History Film / Paulie

* OffModel: The cover portrays Paulie absolutely enormous, suggesting it will be a movie about a giant bird.

* CharacterTitle

* CoolPet: A pet that can help you with your language skills, act as a seeing dog (for Ivy), sing and dance. No wonder Paulie is loved by his various owners.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Blue-crowned conures are popular pets, but they are not that often depicted in fiction. Reportedly: "The most famous fictional Blue-crowned Conure is the title character in the 1998 movie Paulie. The movie used 14 birds to play the role of the talking parrot and caused a surge in the popularity of Blue-crowned Conures as pets."

%% * ABoyAndHisX: A girl and her blue-crowned conure. %% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them. %%

* PorkyPigPronunciation: Marie talked this way as a kid.

''Paulie'' is a 1998 family film about a talking parrot, more accurately a blue-crowned conure. The film was directed by John Roberts, previously known for such films as "This Boy's Story"(1992) and "War Of The Buttons" (1994). The main stars were Creator/JayMohr, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/HallieKateEisenberg, Creator/BuddyHackett, Creator/GenaRowlands, Creator/CheechMarin, Creator/TiaTexada, Creator/BruceDavison, and Creator/TriniAlvarado.

The film starts by featuring Misha Belenkoff (Shalhoub) in his first night as the janitor at an animal testing lab. He used to be a literature teacher in Russia, but has been reduced to menial jobs after immigrating to the United States. His curiosity is piqued by a lone parrot, kept in isolation in the basement. He soon realizes that that parrot can do more than mimic sounds: he sings and talks, but only when away from observers. He gets the parrot to speak to him, but Paulie (Mohr) refuses to speak or perform for anyone else.

He eventually gets Paulie talking about his life story. Most of the rest of the narrative is told in flashbacks. His earliest memories find him as the pet of 5-year old Marie Alweather (Eisenberg). Marie is a stutterer. Her worried parents are pressuring Marie to start speaking properly. By observing the lessons, Paulie learns the meaning of words and how to construct complex sentences. He is then able to help Marie learn without pressure. Her stories about speaking to her parrot convince her father that Marie is unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. He deals with this by selling the bird.

The next few years of Paulie's life are not depicted. He eventually finds himself at the pawnshop of the sarcastic Artie (Hackett). The films proceeds to follow Paulie's life under later owners and his efforts to locate Marie. The first such owner is the aging artist Ivy (Rowlands). She teaches him a lot about life and putting things into perspective, but her health eventually takes a turn for the worst. The next owner is Ignacio (Marin), proud owner of a taco stand, entertainer and owner of trained parrots. Paulie learns to perform for an audience and falls for Lupe (Texada), a female conure. A misadventure lands him at the hands of petty criminal Benny (Mohr) and his girlfriend Ruby (Texada). They teach him the value of money and how to steal for them. Stealing from wallets and ATM machines proves easy, but his first attempt at burglary gets him captured.

He ends up at the institute. Dr. Reingold (Davison) promises to help him, but sees him more as a meal ticket. Paulie stops being so trusting and refuses to cooperate. This being the reason for his long isolation. Back to the present, [[spoiler: Misha decides to help Paulie escape and find Marie. To their surprise, decades have passed. They find an adult Marie (Alvarado), who is, regardless, happy to get her companion back.]]

%% * ABoyAndHisX: A girl and her blue-crowned conure. %% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them. %%

* BigDamnReunion: Marie and Paulie are separated when the former is a child [[spoiler:and they are reunited at the end, when she is an adult.]]

* WorthlessForeignDegree: Mentioned above, Belenkoff used to be a literature teacher in Russia, but reduced to a Janitor in the US.

He eventually gets Paulie talking about his life story. Most of the rest of the narrative is told in flashbacks. His earliest memories find him as the pet of 5-year old Marie Alweather (Eisenberg). Marie is a stutterer. Her worried parents are pressuring Marie to start speaking properly. By observing the lessons, Paulie learns the meaning of words and how to construct complex sentences. He is then able to help Marie learn without pressure. Her stories about speaking to her parrot convince her father that Marie is unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. He deals with this by selling the bird.

The next few years of Paulie's life are not depicted. He eventually finds himself at the pawnshop of the sarcastic Artie (Hackett). The films proceeds to follow Paulie's life under later owners and his efforts to locate Marie. The first such owner is the aging artist Ivy (Rowlands). She teaches him a lot about life and putting things into perspective, but her health eventually takes a turn for the worst. The next owner is Ignacio (Marin), proud owner of a taco stand, entertainer and owner of trained parrots. Paulie learns to perform for an audience and falls for Lupe (Texada), a female conure. A misadventure lands him at the hands of petty criminal Benny (Mohr) and his girlfriend Ruby (Texada). They teach him the value of money and how to steal for them. Stealing from wallets and ATM machines proves easy, but his first attempt at burglary gets him captured.

He ends up at the institute. Dr. Reingold (Davison) promises to help him, but sees him more as a meal ticket. Paulie stops being so trusting and refuses to cooperate. This being the reason for his long isolation. Back to the present, [[spoiler: Misha decides to help Paulie escape and find Marie. To their surprise, decades have passed. They find an adult Marie (Alvarado), who is, regardless, happy to get her companion back.]]

* MoodWhiplash: The press conference scene, where after Paulie discovers that Dr. Reingold [[spoiler: had no true intention of returning him to Marie]]. He embarrasses him by acting like an ordinary parrot, then throws in perverse insults ([[PrecisionFStrike "Up yours, jackass"]]), which is funny at first, but it quickly becomes serious when Reingold asks him why he's acting this way, to which Paulie replies [[spoiler: "[[EtTuBrute You promised]]", then angrily shouts "Liar" over and over and tries to escape, which leads to him being captured and having his wings clipped]].

* MoodWhiplash: The press conference scene, where after Paulie discovers that Dr. Reingold [[spoiler: had no true intention of returning him to Marie]], he embarrasses him by acting like an ordinary parrot, then throws in perverse insults ([[PrecisionFStrike "Up yours, jackass"]]), which is funny at first, but it quickly becomes serious when Reingold asks him why he's acting this way, to which Paulie replies [[spoiler: "[[EtTuBrute You promised]]", then angrily shouts "Liar" over and over and tries to escape, which leads to him being captured and having his wings clipped]].

* SlidingScaleOfAnimalCommunication: Level 7. Paulie can freely talk with people, but seems to be the only animal able to do so.

* FlowerInHerHair: Misha tells Paulie about how his old crush wore flowers in her hair. [[spoiler:When Paulie and Marie reunite, Paulie tries to get Misha to stay by telling him that she has flowers in her hair.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Marie tries to teach Paulie to fly because she suspects they may be separated after overhearing her father talk about possibly getting rid of him. But in her attempt to teach Paulie, she falls off the roof, which further persuades her parents to get rid of him.

* EvilIsPetty: Presumably the only reason that Dr. Reingold keeps Paulie locked in the basement for years, even though he knows where his owner lives, and even after Paulie ceases being useful for the institution, is that he was still sore over Paulie insulting him in front of his scientific peers, after Paulie was (justifiably) upset that he'd been lied to. It might be argued that the real motive for the wing-clipping boils down to this trope as well.