History Main / ChasingAButterfly

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Young Mittens, just adopted out of the pound, is chasing a butterfly in the housing project's shared yard space when she does a CrashIntoHello with Petey in “The Survivor.”

* Film/TheRedBalloon is a classic film about a boy's adventure through Paris chasing said (possibly sapient) balloon.

* Over the course of the season one finale and the season two premier of Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle, Dewie experiences a BlackHumor parody of Film/TheRedBalloon beginning with his chase after said balloon after his babysitter has a heart attack.

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' has Mayu in ''Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly''. She chases after butterflies all the time, and then she "gets lost." This leaves you alone. The butterflies are the souls of dead sacrifices, so her following them never bodes well.

** In the first move, the very first thing Ducky does after hatching is chasing after a prehistoric butterfly, nearly into the jaws of a snapping turtle. In a later scene, Littlefoot and Cera chase a frog before their first encounter with Sharptooth.
** In the second movie, newborn ''Tyrannosaurus'' Chomper chases after a dragonfly that he wants to eat, following it right to the slope of an active volcano.

** In the first move, the very first thing Ducky odes after hatching is chasing after a prehistoric butterfly, nearly into the jaws of a snapping turtle. In a later scene, Littlefoot and Cera chase a frog before their first encounter with Sharptooth.

* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', where Kala and Kerchak's baby follows a frog, which leads him to Sabor the leopard. The results aren't pretty.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', Simba, while waiting in the gorge, chases a chameleon, practicing his roar on it. Then the [[AnimalStampede stampede]] arrives.

* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', where Kala and Kerchak's baby follows a frog, which leads him to Sabor the leopard. [[AdultFear The results aren't pretty.]]

* In the Hungarian short ''Animation/PangeaTheNeverendingWorld'', Rexy, the baby ''TyrannosaurusRex'' chases a butterfly, which leads him away from his nest to a ravine he almost falls in. He is also attacked by a ''Spinosaurus''.

** Littlefoot and Cera chase a frog before their first encounter with Sharptooth.

* A non-lethal example occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "[[Recap/RugratsS2E17RebelWithoutATeddyBearAngelicaTheMagnificent Angelica the Magnificent]]". Angelica performs a magic trick wherein she makes Lil disappear by hiding her in a cardboard box. Lil chases a butterfly as Angelica says the magic words, and another butterfly flies into the box around the same time, leading the babies and Angelica to believe that Angelica turned Lil into a butterfly.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Mittens is doing this when she does a CrashIntoHello with Petey in “The Survivor.”

* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', Simba, while waiting in the gorge, chases a chameleon, practicing his roar on it. Then the [[AnimalStampede stampede]] arrives.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'', where Kala and Kerchak's baby follows a frog, which leads him to Sabor the leopard. [[AdultFear The results aren't pretty.]]
* At the beginning of ''Disney/{{Dinosaur}}'', a baby parasaurolophus chases after a winged lizard, which leads him to a Carnotaur that starts chasing after the other dinosaurs.

* In the short ''WesternAnimation/BigBuckBunny'', the titular GentleGiant rabbit chases after a butterfly, only to be attacked by a trio of literal {{Screwy Squirrel}}s.

* Happens twice with the main character in ''Disney/{{Bambi}}''; first with a butterfly, then with a frog. In neither case does it lead to danger.

* In the Creator/{{Disney}} short ''Disney/GoliathII'', the titular baby elephant follows a butterfly, only to be attacked by a tiger and a crocodile. He later chases a pair of snails and falls down a hole.

* Happens in a chapter of the Japanese-only ''{{Franchise/Neptunia}}'' manga, with [[FountainOfYouth a de-aged Uni]] crawling after balloons. Neptune soon catches up with her, but this causes her to cry, and causes more mishaps.

* A non-lethal example occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "Angelica the Magnificent". Angelica performs a magic trick wherein she makes Lil disappear by hiding her in a cardboard box. Lil chases a butterfly as Angelica says the magic words, and another butterfly flies into the box around the same time, leading the babies and Angelica to believe that Angelica turned Lil into a butterfly.

Children - and childlike, innocent (although [[GentleGiant not necessarily small]]) beings - are [[ConstantlyCurious curious]] and [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny easily distracted]]. So when a cute, small creature, like a butterfly, passes by them, [[StrayingBaby they will follow it out of curiosity]]. The small animal will either ignore them, or will be scared and flee.

!!Examples

[[folder: Advertisement ]]

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Mei, the younger girl from ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' tends to do this. First she chases the soot sprites all over the house; then she gets lost when she [[FollowTheWhiteRabbit follows Chibi-Totoro into the woods]]. Although she enounters a monstrous creature (the titular Totoro), fortunately he is a GentleGiant, so the danger part is averted.

* In the anime version of ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', Miaka chases after an apparition of a phoenix (representing, of course, [[TheFourGods Suzaku.]]). In the manga, she discovers the phoenix while chasing after an errant pencil.

[[folder: Eastern European Animation ]]

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', Littlefoot and Cera chase a frog before their first encounter with Sharptooth.

* Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/WallE'': WALL-E notices a glowing red dot near his home, which seems to dart away from him tantalizingly. The lonely robot pursues the curious dot to a barren area, until he discovers that it's a targeting light for a landing spacecraft. WALL-E did well to dig himself into a bunker before the landing rockets melted him into slag.

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' starts with Alice [[FollowTheWhiteRabbit following a white rabbit]] out of curiosity and falling down its hole, which leads her to [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} Wonderland]].

[[folder: Puppet Shows ]]

[[folder: Video Game ]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The whole premise of the "Mindy And Buttons" shorts of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}''. Mindy follows a cute critter, oblivious to danger, while [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter Buttons]] tries to rescue her.

-->'''Stewie:''' You just ''had'' to chase that butterfly!
-->'''Chris:''' Yes, I had to. I came here to explore nature!

* This is how Baby Herman crawls into (and out of) danger in the WesternAnimation/RogerRabbitShorts. In ''Tummy Trouble'' he chases a milk bottle that rolls off a cart; in ''Roller Coaster Rabbit'' it's a red balloon; and in ''Trail Mix-Up'' it's a beaver.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E11ThreesACrowd Three's A Crowd]]", Pinkie Pie follows a balloon that floats away off screen. We don't see her again for the rest of the episode...

* Invoked in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' where Stapleton is a butterfly collector willing to run through a dangerous mire in order to collect a rare specimen. [[spoiler: It turns out though that he's the BigBad of the piece.]]

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' has Mayu in Fatal Frame 2 Crimson Butterfly. She chases after butterflies all the time, and then she "gets lost." This leaves you alone. The butteflies are the souls of dead sacrifices, so her following them never bodes well.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Butterfly wings are ingredients for some of the more useful alchemical recipes. Thus, it is not a rare sight to see the Dovahkin, slayer of dragons, to jump out of his/her way to chase down some butterflies.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Talespin}}'' episode, "A Bad Reflection on You, Part One", a baby bear tries to catch a butterfly that lands on the flower of her windowsill. This, of course, leads to the baby bear falling out the open window of her apartment. It's a good thing Baloo and Kit were there to save her in time.