Line #101 Main/ChasingAButterfly


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/MyNeighborTotoro https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/my_neighbor_totoro.jpg]]]]
2
3	Children -- and childlike, innocent (although [[GentleGiant not necessarily small]]) beings -- are [[ConstantlyCurious curious]] and [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny easily distracted]]. So when a cute, small creature, like a butterfly, passes by them, [[StrayingBaby they will follow it out of curiosity]]. The small animal will either ignore them, or will be scared and flee.
4
5	More often than not, following the critter will lead the characters away from their parents / guardians and into the proximity of some form of danger: a trap, a predator, or even [[CubCuesProtectiveParent the critter's parent]]. Alternatively, the critter itself may be [[KillerRabbit revealed to be dangerous]]. Usually, the guardians arrive just in time to save their child, but that's not always the case.
6
7	Related to AttentionDeficitOohShiny, StrayingBaby and FollowTheWhiteRabbit. PrettyButterflies are a common choice, but it works with any other small and non-threatening creature, or even some pretty, moving inanimate object.
8
9	Unrelated to ButterflyOfDoom, SchrodingersButterfly or ButterflyOfTransformation.
10
11	----
12	!!Examples:
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Advertising]]
17	* A [=DirecTV=] [[SlipperySlopeFallacy Slippery Slope]] [[http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Bg0/directv-stranded ad]] uses chasing butterflies while high on poisonous berries as the endpoint.
18	-->When your cable's on the fritz... you chase imaginary butterflies into something highly illegal. Don't chase butterflies into something highly illegal. Get rid of cable and upgrade to [=DirecTV=].
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22	* Happens in a chapter of the Japanese-only ''Franchise/{{Neptunia}}'' manga, with [[FountainOfYouth a de-aged Uni]] crawling after balloons. Neptune soon catches up with her, but this causes her to cry, and causes more mishaps.
23	* In the anime version of ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', Miaka chases after an apparition of a phoenix (representing, of course, [[TheFourGods Suzaku]]). In the manga, she discovers the phoenix while chasing after an errant pencil.
24	* In ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'', it's used to illustrate Esteban's innocence, he has a fascination with butterflies that begins during the sea crossing from Spain. This later nearly gets him killed when he starts trying to catch butterflies while on the way to the Fort of the Black Eagle, and is shot at by Gomez's soldiers.
25	* Seen as a FunnyBackgroundEvent in Episode 9 of ''Anime/OhSuddenlyEgyptianGod''; while the other gods are hard at work cultivating rice, Medjed is off chasing a butterfly -- and then he floats off into the air following it as it flies away.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
29	* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': In Season 6 episode 11, Happy S. finds a butterfly and is about to chase it when the old man he is visiting warns him not to, explaining that the butterfly will take him to a confinement swamp filled with monsters. Happy S. completely ignores his instructions and chases the butterfly anyway.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Eastern European Animation]]
33	* In the Hungarian short ''Animation/PangeaTheNeverendingWorld'', Rexy, the baby ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' chases a butterfly, which leads him away from his nest to a ravine he almost falls in. He is also attacked by a ''Spinosaurus''.
34	* The titular character of ''Animation/VukTheLittleFox'', as a young predator, tends to chase after everything he sees. He almost falls off the cliff when he attacks a lizard while his uncle is asleep.
35	* In ''Animation/KeremAKovetkezot'', Ursula the bear nurse enjoys capturing butterflies to see how happy they are when she releases them (although the one butterfly we see her releasing clearly looks more annoyed than happy).
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Fan Works]]
39	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Young Mittens, just adopted out of the pound, is chasing a butterfly in the housing project's shared yard space when she does a CrashIntoHello with Petey in "The Survivor."
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
43	* Mei, the younger girl from ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', tends to do this. First she chases the soot sprites all over the house; then she gets lost when she [[FollowTheWhiteRabbit follows Chibi-Totoro into the woods]]. Although she encounters a monstrous creature (the titular Totoro), fortunately he is a GentleGiant, so the danger part is averted.
44	* Happens twice with the main character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}''; first with a butterfly, then with a frog. In neither case does it lead to danger.
45	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'', a young Merida follows [[WillOTheWisp the Will-o'-the-Wisps]] into the forest, where she is attacked by [[BearsAreBadNews Mor'du the bear]].
46	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'':
47	** In the first movie, the very first thing Ducky does after hatching is chasing after a prehistoric butterfly, nearly into the jaws of a snapping turtle. In a later scene, Littlefoot and Cera chase a frog before their first encounter with Sharptooth.
