History Main / WrapAroundBackground

* Most train or [[ElevatorActionSequence elevator levels]] in 3D games (generally, they loop indefinitely until you defeat a boss or complete some objective).

* By nature of being ''scrolling'' shooters, many {{Shoot Em Up}}s have them during boss battles. ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}'', notably, combines this with seamless stage transitions, resulting in stretches of land whose length depend on how fast you take to defeat the boss, even if the stretch is a runway and the fight goes on long enough that the runway becomes far longer than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_runways the world's longest runway, which is 5,500 meters long]].

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* By nature of being ''scrolling'' shooters, many {{Shoot Em Up}}s. have them during boss battles. ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}'', notably, combines this with seamless stage transitions, resulting in stretches of land whose length depend on how fast you take to defeat the boss, even if the stretch is a runway and the fight goes on long enough that the runway becomes far longer than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_runways the world's longest runway, which is 5,500 meters long]].

-->-- '''Wanda''', ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', [[WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers "Channel Chasers"]]

* ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' features a number of scenes with {{Wraparound Background}}s. There is one scene in the "Pineapple Salad" episode where this trope is made incredibly obvious by the fact that the perspective of the streetscape suddenly 'jumps' when the loop is restarted!

* The characters of ''BeKindRewind'' are seen setting up a revolving drum of cars on a street, which is used to film the the scene in ''Film/MenInBlack'' where they drive upside-down in the tunnel.

* And before back projection, a revolving drum was used.
** The revolving drum technique was revived by Gerry Anderson's puppet shows. Runway shots of aircraft used a more sophisticated technique involving separate conveyor belts painted with wraparound details for the runway, land background and sky background, all of which were run at different speeds to simulate perspective.

* Referenced in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', when Libby mentions how this was done in ''TheFlintstones'' and then points out that they have passed the same tree several times.
* The set for the corridors of the Enterprise in classic ''StarTrek'' consisted of one curved corridor with a couple straight ones intersecting it. The foot chase through the ship at the end of ''LetThatBeYourLastBattlefield'' passes through the same intersections many, many times.

* TelltaleGames' ''SamAndMax'' seasons do the same thing during the driving segments. Possibly {{Lampshaded}} in the Season Two finale, where the [[CoolCar DeSoto]] is in its own personal hell - driving down the same endlessly looping streets at an insanely slow speed - and the buildings in the distance are just painted onto the wall.

* ''MetalGearSolid2'' uses this to simulate the Tanker moving down the Hudson River. The combination of rain, fog, the fact that it's evening and the spray from the ship disguises this unless you're looking for it.

* Many of the levels of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' had the exact same hill, bush, and cloud repeating itself every three screen widths as Mario moves across each level.

* A rather egregious example occurs towards the end of ''WebAnimation/DusksDawn'' when Donut is walking down the longest and least interesting hallway in Equestria for over an entire minute. He even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it, not that it makes it any more bearable.

* ''TheFlintstones'' was guilty of this in nearly every episode, as were quite a few other Hanna-Barbera shows from the sixties and seventies. A Cartoon Network promo [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] in which, after running across such a background, Barney Rubble taps Fred Flintstone on his shoulder using the "wraparound". Another promo was a music video of Music/SoulCoughing's "Circles," where Fred, Barney, and other [[HannaBarbera Hanna-Barbera]] stars were literally "walking around in circles" when they got stuck in the WraparoundBackground and tried to get out. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0-coASIjkQ Check it out]]!

** Parodied and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' TrappedInTVLand episode "Channel Chasers".

* Particularly noticeable in ''ScoobyDoo'', since every episode involved exploration and chases.

* ''TheSimpsons'' skewered it. The background behind Bart and Lisa repeats itself, complete with the same janitor, while they take a tour of the ''Itchy and Scratchy Show'' cartoon studio.
** And of course, during this scene, the tour guide mentions the fact that backgrounds are often recycled to keep costs down, thus driving the point home.
*** The commentary mentions that they had to put the woman mopping because people are almost trained NOT to look at the backgrounds. They had to use a very short loop and movement in the background to draw attention to it.
** And don't forget the CouchGag where the family runs past their own living room over and over.
* Subverted, with LampshadeHanging, in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' that was itself an {{Homage}} to ''WackyRaces''. Dee Dee asks her imaginary friend Koosalagoopagoop (whom she is also using as her vehicle) why the background keeps repeating. Koos explains that it used to be a popular cost-cutting measure, but then the racers discover that they are stuck in a trap set up by Mandark, in the form of a treadmill surrounded by holograms of various rocks going by them again and again. Koosie even mentioned the industry name "the Repeat Pan".
* Similarly parodied in an episode of ''AngryBeavers''. In "The Big Round Pink Sticky Fish Thingy", Norb tries to get away with the titular "fish thingy" (a rare sturgeon egg) after tricking Dagget into looking for it elsewhere. Norb finds himself going past a repeating background of absurd images, including a reproduction of "Washington Crossing The Delaware", and realizes he's running on a treadmill with a scrolling background hastily constructed by Dagget.
* Subverted at least twice in ''LittleDracula'', where some character is riding a car or a horse in front of what turns out to be a Wraparound Background.
* Parodically lampshaded in ''RubyGloom'', during the episode "Name that Toon". As Skull Boy leads Scaredy Bat past the backdrop sheets for his cartoon, he says he'll try to avoid Repeat Pans, another name for this trope, and Scaredy Bat agrees that they invariably look cheesy. This entire sequence is shot in front of a Wraparound Background, made particularly obvious as the same two distinctive backdrop sheets are repeated over and over.
* Parodied by Peter Kay, who compares the ''layout of a wedding buffet'' to this trope, referencing ''ScoobyDoo''. (Vol-au-vents, chicken wings, cheesecake, vol-au-vents, chicken wings, etc.)
* During the model train chase in WallaceAndGromit's "WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers". [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the train is actually going around in circles around the edges of the same room. The creators even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this in the DVD audio commentary.
* Parodied in one ''InvaderZim'' episode, "A Room With A Moose". To keep his class distracted while he sends them to pocket dimension containing a moose, Zim puts them on a bus and has a wraparound background playing on the windows.
* Some of the really cheap [[DCComics DC Superhero cartoons]] are very guilty of this. The worst example is in a Flash short in which Flash and Kid Flash chased Zoom throughout the world, including a chase in Egypt in which they pass by [[TheyJustDidntCare thirty pyramids]]. Note: there are only three "True Pyramids", and about half-a-dozen failed attempts.
** It wasn't just the cheap DC toons. The {{DCAU}} did it, too.
* An episode of ''GarfieldAndFriends'' lampshaded it during one of its chase scenes. After several seconds of Garfield chasing a mouse around the house, Garfield turns to the audience and remarks on how cartoon backgrounds tend to repeat themselves.

