History Main / Imprinting

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', to the extent that he even refers to himself as a "Momma" because of the imprinting of the baby dinos on him.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** Samus, in the events of ''Videogame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus''/''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', has been sent to exterminate all of the eponymous creatures. Upon arrival at the location of the last Metroid, she finds only an egg, which promptly hatches, revealing a baby Metroid, who imprints itself on her as its mother. In later games this same metroid saves Samus' life twice.
** In ''Videogame/SuperMetroid'' a metroid attacks Samus near the end of the game, but quickly darts off before killing her.[[spoiler: It returns during the final boss battle with Mother Brain to save Samus while Mother Brain tries to kill her.]]
** ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'' The X parasite infects Samus' armor during the prologue, putting her life at risk. Samus is injected with the cells of the last remaining metroid, the one Samus saved, as a cure. It works because metroids are a predator of the X parasite.

** During the Kanto saga, Ash and his friends were fighting with Team Rocket over who got to keep the Togepi egg Ash had found, but Togepi went to Misty because her face was the first thing Togepi saw when it hatched.
** In ''Anime/PokemonRangerAndTheTempleOfTheSea'', May is holding the Manaphy egg when it hatches, so the baby Manaphy considers her to be its mother for the rest of the movie. Brock helpfully explains what happened for the benefit of the audience.

* The Disney film ''Film/TheUglyDachshund'' revolves around a Great Dane puppy that imprints upon a dachshund bitch and her litter, thinking he's a dachshund too. HilarityEnsues.

** One stand-alone cartoon involved a baby bird hatching from an egg, confusing a fighter plane for his mother, and proceeds to follow it. HilarityEnsues.

* In the WesternAnimation/{{Classic Disney Short|s}} "Don's Fountain of Youth", two alligator eggs hatch near {{Donald Duck}} and think he's their mother. The real mother gator takes them back but they will not go near her until she starts quacking.

* In ''Videogame/FableII'', a man asks you to help him collect the body parts of Lady Grey (an antagonist from the first game) whom he has fallen in love with and wishes to marry. Before the experiment is done, he explains that the resurrection spell comes with an imprinting measure where she will fall in love with whomever is in her line of sight within a few minutes of resurrecting. Unfortunately for him, ''you'' are the first thing she sees. That means that if you don't leave the room immediately, she will fall for you instead of him. The choice is up to you.

* Although we don’t ever get to see it happen, the lore on the culture of the Salarians in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' states that the Dalatrass (clan matriarch) is always present whenever any eggs laid by any female in her clan hatches. This ensures that the younglings will imprint on her as well as their mother and will become loyal to her as their clan leader. When a fertilized egg that produces a female youngling hatches, the Dalatrasses of both the egg laying mother’s clan and the egg fertilizing father’s clan are present. This ensures that the female will have dual loyalty to both parents’ clans and thereby strengthens the alliance between them. This is done because salarian females are all exclusively groomed to become politicians.

* An infant ''T. rex'' imprinted upon the entire main cast of ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series in one of the movies as its mothers. Given that throughout the series, "Sharptooth" dinosaurs are anything ''but'' friendly, this is quite amusing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', after Mr. Potato Head saves their lives, the LGM refer to him as "Daddy!" and form a strong, child-like attachment to him. In part 3, they return the favor, and in response he draws them up in his arms, calling them "my boys!"

* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfMiloAndOtis'', when Gloria's chick hatches, it thinks Otis is its mommy. Otis finally rids himself of the chick when he shows it how rough and tumble a "real dog" has to be. The chick doesn't like it and immediately runs off to find its real mother.

* In ''Film/{{Babe}}'', when Babe's mother is taken away to be slaughtered, he makes friends with a sheepdog named Fly and begins to call her "Mom".
* The movie ''Film/FlyAwayHome'' is about a girl who has a flock of geese imprint on her, so in order to teach them to fly properly, she has to learn to fly an ultralight.

** This can cause some problems later in a bird's life. The (now grown-up) bird may try to socialize, and even mate with, members of the species upon which it imprinted, instead of its own species. Birds raised by humans may never be able to released into the wild for this reason. For example, special hats are worn by falconers to "accept the affection" of male birds that have been raised in captivity, which can then be used to fertilize similarly raised females (via syringe). When caring for baby birds with the intention of release, Wildlife Rescue and/or Rehabilitation Centers sometimes use masks or puppets to teach hatchlings what species to imprint on.

