History Main / DreamsOfFlying

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': A Creator/ChuckJones cartoon, "From Aaa to Zzz" is about a little boy named Ralph Phillips at school daydreaming and imagining himself flying in the air. Ralph's dream is interrupted when a bird flies up to him and [[CrashingDreams talks to him in his teacher's voice]].

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': A Creator/ChuckJones cartoon, "From Aaa to Zzz" is about a little boy at school daydreaming and imagining himself flying in the air. His dream is interrupted when the teacher awakens him.

* ''Series/AoSwkward'': At the start of one episode, Lily is AsleepInClass (as usual). She notices a lot of weird stuff happening and realises this must be a dream. Matt then says that if this is a dream then he should be able to fly, and promptly flies out the window.

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/PokerNight2''. Ash wonders aloud why so many people dream about something humans have never experienced - or, for that matter, why some of our iconic fictional characters (Peter Pan, Superman) can do it. He suggests that it's because humans ''used to'' be able to fly millions of years ago. Brock finds the idea ridiculous.

* In ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}, the first volume of the comic is called "A Dream of Flying" and starts with everyday schlub Mike Moran having a dream of flying. Turns out he's actually [[spoiler:remembering]].

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* To prove she's a being, the ArtificialIntelligence Iona in ''Literature/HaloSaintsTestimony'' plays her most beloved dream, which involves flying over an imaginary city, witnessing the evolution of the universe, and finding a woman's face in the sky.

* To prove she's a being, Iona in ''Literature/HaloSaintsTestimony'' plays her most beloved dream, which involves flying over an imaginary city, witnessing the evolution of the universe, and finding a woman's face in the sky.

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* In "ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}", the first volume of Miracleman is called "A Dream of Flying" and starts with everyday shlub Mike Moran having a dream of flying. Turns out he's actually remembering.

* In "ComicBook/Miracleman", the first volume of Miracleman is called "Dream of Flying" and starts with everyday shlub Mike Moran having a dream of flying. Turns out he's actually remembering.

* In ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', Sam has a recurring flight dream, where he even meets his love interest before he does so in reality.

Perhaps one of the oldest dreams in existence. Whether it's longing to see things from a bird's perspective, jealousy or inspiration from seeing another do it, or just wanting to feel the sense of freedom of soaring through the sky, a lot of characters dream of flying.

The nature of how they wish to accomplish this varies from building a flying machine to longing for a pair of wings.

Like most cases with dreams, this can sometimes be a case of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor. Other times, it's exactly what the character wanted and their story ends with them happily flying with the birds. Of course, this doesn't just apply to those who can't fly. Animals that are capable of flight but lack the knowledge (usually young ones) often wish to be able to join their fellow species in the sky. In this case, it usually ends with them finally discovering how.

When a penguin has this dream, it's usually a TragicDream, although there have been some cases where, for some miraculous reason or another, it's subverted.

This trope also applies to those who have ''literal'' dreams of flight.

Compare IBelieveICanFly. SubTrope of IJustWantToBeSpecial and ButMoreSpecific.

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* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Let Bagons Be Bagons" a Bagon tries to learn how to fly. It eventually does so with a jetpack before evolving into Shelgon. Another example was "Fly Me to the Moon" about a Pidgey named Orville who dreams of flying higher then any other Pokemon. Even Meowth was touched by the dream and decided to help him.

* ''ComicBook/{{ElfQuest}}'' Volume 2 issue 4, in the ''Windkin'' story, it is implied that the "grandfather" has actually flown (as a child, with Windkin providing the means) while his little grandson hopes that he'll one day get to fly too.

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* In Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/ThePebbleAndThePenguin'', Rocko, the penguin Hubie meets on his journey, wishes this. At the end of the film, in a a way that doesn't make sense, he achieves it. Still, despite its illogical nature, it's pretty touching.
* Petrie, a young pteranodon from Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', tries hard to fly, but succeeds only in falling. During the FinalBattle with Sharptooth, he finally manages to in order to save Duckie.
* In the holiday movie, ''WesternAnimation/AnnabellesWish'', a young calf, after seeing Santa's reindeer, wishes to fly like them. However, after bonding with the farmer's nephew Billy who had lost his voice in a fire, she gives up her dream and her ability to talk on Christmas so that Billy could speak again. Years later, when Annabelle was on her death bed, Santa came and made her one of his reindeer and restored her voice.
* This is pretty much the main plot of the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}''.
* Wise mentor Cornelius has a dream of flight, which leads him to pen diagrams and construct a scale model of a "Flapper Wingamathing" in Creator/HannaBarbera's ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest''. He doesn't get the chance to build one, though, as the tragic events of the story intervene. Cornelius's three young pupils, however, construct the device out of necessity, and it works. The end credits show Cornelius aboard his invention with the young 'uns operating it.
* In the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment of ''Disney/{{Fantasia}} 2000'', the main characters watch two skaters and imagine themselves living out their dreams; for the HenpeckedHusband John, that means flying like a bird.
* Arthur In ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'' mentions wishing he could fly, so Merlin turns him into a bird so he can live out his dream.

* ''GrandCanyon'': 1991 Creator/KevinKline film in which Kline's character Mack has a dream where he flies over Los Angeles at night, over a Hollywood sign altered to read "Hullo Mack", and up to an apartment where his secretary Dee (Mary-Louise Parker) lies naked in bed waiting for him.

