History AnachronismStew / WesternAnimation

* WesternAnimation/TheJetsons TV movie RockinWithJudyJeston has 1980s fashion and music styles suddenly trendy in a world that supposedly takes place 100 years in the future.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons TV movie RockinWithJudyJeston has 1980s fashion and music styles suddenly trendy in a world that supposedly takes place 100 years in the future.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' is stylistically set in what looks to be the 1960s or 1970s, so vinyl records and the like have their place, but such futuristic marvels like cassette players, compact discs and cellphones make appearances. Despite the presence of Laptops, desktops by in large are bulky and resemble computers from the early 1980s.

* ''WesternAnimation/IvanhoeTheKingsKnight'' features Alexander II of Scotland, as a prince and young man, during the time of Richard I of England's imprisonment in Austria. Alexander wasn't born until 1198, a year before the death of Richard.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', both the flashbacks and the "present" have their problems. For one thing, the Normans, who conquered England in 1066, built the first stone castles on Britain since the 6th century, which would make the Gargoyles' home castle (built in the tenth century) an impossibility. For another, people still haven't invented anything like the Steel Clan or Xanatos' winged, Rocket-{{Powered Armor}}, making them an impossibility in the 20th century as well.

* ''Almost'' avoided with the original ''Land Before Time''. The characters include such species as, among others, Triceratops, Saurolophus, Pteranodon, and Tyrannosaurus. So far so good, all are from late Cretaceous North America. Granted, the protagonist, Littlefoot, is a Jurassic Apatosaurus, but audiences can just pretend he's an Alamosaurus. But then there's the introduction of Spike the also Jurassic Stegosaurus, and at one point in the film there is the brief appearance of a-''Permian'' Dimetrodon?? And that's not even taking into account the sequels, which bring up a whole different mess!

** Parodied when the family watches ''The Poke of Zorro'' in which Franchise/{{Zorro}} fights Literature/TheThreeMusketeers and Film/TheManInTheIronMask before challenging Literature/TheScarletPimpernel [[GloveSlap to a duel]]. When the Pimpernel [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys runs away]], KingArthur crowns Zorro the King of England.

* Double Subversion in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. At the beginning of the series, it looks like a massive anachronism stew: a show taking place in the medieval ages, with princesses, knights and swords, mixed up with actual technology, computers and robots. After a while, it's reveled that [[spoiler: The show doesn't take place in the past, but in the distant future, after a Nuclear War]]. So yes, the technology is justified... but what's up with the princess thing, anyway?
** The rise of feminism maybe?

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' in the episode "Yankee Hankie" it is implied that cotton hill has videotapes of hank from when he was a young child along with ones of Little Hank. One slight problem, hank was born in the mid 1960's, years before any form of home recording came onto the scene. In 1970 sony realesed the umatic system, but it was expensive and it is unlikely cotton would have bought one, moreover the tapes looked way different than the ones stacked on cotton's shelves (they were bigger and more like a cartridge). Cartrivision was realesed around 1972, but it was built in a TV set, was also too expensive and the black and white camcorder attachment wasn't common and was also very expensive. Practical home video recording came in 1977 with betamax and then vhs, but by then hank was a teenager and camcorders for those formats weren't around until the early 80's.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' is supposed to be set after DNA paternity tests' discovery (after the 1990s). But all the technology shown are so old-fashioned (Ego uses a typewriter, for instance), that some French reviewers believed the movie was supposed to be set in the 1950s.

* Both ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Wolverine and the X-Men}}'' portray Japan in a very bizarre light. They acknowledge that the country has modern technology and clothing, but feudalistic ninja are apparently everywhere, and everyone we see is obsessed with the Samurai code of honor.

* "WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill" in the episode "Yankee Hankie" it is implied that cotton hill has videotapes of hank from when he was a young child along with ones of Little Hank. One slight problem, hank was born in the mid 1960's, years before any form of home recording came onto the scene. In 1970 sony realesed the umatic system, but it was expensive and it is unlikely cotton would have bought one, moreover the tapes looked way different than the ones stacked on cotton's shelves (they were bigger and more like a cartridge). Cartrivision was realesed around 1972, but it was built in a TV set, was also too expensive and the black and white camcorder attachment wasn't common and was also very expensive. Practical home video recording came in 1977 with betamax and then vhs, but by then hank was a teenager and camcorders for those formats weren't around until the early 80's.
* IvanhoeTheKingsKnight features Alexander II of Scotland, as a prince and young man, during the time of Richard I of England's imprisonment in Austria. Alexander wasn't born until 1198, a year before the death of Richard.

