"Yoohoo! Lazai, let's set off!"
Mole's World (摩尔庄园) is a Chinese virtual world game released in 2008 that got updates until 2015. The characters have appeared in various games of other genres in addition to animated series and other media.
The hardworking moles and their pet lahms used to live in the beautiful Black Forest. After the forest burned down in a fire, the moles moved south and built a new manor from scratch.
Players control their own moles in various different settings. They can get their own clothing, vehicles, houses, and pets. They can go on missions and participate in various social games and activities with their friends.
It has an Animated Adaptation revolving around the cheerful mole Molele and his pet lahm Lazai. Molele lives with his uncle Bodhi. He's also friends with the princess Momo, the girl Yali, and the twins Duoduo and Shaoshao. The main antagonist is the evil master magician Kula, who uses powerful magic to cause trouble with the aid of his lahm Shaiza. When Molele's friends need help, Molele transforms into the superhero Mole Man to save the day. However, Molele doesn't actually know that he's the same person as Mole Man.
It has the following films:
- Mole's World: Legend of the Moles — The Frozen Horror (August 11, 2011): The movie tells the story of three different tribes; the Moles, the Lahms, and the Bears. A conflict caused by the accidental melting of a glacier by a young mole, Chichi, has angered the Bear tribe. It is now up to the RK alliance; Chichi, Kubi, Biku, and Dudu, as well as Princess Momo to stop the impending war.
- Mole's World II: Legend of the Moles — Treasure of Scylla (July 5, 2012): The moles suddenly discover a monster fish in the sea. But this monster fish is not only the first of many, but a harbinger of much worse things to come unless they travel back in time to stop the evil mage, Kula.
- Mole's World III: Legend of the Moles — The Magic Train Adventure (February 5, 2015): Molele and friends travel the world on the magic train, wondering what the train is and where it will lead them.
Mole's World provides examples of:
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The games and franchise in general
- Alliterative Name: Mole Man.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The moles can be blue, pink, green, orange, etc.
- Big Bad: The evil master magician Kula serves as the main antagonist of the franchise.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Mole Man wears the letter M.
- Character in the Logo: Mole Man is featured in the logo for Mole Kart.
- Competitive Multiplayer: Mole Kart has a mode where players can race against each other.
- Conjoined Eyes: The moles' pet lahms have them.
- Funny Animal: All of the moles act humanlike.
- Gratuitous English: The logos might incorporate a bit of English, such as the Chinese logo for the first movie having Legend of the Moles — The Frozen Horror written in English.
- Jack of All Stats: In Mole Kart, Mole Man has about average stats in every category.
- Mini-Game: A few are thrown in, such as one that's a fruit slicing game much like Fruit Ninja.
- The Mockbuster:
- The original Mole's World game rips off Club Penguin, which is evident in, for example, the penguins and moles in both games keeping different species as pets (the penguins in Club Penguin have puffles, while the moles in Mole's World have lahms).
- Mole Kart is a racing video game which blatantly rips off Mario Kart Wii to the point where many of the tracks appear almost identical to those in said game. Its sequel, Mole Kart 2, is a bit better in this regard.
- Nonstandard Character Design: It would be VERY difficult to mistake Kula for any other mole... Not surprisingly, Shaiza as well.
- Only Six Faces: With the exception of Kula, all the moles have the same basic face design.
- The Place: Mole's World is named after the main location of the series.
- Purple Is Powerful: Kula. He's the most powerful mage in the Kingdom.
- Purple Is the New Black: Kula, again. See above.
- Red Is Heroic: Mole Man's costume is mostly white, but has several red accents on it.
- Shoddy Knockoff Product: Mole Kart is a Chinese ripoff of
Mario Kart Wii, though it's less of a shoddy knockoff and more outright thievery. It is quite literally a texture hack of Mario Kart Wii being sold on the app store, complete with the exact same tracks (with minor texture edits to remove Mario references), the exact same items, and likely everything else the same as well. - Shout-Out: Mole Kart features some references to the gameplay of the Mario Kart games and their tracks.
- Something Person: Molele's superhero alter ego, Mole Man.
- Spell My Name With An S: Kula's name is also spelt as Kura.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: As you'd expect, Mole Man wears a red cape.
- Technicolor Magic: Kula is a powerful mage. With a mostly-purple color scheme.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Players can buy and get various outfits and wigs they can use to customize their mole.
- World of Funny Animals: The world where the moles live.
The TV show and films
- The Alcoholic: Kula has shades of this. In the last episode of season 1, he even drains a whole barrel of wine by himself without visible signs of drunkenness.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Molele doesn't even know that he's the superhero Mole Man, and Mole Man doesn't know that he's Molele.
- Animated Adaptation: The game received an animated television show and film series.
- Anti-Hero: RK. He's not a bad guy, but he can be pretty antagonistic towards Mole Man.
- Arboreal Abode: Lele and his uncle reside in a big tree refashioned into a house.
- Art Evolution: The movies have improved animation over the show.
- Art Shift: The credits have a cute crayon art style, unlike the rest of the show.
- Audible Gleam: In episode 1, Mole Man throws his hammer into the sky and it has a twinkle and an audible gleam.
- Baby Morph Episode: "Good Boy, Bad Boy", the first episode of Season 2, is about Kula turning into a baby after his lahm accidentally drops a potion. Baby Kula wanders off to Lele's house and makes Lele angry when he keeps wanting to play with his toys.
- Bag of Kidnapping: How Kula kidnaps Lele in episode 8.
- Battle Boomerang: Mole Man has a boomerang as one of his weapons.
