Painting the Frost on Windows: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Ever wonder why the leaves turn color in fall, or why frost appears on the window during the wintertime?

 

Can be a subset of [[The Fair Folk]], [[Odd Job Gods]], [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]] or [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]. See also [[Just-So Story]].

 

** Turmeric in particular seems to fit the artist type, not being satisfied with anything less than the perfect cloud.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In Walt Disney's ''[[Fantasia]]'' during ''The Nutcracker Suite'' segment, fairies are shown using their magic wands to change the colour of leaves, start the first frost, and so on.

* In ''Hans Christian Anderson's [[Thumbelina]]'', the fairies are responsible for changing the seasons, and so, while searching for the eponymous heroine, Prince Cornelius asks his parents to delay the winter frost for as long as they can.

 

== Jokes ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

*** Some of them, like the Wintersmith or [[The Grim Reaper|Death]], aren't necessarily obligated to do every last little detail personally; as anthropomorphic personifications they just have to exist, and do the trade equivalent of checking to make sure the factory production is up to snuff. They ''can'', if they have a particular aim in mind (see again the Wintersmith), but by and large the books compare it to a monarchy; the king exists and makes the rules, but he doesn't personally show up at your home telling you what kind of tea to have on your break.

* ''The Stranger'' by Chris van Allsburg: the eponymous stranger is never explicitly identified, but he's essentially Jack Frost or the personification of autumn.

* ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' has the orchestra that plays all the colors in the world.

* In the Swedish picture book ''Olles skidfärd'' (app. "Olle's skiing trip") the boy Olle gets to meet King Bore, the ruler of winter. The King has an antagonistic relationship with Old Woman Thaw (an old hag with a bucket and broom), not because he minds her mistress Princess Spring taking over each year, but because Old Woman Thaw can't keep the time if her life depended on it, and will invariably be either too early or too late.

* Shel Silverstein wrote a short poem about the man who paints the colours and markings onto the animals and notes, "Jack Frost, he's just a part-time workin' fellah/Touching up the leaves and trees and things/He's famouser than me/But I'm happier than he/For I paint the things that runs, and flies, and sings!"

* Quite literally in ''[[Shades of Grey]]''; most people can only see one color naturally, and thus synthetic color and gardens painted with it are a status symbol.

* ''Der Sandmann'' [[Subverted Trope|subverts]] this: the sandman gouges out the eyes of children who stay up late {{spoiler|and provides their eyes to the builders of automatons, killing the ones who won't give up the creation}}.

* In ''Santa and the King of Starless Nights'', Jack Frost is a good friend of Santa and the Tooth Fairy, and personally applies all the winter frost.

* In ''[[Little House On the Prairie|Little House in the Big Woods]]'' Laura's father tells her that Jack Frost comes to put frost on the windows. This results in Laura attempting to 'catch' Jack Frost in the act.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

 

== [[Music]] ==

* There is also (again in Swedish) ''Vem tar hand om hösten?'' which reveals who takes care of the various seasons when it ''isn't" autumn, winter etc., in case you ever wondered. {{spoiler|The Hare watches over Autumn, Tomten (the Swedish Santa Claus) over Winter, the Lark over Spring, and the Shepherd herds Summer with his sheep.}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Both ''[[Fantasia]]'' and ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'' contain examples of this, the former having little fairies that apply dew to flowers, and the latter with a Mother Nature type spirit who causes plant life to spring forth following a devastating volcanic eruption.

* The stop motion movie ''[[The Year Without a Santa Claus]]'' features Heat Miser (who is responsible for Summer's heat) and Snow Miser (who is responsible for winter). When they get into an argument, the heroes go find their mother and ask her to step in.

* The ''[[Disney Fairies|Tinkerbell]]'' movies posit that it's the Neverland fairies that bring nature to the Main Land in much this way: painting leaves in the Fall, carrying droplets of water to spiderwebs, even painting spots on ladybugs.

* In the 2003 special ''Spring for [[Strawberry Shortcake]]'', [[Spring Is Late]], so Strawberry and her friends go off to investigate and not only meet Old Man Winter, but the young girl Spring, who thinks winter is more fun than spring, and thus hasn't bothered to make the snow melt. Eventually she comes around, and even gets a song about how she works her magic: "I Put the Zing in Spring."

* In the "Mr. Plow" episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' Grandpa played "Old Man Winter" in the [[Show Within a Show|Commercial Within A Show]] for Homer's plowing business.

* ''[[Rainbow Brite]]''

** Pegasi also have to create huge tornadoes to get water from ground reservoirs to Cloudsdale, in order to make storm clouds for the rainy season.

* The original ''[[My Little Pony and Friends]]'' had the Dell Dwellers from "Mish Mash Melee", who make the rocks, trees, and other features of the forests around Dream Valley in an underground factory.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Modellers that work on CGI movies can attest to the amount of work it takes to make an environment. But instead of fairies, we have codes and programs to make things like snow and sand.

----

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes of Nature]]