48	** In [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeIITheGreatValleyAdventure the second movie]], newborn ''Tyrannosaurus'' Chomper chases after a dragonfly that he wants to eat, following it right to the slope of an active volcano.
49	* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King\|1994}}'':
50	** In the original movie, Simba, while waiting in the gorge, chases a chameleon, practicing his roar on it. Then the [[AnimalStampede stampede]] arrives.
51	** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', Kiara chases a butterfly, which leads her to a rock near a pond that has a great view of the Outlands. Timon and Pumbaa follow behind her, intending to keep her safe, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but accidentally cause her to lose her balance, falling off the rock and into the pond as a result]].
52	* At the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'', Baby Alakay (who would later grow up to be Alex) chases a butterfly to the edge of the animal reserve, which leads him to get captured by a pair of poachers.
53	* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', where Kala and Kerchak's baby follows a frog, which leads him to Sabor the leopard. [[DeathOfAChild The results aren't pretty]].
54	* At the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'', a baby parasaurolophus chases after a winged lizard, which leads him to a Carnotaur that starts chasing after the other dinosaurs.
55	* Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/WallE'': WALL•E notices a glowing red dot near his home, which seems to dart away from him tantalizingly. The lonely robot pursues the curious dot to a barren area, until he discovers that it's a targeting light for a landing spacecraft. WALL•E does well to dig himself into a bunker before the landing rockets melt him into slag.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59	* In the opening scene of ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'', a little girl follows a ''[[KillerRabbit Compsognathus]]'', only to be attacked by a whole flock of them.
60	* Symbolically in ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', when the Creature is enraptured by the Frankenstein family lullaby, he idly snatches at the air as if trying to grab invisible butterflies.
61	* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'', Baby Groot chases around and nearly eats an alien bug while the rest of the team is busy fighting the Abilisk.
62	* ''Film/JojoRabbit'': While scavenging through his German hometown, now rendered impoverished by UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Jojo encounters a blue butterfly and happily chases it for a while into the town square. When the butterfly goes away, he stands up, [[spoiler:right next to the corpse of his mother]], hung for [[spoiler:her]] subversive actions against the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Third Reich]] young Jojo had idolized for the first half of the movie.
63	* ''Film/TheRedBalloon'' is a classic film about a boy's adventure through Paris chasing said (possibly sapient) balloon.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Literature]]
67	* ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' starts with Alice [[FollowTheWhiteRabbit following a white rabbit]] out of curiosity and falling down its hole, which leads her to [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} Wonderland]].
68	* At the beginning of ''Literature/JurassicPark'' a child finds a cute little dinosaur and chases after it under the assumption that it's just some native Costa Rican lizard, only to find out the hard way that ''Procompsognathus'' has a venomous bite.
69	* Invoked in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' with Stapleton, a butterfly collector willing to run through a dangerous mire in order to collect a rare specimen. [[spoiler: It turns out though that he's the BigBad of the piece.]]
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
73	* Over the course of the season one finale and the season two premier of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Dewie experiences a BlackHumor parody of Film/TheRedBalloon beginning with his chase after said balloon after his babysitter has a heart attack.
74	* In ''Series/TheOrville'' episode "Midnight Blue," Topa sees a rare blue Luminite, a tiny creature that glows like a firefly, and chases it into the woods [[spoiler:where she is abducted by a crew of Moclans.]]
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
78	* The title character of ''Series/SusuASarkany'' is a GentleGiant dragon with a childlike personality, who quite obsessed with butterflies; he loves to run after them, even though he never catches them.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Video Games]]
82	* In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', Felicia's VictoryPose has her FailedAttemptAtDrama interrupted by a butterfly passing by and she promptly chases it.
83	* Mayu in ''VideoGame/FatalFrameII: Crimson Butterfly''. She chases after butterflies all the time, and then she "gets lost." This leaves you alone. The butterflies are the souls of dead sacrifices, so her following them never bodes well.
84	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the wings of various butterflies are ingredients for some of the more useful potion recipes. Thus, it is not a rare sight to see the Dovahkiin, slayer of dragons, go out of his/her way to chase down some butterflies.
85	* In ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', the second bonus level features a baby chasing a butterfly through a construction site, and it's up to the family cat to save him.
86	* ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'': In a few of the cutscenes, the teal-haired girl Trenia can be seen chasing a butterfly. This catches Zetta's attention, who notes that only Overlord-class beings can exist where they are currently. [[spoiler: This ends up foreshadowing that Trenia is much more than what she seems to be.]]
