History Main / BreakingTheFourthWall

* Then there's ''Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway'' at Disney's Hollywood Studios,where a boiler explosion in the titular engine blows a hole in the movie screen itself, causing the rodent duo and Goofy to invite riders into the short through that hole to experience it from the ''inside''.

* At the end of a particularly downer scene in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kuzco literally stops the movie reel and uses a marker to remind the [[ItsAllAboutMe FILM that the movie is about HIM]], and not Pacha. Later, after considerable CharacterDevelopment, Kuzco gets in an argument with Narrator!Kuzco, telling him to shut up and stop whining.

* In ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'':

* ''Disney/TheLionKing'', in the middle of "Hakuna Matata".

* In ''Disney/MulanII'', Shang walks away and Yao asks Mulan, "What's his problem?" When Mulan walks away, he asks the screen, "What's ''her'' problem?" Then he asks, "Who am I talking to?"

If it's made ambiguous whether or not the fourth wall is being broken, it's LeaningOnTheFourthWall. If something slams into the screen and literally ''breaks'' it, it's CameraAbuse or InterfaceScrew. If the characters are attempting to use, or implied to have used, the fourth wall to escape into the real world, it's TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou.

** ''VisualNovel/NewDanganRonpaV3'' deconstructs this, by revealing that [[spoiler:the various fourth wall breaks of Monokuma are actually because the series have been turned into a reality TV watched by normal people. When the characters discover this, they are utterly shocked as they realize all of their memories and emotions were fiction. This reveal almost entirely cripples the surviving members, until Shuichi comes to the realization that even if everything is fictional, their experiences and pain are real. The final battle is against the embodiment of the TV audience itself.]]

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* In ''Webcomic/PeterParkerForeignExchangeStudent'', Peter and Izuku try to [[https://alexdrawsagain.tumblr.com/post/183267547023/peter-parker-foreign-exchange-student-tsu-breaks strategize behind the cover of rubble]], inadvertently recreating the [[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ezeQ8SVo--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/gvyyzmql47x1eyvsbtnx.jpg memetic shot]] of Miles intently watching a thinking Peter in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse''. Tsu calls them out for "recreating memes" to their confusion.
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[[OlderThanFeudalism This is a very old trope]]: Creator/WilliamShakespeare's characters often addressed the audience. They broke it regularly in [[AncientGreece Ancient Greek]] theater, too, pretty much as soon as they'd ''invented'' the FourthWall - or, arguably, ''[[UnbuiltTrope before]]'' inventing the FourthWall. It was an commonly-used technique in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre epic theatre movement]] of the early-to-mid 20th century.

It should be noted that other sources will refer to any fiction that draws attention to its fictionality as "Breaking The Fourth Wall". Our definition is a bit narrower: Breaking The Fourth Wall only occurs if the characters acknowledge the audience or the author, whether directly or indirectly, got it? It's not enough that I recognize my status as a wiki page, it's the fact that I'm commenting to you about it!

* [[BreakingTheFourthWall/LiveActionFilms Films – Live-Action]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* The teaser trailers for ''Film/{{Marmaduke}}'', ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' all have the main characters break the fourth wall.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', when the background characters refuse to go the surface.
-->'''Random Fish:''' All secondary characters come with me.
* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', when [[spoiler:Turbo]] is giving his MotiveRant to Vanellope, he [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130703184119/scratchpad/images/5/57/Turbo_Thumbs_Up.jpg mugs for your attention]] right the hell out of nowhere [[FreezeFrameBonus in one single frame]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie'', Harold and George occasionally break the fourth wall by talking to the audience and even freeze the movie at certain points to explain what's going on.

** the titular duo look directly towards the viewer twice during their dance at Mrs. Hasagawa's fruit stand.

* At the end of a particularly downer scene in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kuzco literally stops the movie reel and uses a marker to remind the [[ItsAllAboutMe FILM that the movie is about HIM]], and not Pacha. Later, after considerable CharacterDevelopment, Kuzco gets in an argument with Narrator!Kuzco, telling him to shut up and stop whining.

* In the former ''Ride/JimmyNeutronsNicktoonBlast'' ride, there was a scene where [=SpongeBob=] is flung through Bikini Bottom, saying hello to everyone along the way. When greeting the regular Bikini Bottom citizens, he refers to them as "secondary characters".

* In ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', the titular duo look directly towards the viewer twice during their dance at Mrs. Hasagawa's fruit stand. Just before that, when Lilo gets Stitch to move his hips to the side, he looks at the viewer and oohs in wonder before the duo immediately go into their dance. A more subtle fourth wall-break happens earlier in the film when Stitch is adopted, with a nice little EasterEgg on his adoption paper.

[[OlderThanFeudalism This is a very old trope]]: Creator/WilliamShakespeare's characters often addressed the audience. They broke it regularly in [[AncientGreece Ancient Greek]] theater, too, pretty much as soon as they'd ''invented'' the FourthWall - or, arguably, ''[[UnbuiltTrope before]]'' inventing the FourthWall.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' when Monokuma starts expositing on the backstories of the culprit and victim in Chapter 2, he says to hold O (or Ctrl in the PC version) to skip it in case you didn't want to hear all this.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' also features several fourth wall jokes. Among them are:

** Lampshaded when the 'Fourth Wall'[[note]]Defined as a barrier between worlds, that, when broken, allows you to pass through any aligned fourth walls into other universes[[/note]] is destroyed by [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}Jack Noir]], which results in Minecraft being completely open to outside attack. And boy, does it get attacked.

* Deconstructed in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' [[spoiler:where Monika, a side character meant to introduce you to the game, who possesses MediumAwareness was driven insane by the knowledge that shes a fictional character. Being fully aware that neither she, her world, nor her friends really exist. Becoming obsessed with ''the player'' since they are the only part of her world that's real.]]

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''

** Similar to the VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureCLub example down below, ''VisualNovel/NewDanganRonpaV3'' decnstructs this, by revealing that the various fourth wall breaks of Monokuma are actually because [[spoiler: The series literally takes place in a TV show watched by normal people. When the characters find this out, they are in complete and utter shock, and realize what they previously believed 9(the wolrd ending and being Students of Hopes Peak) was fiction, almost shutting them down entirely. Shuichi comes to the realization that even if everything wass are fictional, The pain in his heart is real. The final battle is against the Tv audience itself.]]

* At the end of a particularly downer scene in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kuzco literally stops the movie reel and uses a marker to remind the [[ItsAllAboutMe FILM that the movie is about HIM]], and not Pacha.

* In Creator/DreamWorksAnimation's ''Film/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie'', Harold and George occasionally break the fourth wall by talking to the audience and even freeze the movie at certain points to explain what's going on.

!Examples:

** Wrestling/CMPunk, through his scathing shoot promo, has created an on-screen character for himself where he can fly between the fourth wall and reality.
*** In that initial promo, he even explicitly mentions that he's breaking the fourth wall.