* One story in ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' has Lum, Ataru, Ten, and Mendo sent into prehistoric times. A baby dinosaur hatches and imprints Lum as his mother (with a narrator explaining the concept of imprinting for the audience's benefit), while the baby's real mom think Ten is one of her eggs! (Because his diaper is the same pattern as the eggshell)
** Then a female dinosaur falls in love with Ataru, prompting the same narrator to explain that it's a case of "loveprinting". He then stops to ask Creator/RumikoTakahashi [[NoFourthWall if this is for real]].

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' has a rather heartwarming example, where Samus, in the events of ''Videogame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus''/''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', has been sent to exterminate all of the eponymous creatures. Upon arrival at the location of the last Metroid, she finds only an egg, which promptly hatches, revealing a baby Metroid, who imprints itself on her as its mother. In later games this same metroid saves Samus' life twice:

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' episode "Mama Bird", Tilly finds a lost nest with unhatched eggs in it, and Bill warns she and Cricket the first thing the birds see when they hatch will think they're their mother. Tilly spends time carrying the nest around hoping the birds will see her as their mama; when the birds finally hatch, they imprint on Cricket instead.

* In the WesternAnimation/{{Classic Disney Short|s}} "Don's Fountain of Youth", two alligator eggs hatch near {{Donald Duck}} and think he's their mother. The real mother gator takes them back but will not go near her until she starts quacking.

* Naturally, many birds imprint on the first thing they see as its mother, which was experimented on by Konrad Lorenz, in his iconic picture showing him walking through some grass with three ducklings following him closely.

* ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'': Used for a main character, surprisingly: The angeloid Ikaros imprints on the first human she sees after waking up. She follows ANY order from her master @/LiteralGenie . (All angeloids are imprinted to their masters.)

* In a ''Series/SesameStreet'' episode, a baby honker hatches out of its egg and believes Luis to be its father. When its real parents arrive, Luis points out that the baby looks similar to its parents, but Luis looks a lot different, which makes the baby realise that Luis isn't his father.

It is also prudent to point out that this is not just imprinting on someone as a mother. Any example of an imprinting can be included here, so as long as the same general concept remains present.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. Implied in the way TheHandler is always introduced to their cyborg, with the girl waking up in bed, their memories wiped, to find the handler there. As 'conditioning' involves a [[MoreThanMindControl combination of drugs and psychology]], it would make sense to have this be one of them.
* ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'': Used for a main character, surprisingly: The angeloid Ikaros imprints on the first human she sees after waking up. She follows ANY order from her master @/LiteralGenie . (All angeloids are imprinted to their masters.)
* Invoked in ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' by the powers of [[ManipulativeBitch Aum Madaura's]] [[{{Brainwashed}} Magic Tool]], which afflicts the brains of the victim who sees Madaura as her own mother, losing (usually) all belligerant intentions, using a principle compared to Imprinting.
* In ''Manga/SamuraiDeeperKyo'', a MadScientist working for the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Mibu clan]] and going by the anachronistic name of Dr. White make use of Imprinting on his own ArtificialHuman creations, so that they cannot rebel against him, nor harm him. [[spoiler: This extends to Sasuke himself, though he manages to overcome the imprinting and kill Dr. White.]]

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' did a strip with the caption "When imprinting studies go awry", and depicting a scientist trailing along after a mother duck.

* In ''Fanfic/GundamSeedBloodlines'', [[spoiler:the Extended do this. After her original "mother" dies, Cagalli has to get Stellar to imprint on her.]]
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'''s [[Fanfic/CrucibleMassEffect Crucible]]'', all turian and hybrid children imprint on their parents by their sight, smell and sound. Naturally, the first thing a child imprints on is its mother, but it doesn't matter who the father is. The imprint can be so strong that even if the child is separated from its parents from a very young age and remember nothing of them, it can still remember the smell. The process also causes a baby to react very violently if the one holding it isn't its parent or at least a family's member.
** In the one timeline, Future!Gaius imprinted on his mother Shepard and Sidonis's family while Garrus, his real father was virtually a stranger. This prompts present!Garrus to try his very best to ensure that Gaius will imprint on him in this timeline. He succeeds, and baby!Gaius reacts to him even faster than to his mother.

* In ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', the monster imprints on Dr. Frankenstein and considers him to be his mother, even running to him for a comforting hug in one scene.

* The movie ''Film/FlyAwayHome'' is about a girl who has a flock of geese imprint on her, so in order to teach them to fly properly, she has to learn to fly an ultralight.