87	* ''VideoGame/APlagueTaleInnocence'' has sheltered five-year-old Hugo forced to leave home. Much to the consternation of his older sister Amicia, who is a bit more worldly and ''far'' more aware of how dire their circumstances are, Hugo often gets distracted by things like food, a chance to play hide-and-seek, and frogs along the bank of a river, running off in pursuit. Later he chases butterflies, and since ''that'' happens in a far safer location Amicia is content to let him.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Web Animation]]
91	* The ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' between [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Felicia]] and [[VideoGame/BlazBlue Taokaka]] begins with Felicia engaging in this activity, leading to her accidentally bumping into Taokaka. [[spoiler:The fight later pauses for a bit when the butterfly floats by the two {{Cat Girl}}s, leading to ''both'' of them chasing after it]].
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Western Animation]]
95	* The whole premise of the "Mindy and Buttons" shorts of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}''. Mindy follows a cute critter, oblivious to danger, while [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter Buttons]] tries to rescue her.
96	* In the short ''WesternAnimation/BigBuckBunny'', the titular GentleGiant rabbit chases after a butterfly, only to be attacked by a trio of {{Screwball Squirrel}}s.
97	* In the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainFlamingo'' episode "[[Recap/CaptainFlamingoS1E4BeyondTheThundermonkeyDomeGumControl Gum Control]]", Kirsten follows a butterfly shortly after popping a huge bubblegum bubble, causing a lot of stuff such as cats, bushes, and even humans to get stuck on her while chasing it.
98	* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Extra Large Medium" has Chris chasing a butterfly with Stewie on his back and the two end up getting lost in the woods.
99	--> '''Stewie:''' You just ''had'' to chase that butterfly!
100	--> '''Chris:''' Yes, I had to. I came here to explore nature!
101	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' episode "The Chip: Part 1", Dexter’s cat Mr. Chubbikins does this and winds up walking across his keyboard, entering the exact sequence of keys needed to activate the Pinnacle Chip’s flaw.
102	* In the Creator/{{Disney}} short ''WesternAnimation/GoliathII'', the titular baby elephant follows a butterfly, only to be attacked by a tiger and a crocodile. He later chases a pair of snails and falls down a hole.
103	* This is how Baby Herman crawls into (and out of) danger in the ''WesternAnimation/RogerRabbitShorts''. In "Tummy Trouble" he chases a milk bottle that rolls off a cart; in "Roller Coaster Rabbit" it's a red balloon; and in "Trail Mix-Up" it's a beaver.
104	* Brattus from ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' is sometimes prone to this trope, which leads to Bogus trying to keep his younger cousin out of trouble.
105	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E11ThreesACrowd Three's a Crowd]]", Pinkie Pie follows a balloon that floats away off screen. We don't see her again for the rest of the episode...
106	* Played in [[PlayedForDrama the darkest manner possible]] in ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'', when it is revealed that [[spoiler:Lula the Witch's daughter ''[[DeathOfAChild died]]'' after carelessly chasing a butterfly near a cliff and tripping, causing her to fall off the ledge and split her head open on a rock.]]
107	* ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'':
108	** In "[[Recap/RugratsS1E5BeautyContestBaseball Baseball]]", Lou and Stu take Tommy to a baseball game between the Grizzlies and the Boston Boomers. Tommy gets a balloon at the game, which becomes the main focus of the episode's plot, as it keeps escaping his grasp. He leaves to chase the balloon while Lou and Stu are oblivious that he's missing and continue to watch the game. At one point, Tommy wanders onto a high balcony and falls from it trying to catch his balloon. Fortunately, Bucky Majors, a player for the Grizzlies, catches him before he hits the ground.
109	** A non-lethal example occurs in "[[Recap/RugratsS2E17RebelWithoutATeddyBearAngelicaTheMagnificent Angelica the Magnificent]]". Angelica performs a magic trick wherein she makes Lil disappear by hiding her in a cardboard box. Lil chases a butterfly as Angelica says the magic words, and another butterfly flies into the box around the same time, leading the babies and Angelica to believe that Angelica turned Lil into a butterfly.
110	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "A Bad Reflection on You, Part One," a baby bear tries to catch a butterfly that lands on the flower of her windowsill. This, of course, leads to the baby bear falling out the open window of her apartment. It's a good thing Baloo and Kit were there to save her in time.
111	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ChasingAButterfly