The realistic animation of running characters on a budget is just too hard. Instead, a vertical upper body is perched on a rotating wheel of blur lines note and (occasionally) visible feet, which is animated in a loop. Add a Wraparound Background and some dust clouds, and voila, the character is running! And really fast, too! An alternate title for this trope could be Unicycle Legs, since if the character builds up enough speed they tend to look like they're on a unicycle.