Living Statue: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

For whatever reason, the Abraham Lincoln statue in the Lincoln Memorial being brought to life also seems to be a popular use of this trope.

 

'''Spoilers may be ahead.'''

{{examples}}

 

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

* The statue of the Godor, the Guardian God of Boazan in ''[[Voltes V]]'', turned out to be a powerful ancient [[Humongous Mecha]] that could be piloted by a soul who's brave enough to jump into its blue flame.

* ''[[School Rumble]]''. Hanai awoke a statue of kuta panda in chapter 166.

* An episode of ''[[Keroro Gunso]]'' has the Keroro gang and the Hinata siblings investigating a mysterious statue said to get up and walk around at night around the school. It actually turns out to be {{spoiler|an old invasion tool Keroro used to observe the school, and simply forgot about}}.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* A one off issue of ''[[Iron Man]]'' had a villain called Rasputin who worshiped Tiva or some dark god or whatnot, and had him bring a statue called FANGOR to life. It got frozen then shattered. Cause it's Iron Man.

* In the ''Godzilla Color Special'' from [[Dark Horse Comics]], [[Godzilla]] faces an ancient demon known as Gekido-jin, whose spirit was contained within a statue on a remote island in the Pacific. The two clash violently until they fall off a cliff into the sea. Godzilla destroys Gekido-jin with his atomic ray, and with Godzilla off the island, Gekido-jin's spirit returns to its stone prison.

 

== [[Film]]s ==

** Zuul.

** Followed by the Statue of Liberty being animated in order to break Vigo's slime barrier around the museum in the sequel.

* The plot of the film ''Forbidden Kingdom'' involves freeing The Monkey King, who was turned to stone nearly 500 years ago.

* Another Harryhausen example: [[Evil Sorcerer]] Koura animates a statue of "Kali" (though it looks more like Shiva with breasts) to impress some natives and do battle with the heroes in ''[[The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]]''. In a twist the statue turns out to contain a [[MacGuffin]] once broken.

* The plot of ''[[Conan the Destroyer]]'' was to resurrect one of these. It didn't go so well.

** In Book 3, ''The Caverns of Kalte'', Lone Wolf may encounter a strange crystal statue that may or may not come to life depending on the player's choices. Unless you have a certain special item by that point {{spoiler|(either the Sommerswerd or the Kalte Firesphere)}}, attacking it is actually a ''very bad idea''. Doing so {{spoiler|releases the powerful Ice Demon that was [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned inside it]]. It will [[The Farmer and the Viper|repay]] Lone Wolf by attempting a [[Grand Theft Me]], which [[The Many Deaths of You|spells instant death for him]]. This attempt may very well succeed if the player did not find one of the aforementioned Special Items}}.

** And in Book 20, you have the demonic beast "Ghazoul". Although it is not specifically stated that the statue of it encountered earlier was in fact the monster waiting in ambush, it is strongly implied. The power of turning itself into stone is certainly a good way to trick even a Kai Grandmaster's mystical senses.

 

== [[Jokes]] ==

* There's an old joke involving this trope. There's a pair of statues in a park who for decades have been frozen in a position of looking longingly toward each other. One day, an angel descends and grants them life for an hour. They rush off into the bushes and there's much rustling and giggling. When they emerge after a half hour, the angel reminds them they have more time whereupon the male statue turns to the female one and says, "OK, this time '''I''' hold down the pigeon and '''you''' shit on it."

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Hastur of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] often did this.

* ''The Spirit Ring'' by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]: A bronze statue is temporarily inhabited by the spirit of the dead man who was its model, in order to lead an army to save the city while molten-hot!

** That is nothing compared to the defenses of Hogwarts, which include Minerva McGonagall activating every statue in the castle to defend the castle.

* Near the end of ''[[Young Wizards|So You Want To Be A Wizard]]'', Kit animates basically every statue in New York City to take on the Lone Power. They only slow him down, but it's a impressive show.

* In the last ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' book, ''The Last Olympian'', a good example is {{spoiler|almost every statue in Manhatten, who are actually [[Crazy Awesome|mechanical automatons that can be activated to defend the island]]}}.

 

* In the ''Who'' Classic episode "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18/E06 The Keeper of Traken|The Keeper of Traken]]" a statue in a garden turns out to be the Master's TARDIS, with the Master stuck inside.

* Pseudo-Egyptian statues had some fun creeping out Ernie and Bert in one ''[[Sesame Street]]'' sketch.

* In ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]],'' a statue at a villain's Hong Kong digs is shown prominently early on in [[The Movie]]. You just ''know'' it's going to come to life and go stompy. {{spoiler|It does. Actually, it hides a [[Humongous Mecha]] belonging to said villain.}}

 

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* In the musical ''[[One Touch of Venus]]'', a 3000-year-old statue of the goddess Venus came to life because some barber decided to slip his fiancée's engagement ring onto its finger.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'':

** A modified version exists in ''Twilight Princess'', in which you obtain an item that lets you bring certain statues to life and control them.

