Idiosyncratic Wipes: Difference between revisions

'''Lisa:''' [[Alan Smithee|I'm taking my name off this thing.]]|'''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''', episode 11x14: ''Alone Again, Natura-Diddily''}}

 

 

Idiosyncratic Wipes can be employed for artistic or [[Rule of Funny|humorous]] effect, or just because [[Rule of Cool|they look cool]]. They can be used for only a few scenes, or they can be used for ''every'' scene transition, in which case they serve as a show's trademark.

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The [[DiC Entertainment]]-dubbed version of the first two seasons of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' added these through CGI (with sounds to boot!), which just made the [[Off-Model|crappy]] first-season cel animation that much more noticeable in contrast.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has a very recognizable style in its use of screen wipes (never in the same direction twice).

** Parodied ''and'' lampshaded in ''[[Spaceballs]]'', where, when the screen does a dissolve from night to day on the desert planet, Barf comments, "Nice dissolve."

** The insane amount of different wipes in III is mindboggling, though. It looks like a cat has walked on the editor's wipe buttons.

** ''Star Wars''' use of them is often reminiscent of - and probably intended in homage to - 1930s film serials, a general source of inspiration to [[George Lucas]].

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]''. The bat symbol (with a spinning psychedelic background sometimes) would flash on screen with a snippet of the theme music. Whenever idiosyncratic wipes are played for laughs, this is the one most often parodied.

** ''[[Late Night With Jimmy Fallon]]'' uses a similar graphic during "Name That Guy". According to Jimmy, old wipes from the some were all they could afford.

* Terry Gilliam's animated sequences on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.

* ''[[Angel]]'' (which used a [[Blipvert]] transition)

** And wasn't stolen from ''[[Forever Knight]]'', [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|no, sir]].

* ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' used goofy CG shots of planets as bumpers between scenes.

** ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' does the same thing with atoms.

** ''[[Our House]]'' and ''[[The Book Of Daniel]]'' later did something similar.

* ''[[Kenan and Kel]]'' features these, often in ways that had some connection to the situation at hand.

* ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'', ''[[Power Rangers SPD|SPD]]'', ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive|Operation Overdrive]]'', and ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury|Jungle Fury]]'' have featured these involving helmets, morphers, police cars (in SPD) and sliding bits of metal (in Overdrive).

* ''[[Pushing Daisies]] really'' goes to town with this.

* ''[[Millennium (TV series)|Millennium]]'' would start scenes with a slow fade-in from white, usually accompanied by a heavy, ominous [[Drum Roll, Please|drum]].

* ''[[NCIS]]'' does this by going to commercial breaks with the "phunt" of a camera flashbulb, the scene turning monochrome, and a slow zoom of a still shot of the ending of the next scene. The early seasons had the actors moving in this shot; later seasons (around season 4 or so) featured a freeze-frame of the scene.

** The spin-off ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' has something similar, except it uses a rapid-fire stream of photos.

* Later episodes of ''[[Get Smart]]'' had the picture building up from jigsaw pieces at the start of an act and breaking down again at the end.

* ''[[Wonderfalls]]'' used the rotation of a View-Master® reel

* ''[[The Red Green Show]]'' often used these, generally explained as Harold being overelaborate; some wipe devices would show up without wiping the screen. Two relatively consistent wipes were a lantern moving in with its light beam showing the last host sequence, and a can tossed in that explodes to introduce 'Adventures with Bill'.

* [[No More Heroes]] freezes the screen, replacing each of the different levels of shade with a pattern. When the next bit has loaded, a load of barely theme-appropriate junk is thrown on to the screen and peeled off again. Thankfully this is only done sparingly.

* Most ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series games from ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' onwards will have a Mario/Luigi-shaped iris when you beat a level and a Bowser-shaped iris when you lose a life. Most levels begin with a round iris, and in both ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'', if you lose all your lives the iris out will be shaped like the words "[[Game Over]]" instead of Bowser's head.

* The ''[[Streets of Rage]] Remake'', of all games, allows the player to swap the level transition fade-ins/outs with one of these.

 

** The scene transitions in the 1976 ''All New Super Friends Hour'' used a swirling rainbow with an "SF" shield coming toward you in the center. The 1977 ''Challenge of the Super Friends'' instead used a shot of deep space with (apparently) three photon torpedoes coming toward you. This latter transition shot became so popular with the show's creative team that later reruns of the 1976 series ''replaced'' the swirling-rainbow-SF-shield transition with the photon torpedo transition.

* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man|The Spectacular Spider Man]]'' sometimes uses things like Spider-Man's [[Chest Insignia]] and herds of crawling spiders to move between scenes. During the black suit [[Story Arc]], they used the symbiote crawling across the screen.

** This only happened in the "Undercover" seasons. On the other hand, the show in general has a number of idiosyncratic wipes.

* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Homer shows a strong preference for star wipes when video editing. Then, a star wipe is used in the episode itself.

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' uses a "claw wipe" - criss-crossing parallel tears, as though from a gargoyle's claws, through the previous scene into the new one.

* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory|Dexters Laboratory]]'', until the 2001 reboot, used a transition similar to the 1970's Batman, but with a yellow "D" on a white-and-purple spiraly background. The Justice Friends [[Show Within a Show]] also used a "JF". The sound that played during the transitions was exactly the same as the 1980's Superfriends wipe.

* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' (the episode with [[Adam West]])

* ''[[Kappa Mikey]]''. Dancing sushi, anyone?

* ''[[Chowder]]'' has various food items swish across the screen in between scenes. Sometimes, what's used is actually tied into the plot of the episode -- "Grubble Gum", for example, obviously has bubble gum pieces being manipulated in several ways, and "Shnitzel Makes a Deposit" features different types of currency being stacked and shuffled about.

* ''[[Three Delivery]]'' has quickflash cut images of each of the main three characters doing martial arts poses.

* The wipes on ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' are also related to the plot.

** Something similar was used on ''[[Easy Rider]]'', but as to which used it first...

*** The good captain started in 1967; ''Easy Rider'' came out in 1969.

** ''[[Denver, the Last Dinosaur]]'', which was made by the same animation company, also did something similar.

* ''[[Joe 90]]'' would end each scene by shrinking the picture into a small box, and begin the next scene with the process in reverse.

** Sometimes it would instead use Freakazoid's symbol. And sometimes Freakazoid's head would hit the screen, causing a sound and him to be (sometimes) frowning when he zoomed back out.

** Another one used the same format, but with paw prints.

** One was silhouetted puppies running across the screen, and sometimes it was Cruella's car.

* To complement the show's setting, ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' usually uses bubbles (and an appropriate sound effect) for its wipes, other than the occasional brief cut-away, or whenever else quick transitions are needed.

* ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]] Colon Movie Film For Theaters'' features star wipes in a flashback sequence. An echoing voice saying "Star" is even heard when the wipe occurs.

* A [[Running Gag]] on ''[[Spliced]]'' is to have wipes that say funny things on them, most often [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|addressing the audience]].

* Like ''[[Bravestarr]]'', ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'' was a [[Space Western]] cartoon whose wipes sometimes featured the heroes' badges.

 

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[[Category:Camera Tricks]]

[[Category:Creator Speak]]