History Main / WrapAroundBackground

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' episode "The Big Round Pink Sticky Fish Thingy". Norb tries to get away with the eponymous "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.

* This occurs several times in the first ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' movie "Asterix Of The Gauls".

* Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' opens with a train taking Mario from Toad Town to Mt. Rugged with a repeating background between the locations.
* Many of the levels of ''VideoGame/{{Super Mario Bros|1}}.'' have the exact same hill, bush, and cloud repeating itself every three screen widths as Mario moves across each level.

* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': Parodied in one of the segments in "Charlie's Halloween Thing 2". The Baby Bears are running from a wolfman as part of a ''Scooby Doo'' parody, when the wolfman suddenly stops and [[MediumAwareness seems to notice the wraparound background]]. Then the Bears run out the left side of the screen and back in on the opposite side.

Today, largely a DiscreditedTrope. Compare CutAndPasteEnvironments for video games, and UnnaturallyLoopingLocation, for locations looping in-universe.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' lampshades 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.

This trope was lampshaded even ''before'' it saw widespread uses, with some older WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes having the camera would zoom out for us to see the characters running on a a treadmill powering the background, before the characters themselves notice and jump off the treadmill to continue the chase properly.

* 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.

* In ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', the Strong Bad Email ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail23.html little animal]]'' ends with Strong Mad chasing Strong Bad past a wraparound background.

** This trope is referenced in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy.'' Peter and Meg are having a discussion while walking down the streets of New York City, which suddenly become the repetitive thoroughfares of ''The Flintstones''' Bedrock.

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

It's rarely found in anime, where the tendency is to [[InactionSequence avoids long running sequences]] to begin with, or to instead use an abstract background when doing so ([[SpeedStripes speed lines]], pastel versions of cityscapes, and other easy-to-draw things) in order to cut costs.

** The first ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'', as well as ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', had train stages that looped the level.

** This was used as a minor plot point in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''; the staircase that led up to Bowser's final hideout were infinite, and the curse would only break when Mario collected 70 stars. The staircase was lined with portraits of Bowser on both walls at constant intervals. What happened was that at a particular painting, Mario was seamlessly teleported in front of the previous painting, and since the upper area is in darkness, it gives the illusion of infinity. The illusion is easily broken if you get the camera to face the beginning of the staircase.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' uses this trick for the train in the beginning. Every shot of "outside" is a looping FMV.
* ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople - Episode 4:'' ''[[ColonCancer Dangeresque 3:]]'' '''''[[ColonCancer The Criminal Projective]]''''' (which is basically an interactive [[ShowWithinAShow Movie Within A Web Animation Licensed Game]]) had a badly made Wraparound Background in its [[StylisticSuck "car chase"]]. The Cheat was carrying a single branch back and forth in the background.
** This exact type of wraparound was used in the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' web series this game was based on, in the Strong Bad Email "dangeresque 3", where Strong Bad as consolation for not making ''Dangeresque 3'' by June of 2004 (and starting production only four months previous to the Email) shows a "director's cut" of the first film.
** This is similar to the effect used on ''[[VideoGame/RavingRabbids Rayman Raving Rabbids]]''. Several of the shooting sequences take place on a train. However, it's actually a movie set, with the train stationary and the Rabbids running by with bushes and cacti every few seconds.
* The 1980s arcade game ''VideoGame/OperationWolf'' used these.

* Many of the levels of ''VideoGame/{{Super Mario Bros|1}}.'' had the exact same hill, bush, and cloud repeating itself every three screen widths as Mario moves across each level.
* ''VideoGame/WallyBearAndTheNoGang'' featured levels that looped several times.

* In ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', the Strong Bad Email ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail23.html little animal]]'' ended with Strong Mad chasing Strong Bad past a wraparound background.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', instead of copypasting, shares the background among as many adjacent panels as possible, even if the "camera" didn't move a bit. (At least for its first 200-and-odd strips.) It's most notable in the Starmetal arc (strips [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0150.html #150]] to #173), because the same 3 or so backgrounds are recycled over and over, but this trick is used cleverly at other points of the comic.

* ''WesternAnimation/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 Creator/HannaBarbera stars were literally "walking around in circles" when they got stuck in the Wraparound Background and tried to get out. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0-coASIjkQ Check it out]]!
** Lampshaded again in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_av-E6LHoU Cartoon Network ident]] for The Flintstones

** One especially blatant example occurred in one of the Flintstones Christmas specials, where Santa arrived at a party and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm led a large group of children across a stationary background to meet him. This large group was then followed by... Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. That's right, Wraparound [=FOREGROUND=].
* Particularly noticeable in ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', since every episode involved exploration and chases.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' skewered it in "The Front". 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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. Also 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 ''WesternAnimation/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" and gave Hanna and Barbera a ShoutOut.
* Similarly parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers''. 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.

* Some of the really cheap [[Creator/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 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 Franchise/{{DCAU}} did it, too.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/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.

** Justified? They were running in a circle around the room, with the camera perspective in the middle following them.

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/MightyMouse Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures]]'' that lampooned ''Scooby-Doo''. During a chase scene, Mighty Mouse runs past the same clock and window several times before the camera pulls back and reveals that the hallway has several of them spaced few feet apart.

Occasionally Lampshaded in old WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes where the camera would zoom out and we see the characters running on a a treadmill powering the background causing the characters to jump off the treadmill and continue the chase.

It's rarely found in anime, which when cutting animation costs mostly [[InactionSequence avoids long running sequences]] or uses an abstract background when doing so ([[SpeedStripes speed lines]], pastel versions of cityscapes, and other easy-to-draw things).

Today, largely a DiscreditedTrope. Compare CutAndPasteEnvironments for video games.

Today, largely a DiscreditedTrope.

* ''WesternAnimation/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. Also the CouchGag where the family runs past their own living room over and over.

* During the model train chase in Franchise/WallaceAndGromit's ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers''. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the train is actually going around in circles around the edges of the same room. The creators even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this in the DVD audio commentary.

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/MightyMouse Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures]] that lampooned ''Scooby-Doo''. During a chase scene, Mighty Mouse runs past the same clock and window several times before the camera pulls back and reveals that the hallway has several of them spaced few feet apart.

* Music/REM's [[https://youtu.be/YYOKMUTTDdA?t=148 video]] for "Shiny Happy People" features an old man on a bicycle powering the wraparound backdrop of stage.