- Bears Are Bad News: The first movie's conflict is kicked off by Chichi's actions angering the Polar Bear clan.
- Big Eater: Duoduo, as well as Dudu from the first and second movie. Kula also has shades of this if episode 5 of season 3 is any indication.
- Boomerang Comeback: In episode 1, Kula asks Mole Man to throw away his hammer. Mole Man throws the hammer up into the sky. The hammer comes back down out of the sky as a boomerang which hits Kula.
- Camping Episode: Episode 4 is about the main characters going out and camping outside.
- Canon Foreigner: The movies have several.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: The last episode of season one reveals Mole Man to be this. And it is hilarious.
- The Cape: Mole Man is a good, heroic superhero who fights Kula and makes sure that justice always prevails over evil.
- Chucking Chalk: In episode 6, during his fantasy sequence in his wish hat, Lele is interrupted as the other moles are thanking him for his heroic efforts when Uncle Bodhi throws chalk at him. Lele catches the chalk, saying that trick doesn't work anymore.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: One movie was adapted into a comic book.
- Cool Chair: Kula has one. It's decked out in a few dice decorations near the top.
- Dirty Coward: Beckham from the first movie starts off as one. He gets better.
- Disappeared Dad: Momo is an orphan. While Molele lives with his uncle, his parents are confirmed not dead.
- Dork in a Sweater: Dudu, in the first movie. He swaps the sweater out for a short-sleeved hoodie in the second movie, where incidentally he's less cowardly.
- Ending Theme: Has one in the credits.
- Establishing Shot: Episode 1 begins with some establishing shots of where the characters live.
- Face Doodling: Occurs in episode 1. When Molele was at the shop, he thought the model wasn't handsome, so he made some modifications to it, including drawing colors on the model's face.
- Fat Best Friend: Dudu is this for Chichi. He even sticks by him after Chichi's actions in angering the bear clan get their Lahms confiscated.
- Flight: Mole Man can use his cape to fly.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Averted OH so hard. Not only is alcohol shown onscreen, a few episodes have characters obviously drunk.
- Groin Attack: Kula is on the receiving end of one in episode 25, season 3. Executed from above after the attacker (Xiaoxiao) had jumped very high up for a boost from gravity, no less. Ow.
- Heavy Sleeper: Xiaoxiao, to the point it even grants him immunity to one of Kula's schemes involving nightmare magic.
- Hong Kong Dub: Even in the Chinese version, there are some scenes where the lip movements clearly don't match the dialogue.
- Human Hummingbird: Characters' legs often appear as blurs of circles when they are running.
- Hurt Foot Hop: In the first episode of Season 2, baby Kula stomps on Lele's foot just as he is being sent out of his house for being mean to Kula. Lele jumps in pain while holding his hurt foot.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The movie titles all begin with Legend of the Moles.
- In the Hood: Kula. It also bubbles up top, and the bubbles also can be used to create portals.
- Justice Will Prevail: In episode 1, Mole Man says that evil can't beat justice.
- Kid Hero: Mole Man fights evil as a child.
- The Legend of X: All of the theatrical films have "Legend of the Moles" in their titles.
- Letterbox: At least one broadcaster adds black bars to the top and bottom◊.
- Lovable Coward: Dudu, from movies 1 and 2. He scares easily and cries a lot, but toughs it out when he needs to.
- Missing Main Character: Molele is never seen even once in the first movie.
- Missing Mom: Momo and Molele, both. See Disappeared Dad above.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Shaiza is a variation of this. He's a fusion of several Lahms.
- Morph Weapon: Mole Man can throw his hammer into the sky, and it will morph into a boomerang and come flying down.
- The Movie: Three of them.
- Obsessed with Food: Duoduo. Also, to a lesser extent, Dudu from movies 1 and 2.
- The Paragon: Mole Man inspires Molele to become a good hero just like Mole Man. Mole Man and Molele are the same person, but Molele doesn't know that and he looks up to Mole Man.
- Pet the Dog: Kula in Season 2 Episode 28, when he befriends a little girl.
- Pink Means Feminine: Momo, in spades. Nearly every outfit she wears is predominantly pink
- Pokémon Speak: Lahms only ever say "Bibo." Although there is an episode in season one where Lazai's bibo-ing is translated via subtitles for the audience.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: In episode 1, Mole Man throws his hammer up into the sky, far enough away for it to be A Twinkle in the Sky. It eventually comes down, turns into a boomerang, and hurts Kula.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Momo.
- Quarter Hour Short: The TV show episodes are 12 minutes long.
- Repeat Cut: Episode 1 has a repeat cut of Mole Man hitting Kula with a hammer and then a close-up shot of Kula getting hit again.
- Retired Badass: Bodhi. He used to be the best knight in the kingdom before his student Ricky. He hasn't lost all of that badassery in his old age, either...
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Kula is aided by his pet lahm Shaiza.
- Second-Person Attack: Occurs in episode 1. Mole Man swings his huge hammer, only for the camera to take the perspective of who he's attacking.
- Self-Duplication: One of Kula's superpowers is to make clones of himself.
- Shaped Like Itself: The theme song points out that there are two curved curves on Molele's face. As opposed to straight curves.
- The Song Remains the Same: The English dub of the TV show leaves the theme song in Chinese.
- Superhero: Molele can become the superhero Mole Man, and he's not even aware of that.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Yali and Momo, respectively.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: In episode 1, Mole Man hits Kula into the sky, and Kula has a twinkle.
- Variations on a Theme Song: One season uses an updated variation of the theme tune.
- Visible Sigh: Frequently used when the characters sigh.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Nearly any time someone vomits.
