History Main / DepthDeception

[Next panel show them standing in a modern day library in front of picture]

* This is how the Matterhorn Bobsleds at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]] can achieve an impressively tall appearance even though it's actually shorter than Cinderella's Castle: The further up the mountain, the smaller the rocks and trees on it are. This is best demonstrated observing the climbers: Near the bottom, the trees are much taller than a human, but towards the top, they become shorter than the climbers.
* Used ''extensively'' at Disneyland. A few other examples:

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Home Sweet Pineapple", [=SpongeBob=]'s house is eaten by nematodes. When he and Patrick try to build a new one, the one they make is actually a miniature replica that [=SpongeBob=] can barely fit in.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited''. In "Fearful Symmetry", Professor Hamilton opens a door to reveal the torture device in Supergirl's dreams, a huge tank-like KillerRobot! It trundles towards her and is revealed to be a surgical robot that only comes up to her knees. This is used to show that Supergirl's nightmares are apparently just a stress reaction to having been injured and operated on in a previous episode. [[ProperlyParanoid The truth however is quite different.]]

'''Recruit:''' ''(pulls out a meter and measures the distance to the palm, that turns out to be inches high and just on top of the nearest dune)'' Two meters and 15 centimeters, Sergeant!

-->'''Hacker''': It's a ''forced perspective illusion''!
-->'''Razorsharp''': Really? Because I thought we were actually getting larger.

* Used in one of Joan Cornellà's surreal visual strips where a man in a brown sweater sees another man who we assume is in the forground... until the guy in the sweater rips the other guy's eye out in a spray of blood. The perspective returns to normal while the one eyed man walks away with blood still spurting out.

-->'''Flik''': Hello, Princess! My, you're looking quite lovely this morning! Not that you'd need a telescope to see that.

-->'''Indy:''' Damn! I thought that was closer..."

-->'''Ned:''' Oh, something is definitely wrong with this hallway. ''(opens mini-door at the end of the hallway)''\\

* In the ''Disney/DonaldDuck'' war short ''Home Defense'', Donald's nephews are able to convince him that they're being attacked... by parachuting gingerbread men. Later in the short, a bee does a similar (but unintentional) dupe job.

* Taking advantage of this is a fairly popular form of modern art, like the page picture.
** [[http://www.rense.com/general67/street.htm Julian Beever]] is an English artist who is famous for his art on the pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium.

* It's been argued that reports of big cats roaming parts of the English countryside, the most famous being the "Beast of Bodmin", may just be normal-sized feral cats - domestic moggies gone wild - that look farther away than they really are. Magazine/ForteanTimes regularly combines such sightings and potential explanations for them.
* Reportedly, this happens all the time to people who live in jungles because they're so used to seeing everything close up. One anthropologist brought one of these people in a plane with him. The man commented about the beetles on the grass. The anthropologist couldn't convince the man that they were actually very large buffalo seen from far away.
** Another time someone else brought them outside the jungle, they accused the man of witchcraft because he "made the animals shrink in size".

%% * The reason [[http://pics-for-fun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/huge-grasshopper-attackes-the-town.jpg this image]] has been passed around the Internet a few times is due to this trope making a relatively large grasshopper appear to be a giant attacking the town.

* A CrowningMomentOfFunny from the Italian comic ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'', as the sergeant is training the desert troops:

* A traffic reporter, reporting on a slowdown at a local vehicular tunnel, said it was due to a giant spider attacking cars at the entrance. A normal-sized spider had crawled onto the lens of the camera, and quite by chance gave the appearance of a giant spider attacking the cars, thus combining this trope with CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* The reason [[http://pics-for-fun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/huge-grasshopper-attackes-the-town.jpg this image]] has been passed around the Internet a few times is due to this trope making a relatively large grasshopper appear to be a giant attacking the town.

* In the ''Disney/DonaldDuck war short ''Home Defense'', Donald's nephews are able to convince him that they're being attacked... by parachuting gingerbread men. Later in the short, a bee does a similar (but unintentional) dupe job.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited''. In "Fearful Symmetry", Professor Hamilton opens a door to reveal the torture device in Supergirl's dreams, a huge tank-like KillerRobot! It trundles towards her and is revealed to be a surgical robot that only comes up to her knees.

* [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081226 This]] ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''.

