History WesternAnimation / MonstersVsAliens

** Also, most of the monsters have been imprisoned since TheFifties, appearing largely unchanged between footage of their initial rampages and their in-person likenesses decades later. Although it's inevitably hard to tell the age of a cockroach-man and a gelatinous blob (to say nothing of Insectosaurus, whose irradiation presumably [[spoiler:delayed their adult metamorphosis]] by decades), Link at least shows signs of having let himself go with age, although this may be more of an allusion to his birth (as a revived prehistoric fish-ape) predating the other monsters in the compound by over 20,000 years.

** Also, most of the monsters have been imprisoned since TheFifties, appearing largely unchanged between footage of their initial rampages and their in-person likenesses decades later. Although it's inevitably hard to tell the age of a cockroach-man and a gelatinous blob (to say nothing of Insectosaurus, whose irradiation presumably [[spoiler:delayed their adult metamorphosis]] by decades]]), Link at least shows signs of having let himself go with age, although this may be more of an allusion to his birth (as a prehistoric fish-ape) predating the other monsters in the compound by over 20,000 years.

* '''[[FunWithAcronyms B.O.B.]]''', a one-eyed, talking, brainless (literally and [[DumbIsGood figuratively]]) blue blob that was the product of a freak chemical accident involving [[NoodleImplements a tomato and ranch dressing]];

* '''Missing Link''', a 20,000-year-old [[FishPeople fish]]-[[MixAndMatchCritters ape]];

* BreakTheCutie: Susan goes through a long and torturous process for the first part of the film. When she transforms, she's just crying for help and worried about her fiancé before the military sedate her and rope her down. As a result of a chance encounter with a MagicMeteor, she is ripped from her beloved life, labelled a monster, and put in prison to be essentially life-sentenced for being unlucky. To cap it all, she then has to face a NighInvulnerable killer robot to secure her freedom and then she finds out that her fiancé didn't love her nearly as much as she deluded herself into believing. That set the stage for her reconstruction.

** Also, most of the monsters have been imprisoned since TheFifties. Though its hard to tell the age of a cockroach-man and a gelatinous blob, Link at least shows signs of having let himself go with age.

** When Gallaxhar gives his world destruction speech in Japan, other Dreamworks movies can be seen on some of the [[https://i0.wp.com/caps.pictures/200/9-monsters-vs-aliens/full/monsters-vs-aliens-disneyscreencaps.com-7843.jpg background screens]]. ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'' appears on the top left screen while ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' appears on the top right.

** When Gallaxhar gives his world destruction speech in Japan, other Creator/DreamworksAnimation movies can be seen on [[https://animationscreencaps.com/monsters-vs-aliens-2009/44/#box-1/104/monsters-vs-aliens-disneyscreencaps.com-7844.jpg?strip=all some of the background screens]]. ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'' (top left) and ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' (top right).

* CaptainErsatz: (From the Halloween Special) The Pumpkins -- ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes''

* FreudianExcuse: Dr. Cockroach hates Halloween because of one of these. He quickly gets into the spirit of things when an old lady gives him a swirly pop.

** One person thinks Link's "[[YourCostumeNeedsWork costume]]" is supposed to be Franchise/{{Shrek}}. Another mistakes him for [[Series/TheMuppetShow Kermit the Frog]].
** Susan's old plushes that B.O.B. picks up in ''Night of the Living Carrots'' include ones based on [[Franchise/{{Shrek}} Dragon]] and [[Franchise/{{Madagascar}} Alex the lion]].

* NondescriptNastyNutritious: On Susan's first day at the monster holding facility, she is fed a gray, oatmeal like substance dispensed from a tube (along with a spoon to eat it with). All the other monsters are given food appropriate for their species (fish for Link, garbage for Dr. Cockroach, a ham for B.O.B.), so it might just be they haven't figured out what to feed a Giant Woman and went with the most basic dish.

* CuteGiant: Ginormica and [[UglyCute Insectosaurus]].

* UndressingTheUnconscious: Happens to Susan Murphy/Ginormica twice, first by the government and then by Gallaxhar. Both times she wakes up in a different outfit to the one she was wearing before rendered unconscious. An impressive feat, considering it's difficult enough to undress and redress a regular unconscious human and Susan is a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50-Foot tall]] [[GiantWoman giant]].
* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: Every part of the alien ship, even those parts not made for giant robots.

* TheUnreveal: Gallaxhar's explanation of his backstory, constantly interrupted by his cloning machine.

** Gallaxhar's attempt to rename Earth.

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Insectosaurus is downed by a shot from Gallaxhar's ship, but turns out to have survived and gone into a coccoon. She re-emerges as Butterflyosaurus.]]

* UndressingTheUnconscious: Happens to Susan Murphy/Ginormica twice, first by the government and then by Galaxhar. Both times she wakes up in a different outfit to the one she was wearing before rendered unconscious. An impressive feat, considering it's difficult enough to undress and redress a regular unconscious human and Susan is a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50-Foot tall]] [[GiantWoman giant]].

