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* AmbiguousEnding: The film doesn't provide us with a clear answer about how the situation will work out between Betty, Bill, and George.
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* AmbiguousEnding: The film doesn't provide us with a clear answer about how the situation will work out between Betty, Bill, and George.George (though of course part of the film's message is learning to appreciate the lack of the predictability that their old world enforced).
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* ColoringInTheWorld: The main protagonists Jennifer and David get trapped in the black-and-white show of Pleasantville, which seems to be a pleasant place as the name implies at first, but it turns out the inhabitants have their own [[CrapsaccharineWorld sorts of hidden issues and are stuck in a drab, formulaic lifestyle]]. Gradually, the protagonists cause color to spread throughout the place via growing out of their comfort zones and confronting their inner turmoil, to show that the change is all for the better.
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* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Subverted. Basketballs that don't go through the hoop every time and no dinner on the table in the evening are just as much of a rupture in Pleasantville's reality, and just as frightening and traumatic to the inhabitants, as the first real rain or fire.
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* TheFifties: Exaggerated if not parodied with the ''Pleasantville'' sitcom.
* TheNineties: Where the real world is set, being enough of a CrapsackWorld for David to resort to watching a '50s sitcom for escapism. The film was a response to the MoralGuardians of that decade who condemned changes in family structure, and promoted ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''-style “family values”.
* ActorAllusion: The TV Repairman is played by Creator/DonKnotts, who played Barney Fife in ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'', one of the more 50s-ish sitcoms out there in spite of the fact that it was made in UsefulNotes/TheSixties.
* TheNineties: Where the real world is set, being enough of a CrapsackWorld for David to resort to watching a '50s sitcom for escapism. The film was a response to the MoralGuardians of that decade who condemned changes in family structure, and promoted ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''-style “family values”.
* ActorAllusion: The TV Repairman is played by Creator/DonKnotts, who played Barney Fife in ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'', one of the more 50s-ish sitcoms out there in spite of the fact that it was made in UsefulNotes/TheSixties.
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* TheFifties: The50s: Exaggerated if not parodied with the ''Pleasantville'' sitcom.
*TheNineties: The90s: Where the real world is set, being enough of a CrapsackWorld for David to resort to watching a '50s sitcom for escapism. The film was a response to the MoralGuardians of that decade who condemned changes in family structure, and promoted ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''-style “family values”.
* ActorAllusion: The TV Repairman is played by Creator/DonKnotts, who played Barney Fife in ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'', one of the more 50s-ish sitcoms out there in spite of the fact that it was made inUsefulNotes/TheSixties.UsefulNotes/The60s.
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* ActorAllusion: The TV Repairman is played by Creator/DonKnotts, who played Barney Fife in ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'', one of the more 50s-ish sitcoms out there in spite of the fact that it was made in
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* ComingOfAgeStory: When people of all age ranges step outside their formula lifestyle, symbolized by the transition to color. The whole film is an allegory for CharacterDevelopment and almost chronicles the rise of the teenager, TheFifties coming of age as a decade if you will.
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* ComingOfAgeStory: When people of all age ranges step outside their formula lifestyle, symbolized by the transition to color. The whole film is an allegory for CharacterDevelopment and almost chronicles the rise of the teenager, TheFifties The50s coming of age as a decade if you will.
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* CulturePolice: Utilized as the presence of two kids from the real world starts making a small town from a sitcom set in an idealized version of TheFifties more and more real. One particularly non-subtle scene visually features an angry mob breaking into a store and tearing paintings apart -- then moving on to burn books. The town establishes a Code of Conduct prohibiting all recorded music except "Pat Boone, Music/JohnnyMathis, Perry Como, Jack Jones, the marches of John Philip Sousa or 'The Star Spangled Banner'."
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* CulturePolice: Utilized as the presence of two kids from the real world starts making a small town from a sitcom set in an idealized version of TheFifties The50s more and more real. One particularly non-subtle scene visually features an angry mob breaking into a store and tearing paintings apart -- then moving on to burn books. The town establishes a Code of Conduct prohibiting all recorded music except "Pat Boone, Music/JohnnyMathis, Perry Como, Jack Jones, the marches of John Philip Sousa or 'The Star Spangled Banner'."