* ''Film/TheHandThatRocksTheCradle'' had the [[BabysitterFromHell evil nanny]] attempting this with the youngest child (an infant) in her charge, primarily by way of breast-feeding (unbeknownst to, and unauthorized by, the mother) which leads to the baby rejecting his own mother's milk, and the bonding that comes with that. The whole premise of the movie was the nanny trying to steal the children of a woman she blames for her miscarriage and subsequent hysterectomy.
* The film ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'' has the "mecha" (android) David, designed to be like a human child, going through an "imprinting sequence" which makes him recognize his new owner as his mother--irreversibly so, and with all the emotions that entails.
* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfMiloAndOtis'', when Gloria's chick hatches, it thinks Otis is its mommy. Otis finally rids himself of the chick when he shows it how rough and tumble a "real dog" has to be. The chick doesn't like it and immediately runs off to find its real mother.

* Probably one of the earliest Imprinting-themed fairytales are ''Literature/TheUglyDuckling'', where the baby swan(cygnet) sees the mother duck, and follows her believing the duck to be his mother.
* Probably one of the most popular cases, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gives us Jacob Black, who imprints himself on Bella's and Edward's daughter (though, as for why, it's pretty vague).
** The werewolf characters in general do this to various people after ''New Moon.''
* Creator/{{Robert Anton Wilson}} puts forth the theory of sexual imprinting in his Shrodinger's Cat Trilogy- that whatever someone's earliest sexual experiences are like leads them to seek that out most in future- e.g. with another race, same-sex attraction, kink, etc.

* At the end of Dr. Seuss' ''Horton Hatches An Egg'', the newly-hatched... creature not only recognizes Horton (who faithfully incubated its egg while the bird that laid it was off living it up) as its mother, it also emerges with [[LamarckWasRight elephant-like features]]. In typical Seussian fashion, it's meant to impart AnAesop about family being about more than whose DNA you happen to share.
%%* Literature/{{Septimus Heap}}'s dragon Spit Fyre.
* In the short story "Thief, Thief!" by Mary Catelli, the thief is in the dragon's lair when an egg hatches, and the baby dragon imprints on her.

* The entire plot of "Are You My Mother" by P.D Eastman is a newly-hatched bird trying to find his mother. In one scene, he thinks a power shovel is his mother.
* The bird kids do this to the heroine of ''The Lake House'' by Creator/JamesPatterson.

* ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'' shows workers at the dinosaur hatchery using hand puppets to ensure that hatchlings imprint on the correct species (i.e. that of the mother).
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The gnome Buggy Swires uses a special foul-smelling potion to do this to birds and use them as transport, first by stunning it with a headbutt, then making it breathe the fumes until it thinks he's its mother.

* In the 2009 series ''Series/{{V|2009}}'', Anna is able to do this with [[spoiler:Ryan's half-V, half-human child,]] by giving the infant a disease that causes her pain unless she receives Anna's [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul bliss]]. [[spoiler:She had at that point already killed the baby's real mother.]]

* On a bigger scale, The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Galaxy's Child" showed a spaceborne lifeform which was delivered from its dead mother by the crew of the ''Enterprise'' (a Caesarian by phaser beam). The creature then imprints on the ''Enterprise'', attaching itself to the hull and feeding off of energy from the fusion generators.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #50 article "Hatching is just the beginning". When a dragon egg hatches, the hatchling will imprint on the first creature it sees after birth, considering the creature to be its mother. It will attempt to copy its "mother"'s actions.

* In ''Videogame/FableII'', a man asks you to help him collect the body parts of Lady Grey (an antagonist from the first game) whom he has fallen in love with and wishes to marry. Before the experiment is done, he explains that the resurrection spell comes with an imprinting measure where she will fall in love with whomever is in her line of sight within a few minutes of resurrecting. Unfortunately for him, ''you'' are the first thing she sees. That means that if you don't leave the room immediately, she will fall for you instead of him. The choice is up to you.
* In ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'', an optional sidequest[[note]] Though if you don't do it, you don't get the Power Cell for it, and there are a few Precursor Orbs and Power Cells you can't get without it, but that's it[[/note]] has you knock an egg off a cliff. When you get back to it, the flut flut inside hatches, and imprints on Daxter, over the latter's protests.
-->'''Daxter''': Aaaaaah! I'm not your ma! You see any feathers here?

