History Main / GiganticMoon

* The Moon from ''Manga/SoulEater'' in the sky is as large as a nearby building.

In RealLife, the moon is about 30 arc-minutes from Earth's surface, the size of a small coin held at arm's length. Your eyes can create the "moon illusion" that the moon is larger when it is on the horizon, a phenomenon related to the Ponzo Illusion, but in fiction this is taken to the extreme.

** Nonetheless [[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/37-our-solar-system/the-moon/the-moon-and-the-earth/31-how-close-was-the-moon-to-the-earth-when-it-formed-intermediate Simulations suggest]] the Moon was just after being formed at only 20.000-30.000 kilometers away (ie: 18-12 times closer, thus proportionally bigger).

* Those shots where an often huge Moon dominates a landscape are either the results of image manipulation software or pictures taken through a very powerful telephoto lens or even a telescope -- the actual apparent size of the Moon (and the Sun) as seen with the Mark I eyeball is just half of your little finger at an arms length.

* ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', in the scene where ET makes Elliot's bike fly. [[FullMoonSilhouette The image of the bike silhouetted against the moon]] became the logo of Creator/StevenSpielberg's production company AmblinEntertainment.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* In ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'', when Homura and Kyoko discover that [[spoiler:nothing exists outside their town]], a few scenes play out with a moon that one might think is only a few thousand miles away, given its size.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' has an EasterEgg where, if you shoot the moon with a sniper rifle, it grows larger and larger until, after 5-6 shots, it reverts to its normal size.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' has an EasterEgg where, if you shoot the moon with a sniper rifle, it grows larger and larger until, after 5-6 shots, it reverts to its normal size.

* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'' has normal-sized moons in most levels, but B-2 has an impossibly gigantic moon and most of the puzzles have moon-themed names. This leads to an EasterEgg [[spoiler: where you can turn the moon around to reveal an [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science]] logo]]. This is justified as the entire game takes place inside a computer simulation.

[[folder:Gamebooks]]
* ''Literature/LoneWolf'': [[https://www.projectaon.org/en/xhtml/lw/04tcod/ill21.htm The final illustration]] for ''The Chasm of Doom'' shows the standard-bearer of the Sommlending army framed by a huge moon.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

* In ''Series/TerraNova'', the moon is shown to be huge due to it apparently moving back a centimeter each year, and this being 85 million B.C. However this doesn't quite work. The moon would have been about 3,000 kilometers closer...that's less than one percent of its current average distance, around 380,000 kilometers. The moon's distance varies by nearly 40,000 km ''every month'' due to its eccentric orbit. To a normal person, the moon 85 million years ago would have looked exactly the same.

[[folder:Other]]
* Those shots where an often huge Moon dominates a landscape are either the results of image manipulation software or pictures taken through a very powerful telephoto lens or even a telescope - the actual apparent size of the Moon (and the Sun) as seen with the Mark I eyeball is just half of your little finger at an arms length.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', the [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/File:Luigi%27s_Mansion.jpg moon in the background]] of the stage ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' is very, ''very'' large.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AIArtificialIntelligence http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ai_moon.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/LesbianVampireKillers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lesbian_vampire_killers.jpg]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', the Moon is absolutely ''enormous'' in the sky, taking up at least half of it and easily dwarfing any background structures and details. There are certain camera angles in which the Moon occupies all visible sky.

* Most ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games content themselves with an inexplicably gigantic moon. In the intro for ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaJudgment'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfzDiCxDyA the moon is portrayed in such a size it would actually be BIGGER than the Earth itself]], unless the satellite has broken orbit and is on a collision course for Eastern Europe.

* In ''Series/TerraNova'', the moon is shown to be huge. It's 85 million years in the past, which, as they explain, means the moon is closer and looks bigger; but this doesn't quite work. The moon would have been about 3,000 kilometers closer...that's less than one percent of its current average distance, around 380,000 kilometers. The moon's distance varies by nearly 40,000 km ''every month'' due to its eccentric orbit. To a normal person, the moon 85 million years ago would have looked exactly the same.

* The 1996 film adaptation of ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' has am extremely large moon [[http://metrograph.com/uploads/films/unspecified-1469565115-726x388.png riding the night sky]].
* ''Film/LesbianVampireKillers'' has a shot of a werewolf on front of a gigantic moon.

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', there's a three-week period when the moon is about to crash into the Earth, which justifies it filling more and more of the sky.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' : The distant moon is drawn larger than nearby objects. In Episode 6, for example, it is shown bigger than Rei's body.

** "You should see it when it's full!"

UsefulNotes/RealLife [[note]]From Earth's surface, the moon is about 30 arc-minutes (the size of a small coin held at arm's length). Your eyes can create the "moon illusion" that the moon is larger when it is on the horizon. The Real Life phenomena is related to the Ponzo Illusion, but in fiction we take a much different view...[[/note]]