History Main / DancingBear

Featuring noteworthy non-actors in major roles can qualify something for this trope: we don't go to [[TheHottieAndTheNottie movies with Paris Hilton in them]] to see how well she acts, after all. Particularly [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters large casts]], shockingly difficult productions, unique production methods... anything that's used to sell a work more than its actual content can qualify it for Bear status. TheOner is usually a Bear as well, and {{Live Episode}}s too.

* ''{{Film/Avatar}}'' is construed as this by the HateDumb over the technological achievements necessary to pull the movie off: 3D digital film cameras, motion capture refinements, etc. Arguably the never-fully-disclosed but definitely astronomical budget and the marketing-induced hype. On the other hand, the visuals are ''amazing'', and although the storyline is mildly predictable, it is done '''well''', much like many other well-received movies in fact.

* ''{{Film/Avatar}}'' - The whole fuss about the technological achievements necessary to pull the movie off: 3D digital film cameras, motion capture refinements, etc. Arguably the never-fully-disclosed but definitely astronomical budget and the marketing-induced hype.

* {{Fred Perry}}'s ''Series/{{GoldDigger}}'' animated miniseries ''The Time Raft''. It's poor acting, rudimentary animation, and extreme ScheduleSlip are forgiven because Mr. Perry did ''everything'' (besides the voice acting). He wrote the script, created the music, and '''drew every single panel''' of this hour-long animated movie ''by himself''.

* {{Fred Perry}}'s GoldDigger animated miniseries ''The Time Raft''. It's poor acting, rudimentary animation, and extreme ScheduleSlip are forgiven because Mr. Perry did ''everything'' (besides the voice acting). He wrote the script, created the music, and '''drew every single panel''' of this hour-long animated movie ''by himself''.

-->"The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all."
-->-- Russian proverb

* The 2003 film ''RussianArk'' is a Dancing Bear. A 90-minute exploration of Russia's legendary museum and historical building the Hermitage, the film moves over centuries, features a literal CastOfThousands, has amazing costuming, good performances, and so on. It's also TheOner.

Featuring noteworthy non-actors in major roles can qualify something for this trope: we don't go to movies with Paris Hilton in them to see how well she acts, after all. Particularly [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters large casts]], shockingly difficult productions, unique production methods... anything that's used to sell a work more than its actual content can qualify it for Bear status. TheOner is usually a Bear as well, and {{Live Episode}}s too.

* ''{{TRON}}'' heavily depended on computer-generated special effects, which were a huge novelty in the time of its release.

* ''{{TRON}}'' heavily depended on computer-generated special effect, which were a huge novelty in the time of its release.

* The {{Nintendo}} {{Wii}} was the console version of this when it first came out: the platform was sold not on the quality of its games, which varies between Nintendo-grade all time classic and crimes against humanity--like every other system ever made--but on the fact that it has a different control mechanism. The Wii is moving away from this, though it does play up the motion controls as part of its current campaign: the aim towards "casual gamers." Hardcore gamers still deride it as a dancing bear, [[FanMyopia not that it hurts its popularity]].
* The most widely publicized fact about ''{{Eragon}}'' was that the author finished the first draft when he was fifteen - he was nineteen by the time it was published (after extensive revision) and also received a lot of [[SnarkBait critical slack]] for that reason. Whether or not it has outgrown its beardom is a matter of debate.
* The Stockhausen opera ''Light'' contains a piece that is supposed to be played by a string quartet sitting in four different flying helicopters, their music then transmitted to a big hangar for people to listen to.

* The {{MMORPG}} genre (at the very least until ''WorldOfWarcraft''.) Just the idea of playing with hundreds or millions of other people simply by plugging in your modem makes even the worst balanced exposure to the most annoyingly ill-behaved players tremendously appealing.

* Leif Inge's ''9 Beet Stretch'' - a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (which typically runs 65-70 minutes) digitally stretched to 24 hours without pitch shifting.

