Denmark loves it! Everyone else... is pretty much unaware the thing exists.
Jungledyret Hugo (also known as Go Hugo Go in the English version) is a Danish animated film series by A. Film about a little mammal named Hugo, who is one of a kind.
The first film introduces us to Hugo, an apparently one-of-a-kind anthropomorphic animal who lives in a jungle. Youthful and carefree, Hugo is prone to playing practical jokes on his friends, Zig and Zag the monkeys. His idyllic lifestyle is interrupted when he is captured by the CEO of a famed movie company, Conrad Cupmann, to be a co-star in a Hollywood-style film. In order to return from Copenhagen to his jungle home, he must escape with the help of a newly found friend, Rita the fox.
The sequel, Jungledyret 2 - den store filmhelt (Hugo the Movie Star in the English version), picks up where the first movie left off. Hugo and Rita each tell their friends about how much they miss one another. Meanwhile, the CEO of the movie studio still wants to catch him. His plan is to have Hugo co-star in a film, and then earn lots of money through merchandising.
In 2003, the franchise was made into an animated TV series. It led up to the events of the third film. Thirteen episodes of 26 minutes were produced, and originally aired 2003-2004.
The third film, Jungledyret 3 - Fræk Flabet og fri, continues where the animated series left off, which in turn is a sequel to the second movie. It is a CGI film. The plot again involves Hugo being captured, this time by several competing groups of humans who are all after Hugo for their own reasons.
This series contains examples of:
- All-CGI Cartoon: The third one.
- Art Evolution: The first film looks like a Don Bluth film, but the second has its own style.
- Rita's design in particular changes with each film.
- Artistic Age: See Older Than They Look below.
- Be Yourself:Hugo: They want me to be completely different from what I am. Why do I have to be different? Why can't they just be different themselves??Rita: I like you the way you are.Hugo: You're my... best friend too.
- Big Bad: In each of the films, Hugo has to face the main human antagonist who wants to capture him for their own ends. In the first movie, Izabella Scorpio is the most active antagonist while her husband Conrad is her reluctant dragon. Conrad himself gets promoted to the next big bad in the sequel, becoming a rather unusual ruthless and efficient villain for the mostly light-heartened franchise. For the TV-series and the third movie, General Maximus is the most recurrent antagonist.
- Big Damn Heroes: The leader of the pigs tries to do this to save Hugo and Rita from Cupmann and his henchmen, charging full speed ahead from the snowy hill at them. Unforunately, he trips and goes down rolling, but it does manages to break the ice they were standing at and give Hugo and Rita a short opportunity to escape. A more straight exemple happens right after, as Cupmann emerges out of the water, points his gun directly at Hugo and is about to shoot, when Sensuella arrives along with the police, who soon arrests Cupmann, allowing Hugo and Rita to finally escape him.
- Bittersweet Ending: To a minor degree in the first movie. Hugo manages to escape into the ferry that will take him back to the jungle, but he'd to leave Rita, whom he'd bonded with, with the uncertainty of if he'll ever see her again.
- Book Ends: The first film begins with a musical number about Hugo's daily routine, which consists of playing in the jungle with his friends. It ends with the same musical number, but now Meatball Charlie is playing too.
- In the beginning of the third film, Hugo and his old friends are singing in the jungle... in Hugo's dreams. At the end, the song is reprised, this time in Junglandia's nature reserve with Rita and the pup present.
- Boy Meets Girl: Hugo meets Rita when he's locked inside the zoo cage while she visits the zoo during one of her night walks, where they've a short conversation before Rita leaves right before Cupmann and his henchman breaks in to steal Hugo. They meet up again after Hugo escapes and begins to develop a friendship that soon grows into young love.
- Brandishment Bluff: Hugo repeatedly claims that he is poisonous or diseased to scare off predators, to varying degrees of success.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Hugo's dissatisfaction with his new life in the colder and harsher Denmark and consideration of returning back to Cupmann because of it causes an upset Rita to break up with him and storm off in a huff, leaving him to angrily try to go back to Cupmann. They soon reunites and escapes together just when Cupmann begins his final chase for them.
