Tree Buchet: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
In animation, seeing a tall, skinny tree anywhere is a sure sign that someone is about to go flying.
In the world of cartoons, any sufficiently tall, flexible tree can be transformed into a
# Have the villain chase the hero through a forest, tree farm, or any other sufficiently wooded area.
# In an attempt to escape the villain, have the hero run up the tallest, skinniest tree available.
# Have the villain chase the hero up the tree. The fairly fragile tree will begin to bend beneath the weight of both people trapped within it, frequently doubling over.
# The hero must now jump out of the tree.
# We have a [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|few seconds]] to register the [[Oh Crap|look of terror]] on the villain's face before the tree, freed of the excess weight, snaps back up. ''Thwwwwpp!'' The villain goes flying.
A frequent variation is for a character to use a tree
Another variation is the villain ''choosing'' to catapult himself with a tree, either to reach something higher or to jump over a wall. The effect varies from catapulting directly into the ground to missing the target by one inch.
Yet ''another'' variation is the hero using it to launch himself. This works, [[Spoiled
Tree Buchets are named after ''[
Compare [[Catapult to Glory]], where this is done with an actual catapult, and [[Caught in a Snare]], which to catch a man-sized target needs similarly elastic trees.
{{examples}}
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* Subverted in Carl Barks' 1953 [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Uncle Scrooge]] story "Back to the Klondike". A hungry bear chases [[Donald Duck]] up a tree; the tree bends down... but rather than Donald jumping off the tree, the bear falls off... and ''[[Butt Monkey|Donald]]'' is sent flying.
** Dick Kinney's 1965 [[Donald Duck]] story ''The Pioneer''. An hungry bear chases Donald's cousin Fethry up a tree; the tree bends down and Fethry jumps off, sending the bear flying. Later, though, the bear gets even, chasing Fethry up another tree and ''beating'' him to jumping off.
* One issue of the old ''[[Sgt
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* Horton gets rid of Vlad the vulture this way in [[The Movie]] of ''Horton Hears a Who''. The elephant manages a [[Bond One-Liner]] before he does, then mentions that he usually doesn't come up with those until later.
* The first two ''[[Ice Age]]'' movies do something with this. In one it uses a tilting rock to launch Sid the Sloth. In the other the classic tree. The tree in question is not only a full grown pine, but also being held down by Manny the Mammoth.
* Happens to one of the two dogs that were constantly pursuing Edgar during their first chase scene from ''[[
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* The troll in the beginning of ''[[Enchanted]]'' has this happen to him.
* Shows up in ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'', during the bamboo forest fight.
* In ''[[Indiana Jones and
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: On Stranger Tides'', Jack launches himself from palm tree to palm tree to get across the Spaniards' encampment and escape.
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== Literature ==
* Used by Special Forces soldiers in John Scalzi's ''The Ghost Brigades'' to escape an enclosure guarded by automatic turrets that lacked the ability to aim up.
* In ''[[Little Women|Little Men]]'', the boys are playing by climbing up young trees until they bend all the way down and drop the boys back onto the ground. Jack picks too big a tree, leaving him dangling several feet in the air. Dan climbs up after him, and their combined weight lowers Jack safely on the ground, but as soon as he lets go, Dan goes flying.
** This game is also referenced in Robert Frost's poem "Birches".
* In one of the ''[[Little House
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
* A slightly more realistic version is used in the ''[[MacGyver]]'' episode "The Road Not Taken". When he needs to throw off some pursuers in the jungle, [[MacGyver]] builds a tree-based catapult to throw stones, and puts a light-based fuse on it. First he pulls four flimsy trees together and bends them down to the ground. He routes them under a solid tree branch and ties them together with a thin vine. Then he sets down his friend's rosary to refract sunlight onto the thin vine, creating a fuse. He stakes the thin vine into the ground with a good knot on a pointed stick, and attaches the pockets from his jacket (filled with rocks) to the tree trunks.
== Myths & Religion ==
* This is [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In Greek myth, there was a bandit who killed travellers with this trick. Theseus [[Hoist
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Tak and
* In ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', the Werehog uses this method to get around various stages by bending the trees or lampposts himself, then relaxing his grip.
* In ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'', you can make Guybrush fall off a cliff to his presumed doom, and a parody of Sierra's [[Have a Nice Death]] screens pops up, only to disappear when Guybrush flies up out of the jungle and back onto the cliff. His only explanation: "Rubber tree."
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick
== Western Animation ==
* Very common in [[Hanna-Barbera]] cartoons, especially ''[[Wacky Races]]''.
* Happens a lot in the ''[[Pink Panther]]'' cartoons and its spin-offs (''The Inspector'', ''[[The Ant and
* A season one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had Homer attempt to make a tree snare and end up launching a bunny rabbit over a mile into the horizon.
** And in a halloween episode "Survival of the Fattest", he did it with a full size tree and essentially the entire supporting cast.
{{quote|
* Done in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' a few times.
* This has happened to [[Looney Tunes|Wile E. Coyote]] a time or two with trees or cacti. In one case, rather than launching Wile E himself, a cactus launched a misaimed explosive back at the unfortunate coyote.
* In the ''[[
* The ''[[Elefun And Friends]]'' short, "A Tangled Tale" features a panda trying to do this with bamboo to get over a river.
* 1960's [[Filmation]] ''[[The Atom]]'' episode "The House of Doom". The Atom uses one of these to fling himself after an escaping henchman's car.
* A Foghorn Leghorn cartoon [[Playing
* George and Junior try this in the [[Tom and Jerry
* Near the beginning of ''[[Goliath II]]'', the titular elephant accidentally gets knocked into a puddle while attempting to knock over ''a flower''.
* ''[[The Herculoids]]'' episode "The Raiders". In a light-hearted moment Igoo uses his great strength to turn a tree into a catapult to throw Dorno into a really high dive into the water.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** In "Family Appreciation Day", the Cutie Mark Crusaders get launched by a tree while trying to pick Zap Apples.
* Happens in the ''[[Jimmy Two
* Francis X. Bushlad uses one in one of his plans to catch Taz in ''[[Taz
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/monkeys-catapult-themselves-out-of-primate-research-institute.html Monkeys using trees to clear the walls of a research facility in Japan], via a ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]'' [http://www.cracked.com/article_18702_5-greatest-escape-artists-ever-were-animals.html article].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Tropes Examined
[[Category:Tree
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