History Main / PaintedTunnelRealTrain

* ''Kings Quest VI'': One of the ways to sneak into the castle is to paint a door on the side with a magic paintbrush, then simply open it.

* ''{{Farscape}}'', a (relatively) serious live-action show, spends an episode inside the subconscious of the main character John Crichton, which is apparently highly influenced by old LooneyTunes cartoons. Crichton and an animated version of the angry alien warrior D'Argo engage in a series of Coyote-and-Road Runner–style chases, all of which center on Crichton painting wormholes onto the wall, which act as Artistic Expression tunnels.

<<|AnimatedTrope|>>[[animated]]

A lot of times, a predator is trying desperately to [[RoadRunnerVsCoyote catch his prey]] but the prey proves to be [[SuperSpeed much too quick]]. How do you stop a creature that never stops moving? Have it run into a wall of course! How do you do that? Simple, draw a tunnel over it.

So the villain takes his brush and creates a realistic looking tunnel in [[CartoonlandTime 3 seconds]]! The prey comes along and the villain hides behind a rock to see the creature stupidly run into the solid wall. The prey runs towards the tunnel, and disappears into it. The villain may be baffled, but decides that he needs to go after his prey. He begins to run into the tunnel, but either crashes directly into the solid wall, or gets run over by a train or bus that has somehow come through the tunnel.

This trope occurs anytime characters are able to enter into a from some sort of painted surface through the RuleOfFunny. We usually never see where the character ends up after entering the tunnel nor is it ever made an issue.

* An episode of ''HouseOfMouse'' involving DonaldDuck and [[Disney/TheThreeCaballeros the Aracuan Bird]] featured a scene where the Aracuan can bee seen drawing a door on the wall, then opening it to reveal [[TheLionKing a stampede of wildebeest]] who then trample Donald.

* ''{{The Fairly OddParents}}'' takes it a step further: In "Back to the Norm", Crocker paints a cliff so it appears to be Trixie Tang holding two ice cream cones and standing in front of a tunnel. As a cherry on top, on top of the cliff is a rock which would fall when someone hits the cliff. Timmy rides into it, but instead of crashing, "Trixie" hands him an ice cream cone and jumps on his bike as they ride through the tunnel. Crocker starts to chase after them like one would expect, but he stops just before he is about to hit the wall the tunnel is painted, because he is apparently GenreSavvy enough to realize that the wall will be solid again when he tries to run through the tunnel.

* An episode of ''HouseofMouse'' involving DonaldDuck and [[Disney/TheThreeCaballeros the Aracuan Bird]] featured a scene where the Aracuan can bee seen drawing a door on the wall, then opening it to reveal [[TheLionKing a stampede of wildebeest]] who then trample Donald.

* ''{{The Fairly OddParents}}'' takes it a step further: In "Back to the Norm", Crocker paints a wall so it appears to be Trixie Tang holding two ice cream cones and standing in front of a tunnel. Timmy rides into it, but instead of Timmy crashing, "Trixie" hands him an ice cream cone and jumps on his bike as they ride through the tunnel. Crocker starts to chase after them like one would expect, but he stops just before he is about to hit the wall the tunnel is painted, because he is apparently GenreSavvy enough to realize that the wall will be solid again when he tries to run through the tunnel.
** But he then spazzes out at hits the wall.

So the villain takes his brush and creates a realistic looking tunnel in [[CartoonlandTime 3 seconds]]! The prey comes along and the villain hides behind a rock to see the creature stupidly run into the solid wall. The prey runs towards the tunnel, and disappears into it. The villain may be baffled, but decides that he needs to go after his prey. He begins to run into the tunnel, but crashes directly into the solid wall.

* ''WackyRaces'': Dick Dastardly used a landscape painted on a piece of upright solid steel to try and wreck the other racers. Not only did they drive into it unharmed, but a ''bus'' drove out of it and flattened him.

* Parodied and subverted in [[{{Ptitle36fwwzhk}} Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]. Brendan Fraser's character is chasing DaffyDuck around Warner Bros studios. Daffy runs into a painted backdrop of a tunnel, as if it were really there. Fraser follows, but because the picture is painted on canvas, he is able to tear right through instead of the traditional injuring himself. Daffy deems this cheating.

* Parodied and subverted in [[{{Ptitle36fwwzhk}} Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]. Brendan Fraser's character is chasing DaffyDuck around Warner Bros studios. Daffy runs into a painted backdrop of a tunnel, as if it were really there. Fraser follows, but because the picture is painted on canvass, he is able to tear right through instead of the traditional injuring himself. Daffy deems this cheating.

* ''WackyRaces'' Dick Dastardly used a landscape painted on a piece of upright solid steel to try and wreck the other racers. Not only did they drive into it unharmed, but a ''bus'' drove out of it and flattened him.

* ''WackyRaces'' was heavily influenced by the Road Runner cartoons and used several variations on the trompe-l'œil painted tunnel gag, substituting Dick Dastardly for Wile E. Coyote and the other racers for the Road Runner.

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]
* ''{{FoxTrot}}'' includes paintings and magazine covers which change between panels (for instance, a character in a poster wandering off the edges, or an apple in a still-life painting showing a bite).
* A similar device was used in ''{{Pogo}}''. In strips where the characters were out fishing, their boat had a different name on each panel.

* ''{{The Fairly OddParents}}'' takes it a step further: In "Back to the Norm", Crocker paints a wall so it appears to be Trixie Tang holding two ice cream cones and standing in front of a tunnel. Timmy rides into it, but instead of Timmy crashing, Trixie hands him an ice cream cone and jumps on his bike as they ride through the tunnel.
** Afther Timmy and Trixie both go through the tunnel, Crocker is about the chase after them like one would expect. However, he stops just before he is about to hit the wall the tunnel is painted, because he is apparantly {{genresavvy}} enough to realise that the wall will be solid again when he tries to run through the tunnel.

* A Coors Light commercial also playing as of 2010 has an artist painting a tunnel onto a wall, then adding a little bit of light for an oncoming train...which turns into the "Silver Bullet", the ice-cold Coors Light train that automatically lowers the temperature of the air surrounding it to the ''perfect'' temperature for enjoying Coors Light.

* ''Kings Quest VI'': One of the ways to sneak into the castle is to paint a door on the side with a magic paintbrush, then simply open it.

* In a couple of his movies ("ThePlayhouse", ''SteamboatBillJr,'') BusterKeaton uses an old vaudeville gag in which a comedian performing against a backdrop painted to look like a body of water dives into it -- he actually jumps through a horizontal slit in the canvas.