You can watch the film here.
Have your tissues ready.
O'o: The Last Voice of Kauai provides examples of the following tropes:
- Cats Are Mean: One cat attacks a flock of bird that includes Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and kills one of them (Kauaʻi ʻōʻō escapes unharmed though).
- Crapsack World: Form the point of view of Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird. He's The Last of His Kind and everything shown here is dangerous and out to get him, particularly rats and mosquitoes, which are basically omnipresent and one of reasons Kauaʻi ʻōʻō birds are no more. The humans are then shown to destroy their natural environment. At the end the poor bird is killed by strong storm.
- Determinator: The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird, which keeps looking for another birds of its species until the end. At the end it bravely fights the incoming storm, but it is what kills him in the end.
- Downer Ending: The last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō dies and entire species go extinct.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The mosquitoes transmitting avian malaria - deadly for Kauaʻi ʻōʻō - are shown practically everywhere, the rats are numerous, at one moment a cat tries to kill Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and does kill other bird, there is also danger from humans destroying forest and in the end the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō dies in storm.
- Foregone Conclusion: Being based on Real Life event, it's easy to tell that Kauaʻi ʻōʻō species won't make it.
- Gaia's Lament: Not as much as in similar movies but present in scene where bulldozers are destroying the forest.
- Green Aesop: The point of the film is to bring attention to extinction of species, especially on Hawaii, which is a major place for such events due to imported invasive species and diseases transmitted by them.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Humans in the movie sailing to the Kauai island are shown as dark silhouettes and without facial features despite their heads being shown, and their arrival is explicitly meant to be one of direct causes for extinction of Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird.
- Introduced Species Calamity: The start of animated short shows humans bringing mosquitoes (with avian malaria deadly for Kauaʻi ʻōʻō birds) and rats on Kauai island in ~1800. Cut to 1982 and they're practically everywhere.
- Last of His Kind: The movie captures last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and his desperate search for his mate.
- Monochrome Past: Downplayed, as the colors for portion taking place in ~1800 are rather de-saturated when compared to the rest of the short, but not completely monochrome or sepia.
- Mosquito Miscreants: Mosquitoes are depicted as very sinister, representing one of dangers to Kauaʻi ʻōʻō. This is Truth in Television, as they (or more precisely avian malaria transmitted by them) are stated as one reason behind the extinction of Kauaʻi ʻōʻō.
- Rule of Symbolism: There is a part with a black outlines of two Kauaʻi ʻōʻō birds surrounded by four others, singing their song to each other, when suddenly all but one in center disappear in fog and the remaining one gets surrounded by rats and mosquitoes instead. This part means to symbolize the decimation of Kauaʻi ʻōʻō species caused by the arrival of settlers bringing mosquitoes and rats on the island, leaving only last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird alive in the short's present.
- Shown Their Work: The movie accurately compiles the information about Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, uses his true call, and the fauna presented in the movie, such as Kamehameha Butterfly, is really present on Kauai, where the film takes place. Also, the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird in this animated short is killed by a storm; hurricanes are given as one of reason for the species' extinction.
- Spoiler Title: The title pretty much tells how it's going to end if even one is not familiar with Kauaʻi ʻōʻō's fate.
- Swarm of Rats: A swarm of rats is seen to come from the human boats upon their arrival.
