Retraux: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico|Gekiganger]] [[Gekiganger 3|3]]''. (More so in the actual show than in the [[OVA]].)

** Interestingly enough, according to [[Word of God]], despite its 1970s-esque appearance, it was actually made in the 2090s, which means it's an example of this even ''in-story''.

* Many of the ''[[Gundam]]'' works set in the Universal Century deliberately try to maintain a consistent art style reminiscent of the 1980s, right down to the [[Eighties Hair]]. If you look closely, you'd notice that the characters of ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'' wouldn't look out of place in ''[[Zeta Gundam]].''

* When Yuya's classmate finally gets [[A Day in the Limelight]] in ''[[Risky☆Safety]]'', the director chose to make the episode as a [[Silent Movie]] complete with inter-titles instead of hiring a voice actress for the character.

 

* It's not unknown for a flashback or 'never before told' story to be [[Retraux Flashback|drawn in the style of a certain time period]]. An excellent example is ''The Age of the Sentry'' miniseries, whose titular hero was supposedly Marvel's [[Superman]] [[Expy]] in the 1960s, but was forgotten by all of humanity until his "return" in 2000. The flashback scenes are drawn to resemble 1960s [[Jack Kirby]] and 1980s [[Frank Miller]]. The front cover even has a fake "Approved by the [[Comics Code|Cosmic Code]] Authority" logo.

* [[Iron Man]] and [[Doctor Doom]] once travelled back in time to a New York City circa the Silver Age (thirty years earlier in real time, perhaps ten or twelve in terms of Earth-616 chronology). The art was drawn and colored to resemble the comic book art of that period.

* One sequence in ''[[The Incredible Hercules]]'' features Herc hallucinating that he's reliving previous adventures due to being poisoned. When action is presented from his view, the comic suddenly appears to shift to a seventies artstyle and coloring. They even pan from Black Widow's modern look to her look from when she was on the Defenders with Hercules to emphasize it.

 

* The newsreel at the beginning of ''[[The Incredibles]]''.

** Also, one of the DVD bonus features is an "authorized adaptation" of a Mr. Incredible adventure, in the form of a cheaply-animated and simple-minded old kiddie cartoon with considerable "aged recording" noise. (The cartoon can also be viewed with Mr. Incredible and Frozone chiming in their comments, [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K-style]].)

* The 1930s style song "The Spirit of Adventure" over ''[[Up (animation)|Up]]'''s closing credits is in lo-fi monophonic sound.

* The ending credits of ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The Tigger Movie]]'' run against sepia still images of scenes from the film redrawn in the style of E.H. Shepherd's line drawings from the books. Tigger in particular looks ''completely'' different from the Disney version.

* 2011 French romantic comedy ''[[The Artist]]'' is 1) shot in the old 1.33:1 [[Aspect Ratio]], 2) [[Deliberately Monochrome]], and 3) a [[Silence Is Golden|silent film]].

* ''[[Hobo with a Shotgun]]'' is made to look like it was made in the early '80s, complete with Technicolor, music, and film grain.

* ''[[Grindhouse]]'', a '70s [[B-Movie]] pastiche which was presented in its theatrical cut as a double feature with scratched-up film, missing reels, [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie|trailers for ficitional films]] and an ad for a Tex-Mex restaurant adjoining the theatre.

** It gets [[Mind Screw|really weird]] when you notice that while it goes as far as to have fake ads and trailers that look like something right out of the seventies, the actual ''settings'' of the films are modern.

* The 2005 ''[[H.P. Lovecraft|The Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' movie. (Even [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuY2wXTd0o the trailer]!)

** The makers of it are currently doing Lovecraft's ''The Whisperer in Darkness'' in style of a 1930s movie.

* [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[Zelig]]'' is a Mockumentary about a "chameleon man" of the 1920s and '30s. The supposedly archived footage of the era was actually filmed using cameras and such of the period. This, in addition to ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' style editing (though this movie predated that one by over ten years), created a nearly impenetrable illusion.

* ''[[Far From Heaven]]'', set in [[The Fifties]], imitates the look of movies produced back then, specifically Douglas Sirk's movies - the plot is almost lifted from ''All That Heaven Allows''. The score is by Elmer Bernstein, who composed music for several famous films in the '50s.

