History Main / StockFootage

** ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' used this quite frequently, especially in its earlier years. Footage from two separate episodes of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' (made thirty years apart) is used to represent Dr. Weird's asylum base, footage from episode six of ''Challenge of the WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' is used for scenes with MC Pee Pants in hell, even reusing the lava monster from the episode as Satan, and footage from ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'' is used for the city skyline in every episode (along with a few other recycled bits here and there, such as the Powerpuff Mall and the shot of the crowd from "Circus",); then there's fire footage recorded by the animators on a camping trip whenever burning is represented on screen.

* Despite ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' being one of the more well animated cartoons and thus rarely ever using Stock Footage, in "Rollercoaster: The Musical!" there are scenes when the kids are riding the rollercoaster that clearly shows that the animators just reused scenes from the original Rollercoaster episode. In the original it was background characters riding, while in the musical it's the Fireside Girls, Baljeet, and Buford. They switch between characters at certain parts. A few of the scenes between Doofenshmirtz and Perry were also reused, but it is slightly justified since they are only remaking the episode as a musical and most of their parts are the same.

* The training course in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rollbots}}'', though in ''09:F9:11'', it was spliced with a scene of Daso chanting to create a chilling effect.

* The 1970 film ''Film/MyraBreckinridge'' splices in scenes from other Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox movies, mostly from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood (plus a clip from ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', which featured Creator/RaquelWelch, who also stars in this film), to either comment upon the action or serve as a punchline. Due to the usage of clips in the film's notorious dildo rape scene, actress Loretta Young successfully sued to have footage of her taken out, while a clip of Creator/ShirleyTemple getting sprayed in the face with milk (at the end of an earlier scene involving an orgasm) was taken out after the White House supposedly pressured Fox to do so (the replacement was [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy Oliver Hardy]] sprayed with champagne). The film even includes the obligatory atomic bomb test footage stock footage in a few scenes.

* Speaking of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''-level [[UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory auteurism,]] one is hard pressed to think of an Creator/EdWood movie that ''doesn't'' make extensive use of (hopefully) PublicDomain archival film.

* UsefulNotes/LaserDisc-format arcade games had three options: create a film-length animation, shoot a live-action film, or make use of stock footage. ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' averted this trope by dedicating a significant portion of the development to putting together an animated film (under Creator/DonBluth). Several of the companies that simply wanted to FollowTheLeader, however, hacked together scenes from then-obscure {{anime}} hoping that that nobody would notice. Examples include:

* By contrast, ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' did not realize this. Stock footage of transformations and Cyber Key Powerups were essentially used to fill up chunks of time (to the ridiculous extreme that they'd cut to extremely short transformation sequences, flashing backdrop and everything, and then back to the real world). The dubbers did eventually cotton on to how boring this was, however, and had the characters [[FillingTheSilence talk ''while'' the stock footage was happening]]. Its predecessor, ''[[Anime/TransformersArmada Transformers: Energon]]'', while also using the same type of stock footage, was not that bad about it.

* Creator/MichaelBay has a tendency to reuse footage from his earlier projects in his Film/TransformersFilmSeries. A shot of an aircraft carrier from ''Film/PearlHarbor'' showed up near the end of ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' , and a car crash from ''Film/TheIsland2005'' was recycled for ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon''.

* Stock Footage of an exploding car is worked into "Sabotage" by the Music/BeastieBoys. The "Literal Video Version" faithfully pointed this out.

* On ''WesternAnimation/PoppyCat'', The scene were Poppy removes her Bandana Neck tie after she says "But First..." is re-used in some all episodes.

* Before ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' switched to HD, the same shot of kids cheering for Krusty was reused in several episodes. Other scenes were repeated occasionally too, like outside shots of the nuclear power plant or the Simpsons' house.

*** Played straight in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E13RadioBart Radio Bart]]" where the police notify Homer and Marge of Bart being trapped in the well. The footage is taken from the previous season's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving Bart vs. Thanksgiving]]".

:: Also, due to the novelty of CGI at the time it was considered cool and trendy to use it, so they put in as much as they could within the budget, even though the result often looked awful and [[ArtStyleClash out-of-place]]. In particular, the first few seasons used the same stock footage of a poorly-rendered CG model of New York's streets whenever Spidey swung around.

