History Main / TheTrapParents

* 1985’s ''D.A.R.Y.L.'' uses an interesting subversion of the troupe. Dr. Jeffrey Stewart and Dr. Ellen Lamb are the title character’s creators (technically his parents) but they believe he should be free to live with his “adopted” family.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': This happens to Omi, the only member of the team without a family, in the episode "Omi Tpwn". The Heylin's plans to get rid of him is to create a fake family that keeps him secluded. At the end of the episode, his friends remind him that [[TrueCompanions he does have a family]].

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' - Omi, the only member of the team without a family. At the end of the episode, his friends remind him that [[TrueCompanions he does have one]].

Not to be confused with ''Film/TheParentTrap''.

* An interesting subversion of this trope occurs in ''Film/SecondHandLions'', in that one of TheTrapParents is Walter Coleman's actual mother.

* ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'': After Warbucks offers a reward for information about Annie's family, her real parents show up to claim her, but they're actually just con artists after the reward.
** Notable in that after Daddy Warbucks offers the reward, ''hundreds'' of people showed up claiming to be Annie's parents, meaning they were all trying for this Trope. It's just one of the two con artists in question was the brother of Miss Hannigan, who ran the orphanage Annie lived at and could provide them with confidential info about how to pull off the job.

* In a GoldenAge ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin uncreatively named]] "Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson", Dick Grayson's uncle and aunt appear to claim custody of him, which a court grants. It turns out to be a con with them willing to waive their custodial rights in exchange for a hefty bribe from Bruce Wayne. For obvious reasons, [[PapaWolf Bruce]] was enraged and it didn't take long for the Batman to get involved.

Bob is ConvenientlyAnOrphan, and lives a life of adventure and excitement with his friends.

If the fake parents are not the real antagonists, but have been employed by somebody else, they may find themselves BecomingTheMask and help Bob escape.

Not to be confused with ''TheParentTrap''.

* The live action version of ''Series/TheTick'' managed to do this with Tick's alleged ''wife'' rather than parents. In that case, The Tick was such an extreme CloudCuckooLander that he somehow didn't know who he even ''was'' (legally speaking, anyway). When a woman showed up out of nowhere with documents to prove he was her amnesiac husband, he went with it, leaving his TrueCompanions feeling oddly betrayed. The Tick gets frustrated when the fake wife demands he give up crime fighting and lead a normal life; the documents turned out to be forged and the wife AxCrazy, necessitating a [[StatusQuoIsGod rescue]].

* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', "The Lost Boy": Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke is reclaimed by his "real parents". This comes as a surprise to Sarah Jane since she had believed he was created in a lab by aliens, but they are able to supply evidence, which is verified by Mr Smith, that he's their son who was abducted. It turns out that they are actually disguised aliens who need him for their evil plan, and their evidence was faked using the same technology Mr Smith uses to maintain the {{Masquerade}}, which Mr Smith didn't catch because [[spoiler:he was in on the evil plan too, and faked the evidence himself]].

* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', "The Lost Boy": Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke is reclaimed by his "real parents", who are actually disguised aliens who need him for their evil plan. (In this case there was never any question that they might ''really'' be Luke's parents, but Sarah couldn't exactly say "No, he was created in a lab by an alien soft-drink manufacturer".)

* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', "The Lost Boy": Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke is reclaimed by his "real parents", who are actually disguised aliens who need him for their evil plan.

** The adoption was never actualy going to happen. He discovered the ruse before the reading of Elfangor's letter so he was able to suppress any emotion that would have given him away to Visser Three.

* ''Film/StuartLittle'': Stuart's real parents reclaim him, but they're actually impostors and it's part of a plot to separate him from his new family. They eventually start to feel regrat about what they did and admit the whole deception to Stuart.

* ''Film/StuartLittle'': Stuart's real parents reclaim him, but they're actually impostors and it's part of a plot to separate him from his new family.

Then StatusQuoIsGod takes a hand: Once Bob is on his own, it's not long before he discovers that the whole loving parent thing has been an act to get him in their power for some sinister purpose. Then it's up to Bob to escape (or his TrueCompanions, who never quite trusted those two), to rescue him.

If the fake parents are not the real antagonist, but have been employed by somebody else, they may find themselves BecomingTheMask and help Bob escape.

