A trope found usually in visual media, it happens when a character looks at an old photograph or painting, and witnesses the people in the image moving and talking in front of them, with the photographed figures either talking back to them or simply replaying a memory.
There are two variations of this trope: when the character imagines the people in the photo coming to life, and when the act involves magic. If the characters aren't looking at the photo when it comes to life, it's Creepy Changing Painting.
Note that non-visual media such as Literature and Music (not Music Videos) may still contain examples of the trope, but it must describe the whole scenario. Also, while the trope is found out usually in photos, it can also apply to other types of portraits such as posters or illustrations.
Compare Portal Picture, when the characters can enter into another world via the picture in question, and The Man in the Mirror Talks Back and The Television Talks Back, which are self-explanatory. Under no circumstance should this get confused with videos or .gif images.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Diamond is Unbreakable: One of the villains, Yoshihiro Kira, once used his Stand "Atom Heart Father" so that he can stay alive, after his bodily death, in a photo. He, through said photo, frequently assists his son, Yoshikage, in his Serial Killer antics; he can also entrap people inside his photo.
- Stone Ocean: In the fight against Ungalo, his Bohemian Rhapsody causes all manner of photographic illustrations to come to life, including paintings like The Mona Lisa.
Films — Animation
- Coraline: When Coraline moves from Michigan to the Pink Palace Apartments, she keeps a photo of two of her friends from Michigan in her room. After she first enters the "Other World", she finds that her "Other Bedroom" has a copy of that photo and that her friends in it can talk to her.
- An Extremely Goofy Movie: After Max leaves for college, a depressed Goofy looks at an old photo of Max taped to his work locker and saying hi to him.
- Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas: In "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas", after Pluto gets sent to his doghouse for ruining Mickey's Christmas decorations, he looks at a picture of himself and Mickey taped to the wall and imagines the Mickey-in-picture coming to life and giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
Films — Live-Action
- In Amélie, Nino keeps a photo booth photograph by his bedside which suddenly starts talking to him, reminding him that there is a girl in love with him.
- Hairspray (2007): In a case of Adaptation Deviation, during "Without Love", Link sings to Tracy's photo, and they duet. In the stage version, both characters sang together during this number, but since the film required the characters to be in separate locations, they used this trope to keep the duet without having them in the same place.
- The Muppets (2011): During the song "Pictures in My Head." As Kermit reminisces about the glory days of The Muppets, the pictures of his friends on the walls of his mansion spring to life in his imagination.
- In Ninotchka, the titular heroine has a photograph of Lenin on her nightstand. At one point, after she had a great night out with her lover, Lenin changes his stern look into a smile, reflecting Ninotchka's character development into a Defrosting Ice Queen.
- Phantasm: While Mike is looking at a photo of the Tall Man dressed as a coachman atop a carriage, the photo comes to life like a TV show or film.
- Played for Drama in Precious, the title character looks through her photo album, a photo of her mother Mary comes to life and shows her to be a loving and caring parent and a picture of her math teacher Mr. Wichell, who she has a crush on and tells her that he plans to leave his wife for her.
- ZigZagged In The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Maxim Horvath hunts Dave Stutler by bringing a calendar with photos of grey wolves on it to life, turning them into real Savage Wolves and sending them after him. Luckily, Balthazar Blake saves Dave by turning the wolves into puppies just as they jump on him — and then he turns them back into photos.
- Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny: When a young Jables is in his room being punished, after his father chastises him for daring to play rock & roll in a religious house, he prays to his Ronnie James Dio poster for a plea to get someone who teaches him how to rock. The Dio poster comes to life, and Ronnie tells Jables where he should go: to Hollywood, in order to form "a strong alliance, and the world's most awesome band".
Literature
- In the Children of the Red King series, Charlie Bone has the power to hear people in photos talking, though they're not animate and mostly repeat what the subjects said at the time the photo was taken. Paintings, on the other hand, come to life and can converse with him, he can also jump into them.
- Harry Potter: Photographs developed in a special potion are able to move and are common in the Wizarding World. However, they cannot speak or interact. Painted portraits, on the other hand, have more interactivity and retain the personality of their subjects, though the level of depth captured depends on the power and impression of the painter. The portraits of deceased Hogwarts headmasters are especially lifelike, according to Word of God, because the painting's subjects will impart knowledge to their painted selves while they are still alive. Acting headmasters and others will take advantage of this to seek advice from leaders past.
- It: It uses its powers to abuse this effect as a sort of psychological terrorism. It causes Georgie's picture to wink at Bill and in another scene It brings an old photo in Mike Hanlon's scrapbook to come to life to threaten The Loser's Club.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: In "Shall We Dance?", Laura shows Brittas some photos of the time he went over to build an arbor for her. As Brittas and Laura look at the photos, one of them begins moving, segueing into a Flashback of the time in question.
- The Red Dwarf episode "Timeslides" Kryten discovers that some three-million-year-old photo developer has "evolved" so that photos developed with it become windows into the past, when put in a projector one can even use them for limited Time Travel. One of the first indicators that the photographs have mutated is that they come to life, depicting scenes in action like Kryten having a birthday.
- In the Sapphire and Steel story "Assignment 4", the Eldritch Abomination known as the Shape is capable of imprisoning people in photographs, and bringing photographic images into the real world as his servants.
- Wizards of Waverly Place: In "Detention Election", after someone has pasted Justin's election posters all over the principal's office, Alex uses magic to make the photos of him speak. Unfortunately for her, the person who put them up made the pictures promise not to tell who did it.
Music
- The video for the Split Enz song "I Got You" shows lead singer Tim Finn walking around a room while singing. A picture of the rest of the band hangs on the wall. The picture is static while Tim's singing the verses, but they start moving around when he sings the chorus, much to his shock.
Video Games
- Edna & Harvey: The Breakout: Alfred's shrine has a portrait of him, which eyes are moving and can even respond for talking. Knowing what person we control it can be understandable.
- In Mystery Case Files: Shadow Lake, a Jump Scare involves a woman on a photograph suddenly rising up and lunging toward the player, toppling the photo frame and revealing a clue hidden within.
- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask: One of the Masked Gentleman's performances involved bringing paintings to life. As Layton later unveiled, it was a trick. The paintings were prepared so their actors would escape and disappear into the city.
Western Animation
- Futurama: The episode "The Sting" is a Fever Dream Episode in which Leela imagines to hold a conversation with a photograph of Fry on her nightstand.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Happens twice in "Employee of the Month". The first time, SpongeBob believes that Squidward will be the next employee of the month and imagines Squidward occupying the next blank picture frame and laughing at him. The second time, he looks at the pictures of himself on the wall and they (now wearing Army helmets) give him a pep talk.
- In "Have You Seen This Snail?", Gary runs away when SpongeBob ignores him to play a paddleball challenge. When he winds up in a new home, Gary looks at the photo of SpongeBob he brought with him and imagines him shouting "Gary, can't you see I'm busy?!"
Real Life
- iPhones, starting with the 6s, have a feature where one can take "live photos" that capture 1.5 seconds' worth of frame from either side.