** The [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries '90s series]] also used a stock footage of a (poorly-rendered) CGI model of New York's streets whenever Spidey swang around. This was dropped in later seasons. The '90s series was notorious for its rampant use of stock footage, made even worse by the fact that they didn't even fit at least half of the time. They exploited the fact that many shots were from action scenes with minimal dialogue, or the original dialogue was delivered by masked characters or was part of an InnerMonologue, so it was easy to re-dub the footage. They also often flipped the frame or altered the frame rate, but the incongruous backgrounds are still a giveaway.

** The countdown and launch footage from "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" was reused in "People Are Alike All Over".
** Footage of the ''C-57-D'' from ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'' appears in some episodes. At the end of "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" the footage is disguised by being shown upside down and backwards - this was achieved by simply turning the clip upside down before splicing it in. In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan To Serve Man]]", however, although the full-size ''C-57-D'' landing ramp is used, the Kanamit spaceship's takeoff is represented by one of the titular spacecraft from ''Film/EarthVsTheFlyingSaucers'', animated by Creator/RayHarryhausen.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E10JudgementNight Judgement Night]]", footage of the titular ship from the 1959 film ''The Wreck of the Mary Deare'' is used to depict the S.S. ''Queen of Glasgow''.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E35TheMightyCasey The Mighty Casey]]", footage of crowd scenes from the Polo Grounds and Fenway Park is shown during the montage of the Hoboken Zephyrs' winning streak.
** The final scene of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E54TheOdysseyOfFlight33 The Odyssey of Flight 33]]" features stock footage of the 1939 New York World's Fair, specifically the Trylon and the Perisphere.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan To Serve Man]]", the arrival of the Kanamit ambassador's ship is taken from ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951''. Later, a clip from ''Film/EarthVsTheFlyingSaucers'' is used to represent a departing Kanamit ship. Furthermore, footage of a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is used when the Kanamit ambassador's polygraph test is shown to that body.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E93TheLittlePeople The Little People]]" uses footage from a Mercury Program launch to represent William Fletcher departing.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E112NoTimeLikeThePast No Time Like the Past]]", footage of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and Hermann Göring attending a Nazi rally is shown during the scene in which Paul Driscoll attempts to assassinate Hitler.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E113TheParallel The Parallel]]", footage of a space capsule being launched is used to represent Major Robert Gaines departing aboard the ''Phoebus 10''.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E135TheLongMorrow The Long Morrow]]", footage of a Mercury launch is used to represent the launch of Commander Douglas Stansfield.

** In "Chameleon", footage of a UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} space shuttle in orbit, several astronauts on a spacewalk and the shuttle returning to Earth are used to represent the ''Discovery'''s mission.
** In "Private Channel", all of the exterior shots of the plane are taken from ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie''.

*** ''Anime/PoemonTheSeriesXY'' got rid of this with a simple solution: recycle the attack footage, but use a different background matching the scenario each time it's used, instead of generic motion lines.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the earlier seasons, Ash would turn back his cap over a green action blur, following a closeup of his eye, whenever throwing a Poké Ball. Around the time the show began using computer coloring, this footage stopped appearing.

** ''Best Wishes'' in particular is notorious for it's overuse of stock footage for Pokémon attacks. Most of them have ''only one'' animation.
*** ''XY'' got rid of this with a simple solution: recycle the attack footage, but use a different background matching the scenario each time it's used, instead of generic motion lines.

*** Speaking of Team Rocket, their motto usually recycled scenes for some of their lines from time to time, but since '' Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N'' onwards, the motto is 100% stock footage.

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' tends to use stock footage quite a bit. Most of the time it isn't noticeable, but there was one incident where it just came off truly lazy. In the episode [[spoiler: Terri is put into a near-fatal coma by Rick]], and they use a far-away shot of Craig walking toward the hospital for location establishment. This would be fine, except for the fact that Craig ''isn't even in'' the episode! This turns an otherwise very serious episode [[{{Narm}} temporarily comedic]].

Occasionally, stock footage from other sources is used in cartoons for comedic effect; a series of stock footage clips are shown, each one more absurd than the last.