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Synchronized Swarming: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Finding-
It's a common sight gag in humorous animation that fish, insects and other swarms have an amazing ability to coordinate movement into very exact shapes. (Especially impressive with fireflies in the night.)
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Issue 7 of ''[[Blame]]'' has the main character briefly interacting with a swarm of microorganisms, which assumes various simple forms -- :) for "hello", O for "yes", X for "no",
* In ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'', the Bagu-Bagu swarms do this.
* ''[[Panty
== [[Film]] -- Animated ==
* In ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', a school of moonfish (voiced by John Ratzenberger) does a series of impressions for Dory and becomes an arrow to give her and Marlin directions to Sydney. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when they mention that they've practiced their impressions.
* Disney's ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]]''. While Alice is traveling through the Tulgey Wood she meets a group of mome raths, who form themselves into the shape of an arrow to lead her to a path. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2imO2AiE9Ik See it here] on YouTube, starting around 4:50.
* In ''[[The Princess and
== [[Film]] -- Live Action ==
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** Some fish species in real life employ synchronized schooling like this.
* The swarm of "snow gnats" in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' can take on forms like hoops and arrows when attacking people, whom they enjoy stinging for no good reason whatsoever.
* [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''[[Prey (
* The end of ''[[
* Ygramul from ''[[The Neverending Story (
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The arcade game ''[[Seven Twenty|720°]]'' has a swarm of bees that chase the player if he hangs around the hub world for too long. The swarm takes on various threatening shapes including a hammer, a skull, an arrow, and a pair of scissors.
* The swarms of bees in the Jungle Hut stage of ''[[
* The Smorgs in [[Paper Mario (
* This appears in a level of [[Logical Journey of the Zoombinis]] , once a branch with a hive has been angered enough to chase off the nasty Fleens in the shape of scizzors.
** They can also swarm in the shape of an arrow or a storm cloud. They also [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|swarm to heavy metal]].
* In ''[[Evil Genius (
* Realistic schools of fish are found all over ''[[Subnautica]]''. Curiously, one game option allows you to turn ''off'' their Synchronized Swarming.
== Web Comics ==
* ''Safely Endangered'', with [//www.safelyendangered.com/comic/birds/ Tim and Birds].
* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' that's how Toughs discovered that the Ot-Skadak are sapient. The team was leaving a camp behind due to giant sea monster killed in self-defence and starting to attract scavengers (the first to arrived were bugs with metallized exoskeletons and assumed to be the same species Toughs have seen killing a creature the size of a gunboat by flying through it like a cloud of flechettes, thus on top of their "carnivores to avoid" list), so Schlock said goodbye to the local landmarks, ending with "goodbye, swarm of bugs" and waved a pseudopod. That's when the swarm of bugs assumed a recognizable shape of Schlock and waved back, leading to [[Beat Panel]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The episode "Risky Beesness" from ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
* Used all over the place in the ''[[
* If a character in an old MGM or Warner Bros. cartoon encounters a beehive, it will almost inevitably cause the swarm of bees to change into some familiar shape; arrows, anvils, boxing gloves, even a flyswatter for an ironic twist.
* One of the ''[[Domo]]'' shorts on Nicktoons TV has the title character going ice-skating and following a school of fish swimming just beneath the ice.
* In the [[Donald Duck]] cartoon "Inferior Decorator", Donald gets into a feud with a bee. Toward the end of the cartoon, it calls on all its friends, which swarm out of the hive and form a question mark, as if to say "Yeah, what do you want?"
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
** Also done by jellyfish in the episode "Jellyfish Jam".
* Very common sight in ''[[The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]''.
* One of ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' cartoons has the title character annoy a swarm of bees. While taking cover inside a house blocks them, the bees take a form of a drill, and create a hole in the door that they fly through.
* In ''[[
* One episode of ''Life with Louie'' had a scene in which Andy teaches a swarm of bees to spell his name. More conforming to the trope when you consider that he had to correct their spelling after the first attempt ("Andie").
* Done in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Also done by the Parasprite swarm in "Swarm Of The Century". They attack Rainbow Dash and form things like a beard and a bikini on her body before she shakes them off.
== Real Life ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120130041824/http://www.wildlifephoto-presti.com/Photo_of_the_month/01_2004.htm starlings], [http://parmenio-web.com/exped/sardine/sardine-run-price.htm sardines]{{Dead link}}, [http://www.flickr.com/photos/pats0n/2644119888/ mackerel], [https://web.archive.org/web/20130812225902/http://allfloridabeeremoval.com/BeeSwarm/BeeSwarmsAllFloridaBeeRemoval.html bees], [[wikipedia:Driver ant|siafu]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110224042826/http://robotics.youngester.com/2008/08/swarm-robots.html robots].
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20121031180854/http://www.metro.co.uk/news/802617-starlings-give-twitchers-the-bird Starlings], [[Flipping the Bird]].
* Swarming in military strategy is the act of striking at an enemy force with mobile elements which hit and run, perpetually disrupting the enemy and destroying command and control by preventing the enemy from being able to react before the situation has changed. This is not a simple [[Zerg Rush]] of throwing troops at an objective in rapid waves, but an extremely complex, difficult to coordinate, and devastatingly effective plan to cause confusion and disorientation.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Tiny Tropes]]
[[Category:Invertebrate Index]]
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