Funny Background Event / Animated Films

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• The Adventures of Tintin (2011):
  • In the desert scene, Snowy appears out of nowhere carrying a bone. Which is actually very important, seeing that it's a CAMEL's leg bone, which tells Tintin and the captain that they are somewhere in the Sahara instead of Spain as they'd planned.
  • After Thomson and Thompson pull the pickpocket out from the Circling Birdies moment, the old lady who the pickpocket crashed into strikes a man with her cane, thinking he was groping her.
• Aladdin: Abu harasses the owner of a melon stand. The scene is so distracting, many viewers fail to notice Aladdin's hands in the foreground taking a melon for himself. It just goes to show how effective Abu is if even the audience is distracted by the event that Aladdin uses to make the grab.
• Beauty and the Beast
  • During the opening song, when Belle begins to sing to some sheep at the town fountain, there's a woman cleaning her clothes in the fountain behind her. As Belle sings, the woman pauses and looks around for the source of the singing, sees that it's Belle, and scowls in an annoyed fashion before leaving with her basket of clothes.
    • The whole song "Belle" is full of these. You can see a kid chasing a piglet, just to be chased away by its mom, and a woman complaining why her fish comes with a squirrel. Among other things.
  • When Gaston is ranting about Belle turning him down, Le Fou has two beers in hand. He gives one to Gaston and goes to take a sip of the other, only for Gaston to take both. You can see Le Fou search for his beer while Gaston continues ranting.
  • Near the end of "Something There", there's Beast getting owned by Belle in a snowball fight.
  • In Cogsworth’s segment of “Human Again,” Lumiere is shown brushing Phillipe. When he hops away to help Cogsworth, the brush keeps moving. The best part is Phillipe reacting in surprise before moving out of shot.
  • During the Enchanted Objects' fight with the villagers, specifically in the scene where a villager is "eaten" by a chest that burps, there is a shadow cast on a pillar of a man being attacked by a mace in his own hands, putting a twist on the classic Stop Hitting Yourself.
• In The Book of Life, as Joaquin digs himself deeper and deeper agreeing to Maria's "Women should be at their husbands' beck and call" trap the shortest Nun can be seen gripping her knife and glaring at Joaquin.
• At the end of Brother Bear, we see Koda telling the viewers that "no fish were harmed in the making of this movie." We then see a bear start chasing a fish in the background, with the fish constantly screaming for help.
• Brave: Every time the big muscular guy is in the shot, keep an eye on him.
  • Just after the throne room brawl between clans, a sheep flies through the air behind Lord Fergus's shoulder.
  • When Lord Dingwall's son hit the bulls-eye, Lord Dingwall does a victory dance ending with him mooning the other two lords... and two little kids next to their mother in the crowd, causing the little girl to put her face into her mother's dress and start to cry.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is rife with them. Animator David Gibson mentions on his blog that he got in a little trouble "because I thought it would be funny to make one of [the background characters] mouth (in slow motion) "What The F#* K?." Haha right? The producer didn't think it was funny." (It's still there, though.)
• Despicable Me has a number of these, mostly (but not always) involving the Minions.
  • Despicable Me has become somewhat notorious for the Kissing Minions in the backgrounds of two scenes.
  • Then there's the scene where Gru wins the stuffed unicorn for Agnes. When Gru pulls out his plasma gun and aims at the Space Killer game, off to the side you can see the booth attendant's eyes go wide, and then he dives for cover. A moment later, as the girls and Gru are walking away, behind them you can see the attendant still staring in shock and shaking like a leaf.
  • The sequel has two Minions beating each other up with hammers in the background of the jelly factory scene, resulting in one of them getting knocked out and the other panicking and trying to give him CPR.
• During the dinner scene in The Emperor's New Groove, when Yzma sees Kuzco turning into a llama, at one point you can see the cactus into which she had earlier dumped her potion-tainted drink has become llama-shaped.
  • Later, when Yzma and Kronk are in the jungle looking for Kuzco, Kronk is busy birdwatching while in the background Yzma is being chased back and forth by a huge swarm of bees. A swarm of bees that takes interesting shapes whenever it appears onscreen. And Yzma can be glimpsed ineffectually wielding a bug-sprayer.
  • Also, after Kuzco insults and dismisses some would-be bride candidates, one of them is shown having a Let Me at Him! moment.
