Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future (喜羊羊与灰太狼之筐出未来) is the eighth main film in the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf series, and the first one to release since 2015's Amazing Pleasant Goat. It has ties to the series' season Dunk for Victories and released on February 1st, 2022.
Weslie and his basketball team, Team Defenders, are participating in the big basketball game going on. They have their hopes dashed when Weslie ends up sustaining an injury during the game, with the other teammates taking a while to gain their interest in basketball back. Meanwhile, Weslie meets a tiger named Tiger Wing who has a passion for basketball, but is in a conflict with his dad due to skipping school to pursue his interest.
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Context Change: A quote is borrowed from the series' Rescue Across Time, Weslie asking Wolffy "How long have we known each other?" and Wolffy replying "About 5,000 episodes", as a throwaway joke. The original context was much more dark, as Weslie was dying in the episode it came from.
- Big Game: The premise of the film hinges around Team Defenders struggling to find the motivation to practice for the city basketball game after one of their previous matches with Team Tiger doesn't turn out so well. The film ends with them having a match with Team Tiger once more.
- The Cameo: The aliens from The Intriguing Alien Guests are among the spectators during the goats' big basketball game with Team Tiger.
- Close on Title: The first thing seen after the Team Defenders crew get a picture taken in the ending is the logo for the movie.
- Company Cross References: Since the Chinese rights to Bernard are owned by Pleasant Goat owners Alpha Group Co., Ltd.., the character can be seen watching Tiger Wing's first basketball game with Weslie.
- Continuity Nod: Weslie and Wolffy have an exchange that's borrowed from Rescue Across Time, episode 41:Weslie: Wolffy, how long have we known each other for?
Wolffy: About 5,000 episodes. - Down to the Last Play: It looks like Team Tiger is going to win at first, but then it's demanded that the clock be reset, as it wasn't stopped when someone made the shot. This gives Team Defenders only half a second to land another basket... and they manage to do it, giving them two extra points - just enough to avoid being a point lower than or tying with Team Tiger.
- Failure Montage: The training montage that precedes the big game starts out as one, with everything from Paddi ripping his pants to Sparky thinking it would be a good idea to play his Nintendo Switch while exercising. It gets better, and everyone is able to actually master the techniques.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: Tiger Wing always wanted to be a basketball player like his father. Thing is, he started to skip school in order to pursue this interest, and his father starts to criticize him for doing that, yelling at him to study instead and putting an emotional strain on his son. By the end of the film, Tiger Wing's dad has decided to encourage this passion instead of trying to stifle it, at the suggestion of Wolffy.
- Formerly Fat: Paddi eats so much that he gets a bloated belly and cannot properly play in basketball due to his weight making it hard to run. By the time the training montage is done, he has exercised enough to be able to play again.
- Funny Background Event: When the news reporter asks Weslie questions at the beginning of the movie, Sparky can be seen stretching Paddi's cheeks in the background, followed by Paddi tickling Sparky.
- Gratuitous English: Perhaps that title would be better translated as "Dunk for the Future". It's retained in the Japanese title of the movie, 喜羊羊と灰太狼 DUNK FOR FUTURE.
- Group Picture Ending: The film ends with the Team Defenders members taking a picture with each other.
- Mythology Gag: While this film does not follow the zodiac theming of the previous ones, it does feature tigers as the opposing basketball team, fitting how it released in the Year of the Tiger and hearkening back to the films' zodiac roots regardless.
- One-Eyed Shot: A close-up of Weslie's eye is shown when he fumbles a shot that costs Team Defenders the championship. The camera zooms in on his eye, revealing blurry shots of Team Tiger mocking him, spectators demanding their money back, and Blazey admitting it's his fault when a news reporter asks who he would hold responsible for losing the match.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: One of the posters uses this to contrast Team Defenders, shown in blue at the top of the poster, and Team Tiger, shown in orange at the bottom.
- Punny Name: Mr. Al Cheapo, a chicken who constantly cuts down his employees' salaries when he sees them slacking off; he's likely named after the term "el cheapo".
- Rainbow Puke: Paddi overexerts himself playing a game of basketball. When Slowy gets mad at him, he pukes a rainbow.
- Shout-Out: Sparky plays on a Nintendo Switch during the film, including in the training montage.
- Skipping School: Tiger Wing, an opponent to Weslie and his team, skips school a few times so that he can go play basketball. This understandably frustrates his father, who rightfully calls him out for ignoring his studies, but Tiger Wing doesn't want anything to do with this argument, saying he'd rather practice for the city basketball game.
- Slow-Motion Pass-By: While Weslie is chasing after Tiger Wing as he is being pursued by some motorcycles, Weslie passes by a fox girl in slow motion, looking her directly in the eyes. The fox girl is lovestruck afterwards, Love Bubbles showing up around her face.
- Splitting Pants: Right at the beginning of the training montage that has the goats prepare for the big game, Paddi has enough trouble getting his sports shirt on after having eaten so much that it causes his pants to rip.
- Training Montage: There's one of the goats preparing to play in the big city basketball game, starting off rather poorly with such mishaps as Sparky exercising while playing a Nintendo Switch and Tibbie bumping into a lot of people while running, but getting better as the montage continues.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: The cover of "Don't Think I'm Just a Little Goat" heard at the end of the movie pitch-shifts from an F key to a higher D key.
- Written Sound Effect: A sound effect bubble reading "嘭!!" - meaning "Bang!!" - appears when Tiger Wing's dad accidentally crashes his motorcycle near Wolffy, and twice later during the training montage when Sparky hits (or tries to hit) the basketball hoop.
