In fiction, bubbles are much more sturdy than in real life. This is usually because it's being used as a container for something else, but that's far from the only application. Bubbles are used similarly to balloons, malleable containers for air that stretch and indent when pressed upon. And when something can rebound, it can be used as a trampoline.
Bouncy Bubbles can come about in two main ways:
- The bubble itself is basically a trampoline. If it doesn't pop, it can rebound in such a way that it launches whatever was used to land on it.
- Upon popping, the bubble releases its air in such a way that whatever popped it is blasted away from the pressure release.
Contrast Floating in a Bubble and Bubble Shield, where the character is inside. Contrast Wacky Waterbed, which is filled with liquid instead of air. Compare Cobweb Trampoline, Gelatinous Trampoline, Solid Clouds, Springy Spores, and Trampoline Tummy for other tropes about characters bouncing on things that aren't normally bounced on.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bubble's premise centers around anti-gravity bubbles that swamped the world. In Japan, groups of young people face off against each other in parkour battles leaping from one building to another. The movie features Hibiki and Uta jumping on the bigger bubbles raining down upon Tokyo during their parkour races.
- Justified in One Piece with the bubbles in Saobody Archipelago and Fishman Island. The bubbles found in those locations are made out a special resin derived from the giant mangrove trees that grow out of the ocean floor. They can maintain their tensile strength and support a significant amount of weight in the areas where the trees are and under the ocean's surface, but if they venture too far from those areas they will pop. They are also not totally immune to being manhandled, and attacking them enough can pop them.
- In Pokémon: The First Movie, Ash is saved by the bouncy pink bubble created by Mew. Afterwards, Mew bounces and plays on the pink bubble.
- Powerpuff Girls Z: Miyako Gotokuji's "Bubble Poyon" is a large, bouncy bubble that prevents enemy attacks and absorbs shock for rescue.
- Rilu Rilu Fairilu: In the 1st ending of Key of Life, Rippu and her friends are trampolining on soap bubbles.
- Sleepless Domain: Undine occasionally uses her water bubbles for this purpose, such as when she breaks her partner Kokoro's fall with a bubble cushion.
Video Games
- In Bubble Bobble, players can bounce on their bubbles, and some levels cannot be cleared without taking advantage of them.
- Mega Man V: In Venus's stage, there are areas where the floor is covered with bubbles, and if Megaman falls on them, he will bounce back up.
- The Neopets minigame Petpet Plunge involves the player bouncing aquatic Petpets off of bubbles of varying strengths. However it also averts this trope somewhat by having bubbles that can be easily popped as well as unpoppable bubbles.
- Psychonauts: The player can develop a PSI-Power called Levitation, which consists in projecting a mind bubble that can be used to travel faster, float in the air for a short period of time and to bounce on it to jump higher.
- Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: In some instances after Globox drinks plum juice, he burps out some bubbles that Rayman can bounce on.
- Risk of Rain Returns: Acrid's Toxic Bubble skill can be used for this purpose after being fired out.
- Rivals of Aether: Ranno can make a green bubble with his down special, zip to it, and launch off from the pop using side special.
- In Shovel Knight, bubbles have Collision Damage but can be treated like a trampoline for climbing to higher ground if done with a downward thrust attack.
- Skullgirls: Umbrella has several attacks that spawn bubbles across the stage. These can either be used to zone out an opponent or she can jump on them to grant extra aerial mobility.
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles introduces the bubble shield to the Sonic series, which allows Sonic to continuously bounce, which proves useful for gaining height and crushing enemies.
- Spelunky 2: The axolotl mount can shoot bubbles that encase entities, and said bubbles can then be jumped on for a higher jump. There are also rising bubbles in Tiamat's chamber which the player can jump on and ride up to higher platforms.
- In the Game Boy Advance version of SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, one of the item pickups SpongeBob can get is a pink bubble canister that lets him blow bubbles he can bounce off of to reach certain areas he can't normally jump to.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- New Super Mario Bros. U: The player can jump on the bubbles created by the blue baby Yoshi.
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder:
- The bubbles created by the Bubble power up can be bounced off of once before they pop.
- A Wonder effect causes Blewbirds to blow giant colorful bubbles that the player can bounce off of once.
- The DeepDive in An Untitled Story is home to bubbles that the player character can bump into for an upward boost and another use of the Double Jump ability. They also restore a bit of the player's Oxygen Meter.
- The Yoshi's Island series has many bouncy bubbles.
- In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Bubble Dayzees and Barney Bubbles spit out streams of bubbles that can knock Yoshi backwards.
- Yoshi's New Island has 4-1, Hop 'n' Pop Till You Drop. Bubbles are placed that bounce up when Yoshi is on them.
- In Yoshi's Story, there is a bubble that contains fruit, and when Yoshi touches it, he is bounced back by the bounciness of the bubble.
- Yoshi's Woolly World has 3-4, Big Montgomery's Bubble Fort. Almost all of the level is full of bubbles, on which you bounce to advance. These bubbles can only be broken with the Shy Guy's knitting stick.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Abney and Teal: In the episode "Sky High," Abney and her friends bounce and play with Bop's blown bubbles.
- Hero Elementary: Benny Bubbles can leap higher and further by placing bubbles on his feet.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In Feeling Pinkie Keen, Twilight falls into the swamp as she flees from the hydra, but is bounced up by a giant mud bubble to reach her friends.
- South Park: At the end of the Season 10 episode "Go God Go XII", Cartman receives a phone call from his future self asking him not to freeze himself until the future for a second time, or else he'll wake up in an era where people have to mount difficult-to-control colored bubbles to move around. The present-era Cartman disregards the advice.
- Being that blowing bubbles is one of SpongeBob SquarePants's favorite pastimes, this happens every now and again on the show. Sometimes, he'll ride in them, but he also likes to jump on bubbles, either in rapid succession for transport or simply because it's fun.
