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Sandbox / Amusement Park Wick Check

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The trope has an unspecific name and is used generally as a "this real life setting exists in fiction," which isn't tropeworthy. Thus, I'll check for tropeworthiness, ZCEs, and scope issues. Note: Something happening in an amusement park, even if plot-important, is treated as ZCE or chairs.

Wicks checked: 50/50.

  • Quick wick results:
    • 41/50 are "X happens in/Y visits an amusement park" / "amusement parks exist" ZCE + contextless potholes, or 82%.
    • 3/50 are examples of a heated confrontation/chase taking place in an amusement park, or 6%.
    • 6/50 are other ZCEs and unclassified examples, or 12%.

  • Detailed analysis: The majority of examples are using the trope as a setting, as in for anything that happens in an amusement park, be it a date or a plot-relevant event. There are a few examples of amusement parks being a location for confrontations/chase scenes, but they're barely three wicks. It seems like there's nothing about this tope that is salvageable.

  • Solutions:

    open/close all folders 

    "X happens in/Y visits an amusement park" / "amusement parks exist" ZCE + contextless potholes (41/50) 
  1. Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Sonic Adventure: Subverted with Station Square's sewer, which is incredibly small and exists only to get Sonic and Big into the downtown city and [[AmusementPark Twinkle Park]], respectively.
  2. Creepy Circus Music: Balan Wonderworld: Princess Marey, the boss of the Amusement Park-themed world, has a demented carnival waltz for her battle music.
  3. Lovable Lizard: In Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, the Amusement Park Joilant has its own mascot in the form of a goofy-looking Cartoon Creature resembling a lizard or dinosaur. In the Joilant Fun Park level, he can be seen numerous times in the background, entertaining the guests.
  4. Painful Pointy Pufferfish: Sonic The Hedgehog has various robotic examples:
    1. Sonic 3D Blast has spiky airborne pufferfish badniks in [[AmusementPark Spring Stadium Zone]] and Gene Gadget Zone.
  5. Sunny Sunflower Disposition: In Super Mario Sunshine, the outside section of [[AmusementPark Pinna Park]] has a field of sentient sunflowers that will give Mario gold coins if he waters them. It's a needed source of coins if the player wants to get the level's 100-coin award Shine.
  6. The Wild West: In Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2, one of the levels takes place in the Western World section of Fat Cat's Amusement Park, where one of the three keys to Fat Cat's control room is hidden. The level has a few Minecart Madness elements, and the boss is a cat magician who tosses playing cards.
  7. Under the Sea: Sonic The Hedgehog:
    1. Lost Labyrinth from Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 is this mixed with Underwater Ruins. There is also Sylvania Castle (same sort of thing) and White Park's third act (the rest is Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Amusement Park) in Episode 2.
  8. Advertising.CN City: The city has one — Commented out
  9. Animation.Even Mice Belong In Heaven: Animal Heaven features an amusement park that the main characters visit. Park attendees are given a card with a symbol on it and are told that it’s the recommended ride to go on in order to get a movie ticket.
  10. Anime.Cardfight Vanguard Overdress: Team Blackout's base is at an abandoned one.
  11. Anime.Kiratto Pri Chan: Prichan Land.
  12. I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus: Most of the piece takes place in a Disneyland-style amusement park called The Future Fair, with rides like "The Wall of Science" and "A Visit to the President" (the latter being a reference to Disneyland's own Abraham Lincoln animatronic puppet show). Curiously, the clown-like Bozos mentioned in the title are all visitors, rather than participants. — Chairs is it doesn't note anything remarkable
  13. Characters.Anpanman: (Himawari, in the Artists' folder), A cheerful sunflower girl who runs her own amusement park based on, well, sunflowers!
  14. Characters.Doubt Academy: (Usami), A strange rabbit who appears to be the mascot of whatever area the students find themselves locked into: [[AmusementPark Magical Miracleland]] in Black or Bright Side Spa & Resort in White. Unfortunately for everyone involved, she's quickly usurped by Monobear.
  15. Characters.The Idolmaster Side M: (HighxJoker folder), Image Song:
    1. Their later songs include "OUR SONG -Sore wa Sekai de Hitotsu Dake-", "Sunset★Colors", "SEASON IN THE FIVE", and "[[AmusementPark Smiles in Wonderland!]]"
  16. Characters.Wario Ware: (Young Cricket & Master Mantis), Where they train during Gold by riding a merry-go-round.
  17. ComicBook.Childs Play Innovation: The fifth issue is set in an amusement park where Chucky naturally gets up to all sorts of villainy.
  18. Cuphead.Tropes F To M: Happy Circus Music:
    1. Inkwell Isle Two, which is an Amusement Park, has some jaunty orchestral music.
  19. DarthWiki.Pokemon Aquamarine And Turquoise: (Pokémon Aquamarine and Turquoise's folder), Water Island happens to be a colossal aquatic theme park located out on the ocean. Taking up the entirety of the island it's situated on, Water Island has hundreds of rides, dozens of restaurants, and a huge number of stores, aquariums, swimming pools, show areas, and zoo attractions.
  20. Fanfic.A Growing Affection: Naruto, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, Ino, and Choji go to one to try to prove that they are on vacation, not a covert mission.
  21. Fanfic.Maximum Paradise Driver: Ichigo, Minato, Konan, and Saiga all go to the Amusement Park 'Pastures Green' which is revealed to actually be R'yleh.
  22. Film.Coney Island: Luna Park on Coney Island. The film starts with a lovely clip of the park lit up at night.
  23. Film.Everything Will Be Okay: Where they go to drive the bumper cars. Michael's in a hurry though, so they have to leave and go to the passport office.
  24. Film.Keep The Change 2017: The protagonists go to one. Sarah wants to go on the most intense rides, while David tries to talk her into something gentler. Even the merry-go-round turns out to be enough to make David queasy.
  25. Film.Millie: Jack takes Millie to one when they're courting. It's not chairs but it has the same ZCE format of "X visited one."
  26. Film.O Youth: Ki Ho takes Un Gyong on a roller-coaster ride, where he delivers a lecture on the history of North Korean martial arts. As you do.
  27. Film.Speedy: A long sequence in which Harold takes Jane to Coney Island.
  28. Film.Sunrise: The man and wife go to one after reconciling.
  29. Film.The Devil And Miss Jones: The four friends spend time at Coney Island, and you can see the rides in the background.
  30. Film.The Learning Tree: Newt and his gang are seen attending one where they participate in a boxing tournament.
  31. Film.The Ring 1927: Where the story opens, as Jack is working as a take-all-comers boxer at an amusement park.
  32. Film.The Wiz: In the movie, the Tin Man is found at a deserted amusement park; he was one of the animatronics, abandoned when the park closed. The park is represented by Coney Island's famous Cyclone roller coaster.
  33. Film.Woman On The Run: The climax of the film is set in an amusement park very similar to San Francisco’s Playland. There's a horrifying scene where Eleanor is stuck on a roller coaster while Frank is in immediate danger.
  34. Funny.Miss Kobayashis Dragon Maid: In Chapter 50, after she, Kobayashi, and Kanna spend a day at an Amusement Park, Tohru comes to the conclusion that these places are meant to simulate the experience of riding a dragon.
  35. KingdomHearts.Tropes A To D: Prankster's Paradise (Pinocchio) is primarily based on the amusement park Pleasure Island from the film.
  36. Laconic.Zombillenium: A guy becomes a new employee of an Amusement Park that's staffed by monsters.
  37. Literature.Alfie The Werewolf: The tenth book is entirely set in De Efteling, the most famous amusement park of the Netherlands.
  38. Literature.Dragons Teeth: Slumming It: In what the narration calls a "slumming-tour", Lanny and his spoiled Idle Rich aristocrat friends go to visit that temple of working class New York amusement, Coney Island. They are all shocked by the teeming masses of humanity filling up the beach. Lanny, for all his talk of socialism and the betterment of the workers, is disgusted, thinking that the regular folks visiting the Amusement Park have an "emptiness of mind."
  39. Literature.Ollies Odyssey: Zozo makes his base in the abandoned ruins of one.
  40. Literature.The Phantom Of Manhattan: Erik designs attractions for no less than three successful amusement parks on Coney Island and even finances the last one. One later serves as an... — Incomplete context, we shouldn't read another listed trope to get the full context
  41. Manga.Koishi Tagari No Blue: Chapter 3.