* A dramatic (and ''extremely'' suspenseful) example appears in ''Film/RoadToPerdition'': Michael Sullivan, Sr.'s son Michael Jr. is returning to his house, just as his mother and brother are fatally shot by Connor Rooney (Michael Sr. has just survived an attempted ambush set up by Connor at a speakeasy and is rushing home at the time). Michael Jr. approaches the front door just as Connor comes down the front steps and takes off his handkerchief. It appears that Connor is staring directly at Michael Jr. through the door's window, but it's quickly revealed that he's looking at his own reflection. Once Michael Jr. realizes this, he has time to hide before Connor leaves the house.

* It's been argued that reports of big cats roaming parts of the English countryside, the most famous being the "Beast of Bodmin", may just be normal-sized feral cats that look farther away than they really are.

* The ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' episode from which the page quote is taken. Marzipan is just explaining an art technique, but when a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant Bubs]] turns up immediately after, she says the same thing about his foot.

* In the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "The Unruly Hare", Bugs screws with surveyor Elmer by sticking things in front of his transit (the device surveyors use to measure distances). First he holds up some magazine pin-ups, which Elmer {{wolf whistle}}s at, then smacks his own lips near the lens, which is when Elmer reaches out for a kiss. Later, Bugs holds up a lit match so that Elmer thinks the forest is on fire.

[[folder:Theme Parks and Rides]]

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', the room where you can enter Tiny Huge Island is a T-junction with a painting at the end of each hall, all of which ''appear'' to be the same size when you first enter: the one in the center is normal-sized and non-functional, the one on the left is actually slightly ''smaller'' than usual, and the one on the right is ''gigantic''. The two paintings that actually warp Mario are also set in hallways that use forced perspective, meaning that until you start walking toward one, the images all look the same size. Which is actually quite jarring when first seen. Walk towards the small one and it's MUCH closer to you than it should be, with the hall way going inwards. Walk towards the large one and you're gonna be walking a looooooooooong time.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'':
** Used in episode 14 with Moon's entrance, with shadows and a close-up obfuscating temporarily the fact that the monkey isn't quite the expected size.
** Also when Rubilax [[spoiler:is freed from the sword]] in episode 22; it isn't immediately obvious that [[spoiler:he's half Sadlygrove's height. He doesn't stay that size for long, though.]]

A specific subtrope is BigLittleMan, where a character is introduced as being much bigger or smaller than they really are.

* The current Creator/Channel4 StationIdent series has the camera pan through an environment with lots of floating bars at odd angles, until suddenly they resolve into the 4 logo, and then it's gone again.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl: The Subspace Emissary'': In the cutscene introducing [[{{VideoGame/Pikmin}} Captain Olimar]] and [[{{VideoGame/F-Zero}} Captain Falcon]], the ROB Olimar is fighting made to be huge so that it seems the Captain and his Pikmin are still only an inch tall. Then Captain Falcon shows up then punches out the giant robot.

* Many games for the Nintendo3DS use this in at least one instance, making using the 3D feature almost a necessity.

* ''Series/TopGear''. While in Dubai, Hammond is boasting about the six-wheeled Mercedes G63 AMG he's driving, which is certainly bigger than the old WW2-era jeep he points out on the horizon. Until he drives up to it and finds himself dwarfed by a [[http://www.coolthings.com/worlds-largest-jeep-replica/ 21-foot tall jeep replica]].

--->'''Duke:''' LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT ROCK!... The closer I get to it, the bigger it is!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' episode "The Box", T.J. is forced inside a chalk-colored box on the blacktop as punishment. An overhead shot and the color patterns make him look like he's trapped in a deep hole.

* In ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'', after manager Ian Faith gets the Stonehenge monument for the band and discovers it's 18 ''inches'' high, not 18 ''feet'' high, due to Nigel Tufnel mixing the symbols for feet and inches on the napkin where he draws the design of the monument. When the band performs, and finally the monument appears, as Nigel narrates, the monument appears to remade as the right 18-foot monument and David St. Hubbins is supposedly in awe of it. However, it cuts to show it's actually ''18-inch'' Stonehenge, having never been replaced even after Ian Faith told the designer it's the wrong size. And David was really shocked by how small it was. A little later, just as a confused Nigel sees the monument smaller than the dwarf dancers in the act of the song, he gives a "What the hell? look at Ian and [[YokoOhNo Jeanine]], and David fumes at the debacle.