* FiftiesHair: Despite being set in 2008, almost all human characters have standard '50s dos. Derek Deti has crew cut; Ms. Ronson and one of Susan's roommates have short wavy hair; President Hathaway has cropped hair on the sides with a curly mop on top; and General Monger has the standard issue flat top.

* AmusingInjuries: B.O.B., Ginormica, Link, Dr. Cockroach, Derek and Gallaxhar at various points in the film receive such injuries. B.O.B. especially -- he gets stuck to the sole of the robot probe's foot and gets stomped on [[OverlyLongGag so many times]].

* AndTheAdventureContinues: Paris, Ho!

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Ginormica leaps onto rooftops and relies on the suspension system of a sportscar to support her weight. Neither would be compatible with the mass of a 49'11.5" woman. [[FridgeLogic Of course, if quantonium allows mass control (and only causes ginormification of Earthlings as a side effect), then it's just as impossible - but slightly more plausible.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Ginormica (although she's ''just'' half an inch shy of that mark) and Insectosaurus.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Insectosaurus is easily mesmerized by bright lights, even at the worst possible moment. B.O.B. is not much better.

* BadassAdorable: Susan, B.O.B., Insectosaurus, and [[UglyCute arguably]] Dr. Cockroach.

* BlobMonster: B.O.B.
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: Implied for Gallaxhar.

* BrickJoke: The nuke button.
** Earlier, B.O.B. is shown eating ham. Later, after he gets too enthusiastic hugging Susan's mom and she falls in, he spits her out and we get this line.

* {{Cute Giant}}s: Ginormica and [[UglyCute Insectosaurus]].

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Insectosaurus.]]
* DisposableFiance: Derek, [[FalseSoulmate thank God]].
* TheDitz:
** B.O.B. {{Justified|Trope}} because he has no brain.

* ExactTimeToFailure: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when [[spoiler:Gallaxhar's ship]] is set to self destruct (the one time you would expect to know exactly when you're going to blow up), the AI hits 0 long enough before exploding that it wonders aloud if its count was wrong, only to be KilledMidSentence.

* ExtraEyes: Gallaxhar has four eyes.
* ExtremeOmnivore: B.O.B. will absorb anything, being a BlobMonster. Dr. Cockroach eats trash, since he's a cockroach.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Gallaxhar is a pretty fun company, as long as you don't mind him invading the Earth and all that.

* ForceFieldCage: Susan is trapped in one on Gallaxhar's ship. Briefly.

* FreudianExcuse: The BigBad claims to have one of these -- the problem is that he delivers his backstory while being cloned, meaning we only hear tiny snippets of it.

* GoGoEnslavement: See above.
* GoThroughMe: Said by B.O.B., the one character one ''can'' go through.

* HarmlessElectrocution: One of Dr. Cockroach's experiments to get Susan back to her normal size essentially amounts to electrocuting her with wires. Though she gets knocked out for a moment when it goes wrong, she is otherwise unharmed; this is justified as the quantonium inside her significantly boosts her strength and durability, allowing her to survive things a normal human would not.

* HyperventilationBag: Referenced when Ginormica sees the first monster they have to fight.

* ImpossiblePickleJar: After Susan defeats the giant robot probe all by herself, she tells the others "Did you see how strong I was? I bet there wasn't a jar in the world I couldn't open."
* ImpossiblyGracefulGiant: Ginormica, not to mention various machines such as their plane.

* LetsGetDangerous: Susan, starting near the end of the fight against the giant robot.
* LiteralCliffhanger: Susan, but considering she's not that much shorter than what's she's hanging onto, losing her grip results in a drop of a couple feet at most.
* LoadBearingHero: [[spoiler:Ginormica holding back the robot's claw. She plays this trope again inside the self-destructing spaceship]].

* MagicPants: The [[spoiler: alien SpyCatsuit Susan wears after Gallaxhar abducts her - it adjusts to fit Susan at all times, presumably via alien technology.]] Susan's wedding dress fulfills the trope too, but only at the cost of substantial ClothingDamage.

* MonumentalBattle / MonumentalDamage: Let's just say the Golden Gate bridge will never be the same. In the TV series, the alien Coverton offers to restore it as a peace offering.

** Also, although it comes before his objections are voiced, Susan's affectionate manhandling of her fiancé certainly helped convince him he was doing the right thing when he dumped her.

* OctopoidAliens: Gallaxhar is an evil extraterrestrial with octopus-like tentacles instead of legs and a large head shaped like a cephalopod's body.
* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: Four of the five heroic monsters ride on the back of Insectasaurus into the distance to save Paris, France from the menace of Escargantua.
* OffscreenTeleportation: The robot probe moves slowly onscreen, but look away for a few seconds and it has covered far more ground than expected. The most obvious example can be seen when Susan goes back to help the overturned truck on the bridge.
* OhCrap: The alien drone's eye widens a second before one of the Golden Gate Bridge's arches comes down on its head and completely decapitates it.

* OmnicidalManiac / WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Gallaxhar committed genocide ''on his own race'' because he wanted a planet filled only with him and his clones. He's far more than willing to do that to humanity, too. He may or may not have a FreudianExcuse, see BackStory, along with a dozen or so other issues.