* [[Orson Welles]] used this trope in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' with the newsreel in the beginning, going so far as to use ''sandpaper'' on the original print to make it look old and worn.

* ''[[Mirage]]'' is a 1965 movie filmed in black and white and in the style of classic noir.

* For ''[[Back to the Future: The Ride]]'', the short "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Gs-tEqDqQ#t=6m28s Doc on the March]" was done in the style of an old newsreel, with Doc inserted into various footage ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' style. See him get an autograph from Thomas Edison! Watch him get a photo of [[The Beatles]]! Witness him resisting the urge to bump off Richard Nixon!

* The Bayeux Tapestry-esque opening of ''[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]'', complete with the film's Nazi invasion depicted in Medieval tapestry style

* Just about anything directed by Wes Anderson (''[[Rushmore]]'', ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'', ''[[The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou]]'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spCknVcaSHg his American Express commercial]) is full of it. Actually, Wes Anderson himself is pretty Retraux. ([[Outdated Outfit|Have you seen how he dresses?]])

* The "Maroon Cartoon" opening of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' is made to look like an animated theatrical short from the 1940s, when the movie is set.

* Several parts in ''[[CSA: Confederate States of America]]'' are made to look like older films, including an old, silent movie.

* The Mel Gibson crime movie ''Payback'' is very stylized film-noir; colors are washed out, characters wear vintage clothing, even the cellular car phones are rotary dial.

* ''[[Black Dynamite]]'' is a 2000s [[Blaxploitation Parody]] done entirely in the style of 1970s [[Blaxploitation]] films, right down the soundtrack, flimsy camerawork and aged look. So much so that even [[Roger Ebert]] mistook it for a 70s film.

* ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg Kung Fury]'' is a 2015 action comedy that manages to both be an homage to [[The Eighties]] and pass off ''as'' a film from [[The Eighties]].

 

* ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' is a fantasy tale written as a Jane Austen pastiche, right down to using obsolete spellings of common words.

* ''[[The Onion]] Presents: Our Dumb Century''.

* ''[[Watchmen (film)|Watchmen]]'' adapted the sections of the comic's selections of [[Fictional Document|an in-series book]] ''Under The Hood'' in the form of a archived TV News report thereof.

 

 

* ''[[Cold Case]]'' flashbacks are filmed to evoke the period they are from (e.g. black and white for times that predate colour film).

** In addition, the flashback sequences often feature popular music that likely ''would'' have been featured in a TV show episode from whatever year the flashback would have taken place in.

* ''Jimmy McDonald's Canada'' was a parody of current events shows from [[The Sixties]], filmed in black and white, and occasionally stopping to advertise cigarettes. Richard Waugh, who played Jimmy, somehow managed to convey "[[The Sixties]]" in his very speaking voice.

* ''[[Mad Men]]'' on AMC is supposed to be set in the early 60s, and is filmed with a dark, slightly fuzzy/grainy look to it. This is in keeping with the show's obssessive focus on setting—the furniture is all vintage, along with the clothing. Even to the point of making the actors wear authentic undergarments that are never seen.

* The DVD menus of ''[[The IT Crowd]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoOkoP5GGQI The first series] is a pastiche of vintage computers, complete with tape loader and extremely elaborate (for a DVD '''menu''') parodies of ''[[Head Over Heels]]'' and ''[[Jet Set Willy]]''. And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAY52wyb6tM the second series] does to 16-bit games what the first did to 8-bit.

* ''[[Yo Gabba Gabba!]]'' has an 8-bit sounding opening, prominently features chiptunes during scene changes, and occasionally features episode filler scenes that pays homage to 80s video games, complete with blocky graphics.

* ''[[Hustle]]''. An exposition scene explaining how an old-style con worked was done in the form of a black & white silent movie.

 

* [[Pop Revival]]

* The [[Foo Fighters]]' 2011 album "Wasting Light" was recorded entirely on analog tape in Dave Grohl's garage.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loYzKVTTujs "Technicolor Dreams"] by [[The Bee Gees]]. Sounds like the 1930s, released in 2001.