    A heated confrontation/chase takes place in an amusement park (3/50) 
  1. Battle Amongst the Flames: The Mariage from StrikerS Sound Stage X of Lyrical Nanoha set every place they attack on fire. This naturally culminated in a final battle in the burning [[AmusementPark Marine Garden]] where the Forwards and N2R unit had to fight them while suppressing the fire and rescuing any survivors at the same time.
  2. Hostage for MacGuffin: In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus pulls one of these when Spider-Man plays keep-away with the Applied Phlebotinum Doc Ock needs to power his Artificial Limbs. The chase leads toward [[AmusementPark Coney Island]], where Octopus realizes Spidey feels obliged to save Innocent Bystanders from the resulting chaos. Exploiting this, he grabs a nearby damsel and leaves her hanging precariously from a rollercoaster to force Spider-Man to give up the power source. The damsel is actually Peter Parker's then-girlfriend (sort of) Liz Allan, though neither she nor Octopus knows Spidey is Parker.
  3. Animation.Nu Pogodi: Setting for Episode 2, as Wolf chases Hare around the rides in a carnival.

    Other types of ZCE & unsortable examples (6/50) 
  1. Casino Park: May overlap with Pinball Zone, Minigame Zone, or Amusement Park. — Mentioned in the description
  2. Case Closed: Sato and Takagi have a date in an Amusement Park with half the police force, trying to make it fail without being seen. — Amusement parks are a common spot for dates but the example lacks much context
  3. Harmless Liquefaction: Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation: Plucky, Hamton and Hamton's family take a trip to an Amusement Park named Happy World Land. One of the rides shown is the Happy Centrifuge, a capsule on the end of a rapidly-rotating arm. When it stops, the occupants are poured out into a puddle, complete with blinking eyes. — A unique type of ride
  4. Red Flood United States: (Howard, in the United States of America folder), Can build amusement parks all over America as a way of increasing workers' morale. — Random context
  5. Fanfic.Super Mario Sunshine A Sprite Of Light: Mario, Luigi and Aqua visit Pinna Park, an island not too far from the main island, by being blasted towards it. This is also where the Shadow gang reveal their true identities. — Chairs-y context combined with something plot important but this seems like "X happened in an amusement park" still so I'm putting it here as I'm not 100% sure
  6. Manga.In The Clear Moonlit Dusk: Ichimura ends his and Yoi's first date at an amusement park because he enjoys going to them right before they close at night. — Common date spot

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