Discussion Main / AnachronismStew

(Learned a new term while reading on TV Tropes)

- TERM: Anachronism

- QUOTE: "Anachronism Stew: Pleasure Island is covered with neon lights and other mechanics too advanced for the era."

Resources: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/Pinocchio https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnachronismStew

Hmmm..... There's always gonna be Anachronism in Anime, Cartoons, & Video Games? (Perplexed)

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Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Rename, started by hopper on Mar 25th 2011 at 5:21:05 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Rework Definition?, started by WackyMeetsPractical on Mar 9th 2011 at 10:38:58 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused, started by poi99 on Jun 20th 2015 at 8:24:42 AM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Who Framed Roger Rabbit has some anachronisms here and there, For Example, When Roger and Eddie are watching the Goofy Gymnastics short on the theater, Despite the movie taking place in 1947, This short didn't came out until 1949, That's the same thing with Mr. Toad appearing from the scene when Eddie enters Toontown. When Eddie, Dolores, Roger and Jessica Rabbit and whole bunch of animated characters leaving the scene at the end at the movie, You'll see Sam Sheepdog in the background, In which they didn't appear in any of the Looney Tunes shorts until 1953 along with Ralph Wolf (Who doesn't look like anything like an wolf.)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit has some anachronisms here and there, For Example, When Roger and Eddie are watching the Goofy Gymnastics short on the theater, Despite the movie taking place in 1947, This short didn't came out until 1949, That's the same thing with Mr. Toad appearing from the scene when Eddie enters Toontown. When Eddie, Dolores, Roger and Jessica Rabbit and whole bunch of animated characters leaving the scene at the end at the movie, You'll see Sam Sheepdog in the background, In which they didn't appear in any of the Looney Tunes shorts until 1953 along with Ralph Wolf (Who doesn't look like anything like an wolf.)

Why are the only examples for films either Films Using Rule of Funny or Films With No Good Excuse? This implies the trope can only be used for comedy or is just bad, no room for creators trying to make a timeless, unique or creative settings which isn't true and in complete odds with the other pages like the one for Batman The Animated Series.

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Is it me, or have the examples become a Pothole for any example of something that isn't exactly right in terms of period-appropriateness?

To me, "Anachronism Stew" means that you need SEVERAL ingredients, and they have to be noticeable. In this context, I would assume that we're talking about more than one setting, character, concept or technology that doesn't fit with the time period of the rest of the piece, and that those anachronistic elements are at least reasonably prominent, and *known* to be anachronistic to the general public, not just pedantic specialists in whatever field (historians, gun collectors, computer scientists, etc.).

Examples with music are a particularly bad instance here - I see a lot of stuff which is tagged because one or two songs don't fit the exact timeline of the movie. For things like A Knights Tale, where the heavy IN-UNIVERSE use of completely time-inappropriate music, Anachronism Stew fits. But if we're talking about using a Rolling Stones song that came out a couple years later than a movie was set, not so much. Or places where technical anachronisms aren't known to the general public (i.e. when the AK-47 was phased out to be replaced by the AKM) hardly fit this trope.

That is, I see a lot of what really are "Technical Mistakes" which don't impact the medium's story or flavor being listed here, not to mention that one example in a medium doesn't make the whole film/story/whatever an Anachronism Stew, unless that one example is HUGE - as the page picture would be (T.Rex flying an F-15).

A lot of the examples need to be edited to remove the potholing, and there needs to be a cleanup of the linked-from pages as well.

Why was the index of works with their own example pages deleted? Those works have so many examples that it is impractical and too lengthy to list them either here or on the main page.

Edited by 216.121.179.111

Should the works with their own pages be moved to under the approriate pages (i.e. Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean under Film, Archer under Western Animation)?

I don't get why it has to be either Rule of Funny or "no good excuse". Maybe some creators just want to include whatever they feel would work for the story, or even sipmly Rule of Cool, which would be a "good excuse". I don't think the Pirates Of The Caribbean films were ever trying to be historically accurate, for example.

Edited by supergod For we shall slay evil with logic...