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Tom and Jerry}}'' cartoons, it is very common for a duckling or other bird to imprint on Tom or Jerry, who will then invariably try to get rid of it. One example is "The Egg and Jerry", where a woodpecker egg rolls into Jerry's home and hatches there. Jerry does eventually convince the chick that he is not its mother.
* In the episode "That Darn Gator" of the ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', Max fishes a baby SewerGator out of a toilet and it imprints on him.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' cartoon episode "Mama Luigi" played with this, in which Luigi fulfilled the parent figure for a baby Yoshi.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic}}'' did this, with Twilight Sparkle hatching Spike. Their bond seems to be more like brother-sister/assistant-boss, as opposed to mother-son.
** Peewee the Phoenix also imprinted on Spike upon hatching in the episode "Dragon Quest". As of "Just for Sidekicks", Peewee has been returned to the wild.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "Attack of the Tree People", after their ship explodes, Jonny, Hadji and Bandit wash up on an island beach. While Bandit is lying on the beach, a number of baby sea turtles hatch out of the sand and start following him around. Jonny says that the turtles think that Bandit is their mother.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', Rigby accidentally imprints a family of ducklings, resulting in them learning from his (less than stellar) example most of the episode before they're returned to their real mother.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' episode "Jeepers! It's the Creeper", a newly hatched chick imprints on Scooby. Scooby's attempts to correct the hatchling cause it to start barking as it follows Scooby and Shaggy around. Eventually, Scooby returns the chick back to its real mother, but then a bunch of other eggs hatch and the chicks inside of those eggs end up imprinting on Scooby, making him "a mother hen all over again."
* One stand-alone cartoon in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' involved a baby bird hatching from an egg, confusing a fighter plane for his mother, and proceeds to follow it. HilarityEnsues.
** A sequel to this cartoon repeats the same setup, only for the bird to imprint on ''Slappy Squirrel'' instead.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}'' has Dozer discover a nest of Tortool eggs, which hatch and imprint on him. Even after returning to their rightful mother, the tortools remain good friends with Dozer and regularly visit.
* An old Creator/FamousStudios short "Cock-a-Doodle Dino" has a dinosaur hatching in modern days and believing a hen to be his mother. Problems start when he is taken away to be shown in a circus.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' has a duckling becoming attached to Chuckie due to his face being the first thing the duckling saw when it hatched.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' episode "Mama Bird", Tilly finds a lost nest with unhatched eggs in it, and Bill warns she and Cricket the first thing the birds see when they hatch will think they're their mother. Tilly spends time carrying the nest around hoping the birds will see her as their mama; when the birds finally hatch, they imprint on Cricket instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/BountyHamster''. A nest of alien eggs break open, hatching several small xenomorphs that look like the ones in ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''. Marion cringes in fear as they advance towards him and shoot out NestedMouths... turns out he's got nothing to worry about as they all think he's their mother.
* Happens to Angelica in the episode "Dude, Where's My Horse?" of ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' when she accidentally hatches a baby ostrich at a ranch. She is dismissive of it at first (naming it "Reject"), but soon grows fond of it. She is heartbroken when she has to leave the ostrich at the ranch since she obviously can't take it home with her.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'', Sector V plans to throw hundreds of eggs at the Delightful Children From Down the Lane, until the next day all the eggs hatch into hundreds of chicks that assume Numbuh 1 is their mommy.

* In the ''Literature/{{Dragonriders Of Pern}}'' series, newly-hatched dragons, fire lizards, or watchweyrs are subject to imprinting ("Impression") upon the first human with which they establish a psychic link. In this case it is not the first person they see, since they'll plow through any number of people to get to the person they are supposed to Impress with, though Impression always occurs after the two make eye contact.

* An infant ''T. rex'' imprinted upon the entire main cast of ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series in one of the movies as its mothers. Given that throughout the series, "Sharptooth" dinosaurs are anything *but* friendly, this is quite amusing.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', after Mr. Potato Head saves their lives, the LGM refer to him as "Daddy!" and form a strong, child-like attachment to him. In part 3, they return the favor, and in response he draws them up in his arms, calling them "my boys!"

Imprinting is the psychological condition where an animal (usually seen with animals that come from eggs, like birds) will follow the first moving object it sees, believing it to be its mother. Mistakes happen, naturally, as there have been times where ducklings have followed cars, plastic bags, humans (who used this to experiment on the full aspects of imprinting) or, in some cases, its own brothers or sisters.