History Main / HollywoodChameleons

* Actually subverted in a children's book (This troper forgets the title) where a kid buys a kangaroo because he's seen how they can apparently change to any color. Turns out they can only turn brown or some other color, and the kid is understandably disappointed.

Chameleons have only a limited color changing ability which is dictated by the chameleon's emotions. Unless they're in cartoons, of course, in which case they can seamlessly will their skin into an exact reproduction of whatever they're standing in front of.

* The Eric Carle story ''The Mixed-Up Chameleon'' has a chameleon that behaves as a normal chameleon does, until it visits a zoo one day and suddenly starts wishing to be more like the animals it sees, which ends up turning it into a MixAndMatchCritter.

* Averted with the main character in ''{{Rango}}'', whose color-changing abilities are more in keeping with a real chameleon's, which doesn't do him any good when trying to hide in the desert. He does a moderately better job at imitating a packet of licorice while hiding in a candy machine, although he's found out anyway.

As a side note, if they would want an animal to do this, they should go with the octopus.

* ''TheSimpsons'', "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly": A chameleon living on a racetrack changes colors to exactly match an STP can. ([[{{Subversion}} And then gets eaten]] by a snake living in the can, regardless of the perfect camouflage.)

** In a ShoutOut to this, the character Camo-Man in ''DuckDodgers'' is only visible in front of plaid.
** Don't you mean Camel-Man?

* Komodo from ''TheSecretSaturdays'' can turn invisible

** More like PlayedWith. [[SilentSnarker Pascal]] mostly changes with his mood, turning red when he is embarrased, turning blue when he is comforting {{Rapunzel}}, etc.

* Played straight in ''{{Tangled}}'' with Pascal, especially during the flower pot bit.

* Subverted in ''DrDolittle 2'', with Papito the chameleon, who thinks he has the ability to blend completely into the background, but never can. At the end, Charisse paints a room completely green as a surprise for Papito, and it looks like he finally got his dream.

* An episode the SuperSecretSquirrel had a chameleon as its villain--an art thief who could blend himself in perfectly with fine art. Like the LooneyTunes one broke down in front of plaid, this one completely broke down when he stood in front of modern, abstract pieces.

* The Disney film ''TheWild'' has chameleons who take this to such a ridiculous level of unbelievability that even my six year old sister was driven to say, "That's retarded."

Compare InvisibilityCloak.

* In MichaelCrichton's ''[[JurassicPark The Lost World]]'', some dinosaurs had complex color-changing abilities.

* Kecleon from ''{{Pokemon}}''

*Komodo from ''TheSecretSaturdays'' can turn invisible
*The Disney film ''TheWild'' has chameleons who take this to such a ridiculous level of unbelievability that even my six year old sister was driven to say, "That's retarded."
*In MichaelCrichton's ''The Lost World'', some dinosaurs had complex color-changing abilities.
*One ''LooneyTunes'' short had a chameleon who shows off his color changing abilities, but breaks down when he finds a plaid backdrop.
**In a ShoutOut to this, the character Camo-Man in ''DuckDodgers'' is only visible in front of plaid.
**Don't you mean Camel-Man?
*The chameleons in ''ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' use their colors as a means of communication
*''ThePerryBibleFellowship'': "[[http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF133-Love_Lizard.jpg Love Lizard]]"
*The title character from British comic strip ''[[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/k/kidcham.htm Kid Chameleon]]'' was [[WildChild raised by lizards]] (!) and wore a skin-tight suit of chameleon scales (and not much else). By concentrating, he was able to make the scales change colour, turning him almost invisible - except for his prominent mop of blond hair, which somehow the bad guys never noticed.
*One boss in ''{{Kirby}} Super Star'' is this. He can turn practically invisible.
*The Eric Carle story "The Mixed-Up Chameleon" has a chameleon that behaves as a normal chameleon does, until it visits a zoo one day and suddenly starts wishing to be more like the animals it sees, which ends up turning it into a MixAndMatchCritter.
*Kecleon from ''{{Pokemon}}''
*In the animated film ''Katy Caterpillar'', the titular character meets up with a group of chameleons who can change to "any color of the rainbow" and even two colors at once, and look down on anyone who can't change color.
*Cephalopods in RealLife are more like Hollywood Chameleons than real life chameleons
*''TheSimpsons'', "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly": A chameleon living on a racetrack changes colors to exactly match an STP can. ([[{{Subversion}} And then gets eaten]] by a snake living in the can, regardless of the perfect camouflage.)
*The protagonist of the picture book ''Chameleon Was a Spy'' by Diane Redfield Massie is capable of matching backgrounds and reproducing complicated patterns; it's a plot point that he's even capable of manipulating his pigment to form ''writing''.

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