** Most of the shout outs and the scene with the Journey song, plus the pun on ''An Inconvenient Truth''.

* PetTheDog: W.R. Monger has a little poster set up in Susan's room to cheer her up. Doesn't help much, but the thought still counts.

* PlotTailoredToTheParty: Ginormica is basically the Superman to her team's Justice League [[spoiler:until the end of the movie when she's depowered for just long enough to give the rest of her team a chance to do something useful]].
-->'''B.O.B.:''' Whoa, you're doing good!\\

* PunnyName: W.R. Monger. His government also has a tendency to name monsters this way.

* RagTagBunchOfMisfits: The Monsters all have their own problems, but they become a team to fight Gallaxhar.

* RevoltingRescue: Susan is trapped in an extraterrestrial robot's jaws and is very nearly crushed, but Insectosaurus [[GiantsDropletHumansShower sprays snot]] into [[EyeScream the robot's eye]] to stop it.

* RuleOfFunny: The science of this is nonexistent, one-dimensional characters outnumber the [[RoundedCharacter fleshed-out ones]], and several characters hold onto the IdiotBall. However, it's a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover of 1950s horror movies, in 3-D, with Creator/StephenColbert as president and a recognizable voice for almost every other named character as well, so who the hell cares about all that other stuff?

** Galaxhar's computer resembles [[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Dexter's computer]].

** In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-cjAtTElow#t=50s deleted scene]], B.O.B. charges into battle yelling [[LeeroyJenkins "LEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOY]] [[MemeticMutation JEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!!"]] The lines surrounding that are even roughly the same as the ''WebVideo/LeeroyJenkinsVideo'', namely the request for a "number crunch", the absurdedly low odds of survival being "better than usual", and the like.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Susan/Ginormica is the only woman in the main cast ("We are in the presence of the rare female monster."). However, she is the main character and has the most CharacterDevelopment of anyone else, and TookALevelInBadass. The rest of the female characters are in small, stereotypical roles, with the exception of the girl [[AutoErotica making out in a car]], which reverses the usual role by being more assertive than her milquetoast boyfriend.
** Her name is [[MeaningfulName S.Murphy]], after all.

* SmugSnake: Gallaxhar gloats at every opportunity, and has an obnoxiously big ego, but seems to be new to the business of being an evil invader. One of the more satisfying scenes in the film is watching him flee in panic from an enraged Ginormica onboard his own ship, having twice tempted fate by smugly claiming that she can't break past his security defences.

* [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe Strong As She Needs To Be]]: Downplayed. If Susan attempts to do something that should be impossible even for ''her'' (forcing open the claw of a machine twenty times her size, or tearing apart a force field designed to render her helpless), she succeeds. But it's never spelled out.

* [[ThatManIsDead That Woman Is Dead]]: [[spoiler:When Gallaxhar reveals he ''can't'' free the others]], we get this exchange:

* TokenRomance: Averted in Susan's case, which is extremely refreshing for a movie starring a female lead (whose love life is part of her character development, no less). Also made fun of with B.O.B. and his girl, [[CargoShip the plate of green jello]].

* TookALevelInBadass: Susan takes ''several'' levels of badass throughout the film, the biggest leap occurring when she meets Gallaxhar for the first time.

* GenderInvertedTrope: Katie and Cuthbert, the couple who first witnesses the robot's arrival. %%what trope are they inverting?

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: W.R. Monger. [[spoiler:He's as nice as the monsters themselves]]. See also FridgeBrilliance: If the logic of HeWhoFightsMonsters is to be trusted, then he's [[spoiler:become just as kindhearted as they are]].

* IdiotBall: The alien clones. To elaborate, when they're given the order "destroy all monsters", every single one of the aliens, who outnumber monsters 100 to 1, charge blindly at the monsters '''[[DefensiveFailure whilst holding ray guns that they don't even bother to shoot with]]'''.
* IfIDoNotReturn: Parodied. Monger tells the monsters that if doesn't come back to pick them up on time, it means he's dead... or late.
** He even engages in a bit of LampshadeHanging when they are falling from the Mothership, thinking they're going to die, and he states, as he arrives [[spoiler:on the reborn Insectasaurus]] to save them...

* BreakUpToMakeUp: Susan spends half the movie trying to get back to her fiance Derek, but when they're reunited he makes it clear he no longer wants to be with her on account of her ...er, giant problem. Susan is initially devastated but then comes to realize that Derek was actually "a selfish jerk" who never put her first and that she doesn't need him, especially as she's done incredible things like fighting aliens by herself.

* CloningBlues: People keep accidentally shooting the Gallaxhar clones. Acceptable, because it's [[RuleOfFunny really damned funny]].

* MonsterMash: Monsters based on [[Film/AttackOfThe50FootWoman the 50-foot Woman]], Film/TheFly, the Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon, Film/{{Mothra}} and a BlobMonster team up to fight an evil alien.

** One of the trucks that nearly falls off the Golden Gate bridge has the letters "SKG" on its grill, in reference to Spielberg-Katzenburg-Geffen, the founders of Creator/DreamWorks.

* RatedMForManly: General Monger is a parody of the trope.