- Bulungi: Junglandia. As seen in the third film, it is actually in South America, somewhere around Peru, Bolivia, and Chile.
- Catchphrase: Hugo's is "Wulle wulle wah!"
- Rita's is "You're impossible!"
- Cartoon Creature: Hugo, who resembles a cross between a koala and a monkey.
- Cats Are Mean: All over the series. Alleycats in the first film, a jaguar and a lynx during the TV series, and another jaguar in the third film.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Conrad Cupmann. The dude burns down a forest just to lure out Hugo.
- Cute Little Fangs: Both the main leads.
- Darker and Edgier: The second film features much more emotional drama than the other installments.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rita and Hugo. Mostly Rita.
- Denser and Wackier: The animated series starts off mundane enough, but during the final few episodes Hugo and Rita travel to the North Pole with one of Santa's elves, and encounter a tribe of troll-like creatures along the way.
- Disney Acid Sequence: When Izabella loses her marbles over her obsession with catching Hugo, the scene transitions into her imagination, in which she repeatedly grabs Hugo only for him to transform into strange things, including herself, all while she giggles unsettlingly. This scene was cut out of the English dub.
- Dumb Muscle: The snake has only a certain type of muscles that are stronger than any of Hugo's other adversaries but fortunately his brain isn't included (either as a muscle or something generally strong) and he is the only one who easily falls for his ostensible prey's lies.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After enduring a lot of hardships due to Cupmann's obsession with him, as well having a hard time adapting to the colder climate of Denmark, which causes a temporary break-up with an upset Rita, Hugo manages to escape with her on a train toward the south there they can live a new and happy life together.
- Easy Amnesia: The first episode of the animated series involves Hugo getting hit by a church bell and forgetting that he's not in the jungle anymore (and also Rita's name).
- Everyone Can See It: The relationship between Hugo and Rita is obvious to everyone and many characters lampshade on it. Even Cupmann can see it, and so he decides to send bloodhounds to kill Rita due to her "bad influence" over Hugo.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: In the second film, Conrad tries to shoot Hugo with Tranquilizer Darts. In the third film, the gun is replaced with a crossbow, but there is a statue of General Maximus wielding a rifle. Averted in the animated series, however.
- Hakuna Matata: Wulle Wulle Wap Wap in the first film, Frank, Cheeky, and Free in the third.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Hugo looks upon mankind with great distrust, with the exception of Meatball Charlie.
- Interspecies Romance: Hugo and Rita. One is a Last of Its Kind type of rare jungle animal and the other one is a regular street fox. And despite it, they manages to form a growing romantic relationship that even if it faces some downturns due to their different personalities now and than remains strong and unmoved by the challenges they face.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While being kind and loyal, Hugo can be also selfish and childish at times, much to the chagrin of Rita who nearly breaks things off with him because it, but he eventually realizes his mistakes and tries to make up for it.
- Knight of Cerebus: Cupmann (in the second movie) is the only main antagonist who's played as a genuine, serious threat. While the other antagonists are more comical and inefficient in nature, Cupmann is a ruthless and cold-hearted man who'll even resort to killing if he's to get what he wants. Just the gleeful way he orders the bloodhounds to rip that foxfur apart in preparation for killing Rita is downright disturbing.
- Language Fluency Denial: Hugo can talk intelligently, but rarely talks to humans and the one time he does talk to a human all he says is his name, almost inaudibly. Downplayed as he doesn't hide his ability to understand what humans are saying.
- Modern Major General: Generalissimo Maximillion Maximus: Skilled ruler, smooth negotiator... never once seen actually leading an army, nor is it even confirmed that Junglandia has an army.
- Movie-Making Mess: In the first take for his movie, Cupmann has deal with an Epic Fail of this when a defiant Hugo refuses to cooperate. It becomes much more successful the second time the next day, if only because Hugo has been promised to be rewarded with food if he does play along.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Izabella Scorpio. Izabella Dehavalot in the English dub.
- General Maximus' dog is named Satan.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Michael Snackson (Jack Michaelson in the English version)
- Older Than They Look: Rita comments on several occasions that soon she will be old enough to have her own den. And Hugo, despite his "cute and fuzzy" look, talks and acts like someone clearly in his teens.