• At one point in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, there is a scene where Tifa is chiding Cloud about letting people in more often while on the other side of the room Reno and Rude are arguing over whether to leave or keep watching.
  • Before that, Reno attacks Cloud at Shinra's house. Cloud responds by locking him outside, and for the rest of the scene, you can hear Reno asking for someone to let him back in.
  • Towards the end, Rude and Reno are attempting to climb a tarp to rescue Shinra. Reno climbs nimbly up (as seen in an earlier fight scene) while Rude loses his grip and falls to the ground, lying on his back and waving his limbs like a turtle.
• Frozen Fever: Near the end of the short, Elsa has sneezed once again and produced more "snowgies". As the focus is on Anna speaking in the foreground, in the background you can see Elsa staring at one of the snowgies in surprise and confusion, while the little guy just smiles at her.
• Quick example in A Goofy Movie. At Lester's Swamp kiddie park, Max loses his temper with an annoying employee dressed in a Lester Possum suit and punches the guy in the face, turning the fake head backwards. As Max trudges gloomily towards the camera (away from the tourist trap), we see "Lester" fumbling in the background... until a group of small children knock him over and drag him offscreen. There's also Bigfoot dancing to "Stayin' Alive".
• The Incredibles:
  • During Bob and Helen's phone conversation in the beginning, Jack-Jack is eagerly attempting to squirt soap into his mouth before Helen casually puts a hand over the bottle.
  • During the climactic fight against the Omnidroid, the family gets a hold of Syndrome's remote. After the Omnidroid uses a Rocket Punch to grab Mr. Incredible...
    Dash: *pushes button*
    Mr. Incredible: *gets tossed into the air by the claw opening* "Huuwaaugh!"
  • After Lucius comes and gets Mr. Incredible, Jack-Jack can be seen in the back trying to eat the spit that Lucius froze.
  • The argument between Lucius and Honey as the former tries to find his supersuit, with the chaos the Omnidroid is inflicting in the background.
  • After Helen has caught Jack-Jack and is safely parachuting him to the ground she's looking at him while speaking soothing words like "Mommy's got you. Everything is all right." Meanwhile behind her Syndrome's plane is blowing up spectacularly with multiple explosions and parts flying everywhere.
• Incredibles 2: When Bob is on the phone with Helen and she asks about how the kids are doing, Jack-Jack is shown to be in a stare-off with the raccoon he fought earlier who came back for a rematch against the baby.
• The LEGO Movie:
  • The DVD Commentary points out a lot of these moments.
  • When the group are traveling through Middle Zealand, you can see a group of minifigs gathered around a dragon who is barbecuing a chicken on a spit roast.
  • After Lord Business threatens Bad Cop with the Band-Aid, he hands it off to two of his mooks and continues talking. They...have a bit of trouble handling it from there.
  • While Wyldstyle is talking to Vitruvius in the saloon, Emmet is seen interacting with things in the background. He even takes a sip of alcohol and gags.
  • When the team is driving up the rainbow to Cloud Cuckooland, two knights can be seen jousting, with one completely skewering the other.
  • Inverted with a Funny Foreground Event; during Wyldstyle's big speech to rally the people against Lord Business, everyone turns to the big TV screens... except one guy who's listening to his headphones and keeps walking until he's shot by a TAKOS.
  • When Batman tells Wyldstyle "He's the hero you deserve", gesturing to Emmet, Emmet looks around to see if Batman is gesturing to someone behind him, whilst in the background, Benny also looks around to see if he's referring to someone else.
  • During Bad Cop's interrogation of Emmet, one of the robots who's supposed to be watching the interrogation is instead playing Solitaire on his computer.
  • While on the run from Lord Business's forces in the Wild, Wild West, Emmet, Wlydstyle, and Vitruvius crash their getaway car into a crossing train and go flying through the air before landing on said train. If you look closely, the one pig that hadn't run away by that point (the vehicle was being pulled by pigs at one point) also flies through the air, misses the train and explodes into sausages upon contact with the ground.
• The Lion King has Timon and Pumbaa changing poses every time they swing by during young Simba's solo in the Hakuna Matata song. The animators lamented that they spent all this effort on the background gag and no one noticed.
  • And then it's given a great deal of lampshading in The Lion King 1 ½.
