History Main / Balloonacy

* A guy named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters Larry Walters]] did it, and there's a movie based on his story, called ''Film/DannyDeckchair'' (the real dude was nicknamed Lawnchair Larry). Kind of counts as an inversion, actually; he only intended to lift himself and the titular lawnchair a hundred feet or so, and severely overestimated how many military-surplus weather balloons he'd need to accomplish this.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In episode 13 of the ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017'' TV series, Akko has trouble keeping afloat after turning into a flying elephant, so Lotte conjures some balloons to help her out.

* The Penguin uses this tactic to steal a payroll while disguised as a balloon vendor in a classic [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Franchise/{{Batman}} story ("Knights of Knavery") in which he teams up with ComicBook/TheJoker.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'': Sir Hiss the snake not only becomes an airborne spy by sticking his head inside an inflated balloon so that his body hangs down as the string ([[AnachronismStew and how does Medieval England have helium-filled rubber balloons to begin with?]]), but gains altitude by ''further inflating the balloon, with his breath, while his head is inside it''. Balloonacy on so many levels.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': The "Little Black Rain Cloud" sequence in "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" has Pooh tie himself to a balloon in order to float into the air and sneak honey out of a bee nest.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* ''Film/CatsEye''. During their final battle, the troll tries to escape General by flying away on a bunch of helium mylar balloons. It works only partly and General manages to catch him.

%%* In Film/SonOfTheMask; a baby blows on his thumb and inflates his head after watching his mum inflate a balloon.

* The sci-fi comedy ''Bread Overhead'' by Creator/FritzLeiber, a bread company seeking to make bread that's lighter than those of its competitors injects the bread with hydrogen. This makes the bread so light it goes floating off the production line and into the sky. HilarityEnsues until the bread finally comes to rest in a famine-stricken Ukraine, solving a world-endangering crisis.

* Happened in one of the earliest episodes of ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho''.

%%* Reese pulls this one in an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''.

* Weaponized by the Balloonman in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', who fastens large balloons to his victims and sends them off to eventually fall to their deaths (if the thin air and cold don't finish them off first).

* Dick Cavalli's ''Winthrop'' had a kid named Foster whose shtick was musing about life while hanging in midair from a single balloon.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Marvin}}'':
** In the 1985 story arc where we see Marvin get his stuffed rabbit Floppet, it briefly floats away on a bunch of balloons. Marvin's dad Jeff chases the toy down and catches it after chasing it by car.
** A variation involving bubble gum [[https://imgur.com/a/luKkf6e happens on 5/24/1987]] when Marvin blows a bubble gum bubble that causes him to float off the ground, out his window and outside the house as a man in a bus stop looks on.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* On ''Series/FraggleRock'', Wembly uses a bunch of balloons tied to a basket to return a baby bird to the Gorgs' Garden in one episode.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** Kermit the Frog is demonstrating a RubeGoldbergDevice to turn on a radio: the last step involves using a balloon to turn on the radio. Of course, nothing works the way it's supposed to, and at the very end, Kermit sees the balloon float away taking the radio with it.
** Kermit and Grover are demonstrating light and heavy objects; the final light object is a large balloon, and Grover picks it up and promptly floats away.
** On one of the baker segments, a man is holding four balloons, and this causes him to start floating away.
** A man is apparently mugging a balloon vendor by stealing his balloons and popping them. He steals the largest balloon, he floats away, and up in the air he meets three blackbirds. The largest one pops his balloon, sending him crashing back to the ground and getting what he deserved.
[[/folder]]

* Also a musical: ''Flight of the Lawnchair Man''.

* ''WebVideo/FilmRiot'' has an episode where they make a camera stabilizer with balloons.

** In ''The Busy World of Richard Scarry'', the opening of "Mr. Raccoon's Different Day" has Mr. Frumble accidentally floating into the sky with several helium balloons. Unlike the second example below, all of the balloons burst for no reason and Mr. Frumble falls to the ground but lands safely.
** In an episode of ''Busytown Mysteries'', Pig Won't floats away with helium balloons. Huckle and friends fly up to Pig Won't with a helicopter, pop the balloons with a sharp pencil and save him.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "Dirty Rotten Merlot Shame," Francine is trying to tell Stan that Roger kissed her while they were on a wine-tasting trip but Roger keeps finding ways of stopping her. He ties a hot air balloon's tow rope to Francine's foot, causing her to dangle upside down when it takes off.
* In "Into the Hundred Acre Wood" from ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'', this is the reason why Pooh is floating in the air, per usual of trying to float up to get honey from bees.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'' episode "Strawberry Fields" ends with the group's limo departing skywards from the orphanage they visited--the car is festooned with helium-filled balloons.
-->'''John:''' It's all in the mind, y'know!
* ''Series/DieSendungMitDerMaus'': In a Maus spot, the little elephant (who is still extremely heavy) blows a bubblegum balloon and crosses a chasm.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' episode "[[Recap/ReadyJetGoS2E21MoonCircusEveryDayIsEarthDay Every Day Is Earth Day]]”, Sunspot is able to puff up like a balloon, and Jet flies away while holding on to him.

