Happy Heroes: The Stones (开心超人之英雄的心) is the third film in the Happy Heroes series, and the first one to be CGI, whereas the others were in 2D. It released on July 22nd, 2022.
Big M. and Little M. send monsters out to find a special stone at an exhibition. A mishap with this stone causes a surge, leaving the Supermen powerless and forcing the people of Planet Xing to fend for themselves. Far into the future, the Supermen have gotten used to their newfound power (or lack thereof), but not Happy S. When things go awry once more, a mysterious new face named Superman X helps the Supermen and Doctor H.
A fourth movie, Happy Heroes Multiverse Rescue, followed this one in 2024.
Happy Heroes: The Stones contains the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: A policeman sees Happy S. and gets his name wrong five times, "Puppy Superman", "Slippy Superman", "Lippy Superman", "Dippy Superman", and "Peppy Superman". The robber the policeman apprehended tries to get his name right as well, but he fails, "Sloppy Superman", before Happy S. just tells him his name.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: The film's depiction of Miss Peach loses the heart-shaped bang she has in the original show and makes the hair sticking out from behind her longer.
- All-CGI Cartoon: While technically not the first CGI depiction of the Happy Heroes seriesnote , this is the first wide-scope project that debuts the characters in CGI.
- Brought Down to Normal: Using the Power Stone takes the superpowers away from the Supermen. Kalo, who is an Energy Being who usually takes on a humanoid form, can't shapeshift and reverts to his energy fireball form.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Superman X is the kid Happy S. told that anyone, even without superpowers, can be a superhero.
- Classical Elements Ensemble: The movie has a series of posters that symbolically correlate the Supermen and their Car Knights to one of the five classical Chinese elements, regardless of actual abilities. Happy S.'s hot-bloodedness is represented by his helmet wings emitting flames. Sweet S. is enveloped in a circular gust of wind: as The Heart of the group, she represents Pacifist Wind. Smart S. is covered in vines and there are flowers growing on his Car Knight, representing wood. This might be a pun on his Chinese name, which is "Flowering Heart Superman". Careless S.'s motif is electricity, but going by the Chinese elemental theming it's likely meant to be metal to some extent which conducts electricity, given that he invents weapons. Careful S. is submerged in water, signifying his calmness.
- Close on Title: The title precedes the last scene in the film, as it's a loop back to the opening of the film, which also has that title.
- Continuity Nod: The previous film has a joke about Ultraman and eggs as well. In the second movie, the hall of superhero objects has a salted egg that belonged to Ultraman; here, the egg actually belongs to Superman X, but is mistaken for the eyeballs on Ultraman's costume by Happy S.
- Cursed with Awesome: A helmeted individual deprives the monsters of their abilities; Cute Monster thinks this is good because she can stay cute for however long she wants (since her transformed version is an ugly monster). When the monsters are given their powers back after Big M. asks for them to be returned in exchange for telling the helmeted stranger where the Power Stone is, you can see Cute Monster trying to get away from the ball of energy that contains her powers.
- The Door Slams You: After landing in the desert, Big M. gets repeatedly squashed by the door on his and Little M.'s spaceship due to Little M. going to look for him. Little M. keeps emerging from the spacecraft and doesn't notice Big M. until he points himself out.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Big M. opposes the Commander starting a bomb that is strong enough to destroy Planet Xing, saying that he only wants to invade Planet Xing, not destroy it.
- Ironic Echo: The line Happy S. tells a kid who is pretending to be him, "Next time, leave the dangerous stuff to me, okay?", comes back to him when a policeman captures a robber Happy S. tries to deal with, with the policeman repeating this line.
- It's All My Fault: Careless S. feels guilty after he considers the Supermen losing their abilities to be his fault, causing him to run away from the Supermen's house some time before Happy S. arrives 10 years into the future.
- Lethal Chef: The idea of Sweet S. being a bad chef is developed here. After years of having her food criticized by everyone, Sweet S. finally learns to get her cooking skills improved and has become a competitor in the Master Chef Competition by the time Happy S. arrived 10 years in the future. She is frequently seen opposing a chef octopus.
- Pacifist Wind: The promotional posters for this movie had each of the Supermen and their Car Knights paired with one of the five elements, regardless of its relevance to their in-universe abilities. Sweet S., The Heart of the team defined by her kindness, has the in-universe ability to make bubbles of any size and resilience that she uses primarily as shields to support her other team members as a Barrier Warrior. She is enveloped in a circular gust of wind in her character poster.
- Palm on Cheek Pose: Doctor H. does the one-hand-on-cheek "this is delicious!" pose ubiquitous in anime when he eats meat. Said meat is made by Sweet S., who is usually a bad chef but learned to put her cooking skills back in order.
- Sphere Factor: The Huixin army that attacks Planet Qiyuan at the beginning of the film uses large, spherical vehicles that can attach to each other to produce large caterpillar-like constructions. Similarly, Big M. uses a giant spherical vehicle to attack Planet Xing; it uses a cannon to launch large disks.
- Stopped Numbering Sequels: This film doesn't have a 3 in its title, unlike the previous one which had a 2 in its title.
- Third Is 3D: Uses 3D animation, unlike the previous ones which were 2D.