  • In the last part of "Be Prepared," while Scar is being a Large Ham and bragging about how he'll be king, the hyenas are singing about how much food they'll get working for him.
• Mavka: The Forest Song: As Lukash is tending to his bedridden uncle with the drop from the fountain in the Heart of the Forest that Mavka gave him, Frol is spying on him, and the rooster of the farm decides to attack Frol, which causes all sorts of mayhem that's partly visible in the windows while the focus is on Lukash preparing the medicine.
• Migration: When Pam strikes the Mallards with a large cloud ball, they end up with little pieces of cloud on their heads, while Uncle Dan gets one the size of an afro.
• A Monster in Paris: When the commissioner is holding a conversation with Pâté at Lucille's restaurant, a disgruntled waiter can be seen struggling to open a bottle of champagne in the background.
• Monsters, Inc.: During a news interview following the chaos at Harryhausen's, you can see a few monsters in the background staring and waving at the camera.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks:
  • When Rainbow Dash talks about her role in the Rainbooms in the band room, Pinkie Pie can be seen wearing a cymbal on her head like a hat.
  • During the "Let's Have a Battle (of the Bands)" song, most of the students are entranced by the Dazzlings... except DJ Pon-3 who's listening to her headphones and is oblivious to this. Becomes an important detail later, however...
  • At the party in the gym, when Twilight and the Rainbooms hold hands to defeat the Dazzlings, Pinkie can be seen with a cookie in her mouth and her fist in the air. As the others wonder why their standing together in unity isn't unleashing magic, Pinkie is still seen with her fist in the air, the whole cookie stuffed in her mouth, and crumbs on her chin.
• My Little Pony: A New Generation: When Sunny and Hitch are doing their hoofshake, the two seagulls that are following Hitch around can be seen mimicking it after a slight delay.
• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future: When the news reporter asks Weslie questions at the beginning of the movie, Sparky can be seen stretching Paddi's cheeks in the background, followed by Paddi tickling Sparky.
• Rango: Some of the many tombstones in Dirt's graveyard have amusing epitaphs, including one that reads "Hold my beer and watch this".
• Ratatouille: As Colette is asking what Solène LeClaire had to say about the soup, Rémy is still trying to make a discreet break for the window, resulting in a moving colander.
• Shrek 2:
  • In the scene where Fiona confronts her father when she wakes up to find Shrek gone, castle servants can be seen polishing a tree planter and climbing a ladder to nowhere (and falling off in the widescreen version).
  • In a scene just after Fairy Godmother catches Shrek and company spying on her business, some local knights are seen giving the Headless Horseman a sobriety test, moments before Shrek and his pals barge past them. What's particularly amusing is that they appear to be giving him the "touch your nose" test.
• The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water:
  • Squidasaurus Rex struggling to eat a Krabby Patty.
  • A small fish chasing two muscular fish with a pitchfork during the news report.
• Surf's Up has characters doing funny stuff behind the interview scenes, like the penguins peeking in the window of Cody's mom, or the little penguin who keeps pretending to drown to get Lani's attention. Also, there are flying saucers hidden on some shots.
• In The Swan Princess, during the song "This Is My Idea" you see several of these; the most notable of which is when - as children - Odette trips Derek on the stairs, takes a flying leap on him, and they start beating the crap out of each other.
• Toy Story 2: When Buzz and the gang sneak into the airport via a pet carrier, two kids are seen playing pat-a-cake. Not long until the boy smacks the girl in the face causing tension to rise. It's easy to miss, but still a gem.
• Turning Red:
  • The morning Mei turns into a panda for the first time and has a Freak Out in her bathroom, Ming goes through everything that she thinks could've gone wrong, and Jin slowly steps forward. Then she asks "Did the red peony bloom?", and Jin, realizing what that means, freezes and starts Backing Away Slowly.
  • When Mei is trying to prevent her mother from coming to her 'Mathletes meet-up' (because she's really going to Tyler's party), there are two cats sleeping by the temple doors behind her, along with a kitten that looks like one of the box kittens. When the footsteps of the approaching aunties become audible a few seconds later, one cat instantly picks up the kitten and they both high-tail it past Mei and Ming, headed for the temple building across the courtyard.
• Up: A minor one at the end, when they are eating ice cream. The ladder from the blimp ends at the Disabled Parking lot.

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