* ''Rick O'Shay'' did this plot with TagalongKid Quyat, who was found wandering in the forest as a small child. A man shows up claiming to be the kid's father, but is actually an outlaw who killed Quyat's father over a treasure map, only to find that Quyat and the map had both disappeared; having now tracked Quyat down, he wants to get Quyat to remember where the map was hidden.

* A ''{{Spider-Man}}'' story arc had Peter Parker's parents turn up alive and well, but they were actually robot duplicates created by one of Spider-Man's enemies.

* ''StuartLittle'': Stuart's real parents reclaim him, but they're actually impostors and it's part of a plot to separate him from his new family.
* An interesting subversion of this trope occurs in ''SecondHandLions'', in that one of TheTrapParents is Walter Coleman's actual mother.

* In ''EscapeToWitchMountain'', a man appears at the orphanage claiming to be Tony and Tia's uncle. He's actually there to capture them and their supernatural abilities. In the Creator/{{Disney}} film, he appears [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished after Tia saves his life]].

* In ''JustShootMe'', a couple claims to be Nina's real parents. Maya later learns that they are con artists and warns Nina through the elevator intercom. Nina doesn't believe it until she sees them attempting an ElevatorEscape.

* ''AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': Tails is adopted by a loving fox family who later turn out to be robots created by Dr. Robotnik to capture him. Sonic figured out something was wrong when he realised they called him Tails, the nickname Sonic gave him, instead of his real name, "Miles".

* ''TeamoSupremo'', "The Parents From Another Planet!": Captain Crandall's "[[ChangelingFantasy real alien parents]]" show up, but they're actually con artists.

* In ''EscapeToWitchMountain'', a man appears at the orphanage claiming to be Tony and Tia's uncle. He's actually there to capture them and their supernatural abilities. In the {{Disney}} film, he appears [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished after Tia saves his life]].

* In ''MaximumRide'', Iggy finds his real parents, and they actually ''are'' his real parents -- but they don't care about him except as a cash cow, so he rejoins his TrueCompanions anyway.

* ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'', "The Lost Boy": Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke is reclaimed by his "real parents", who are actually disguised aliens who need him for their evil plan.
* The live-action ''Superboy'' series, "Abandon Earth": Superboy's parents show up alive to take him home to Krypton, but they're actually shape-shifting aliens.

* The live action version of ''TheTick'' managed to do this with Tick's alleged ''wife'' rather than parents. In that case, The Tick was such an extreme CloudCuckooLander that he somehow didn't know who he even ''was'' (legally speaking, anyway). When a woman showed up out of nowhere with documents to prove he was her amnesiac husband, he went with it, leaving his TrueCompanions feeling oddly betrayed. The Tick gets frustrated when the fake wife demands he give up crime fighting and lead a normal life; the documents turned out to be forged and the wife AxCrazy, necessitating a [[StatusQuoIsGod rescue]].

* In the ''Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan'' version of TheCloneSaga, [[spoiler:Peter's Dad pops in, totally alive and with an explanation as to where he's been. But it turns out at the end of the story, he's just a slightly altered clone of Peter with memory implants. Unlike most examples, his creator, Dr. Octopus, didn't seem to have any goal in mind to trap Peter or use him in some master plan (or if he did, we didn't see it since all the clones unexpectedly escaped). He appears to have done it just to screw with Peter.]]

* In a GoldenAge ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin uncreatively named]] "Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson", Dick Grayson's uncle and aunt appear to claim custody of him, which a court grants. It turns out to be a con with them willing to waive their custodial rights in exchange for a hefty bribe from Bruce Wayne. For obvious reasons, Bruce was enraged and it didn't take long for the Batman to get involved.

* In a GoldenAge ''{{Batman}}'' comic, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin uncreatively named]] "Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson", Dick Grayson's uncle and aunt appear to claim custody of him, which a court grants. It turns out to be a con with them willing to waive their custodial rights in exchange for a hefty bribe from Bruce Wayne. For obvious reasons, Bruce was enraged and it didn't take long for the Batman to get involved.

* In an episode of ''DaveTheBarbarian'', the King supposedly reutns mush to Fang's delight. She figures out the ruse when he [[BerserkButton calls her a monkey]] and Fang realizes it's Chuckles the Silly Piggy in disguise.