considering all the research that went into reptiles for the book.
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* The chameleons in ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'' use their colours as a means of communication
* In the animated film ''Katy Caterpillar'', the titular character meets up with a group of chameleons who can change to "any colour of the rainbow" and even two colours at once, and look down on anyone who can't change colour.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly": A chameleon living on a racetrack changes colours to exactly match an STP can. It then gets eaten by a snake living in the can, regardless of the perfect camouflage.
* An episode of the 90's remake of [[Secret Squirrel]] had a chameleon as its
* ''[[My Gym Partner's a Monkey]]'', after an advertising executive abused Ms. Chameleon's colour-changing abilities for a TV commercial, she was unable to stop changing colours.
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "The Lizard Whisperer", the boys' pet chameleon Steve can straight-up disappear. Of course, that inspires Ferb to give his [[The Quiet One|longest speech ever]], so we're not complaining.
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* Taken [[Up to Eleven|to a new level]] with [[Tuff Puppy|The Chameleon]]. His camouflage consist in actually transforming in what he wants.
** Can be seen as an aversion too, since he can only do it with his special suit. Without it, he is just a normal chameleon.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Cephalopods in [[Real Life]] are more like Hollywood Chameleons than real life chameleons
** The cuttlefish, in particular, can blend in with a ''checkerboard'', or put on a hypnotic display of undulating lights.
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