** Nobody ever calls attention to the race of characters like ComicBook/{{Firestorm}}, ComicBook/{{Vixen}}, or ComicBook/TheAtom, which probably would've gone quite differently in the ''[[ValuesDissonance actual]]'' [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]]. Similarly, nobody is surprised by the presence of female superheroes like ComicBook/BlackCanary.

* Though ''WesternAnimation/AroundTheWorldWithWillyFog'' is set in 1872, the Statue of Liberty (completed in 1886) can be seen in the opening titles. Also, at one point, Bully comments that Dix "thinks he's Sherlock Holmes", even though the first Sherlock Holmes story was not published until the 1890s.

-->'''Bart:''' It's like a history lesson come to life!
-->'''Lisa:''' No it's not, it's entirely inacc--
-->'''Bart:''' Quiet, here come the ninjas!

** Played straight in the flashback episode "That 90s Show". It's supposed to take place in the early 1990s when grunge music came onto the scene, but it references pop culture from all over the decade. Homer is seen drinking Zima, which became popular around 1993, watches ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episodes from 1995/96, Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog's design from the 2000s is shown, people are shown browsing the Internet in the early 1990s, and songs from the late 90s are played. Homer also inspired Music/KurtCobain, which means the episode should've taken place in the late 80s for that to happen.

** Well, old Cecil himself enjoyed serving up a good bowl of AnachronismStew, especially in the name of FanService or Spectacle. Like the Art Deco sets in ''Cleopatra'' (although [[OlderThanTheyThink Art Deco itself was partly inspired by Ancient Egyptian finds]]).
*** Also, consider the fact that the movie is set in 1939, a time when Biblical epics were not in vogue. [=DeMille=] stopped making them shortly after UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode went in effect, and would not revive them until the aforementioned ''Samson and Delilah'' about eight years later.

* Extremely evident in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' where the robot modes of ''all'' the Transformers (especially those of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Starscream, and Soundwave) resemble their eventual Earth modes even in the distant past and on planet Cybertron. The vehicles modes were alien, but in robot mode, Bumblebee has a Volkswagen roof for a chest and front for feet ''four million years'' before there would be such a thing as a Volkswagen.f

* ''Almost'' avoided with the original ''Land Before Time''. The characters include such species as, among others, Triceratops, Saurolophus, Pteranodon, and Tyrannosaurus. So far so good, all are from late Cretaceous North America. Granted the protagonist, Littlefoot, is a Jurassic Apatosaurus, but audiences can just pretend he's an Alamosaurus. But then there's the introduction of Spike the also Jurassic Stegosaurus, and at one point in the film there is the brief appearance of a-''Permian'' Dimetrodon?? And that's not even taking into account the sequels, which bring up a whole different mess!

* ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' presumably takes place during World War I. In the ''Magnificent Muttley'' episode "The Masked Muttley," Dick Dastardly is seen watching television. Some three decades before it became commercially viable. Then in "Aquanuts," Muttley is left to wash the dishes while Dastardly, Klunk and Zilly go to see a surfing movie which wouldn't be in vogue for another six decades.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' is stylistically set in what looks to be the 60s or 70s, so vinyl records and the like have their place, but such futuristic marvels like cassette players, compact discs and cellphones make appearances. Despite the presence of Laptops, desktops by in large are bulky and resemble computers from the early 80's.

* ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'' uses this trope to its advantage. Almost every historical figure they come across are involved in activities that will not be invented in hundreds of years after their respective time periods. For example, Kubla Khan is a nerd who obsessively reads comic books. And Eli Whitney creates a horde of robots who all have the ability to decipher what is human flesh and what is not. The show's creator, Dave Wasson, didn't call his show "The C student's guide to history" for nothing.
* Fans of ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' have noticed that the exact tech level in Equestria is rather undefined, even with the presence of magic. The early writers wanted to keep it low-tech, but later writers sneak things in. A good example is the train in "Over A Barrel", which has a proper locomotive but is pulled by a team of ponies; in later episodes, trains run by themselves.
* The short film ''WesternAnimation/PrehistoricBeast'' has a ''TyrannosaurusRex'' fighting a ''Monoclonius''. The two species did not live during the same time in the Cretaceous period.
* ''TheDaltons'' mentioned LaurelAndHardy, the TourDeFrance, showed modern-looking bras, robots, and a boy dressed in the style of someone from the 20th/21st century and other things for the sake of being more relatable to the target audience. The show is set at the end of the 19th century.

* ''TheDaltons'' mentioned LaurelAndHardy, the TourDeFrance, showed modern-looking bras, robots, and a boy dressed in the style of someone from the 20th/21st century. The show is set at the end of the 19th century.