 

* Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE "100 Days, 100 Nights"] was literally filmed using equipment that's straight from the 1960s. (The director bought two vintage TV cameras on eBay in working condition—for about $100 total.)

** The packaging for the album from which the song comes (same title) is also deliberately retro. If you have the vinyl pressing, you might well pass it off to your friends as a soul album from 1967 or so.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0pM5dm--yQ&ob=av2n "Tell Her About It"] by Billy Joel features Joel singing in a [[Fake Band]] ("B. J. and the Affordables") in the style of [[The Beatles]] and other sixties groups on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''.

* The video to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-greVjUEdc Enuff Z'Nuff's "Fly High Michelle"], released in 1989, has the feel of the 1960's psychedelia, complete with rainbows, balloons, and doves.

 

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* The short-lived Wrestling Society X was home to Matt Classic, a wrestler who had been in a coma since the '50s, and wrestled in the same style that won him the World Heavyweight Championship in 1952—including such devastating moves as the head vice, the abdominal stretch, and the airplane spin. Matt Classic was portrayed by Colt Cabana, who was in his mid-20s at the time.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* There's ''[http://www.forgottenfutures.com/ Forgotten Futures]'', shareware "Scientific Romance Role Playing Game" by Marcus L. Rowland—as the name says, it's designed for this sort of adventures.

 

* Christopher Fry's 1948 play ''The Lady's Not for Burning'' is written in the style of a Shakespearean comedy.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Konami made an entire series out of ''ReBirth'' titles, with the other games being ''[[Contra]] ReBirth'' and ''[[Castlevania]]: The Adventure ReBirth''.

* Almost everything in the ''[[Fallout]]'' games is designed to basically be what [[The Fifties]] thought the future would be like. ''Fallout 2'' strayed from it somewhat, but ''Fallout 3'' brought it back and stuck to it like glue.

*** Ironically, that actually looks similar to ''[[Wasteland (video game)|Wasteland]]'', the original game which inspired ''Fallout''.

* The 1st part of the opening sequence for ''[[Power Stone]]'' is made to look and sound like a faded film reel from the early 20th century is being run. This is appropriate since the game scenery and characters are throwbacks to that era.

* ''[[Soulcaster]]'' and ''Soulcaster II'' have 8-bit-style graphics.

* The [[Nintendo 3DS]] game ''[[Mutant Mudds]]'' is done using NES-style graphics and sound. Taken even further, there are hidden levels that mimic the monochrome color schemes of the [[Game Boy]] ("G-Land") and [[Virtual Boy]] ("V-Land").

* ''[[Free Civ]]'', a free indie remake of the ''[[Civilization]]'' games is done in the image of the early entries of Sid Meier's series.

* ''[[Bioshock]]'' has a number of touches like tutorial videos and commercials meant to emulate the style of 1940s-50s advertising.

** Pretty much any of the Videlectrix games on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' (with the exception of ''Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People''): ''Peasant's Quest'' is at least as good, if not actually better, as many of its "contemporaries" which it mimics, such as ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]''.

*** To add to the retrauxness, the employees of Videlectrix are the Brothers Chaps dressed up in polo shirts and fake mustaches. And their games are programmed on an Apple IIe.

* In episode 35 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', a [[Clip Show]], Yami asks Kaiba if he remembers the time the two of them first met, which is shown as 'a time when the video quality wasn't very good, and the audio was all muffled and scratchy'. Clips from the first episode are used in black and white, with a fake moustache and monicle painted onto Kaiba, and a 'silent movie' motif with old-style dialogue printed on the screen and an upbeat piano theme.

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "Your brash nature offends me, Mr. Moto! I shall soon put an end to your impertinence!"

* The [[Platypus Comix]] story "[http://www.platypuscomix.net/miscellaneous/index.php?issue=16&pageType=index&seriesID=7 Vess MacMeal Starring in: The More You Know!]" has drawings resembling [[The Fifties|1950s]] kitschy artwork.

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEAkChFGhVI This parody infomercial about "mastering the Internet"]. Yes, it's a modern-day spoof. It sure doesn't look that way, though. According to [http://atencio.tumblr.com/post/36634716/okay the director], it was dubbed between video recorders four times for that extra-special effect.