- Product Placement: Extremely subtle. While Hugo is being driven to the harbor on the banana truck, a Coca-Cola sign can be seen. The same sign is seen again at the end, when Meatball Charlie is taking Hugo back to the jungle.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Donna Prima. She is the only antagonist who likes Hugo from the start and wants to see him treated well.
- Put on a Bus: Rita's family, whom she repeatedly voices concern over during the first two films, then abandons almost without noticing.
- Dellekaj don't appear in the sequel movie, but returns half-way into the TV-series.
- Rubber Man: Chief Iztintatel has the ability to stretch his body into the shapes of various animals, including a bird and a snake.
- Rube Goldberg Device: Used to catch Hugo in the beginning of the third movie.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Several characters pulls this thought the films.
- In the first movie, Conrad finally has enough of Izabelle's obsession with Hugo and her disreceptful treatment of him, flips out on her and leaves her on the port while she has her psychotic episode.
- Rita does this in the sequel when Hugo complains about the hardships of his new life with her in Denmark, causing her to run away upset when she thinks that he'd rather choose the humans before her. Hugo himself tries to do this right after when he tries to return to Conrad, only to return back to her when he finds out that Conrad plans to kill her with his new hunting dogs.
- Rita's mother does this while she escort Hugo to the harbour when they're suddenly being followed by one of Izabelle's bounty hunters, abandoning him to search for the harbour himself.
- Shout-Out: The motivational song Hugo sings to the pigs is obviously a Baptist gospel.
- In one episode of the animated series, Hugo puts on a red shirt to keep warm in the Arctic. He looks almost exactly like Winnie the Pooh.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Hugo and Rita have this scenario at the beginning of the second movie, when Hugo is back in the jungle. They both miss each other, to the point of depression in Hugo's case, until they eventually reunite, and even then, they have to face a lot of obstacles that try to keep them apart.
- The Stoner: There's a butterfly in the third movie that is quite clearly high as a kite.
- That Poor Plant: A flower gets hit with a Tranquilizer Dart in the third film, causing it to droop pitifully.
- Through His Stomach: It's when Hugo offers his food to a hungry Rita when they meet in the zoo that plants the seed to their future relationship.
- Took a Level in Badass: Cupmann sure did in the second movie. In the first, he was just Izabelle's bumbling husband who could care less about Hugo. In the second movie, he becomes an efficient, cunning, and ruthless antagonist who will do anything to capture Hugo, turning him into Hugo's most terrifying enemy. note
- This Is Going to Be Huge: Every antagonist's motivation for catching Hugo. Movies, and movie merchandise, and perfume, and cloned pets, and and and...
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Barbie Turner retrieves a cigar from her cleavage.
- Villainous Breakdown: Both Izabella and Cupmann get this.
- For the former's case, the failure of capturing Hugo causes her to finally snap into hysterical, weeping cries and maddened shrieks on the port.
- For the second, Hugo and Rita's persistence to escape him causes him to lose his calculating cunning and quickly reduces him into an enraged, crazed hunter.
- Villain Song: And I Will Be The Star of Science from the third movie.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: In the first movie, Hugo gets seasick inside a burlap sack, but it's too dark to see. In the third movie, the comic relief rat gets airsick and throws up in Strix's boot... while he's wearing it. He doesn't notice.
- Walking the Earth: The premise of the TV series is that Hugo and Rita are traveling the world in search of a place of their own to live on, and during their adventures, they manages to travel all across Europe, South America and even to the North Pole.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Hugo's antics and behavior tends to invoke this from Rita. One example is when Hugo manages to antagonize a pack of feral street cats and barely gets away from taking a beating from them by Rita's timely rescue, in which she right after calls him out of his impulsive actions. Another, more serious, example is when Hugo seemingly has allowed himself to be Cupmann's obedient movie pet in exchange for food and fame, to which Rita calls him out for sacrificing his own freedom away. Her calling out becomes even more harsh when she thinks that Hugo has cheated on her with Miss Nutzi.
