History Main / InstantPeopleJustAddWater

* In ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'', any mortal who touches the Kinjakan will have all water in their body be evaporated. This happens to Akane who in her dried up form shrinks to a doll-sized version of herself. Only by being exposed to Jusen water will her body rehydrate and be restored to her original size, however it must be done before a time limit is up, as if she closes her eyes she will be gone forever.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' had the appropriately titled "Party People in a Can", which BJ used to bring in some guests for Lydia's halloween party. Unfortunately, he failed to [[ReadTheFinePrint look at the warning]] that said not to use it during a full moon (which there was), resulting in the "Party People" growing very unruly and terrorizing the city, leading BJ and Lydia to track them down and dehydrate them. Unfortunately, after they were all collected, BJ got rid of them [[TooDumbToLive by flushing them]] [[HereWeGoAgain down the toilet]].

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' had the appropriately titled "Party People in a Can". The episode centered on BJ and Lydia having to track them down and dehydrate them since the "Party People" grew very unruly if used under a full moon ([[TooDumbToLive which BJ did]]).

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E22ByAnyOtherName By Any Other Name]]" had the [[VillainOfTheWeek Aliens Of The Week]] reduce the Enterprise crew to cuboctahedral blocks of their basic elements. (Picture [[http://www.startrek.com/legacy_media/images/200303/tos-050-two-enterprise-crew-me/320x240.jpg here]].) [[{{Redshirt}} One character]] was killed by being crushed while in this form; others were restored.

* ''Film/BatmanTheMovie'' has a machine that dehydrates living people, turning them into piles of powder which can be reconstituted with water. Accidentally mixing the powders leads to swapping of languages and personality traits. And when The Penguin accidentally reconstitutes some of his mooks with heavy water, this makes the mooks so unstable that a single punch from Batman can completely vaporize them.

* A ''Series/BatMan1966'' episode had the Penguin dehydrating people, initially to sneak {{mooks}} into the Bat Cave. That WentHorriblyWrong for them when he accidentally reconstituted them with heavy water. Then he stole an entire room full of world leaders, whose dust was accidentally mixed during the rescue - cue the [[HighlySpecificCounterplay Molecular Dust Separator]].[[spoiler:It [[PersonalitySwap mostly worked]].]]

* In one episode of ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian,'' Detective Brennan accidentally gets disintegrated and scattered. Tim and Martin spend the rest of the episode running around collecting his particles so Martin's gizmo can put him back together.

See also: FossilRevival, NoBodyLeftBehind, PeopleJars, PullingThemselvesTogether, TakenForGranite. Sometimes, [[SeaAping sea monkeys]] are like this. For ''everything'' in general that's dehydrated see InstantMassJustAddWater.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'', any mortal who touches the Kinjakan will have all water in their body be evaporated. This happens to Akane who in her dried up form shrinks to a doll sized version of herself. Only by being exposed to Jusen water will her body rehydrate and be restored to her original size, however it must be done before a time limit is up, as if she closes her eyes she will be gone forever.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
** Basic D&D ''The Book of Marvelous Magic''. The Urn of Ashes held the ashes of a creature. If treated with blackflame (a kind of anti-fire) they would change back into the living creature.

** In ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'', the effects of the [[DisintegratorRay Disintegrating Pistol]] can be reversed by, yes, an Integrating Pistol.

** The WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "WesternAnimation/{{Hare-Way to the Stars}}" had Marvin use "Instant Martians" to generate some {{Mooks}} to chase down Bugs. When Bugs accidentally drops a jar of them into a sewer, back on Earth, at the end of the cartoon:
-->'''Bugs:''' [[BreakingTheFourthWall Run for the hills, folks,]] or you'll be up to your armpits in Martians!

See also: FossilRevival, NoBodyLeftBehind, PeopleJars, PullingThemselvesTogether, TakenForGranite. Sometimes, [[SeaAping sea monkeys]] are like this. For everything dehydrated that ''isn't'' alive, see InstantMassJustAddWater.

See also: FossilRevival, NoBodyLeftBehind, PeopleJars, PullingThemselvesTogether, TakenForGranite. Sometimes, [[SeaAping sea monkeys]] are like this.

** Another WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short, "WesternAnimation/BostonQuackie", has this trope at the end, where the MacGuffin Daffy was delivering to the Slobovian ambassador turned out to be a jar of "Instant Girl". Sure enough, with with the addition of water the contents become the ambassador's plus-one for the embassy ball.

** Another WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short, "WesternAnimation/BostonQuackie", has this trope at the end, where the MacGuffin Daffy was delivering to the Slobovian ambassador turned out to be a jar of "Instant Girl".

* In ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}'', the Code 5s[[note]]think what 5 is in Roman numerals...[[/note]] turned to dust when killed and had to be stored in jars or urns. It was noted that they weren't "dead", just temporarily/indefinitely out of circulation. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, we discover that mixing the dust with fresh human blood reconstitutes them.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'', the effects of the [[DisintegratorRay Disintegrating Pistol]] can be reversed by, yes, an Integrating Pistol.

* The WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "Hare-Way to the Stars" had Marvin use "Instant Martians" to generate some {{Mooks}} to chase down Bugs. When Bugs accidentally drops a jar of them into a sewer, back on Earth, at the end of the cartoon:

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[[folder: Literature ]]

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[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** Another WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short, "Boston Quackie", has this trope at the end, where the MacGuffin Daffy was delivering to the Slobovian ambassador turned out to be a jar of "Instant Girl".

See also: FossilRevival, NoBodyLeftBehind, PeopleJars, PullingThemselvesTogether, TakenForGranite.

* In one episode of ''MyFavoriteMartian,'' Detective Brennan accidentally gets disintegrated and scattered. Tim and Martin spend the rest of the episode running around collecting his particles so Martin's gizmo can put him back together.

* The "essential saltes" mentioned under [[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]
also appear in ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', where they are the essential ingredient in the Resurrection spell.

[[folder: Anime and manga]]
* In ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'', any mortal who touches the Kinjakan will have all water in their body be evaporated. This happens to Akane who in her dried up form shrinks to a doll sized version of herself. Only by being exposed to Jusen water will her body rehydrate and be restored to her original size, however it must be done before a time limit is up, as if she closes her eyes she will be gone forever.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' Jumba had all of his previous experiments turned into small gumball sized pods, they are activate when they make contact with water.

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* The "essential saltes" in Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'' are powdered remains of dead people (or animals), which can be reanimated by sorcery — but incomplete specimens will [[CameBackWrong Come Back Wrong]].
* In the ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' series it's possible to raise the dead by first reducing their bodies to dust before doing the magic (which seems to be a ShoutOut to H.P. Lovecraft — Brian Lumley has written several Mythos works, after all).

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* The "essential saltes" mentioned under [[AC:{{Literature}}]] also appear in ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', where they are the essential ingredient in the Resurrection spell.

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