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* DeconstructiveParody: Of 50's sitcoms and nostalgia for the era. Main character David thinks that the titular town, which shares its name with the [[ShowWithinAShow television program in the film]], is this: everything seems happy and idyllic, the town is permanently in the "nice" part of TheFifties (no greasers/rock 'n roll/war, etc.), and all problems are resolved in thirty short minutes. But when David and his sister Jennifer are [[TrappedInTVLand sucked into the show]], he discovers just how miserable it is: none of the books have any print in them, everybody's happy [[StepfordSmiler because they're mandated to be]], nobody has any sex whatsoever (to the point where Jennifer teaching her sitcom "mother" to masturbate and experience orgasm for the first time causes a nearby tree to ''burst into flame''), and the town's Main Street ends in a circle--there's no getting out of it whatsoever. By the end, David and Jennifer have transformed the town into a place that's not nearly as perfect, but much more human and genuine.
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* DeconstructiveParody: Of 50's sitcoms and nostalgia for the era. Main character David thinks that the titular town, which shares its name with the [[ShowWithinAShow television program in the film]], is this: everything seems happy and idyllic, the town is permanently in the "nice" part of TheFifties The50s (no greasers/rock 'n roll/war, etc.), and all problems are resolved in thirty short minutes. But when David and his sister Jennifer are [[TrappedInTVLand sucked into the show]], he discovers just how miserable it is: none of the books have any print in them, everybody's happy [[StepfordSmiler because they're mandated to be]], nobody has any sex whatsoever (to the point where Jennifer teaching her sitcom "mother" to masturbate and experience orgasm for the first time causes a nearby tree to ''burst into flame''), and the town's Main Street ends in a circle--there's no getting out of it whatsoever. By the end, David and Jennifer have transformed the town into a place that's not nearly as perfect, but much more human and genuine.
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* NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe: Parodied and ultimately subverted; the world of the show is initially the rosy idea of TheFifties that everyone loves to reminisce about, but once the "color infection" starts to spread, the uglier side of the decade (such as "racial" and gender discrimination) is gradually reflected.
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* NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe: Parodied and ultimately subverted; the world of the show is initially the rosy idea of TheFifties The50s that everyone loves to reminisce about, but once the "color infection" starts to spread, the uglier side of the decade (such as "racial" and gender discrimination) is gradually reflected.
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* SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl: Played with, where a girl from our day and age ends up stepping into this role... and by the time the movie's done, ''every girl in town'' is like that to some extent, except the girl who started the behavior.
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* SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl: SeeminglyWholesome50sGirl: Played with, where a girl from our day and age ends up stepping into this role... and by the time the movie's done, ''every girl in town'' is like that to some extent, except the girl who started the behavior.
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* StandardFiftiesFather: George Parker, Bud and Mary Sue's father, fits this trope to a T at first. Deconstructed as the town changes color when George is left uncertain of his role in the changing world, even asking his son Bud for advice.
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* StandardFiftiesFather: Standard50sFather: George Parker, Bud and Mary Sue's father, fits this trope to a T at first. Deconstructed as the town changes color when George is left uncertain of his role in the changing world, even asking his son Bud for advice.
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* TheThemeParkVersion: Although ''Pleasantville'' might appear to be taken straight from a [[TheFifties 1950s]] sitcom, sitcoms of that era were not actually that simple for the most part; references to pop culture, the outside world and sexuality occurred on even the strictest shows. This particular usage is more thematically deliberate, though: The film is more about how people think of and remember those shows than how they actually were.
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* TheThemeParkVersion: Although ''Pleasantville'' might appear to be taken straight from a [[TheFifties [[The50s 1950s]] sitcom, sitcoms of that era were not actually that simple for the most part; references to pop culture, the outside world and sexuality occurred on even the strictest shows. This particular usage is more thematically deliberate, though: The film is more about how people think of and remember those shows than how they actually were.
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* TheImmodestOrgasm: Taken up to eleven. Betty is moderately vocal when working herself up to it, but we don't know what she sounded like when she actually climaxed, because a tree outside ''exploded into flames''. This is even more impressive than it sounds, since previously nothing would burn in Pleasantville. An adult woman having an orgasm ''changed the nature of the world''. It took whole crowds of teenagers humping away for weeks to achieve similar results with the rain.
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* LiteralMetaphor: Pleasantville residents become colorized the moment they show who they really are or act on what they truly feel. In other words, they're showing their "true colors".
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* LiteralMetaphor: A variation. Pleasantville residents become colorized the moment they show who they really are or act on what they truly feel. In other words, they're showing their "true colors".
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* TakenFromADream: In the finale, [[spoiler: while [[IChooseToStay Jennifer chooses to remain in Pleasantville's TV Land]], David decides to return to the real world. Ever the loving mother, Betty gives him a bag of pastries for the journey... and when David finds himself back in the real world, he finds that the bag returned to reality along with him.]]
