History Main / PhantomZonePicture

* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' had an episode where the artist was trapped in his own painting by the BigBad. It lead to a TrappedInTVLand style plot. It had a great scene where the heroes, fleeing mooks by rafting down a river, run aground on canvas and have to paint more river. Also had a standoff where Will threatened to drop the MacGuffin into paint thinner.

* ''Literature/TheGoldenKey'' (Creator/MelanieRawn, Kate Elliott and Jennifer Roberson): A painter imprisons his first love(/cousin) in a PortalPicture, where [[YearInsideHourOutside time passes much more slowly]].

* In the first ''Film/{{Superman}}'' movies, the Phantom Zone was portrayed in this manner, which is different from the comics.

* For her DesperationAttack in ''VideoGame/MagicalBattleArena'', [[Manga/CardcaptorSakura Sakura Kinomoto]] uses her Star Wand on her opponent and seals them inside a Sakura Card.

''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'': This is the player's fate should they lose both their lives, as the opponent uses his [[MagicalCamera camera]] to [[AndIMustScream trap you inside of]] a new card for the game. [[spoiler: this is also how the other three Scrybes are trapped during act one: P03 is trapped in the Stoat card, Grimora in the Stink Bug, and Magnificus in the Stunted Wolf. You have to steal Leshy's camera and subject him to the same fate in order to reset the game and free the other three.]]

* Happens to Mario and numerous ghosts in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', although in Mario's case he is in a Soul Jar.

** And it happens ''[[OhNoNotAgain again]]'' in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'', with Mario, some Toads and Princess Peach caught in paintings by King Boo. He also manages to capture E. Gadd (though he's rescued fairly quickly) and, if you get a Game Over, [[ItsAWonderfulFailure Luigi himself finally gets caught]]! [[spoiler: The most extreme example, however, happens in the final phase of the FinalBoss, where King Boo gets so fed up with Luigi that he produces a picture frame large enough to '''swallow up the whole hotel''', [[TakingYouWithMe himself included]], [[TimeLimitBoss if you don't beat him in four minutes]]!]]
* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' uses the fourth type extensively, however, Mario is never trapped. Bowser used the paintings as zones to control the Stars that powered Peach's castle. Its DS remake, however, played with this trope by having pictures of the captured playable characters holding the bosses that have the keys to their actual prisons, not the characters themselves.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames'', Ganon is defeated by getting imprisoned in a book. In ''Faces of Evil'', it makes sense since you beat him by throwing the Book of Koridai at him, but in ''Wand of Gamelon'' the book just comes out of nowhere after you zap him with the eponymous MacGuffin.
-->'''Ganon:''' Nooooo! Not into the pit! It buuuurns!!!\\
'''Ganon:''' Aargh! The chains! Nooooo! You haven't seen the last of me!

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', Yuga turns Zelda and the Seven Sages into paintings. He is able to turn himself into a non-imprisoned painting that can move along walls, an ability Link can also use.

* In ''Film/TheWiz'', Evamean, the Wicked Witch of the East, is also the Parks Department Commissioner of Oz. When the Munchkins "tag" (spray-paint) one of her playgrounds, she retaliates by turning them into cartoonish drawings and trapping them on its walls. When Dorothy inadvertently kills Evamean, [[NoOntologicalInertia the spell immediately breaks]] and the Munchkins are freed.
-->'''Munchkin 1''': Caught us tagging her playground walls!

* The ''WesternAnimation/DoubleDragon'' animated series: If a villain [[YouHaveFailedMe screws up once too many]], the Shadow Master will make him part of his mural, [[AndIMustScream trapped as stone and half merged into the wall]]. Previous victims are still seen there.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the backstory for the first episodes involves one of the two queens, sorry, [[PrincessesRule princesses]] ruling Equestria turning into the evil Nightmare Moon and being imprisoned on the moon by the other one. While it's never detailed what form her entrapment takes, what we can see is that as long as she's imprisoned, the moon shows a distinctive "Mare on the Moon" pattern of craters in the form of a unicorn head, and when she's released, it disappears. So for all that's shown, she could just be trapped as a vague picture on the moon, which has to be one of the physically biggest examples of this trope around.

* In ''Film/TheWiz'', Evamean, the Wicked Witch of the East, is also the Parks and Recreation Commissioner of Oz. When the Munchkins "tag" (spray-paint) one of her playgrounds, she retaliates by turning them into graffiti art themselves and trapping them on its walls. When Dorothy inadvertently kills Evamean, [[NoOntologicalInertia the spell immediately breaks]] and the Munchkins are freed.

* In the Olson Twins vehicle ''Double, Double, Toil and Trouble'', the major conflict of the plot is the Farmer twins' attempts to free their Aunt Sofia from a mirror she was trapped in by ''her'' twin. This is somewhere between the third and fourth versions of the trope.

* In Mail (a supernatural detective thriller from the same author as "Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService"), the 12th chapter in the 2nd volume has a portrait of a terminally ill girl. When people learned about her condition, most of them took pity on her and would keep on trying to motivate her to live when all she really wanted was to die. Even after she died, the motivation from people was so strong that her spirit lived on, trapped within that portrait. Of course, her spirit manages to escape the portrait from time to time to attempt suicide...usually with the body of whoever happens to be close by...

* In one ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' story, the heroes had to save ''the entire city of Paris'' from being trapped in a magic painting by the [[CloudCuckooLander Brotherhood of Dada]] (who are based on an actual artistic movement).

* The Literature/HarryPotter-style pictures, which are alive but aren't trapped people, are a borderline case.

* This is strongly implied to be the fate of [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Fulgrim]] after his DemonicPossession, trapped in a picture of himself with an expression of horror ''forever'' as a greater demon has taken up permanent residence in his body and left the picture alone in the dark, where presumably nobody will ever find it or know what happened to the real Fulgrim.

* ''Series/SapphireAndSteel''

* [[Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass Lewis Carroll's mirror]] turns out to be one of these in ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}''.

* ''Tabletopgame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has the ''Mirror of Life Trapping'', which can imprison multiple victims who look into it.

* Tabletopgame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Poor [[spoiler:Fulgrim]] is trapped in one of these, while a Daemon uses his physical shell.

* In VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames, Ganon is defeated by getting imprisoned in a book. In ''Faces of Evil'', it makes sense since you beat him by throwing the Book of Koridai at him, but in ''Wand of Gamelon'' the book just comes out of nowhere after you zap him with the eponymous MacGuffin.

* A WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog episode had all the artworks of The Louvre come to life and [[MonaLisaSmile The Mona Lisa]] ends up switching places with Muriel.