* ''The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' by Jean-Dominique Bauby received a lot of attention for the laborious way the novel was written. The author suffered "locked-in syndrome" and blinked his left eyelid to respond to a transcriber repeatedly reciting a French language frequency-ordered alphabet until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. This took ten months. The book itself was well-received.
* VideoGame example:''{{Fracture}}'', made even more egregious with the fact that it's sole selling point - terrain deformation - feels underutilized.
** Same can be said for ''DarkVoid''. To elaborate: [[ATasteOfPower not counting the playable prologue,]] you get to the jetpack about halfway through the game, and yet it is hardly utilized from then.
* ''RedFaction'', with its [[IncrediblyLamePun groundbreaking]] [=GeoMod=] technology and physics simulation went almost completely unused.
* {{Fred Perry}}'s GoldDigger animated miniseries ''The Time Raft''. It's poor acting, rudimentary animation, and extreme ScheduleSlip are forgiven because Mr. Perry did * everything* (besides the voice acting). He wrote the script, created the music, and '''drew every single panel''' of this hour-long animated movie ''by himself''.

* HeavyRain has [[=ARI=]] - CoolShades that [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual do all kinds]] of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQT3mbvVWY awesome things]] via {{Cyberspace}}; FingerprintingAir, accessing the FBI MagicalDatabase, ''turning a prison cell of an office into SceneryPorn'', and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking letting you bounce a ball off a wall like in a prison flick without a ball or a wall.]] The HolyShitQuotient on this thing is roughly [[UpToEleven Eleven]] [[FantasticMeasurementSystem Fantastic]] [[UnitConfusion Confusion Units]] [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale Off The Scale.]] You only use it in six of the fifty-one chapters. Oh, and [[spoiler:'''[[CyberneticsEatYourSoul It Eats Your Soul.]]''' The developers insist that they have surpassed the Uncanny Valley while saying '''''[[WallBanger VR EATS YOUR FUCKING SOUL.]]''''']]

* The forgettable film ''Redline'' specifically went for this by getting star Eddie Griffin to crash a car as a publicity scheme. It failed miserably, not least of which because car fans (presumably the target market) were outraged at the destruction of an ''extremely'' expensive and rare car as part of the stunt.

* The awful movie ''Redline'' specifically went for this by getting star Eddie Griffin to crash a car as a publicity scheme. It failed miserably, not least of which because car fans (presumably the target market) were outraged at the destruction of an ''extremely'' expensive and rare car as part of the stunt.

* ''Glee'' would be just another generic high school dramedy if it wasn't for the dancing and singing

* In ''Trail of the PinkPanther}}'' (1982) Blake Edwards and MGM/UA used mostly-unused scenes from ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again'' (1976) of the late Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau for the film's first half by putting them into a different storyline via new scenes with the series regulars. The second half, after Clouseau "goes missing", is a ClipShow of his greatest hits tied together with a reporter investigating the matter. Pitted against a number of production obstacles, Edwards' new film became a dancing bear that spiked the audience's curiosity to come out and judge if he could make it funny. The fact that Edwards couldn't became clear when Sellers's widow successfully sued him and the studio for tarnishing her late husband's image. This proved a bad omen for the next film, 1983's ''Curse of...'', which picked up where this left off to introduce Clouseau's ReplacementScrappy.

* In ''{{Film/Trail of the Pink Panther}}'' Blake Edwards and MGM/UA used out-take footage of the late Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (notibly from ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again''). Pitted against a number of production obstacles, Edwards' new film became a dancing bear that spiked the audience's curiosity to come out and judge if he could make it funny. The fact that Edwards couldn't became clear when Seller's widow successfully sued him and the studio for tarnishing her late husband's image.
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* In ''TrailOfThePinkPanther'' Blake Edwards and MGM/UA used out-take footage of the late Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (notibly from ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again''). Pitted against a number of production obstacles, Edwards' new film became a dancing bear that spiked the audience's curiosity to come out and judge if he could make it funny. The fact that Edwards couldn't became clear when Seller's widow successfully sued him and the studio for tarnishing her late husband's image.