Dennis the Menace in Cruise Control (Known as Dennis in Cruise Control outside North America) is a television movie that first aired on Nickelodeon as a part of the DIC Movie Toons series in 2002.
In this movie, While on the cruise ship Dennis, Joey, Margaret, and Ruff find a princess who is being hypnotized by a Svengali, meanwhile two crooks are after the ring the princess wears.
Tropes used:
- Big Bad: Kraigor Baskethead. He has hypnotic powers and is not afraid to use them against anyone who disobeys his commands.
- Bird-Poop Gag: Happens twice;
- The first time, it happens to Dennis when he takes Princess Liana to the deck of the cruise ship they're on. When he says, "I'm king of the world!", a seagull poops on his head, which causes Liana to burst out laughing.
Liana: You must have been standing on the poop deck!- The second time, it happens to Mr. Wilson when he gets carried away by three tropical birds. After they drop him off at Liana's castle, one of them poops on his face.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: In Jinks and Hector's first scene, the two crooks are hiding in a cowl ventilator on the cruise ship, and all that can be seen of them are their eyes.
- Cruise Episode: This movie involves Mr. Wilson going on a cruise ship to get away from Dennis, only to discover that Dennis and his friends and family have come along anyway. On the cruise ship, Dennis befriends Princess Liana and helps her defend her island home from Kraigor.
- Face-Revealing Turn: On the island of Mimosa, Alice buys a tropical shirt for Dennis to wear, but Dennis gets separated from her to look for Liana. Alice soon finds what looks like Dennis, a blonde boy wearing a blue striped shirt and red overalls, who is shown from the back. When Alice puts the shirt on the boy, he turns to face her, revealing himself to have a buck tooth and wear glasses, and he says to her, "Lady, if I was your kid, I'd be off hiding somewheres, too!"
- Fat and Skinny: Hector and Jinks, a pair of crooks after Liana's ring, have this respective dynamic.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dennis turns Kraigor's own hypnotic powers against him by simply placing a mirror in front of him before he himself could be hypnotized, forcing him into a Humiliation Conga before he, Joey and Liana force him to reveal the truth as to why he wanted to take over Liana's kingdom. Because Kraigor hypnotized himself, everyone he hypnotized, including Liana's guards, are freed from his spell and he is subsequently sent to dungeon for high treason.
- Parental Abandonment: Liana doesn't have parents, and upon mentioning her father was the king of Mimosa, it is implied her parents are dead.
- Put on a Prison Bus: Kraigor is sent to the dungeon for high treason after Dennis makes him hypnotize himself.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: When Dennis and Joey are captured by Kraigor's guards and imprisoned in Liana's castle, the tropical birds carrying Mr. Wilson drop him off near the castle's prison. Dennis hopes Mr. Wilson will save him and Joey, but Mr. Wilson tells them that he isn't going to save them, rather, he's going to celebrate, since he feels that Dennis is finally where he belongs.
- Shout-Out:
- Mr. Wilson tells Finkelstein to Eat my shorts!
- Dennis climbs atop the ship's bow and stretches out his arms as he shouts, "I'm king of the world!"
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: This is done in Liana's castle when Dennis, Joey and Margaret run away from Kraigor's guards.
- Smooch of Victory:
- At the end, Liana gives this to Dennis after he defeats Kraigor, only to receive a death threat from Margaret.
Margaret: Excuse me?! Touch my man again and die!- Liana gives another one to Dennis on the news report.
- Totem Pole Trench: Dennis, Liana and Ruff dress as Kraigor, with Ruff on top, Dennis in the middle, and Liana on the bottom, to get Liana out of her cabin without Kraigor's guards noticing, and not blowing their cover until they were out of the guards' sight.
- Vacation Episode: Mr. Wilson goes on a cruise to a tropical island get away from Dennis, but Dennis and his friends and family come along. While on the ship, Dennis befriends Princess Liana and helps her defend her island from Kraigor.