** Similarly, [http://www.hollywoodeasttv.com/video/its-the-world-wide-web It's The World Wide Web]

* The 2011 ''[[Winnie the Pooh (Disney film)|Winnie the Pooh]]'' film follows the style of the original shorts fairly closely, right down to details like photocopy lines and the backgrounds.

* The short-lived ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' was an animated series done completely in the style of an 8-bit video game, with the cast resembling characters from mid-80s Taito games such as Renegade and Mat Mania.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Consumer-level video editing programs such as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker have their share of effects that make things look brown ("Sepia"), old (old reel marks), or even very old (choppy action and faded borders). Of course, these are abused by amateur video makers.

** Effects like those are even ''built into'' some camcorders; Sony's Digital-8 decks are a good example, as are some flash and DVD-based cameras. Needless to say, people who do serious video work tend to recommend not using them under any circumstances and doing all that sort of thing in postproduction.

* "Vintage" T-shirts for sale at retail stores. Brand new shirts deliberately faded and cracked to look like they're 30 years old. Pre-ripped jeans also count.

* Certain slot machines (mainly those manufactured by IGT) are still being made with mechanical reels and levers to pull, even though they're all run by computers now and these are no longer required. Many people prefer these for a more authentic experience. Even in Minnesota, where mechanical reels are not allowed, the video versions of these same games are still built with levers. Sadly, machines that dispense payout in coins/tokens (instead of tickets) are much rarer, if not extinct.

* Various architectural styles like Neoclassicism or Gothic Revival. Amusingly, the latter was a reaction to the former: Neoclassicism was seen as "Enlightenment" and "liberal" (in the old sense), so Romantics and (old-sense) conservatives [[Start My Own|invented their own revival]] to counter it, drawing [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]] into the field of architecture in the ugliest (except for the buildings, pretty much ''all'' of which were beautiful) possible way. The debate didn't end until the Bauhaus-educated German Modernists, driven from [[Nazi Germany]] for being "degenerate" (or worse, Jewish) came out of nowhere to destroy them both. (The Soviet Vkhutemas was doing much the same thing, but since they were [[Dirty Communists]] they were ignored in the West).

* Many alleys of Budapest's Inner City were redesigned to look 19th century, complete with lamp posts that look like gas lanterns.

** The goal of the Margaret Bridge's recent reconstruction was explicitly to restore the bridge to its 1936 design.

** There's also another aspect to this. From the 50s to the 70s all instruments used nitrocellulose lacquer, but as it was rather hazardous, polyurethane is the standard finish today. Nitro is very "fragile" and easily comes off and ages very nicely (fading, yellowing and so on). This is why real vintage guitars have a special sort of relic to them. Polyester on the other hand is very hard and thick, has no real aging and hardly ever comes off, which makes getting a played in feeling with many modern guitars is close to impossible. It's thick and goopy and dampens the sound, but protects the instrument and offers a wider selection of colors. Polyurethane is somewhere between nitro and polyester—only a little bit thicker than nitro so it doesn't kill your harmonics, but with durability and color choices comparable to polyester. It still doesn't age quite the same, and opinions vary whether that's good or bad. Still, it's generally considered an acceptable compromise.

* Some people have cell phone ringtones that sound exactly like old-fashioned bell telephones.

* The car industry has many examples of faux-retro models.

** Chevrolet Camaro

* Though more subtle than most, there has traditionally been a lot of demand for "film look" coming from digital video cameras, to the point of making things like 24p frame rates standard even on relatively low-end camcorders. The adoption of DSLR cameras like the Canon 5DmkII specifically aimed to duplicate the depth-of-field effects film cameras traditionally give by using standard interchangeable lenses and large image sensors; the jury is still out as to whether "film look" has been truly achieved for The Rest of Us, or if its proponents have created a new, unique DSLR look.

* Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback use cane sugar instead of the high-fructose corn syrup found in modern soft drinks. They also feature vintage brand logos on the packaging.

* In the 1990s, [[McDonald's]] built several drive-thru-only locations in the style of the earliest restaurants.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]

[[Category:Retro Tropes]]