** And don't forget the command melody in ''Wind Waker'', which would let you control statues as well.

** Claydol, according to the ''Diamond/Pearl/Platinum'' Pokédex, is "An ancient clay figurine that came to life as a Pokémon from exposure to a mysterious ray of light." By extension, this also applies to its unevolved form, Baltoy. Also Nosepass, a Maoi Statue.

** ''Black'' and ''White'' were kind enough to give a better example in Golett and Golurk, genderless man-made Pok­émon of the Ground/Ghost type that look like animated guardian statues. They were built to protect the ancient civilizations of both people and Pokemon, and can even learn to Fly.

* In ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', one of the playable characters is a statue (or more precisely, a voodoo doll) that comes into life if the player shows its owner an item acquired from the owner's counterpart in a parallel reality.

* ''[[Grandia II]]'' had statues of Gargoyles at the start that broke open and turned into moving stone Gargoyles. In fact, it has a couple of times when statues or things in the walls come to life and attempt to kill you. Then it's subverted by having a suspiciously large statue in one of the towns that the characters comment on; when all hell breaks loose nothing happens apart from the main character shouting at it.

** This happened to Odin and The Queen. Odin comes back to fight; The Queen just gives you tears from a stone.

** More noticeably, the Warring Triad (often referred to as "The Statues") which caused worldwide devastation in the War of the Magi 1000 years ago. They sealed themselves in stone voluntarily and set themselves in balance; breaking the balance breaks the world again. At the end of the game, the deities of the Triad are enslaved and robbed of their power by Kefka, allowing the party to finally destroy them.

* The second boss in ''[[La-Mulana]]'' is a reanimated statue of an extinct race of giants.

* Both the good and the evil variety appears in ''[[Legend of Kay]]''. In keeping with the game's vaguely Chinese feel, the dungeon contains [[Mooks|clay warriors]] that animate and attack when Kay gets too close. In the city above, Kay must reanimate two [[Taken for Granite|ancestor statues]] to solve a puzzle.

* ''[[Nethack]]'' has statues which come to life as a regular trap in the lower levels. In fact, any statue that depicts a fleshy monster can be brought to life with the spell "stone to flesh".

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' gargoyles occasionally appear as still statues. There are also a series of statues lining a path in Halls of Lightning, some of which come to life when you pass them.

** Shale from another DLC, ''The Stone Prisoner'', from is technically a [[Golem]], but when introduced she's spent the past thirty years as an immobile statue in a town. Incidentally, she ''really'' hates pigeons.

* In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' during the final battle {{spoiler|Meredith brings the statues in the Gallows to life to fight you.}}

* ''[[Dark Souls]]'' has several. Most dangerous are the Titanite Demons, which the game uses as [[Mini Boss|MiniBosses]]. They are extremely strong and surprisingly quick with lots of jump attacks despite only having one leg. There are also the Stone Guardians, likely protectors of the lost nation of Oolacile. Then there are the demon statues which are the most insignificant of the bunch.

 

* In ''[[A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe]]'' Chairman Jack, a [[Cyborg]] sparrow, runs out of power and ends up resting upon a city's marketplace as a statue of himself for hundreds of years, having become a legendary mythical character in the meantime. {{spoiler|When the protagonist shows up, he figures it out quickly and restores Jack to life by connecting him to an outlet. }}

 

== Web Original ==

** SCP-014 is an inversion, a man who essentially willed himself into becoming a statue.

** SCP-847 is a normally inanimate female mannequin, which will spring to life in order to [[Monster Misogyny|murder any woman that gets too close to it]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* This is the setup for Disney's ''[[Gargoyles]]''.

* In the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' miniseries "The Revenge of Cobra", one of the pieces of the Weather Dominator ends up in some ancient ruins. Said ruins have a giant statue that, of course, comes to life when the heroes (and villains) go in to retrieve the [[Plot Coupon]].

* In the ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' episode "Ambulatory Abe", Brain rigs the Lincoln Memorial statute with a hidden microphone and speakers, plus movable wheels, to trick the public into believing Abe Lincoln had come back to life (and was ready to resume being president again).

* An episode of ''[[South Park]]'' features the episode's villain, magician David Blaine, using superpowers to bring the Lincoln Memorial statue to life. The heroes' solution: build a giant John Wilkes Booth statute to stop the Lincoln statute.

* The Statue of Liberty winks at the end of ''[[An American Tail]]''...so it might count.

* The [[William Shakespeare]] statue from ''[[Gnomeo and Juliet]]''.

* Animating metal statues was how Metlar from ''[[The Inhumanoids]]'' acquired his [[Mook]] armies.

* The statue of Grouchy Smurf that comes to life in ''[[The Smurfs (animation)|The Smurfs]]'' episode "The Monumental Grouch".

 

== [[Truth in Television]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Has a Mind of Its Own]]

[[Category:The Ground Beneath Our Feet]]