"Monty Python admitted that the armour (and clothing in general) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail was anachronistic; it was more 13th century than Dark Ages. Also, a French garrison in the middle of England, the fact that England supposedly had one singular king at all at that point (although considering none of the peasants know about having a king, it's possible Arthur is simply making a claim to kingship), the construction of a giant wooden rabbit, and the historian and the police cars makes for a pretty anachronistic (and hilarious) movie."

The idea of Arthur being king of England is, in and of itself, anachronistic. Arthur was a Roman leader who fought against the Anglo/Saxon invaders in the 5th-6th centuries (if you believe the legends). These "Anglo" (as in English) peoples came from (roughly) Germany, settled on the British isles (with heavy Roman resistance - I'm giving the abridged version), and created a nation that they called England. They also brought their Germanic language, called English, to the British isles, which is the forefather of the language all of us are speaking in this discussion. Arthur probably spoke some form of Latin, you know, if he even existed.

So, in short, "Arthur, King of England" is an anachronism. One of the basic premises of the movie is an anachronism. Armor, police cars, and wooden rabbits seem like just minor details in the bigger picture.

The Shakespere references in the examples were helpful. I like Midsummer's Night Dream. There is a good movie version I saw long ago. It has actors Rupert Everatt and Michelle Pfiffer as the fairy couple. Anyhoo I recenty bought it, and I am starting to watch it. There is a really weird example of anachronism stew and misplaced culture. On one hand the setting seems to be anchient Greece. Many characters have very Greek sounding names. I think the city is Athens, but I am not sure. That is the capital of Greece today, and in anchient times it was a major city-state. One of the characters is named Thesius. I do know of a Thesius who went through the labrinth and killed the Minotaur. He is obviously Greek. He is a mythical hero, so he would be really really old. If this guy is the same as the Thesius in the Shakespere play, it would really set back the setting time of the play. On the other hand, the setting seems to be set at a much later date. I can tell by the clothing and setpeices. I can't name the period, but it would have been a lot more recient than anchient times. Thier are even bicycles. The setting also looks like it took place not in Greece, but somewhere more north and west in Europe. It may be in Englind, France, Germany or something. Whatever it is, it is not at all like the togas and distinctive archetecture of anchient Greece. It is kind of wierd for there to be "fairies" in the forest. Anchient mythical Greece would have creatures like naids, dryads, satyrs, centaurs, etc. This is a severe case of [1] on Shakespere's part. Modern fim makers have the option of making the story with a Anchient Greek or a Shakspere setting. It is obvious that the latter was chosen.

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re: Clash of The Titans. The Bald Eagle example seems not well thought-out. Zeus is supposed to be a god, yeah? So I'm pretty sure he'd know about bald eagles even if the average fellow didn't know the continent existed.

It was probably not a c-section in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was likely an inversion of a breech baby, like must be done for horses at times.

Does this include in-universe anachronism, or is there a different trope for that? For example, if an adaptation of Tolkien's Silmarillion included the One Ring.

Should the Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind example be removed? Hayao Miyazaki did establish that it took place After the End.

• The TMNT movie has the Ancient Aztec generals have names in Spanish. A language that did not even exist back in 2000 BC, and was not introduced to Mexico till after 1492 AD. You Fail Linguistics Forever, You Fail History Forever, and Spexico also apply here.
  • Aztecs in 2000 BC?

Was the "Ancient Aztecs" an error of the troper that added this, or of the TMNT show? Because I'm not sure how to fix this.

Edited by OldManHoOh

I cut this because I agree with the response that this was "Technology Marches On", since Heinlein could not have anticipated how computer development, etc., would play out.

• Robert A Heinlein's early works often featured the use of slide rules and "astrogation charts" in piloting starships!
  • Do note that Heinlein started writing in 1939, before computers really took off. This seems to be more a case of Technology Marches On.

Removed:

• Similarly, one of the constellations seen in the game Pokemon Snap is also shaped like a Mewtwo. How the heck did Arceus come up with the idea of a Mewtwo constellation if it was created billions of years ago back when there was still only one Mew?

If it was created by a divine being, then that being could well have known the future; if it came to existence normally just like in our world, then constellations are temporary (as stars aren't stationary), and its resemblance to MewTwo is coincidental. (And, presumedly, billions years ago the first Mew didn't exists, either.)

Long live Marxism-Lennonism!

Can I ask why under "Films with no good reason" there are several movies that have pointed out "Have good reason"?

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