-->'''Aborigine:''' Who are you?
-->'''Gordon "Gordo" Cooper:''' Me? I'm an... I'm an astronaut.
-->'''Aborigine:''' Astronaut?
-->'''Gordo:''' Yeah.
-->'''Aborigine:''' Well, what you do here, astronaut?
-->'''Gordo:''' I came up here because a buddy of mine is getting ready to fly overhead, up in outer space. I'll be talking to him on that dish.
-->'''Aborigine:''' Fly over? You blokes do that too?
-->'''Gordo:''' You do that yourself?
-->'''Aborigine:''' Not me, mate. See that old bloke there? He know. He know the moon. He know the star. And he know the Milky Way. He'll give you a hand. He know.
-->'''Gordo:''' We'll sure need all the help we can get.
* Test pilot Cliff Secord from Creator/TouchstonePictures' ''Film/TheRocketeer'' has flown some developmental aircraft. When Fate delivers a prototype rocket pack unto him, Cliff becomes a literal flying man. The learning curve is much steeper than with fixed-wing aircraft, but Cliff's enthusiasm steadily raises his airworthiness.

* In ''Literature/TheInkWorldTrilogy'', Because his mother took the form of a swift while she was pregnant with him [[spoiler:Resa's son]] dreams of flying like a bird with his mother. The dreams are so realistic he sometimes can't tell them from reality.
* In the first part of Creator/THWhite's ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'', Arthur expresses to Merlin a wish to fly, so Merlin turns him into a bird of prey (a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird) merlin]], naturally), and puts him in with the castle's hunting falcons.

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* Marin from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' wishes she was a seagull so she could fly off the island and sing to various people. [[spoiler:She gets her wish if you finish the game without dying]].
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' invokes this trope with Bagon, a little dragon introduced in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' whose aspirations to fly fail causing it to fall and hit its head so hard and so often that it becomes tempered. However, its later evolutions see its dream realized, eventually evolving into a giant winged, flying Salamence
* Pit from ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' mentions he would like to be able to fly by himself so he doesn't have to rely on his patron goddess Palutena to do so.

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* ''WebAnimation/{{Kiwi}}'' combines this with {{Tearjerker}}.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'' episode "Eleroo's Wishday", Eleroo wishes that he could fly, but when Croc and his cronies threaten the other Wuzzles, Eleroo uses his final wish to sacrifice his newfound abilities of flight and to save his friends.
* The ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "Airborne Odie" saw Odie wishing to fly, which comes true after finding a magic lamp at the beach that contained a genie (voiced by Creator/BuddyHackett). After using up two of his wishes to fly more properly, Odie uses his final wish to save Garfield from a [[ThreateningShark shark]].
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'' also depicts Odie longing to fly, although it kept twisting around whether or not ItWasAllJustADream.
* In the LostEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', it depicts [=SpongeBob=] longing to fly with jellyfish. After a few failed attempts at building a flying machine, [=SpongeBob=] gains the ability to fly by accidentally inflating his pants. Unfortunately, everyone takes advantage of his flight which leads to his pants being destroyed. However, [=SpongeBob=] gets his wish when the jellyfish give him a ride.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/YogiBear'' featured Yogi helping a baby eagle who couldn't fly. After many attempts, the young eagle finally succeeds when he saves Yogi.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AWishForWingsThatWork'', Opus the penguin both really wants to fly - that's his christmas wish - and dreams about it; albeit in his dream he's a pilot aboard the crashing airplane from ''Film/LostHorizon''.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' featuring all the characters that can fly, flightless Donald longs be able to do the same. Thanks to Tinker Bell, he's able to live it out.
** The classic WWII short ''Sky Trooper'' had Donald wanting to fly in the Air Force.
* Kit Cloudkicker from Disney Television's ''WesternAnimation/{{Talespin}}'' series admires his mentor, Baloo, and hopes to become a remarkable pilot some day. The few times that Kit has taken the controls have overwhelmed him, though. However, as far as riding an airfoil goes, Kit takes to "cloudsurfing" like a bird to the sky.

* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Let Bagons Be Bagons" a Bagon tries to learn how to fly. It eventually does so with a jetpack before evolving into Shelgon.

->''Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.''
->-- Todd Faber, ''ComicBook/TheSandman: Fear of Falling''

** The classic WWII short ''Sky Trooper'' had Donald wanting to fly in the Air Forice.

* A plot occurred in ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'', although it kept twisting around whether or not ItWasAllJustADream.

* Test pilot Cliff Secord from TouchstonePictures' ''Film/TheRocketeer'' has flown some developmental aircraft. When Fate delivers a prototype rocket pack unto him, Cliff becomes a literal flying man. The learning curve is much steeper than with fixed-wing aircraft, but Cliff's enthusiasm steadily raises his airworthiness.

* {{Pink Floyd}}'s "Learning to Fly" is a song from the point of view of an "Earthbound misfit" imagining himself in flight.

* Referenced in ''{{Homestuck}}'', where a Sburb player's "dream body" is naturally able to fly. It's also noted that Tavros Nitram (a big fan of his universe's version of ''Peter Pan'') has fantasized about flying for years. This is one of the reasons why, upon entering Sburb, he spends more time in his dream body than his waking body.

* The ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "Airborne Odie" saw Odie wishing to fly, which comes true after finding a magic lamp at the beach that contained a genie (voiced by BuddyHackett, no less). After using up two of his wishes to fly more properly, Odie uses his final wish to save Garfield from a [[ThreateningShark shark]].
** A similar plot occurred in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'', although it kept twisting around whether or not ItWasAllJustADream.

* In ''AWishForWingsThatWork'', Opus the penguin both really wants to fly - that's his christmas wish - and dreams about it; albeit in his dream he's a pilot aboard the crashing airplane from ''Film/LostHorizon''.

>''Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.''