* In ''Napolean'' the eponymous labrador gets lost by floating away from his home in a basket with too many balloons attached

** In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'', the Red Balloons that served as extra lives in the original series are now [[JustifiedExtraLives justified]]; when you're defeated, the death screen shows your Kongs using the balloons to ride back to the nearest checkpoint.
** The UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS port of ''Returns'' reintroduced Green Balloons (which would go on to appear in ''Tropical Freeze'' as well), but unlike in the SNES trilogy where they granted two extra lives, these are bought from the games' stores and used as a BottomlessPitRescueService - if a Kong falls into a pit while they have a Green Balloon equipped, it'll lift them back out.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FeedingFrenzy Feeding Frenzy: Shipwreck Showdown]]'', during the several levels where the playable fish can jump out of the water, there are items occasionally flying around the stage while attached to balloons.
* ''Videogame/GarrysMod'' defaults to a optimistic amount of lift from a balloon, but allows players to adjust the lifting power. It's possible to get a 50 ton cargo container to go soaring into the sky with a single balloon. The lift slider can be set to negatives, resulting in balloons with the density of plutonium or neutronium.

** One of the "[[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Hundred Acre Wood]]" mini-games in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' has Winnie the Pooh using a balloon to float up the honey tree, while Sora stops bees from attacking him.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', the first mini-game requires Sora to use a balloon to save Piglet from a hurricane while scoring 18,000 points for the journal.
* In ''VideoGame/KirbyMassAttack'', The Balloon Bobbleship, which appears in the fifth level of the Sandy Canyon, is some kind of gondola attached to ten balloons. The Kirbys use to ascend into the air.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Octo Balloons obtained from defeated Octoroks can be dropped on and attached to any movable object to make it float, ranging from weapons to barrels to rafts to unaware/incapacitated enemies. In [[NewGamePlus Master Mode]], extra enemies spawn on floating platforms held up by live inflated Octoroks.
* The Sky Swabbies enemies in ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryStarfy'' are simply regular Swabbies flying around thanks to the three balloons attached to their clothing.
* In ''VideoGame/MagicPockets'', bubble gum gives you an inflatable lift.
* The Balloon weapon in ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'' - single use, lifts the user out of the stage for the rest of the level. This makes it nearly useless for your own characters, but deadly in the hands of an enemy, as any enemy removed from the stage adds their levels to every other enemy left on the battlefield.
* In ''VideoGame/McDonaldsTreasureLandAdventure'', if Ronald has balloons in his inventory, they can prevent him from losing a life if he falls into a pit. Ronald also has temporary control over the balloons, and can use them to reach higher places and/or items.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Octo Balloons obtained from defeated Octoroks can be dropped on and attached to any movable object to make it float, ranging from weapons to barrels to rafts to unaware/incapacitated enemies. In [[NewGamePlus Master Mode]], extra enemies spawn on floating platforms held up by balloons.

** Don't forget "The Golden Age of Ballooning" episode, riffing on the Montgolfier Bros. and Ferdinand Von Zeppelin. Notably a scene where Zeppelin's brother(Terry Jones) tried to blow up a giant balloon, only to have the air rush back into his lungs, inflating himself(and tearing off his clothes), turning himself into a giant balloon.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', the first mini-game requires Sora to use a balloon to save Piglet from a hurricane while scoring 18,000 points for the journal ([[ThatOneAchievement which is a lot harder than it sounds]]). The fact that a small balloon can even ''lift'' Sora, who's around 15 years old, [[TeensAreShort five feet high]], weighing around 140 pounds, and holding onto Pooh Bear, is [[FridgeLogic plain strange]].

* On ''Series/FraggleRock'', Wembly uses a bunch of balloons tied to a basket to return a bird to the Gorgs' Garden in one episode.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** Kermit the Frog is demonstrating a RubeGoldbergDevice to turn on a radio: the last step involves using a balloon to turn on the radio. Of course, nothing works the way it's supposed to, and at the very end, Kermit sees the balloon float away taking the radio with it.
** Kermit and Grover are demonstrating light and heavy objects; the final light object is a large balloon, and Grover picks it up and promptly floats away.
** On one of the baker segments, a man is holding four balloons, and this causes him to start floating away.
** A man is apparently mugging a balloon vendor by stealing his balloons and popping them. He steals the largest balloon, he floats away, and up in the air he meets three blackbirds. The largest one pops his balloon, sending him crashing back to the ground and getting what he deserved.

* Happened to Bill in ''ComicBook/BouleEtBill'': he bit into a stick that was holding some balloons, and flew off with them.

* ''Animation/MeCvimadMoval'': The snowman manages to blow balloons out of a bubble wand, and he blows enough balloons to send him and the girl flying.

** A different video from Imbapovi involves [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] getting stranded on a deserted island, after the latter accidentally shoots their hot air balloon from [[RecklessGunUsage showing off her Paralyser]]. Zelda decides to [[LaserGuidedKarma stun Samus with it, tie ropes to her hands and feet and use a hand pump to]] [[BodyInflationGag blow her up with helium, as a huge makeshift blimp]] to lift the basket and Zelda off.

* In the music video for the song "Cheaters Never Really Win" at the end of the ''WesternAnimationLittleDogsOnThePrairie'' episode "Cheating", Darcy cheats in a sack race by using a bunch of balloons to float over her competitors only to be shot down by Miss Kitty via a pea shooter.

* In the musical number at the end of the ''Little Dogs on the Prairie'' episode "Cheating", Darcy cheats in a sack race by using a bunch of balloons to float over her competitors only to be shot down by Miss Kitty via a pea shooter and subsequently land on most of the other characters.

* Reese pulls this one in an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'', this is the effect of the Balloon card. Three balloons appear over each enemy and lift them away from the stage, ending the battle immediately. [[spoiler:This is also mandatory to beat Ludwig, as the balloons will carry ''his submarine'' over solid ground, allowing Mario to destroy it.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', Luigi is held aloft by a balloon on his back. As the player's rank in Balloon World increases, he attaches more balloons to a maximum of four.