* ''Westernanimation/HereComesTheGrump'' is full of them, thanks to the many chase scenes.
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''SpyGroove''. While the guys are driving through Miami, the narrator points out how they pass by "another palm tree and juice bar".
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''JohnnyTest'', where Johnny gets turned into a mouse and then chased by his intelligent cat nemesis [[FluffyTheTerrible Mr. Mittens]]. Along with several other [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', at one point while fleeing he muses "I never knew this room was so long... and how many times have I seen that computer? There it is again!"

* In its 19 December 2006 headline on the death of Joseph Barbera (of {{Hanna-Barbera}}), FarkDotCom acknowledged this trope with a joke that had been floating around Usenet: "Joseph Barbera dies. Funeral procession to pass same three buildings every two seconds."
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Animated characters running, driving or in a chase scene will pass the same two bushes, three rocks and four trees over and over again. [[LimitedAnimation It is, or was, a cost-cutting measure]] -- the eternally-looping background saves a lot of time and effort on the part of the animators, no matter where the characters are going and how they're supposed to get there. In the industry, this is known as a "repeat pan."

The effect was most frequently seen in products made by {{Hanna-Barbera}}, but can be spotted in shows from other studios, too.

* A rather egregious example occurs towards the end of ''WebAnimation/DusksDawn'' when Donut is walking down the longest and least interesting hallway in Equestria for over an entire minute.

-->-- '''Wanda''', ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', "Channel Chasers"

* The opening and closing titles of ''{{Taxi}}'' show a taxi driving across New York's Queensboro Bridge. The original footage was too short, so it's repeated a couple of times. The overlaid titles, and the fact that the bridge has a repeating pattern of girders, make this less obvious.
* [[spoiler:George Sr's "wall"]] in ''ArrestedDevelopment'' [[spoiler:is nothing more than a round silo the he drives around in a loop to give the illusion of a wall]].

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''JohnnyTest'', where Johnny gets turned into a mouse and then chased by his intelligent cat nemesis [[FluffyTheDestroyer Mister Mittens]]. Along with several other [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', at one point while fleeing he muses "I never knew this room was so long... and how many times have I seen that computer? There it is again!"
* Parodied and lampshaded in the MusicalRecap of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' Season 3: the binome actors portraying Matrix and [=AndrAIa=] march in place while the backdrop scrolls past them to represent the passage of time, and after the last still image the backdrop slide says "Don't roll farther than this!" Sure enough, as soon as the audience has time to read that message, the backdrop quickly moves in reverse, belatedly trying to correct its mistake.

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', if you watch closely, you can see the background wraparound as Neo is being driven to the Oracle for the first time. Like ''Speed Racer'' above, the scenery is the same on both sides.

* The 1980s arcade game OperationWolf used these.

* Many of the levels of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' had the exact same hill, bush, and cloud repeating itself as Mario moves across each level.
* ''WallyBearAndTheNoGang'' featured levels that looped several times.

* Pretty much every 2D platformer with sprite graphics/traditional backgrounds ever made, since the game only has a certain amount of space for the background image. This can be very noticeable in SuperMarioWorld hacks that forget to stop a background with a prominent feature in it from scrolling when you move, or Super Mario Bros X games that fail to loop the background convincingly enough.

** ''TombRaider: The Last Revelation'' has a rare 3D variation of this when Lara is on a train. The poor draw distance that causes fog to appear helps disguise this trick.

* In the [[VideoGame/HarryPotter video game version]] of ''HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', the Hogwarts Express level has an in-game engine ForcedPerspective background which loops on a virtual revolving drum.

** More subtly, the window in the Captain's Ready Room showed a moving star field at warp. This star field was on a drum.

* Subverted, with LampshadeHanging, in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' that was itself an {{Homage}} to ''WackyRaces''. Dee Dee asks her imaginary friend Koosalagoopagoop (whom she is also using as her vehicle) why the background keeps repeating. Koos explains that it used to be a popular cost-cutting measure, but then the racers discover that they are stuck in a trap set up by Mandark, in the form of a treadmill with a painting of various rocks going by them again and again. Koosie even gave this an appropriate name: the Repeat Pan.

* [[spoiler:George Sr's "wall"]] in ''ArrestedDevelopment''.

* [[spoiler:George Sr's "wall"]] in ''ArrestedDevelopment''.

* A variation in strip [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0166.html #166: Wolverine, eat your heart out]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': instead of copypasting the background, an abstract background is shared among as many adjacent panels as possible, even if in-universe they depict the same spot and camera orientation. (Copypasting wouldn't be as effective because those panels are slightly irregular.)