Noah's Animals and Other Stories are three animated Fantasy-Musical TV specials directed by Shamus Culhane based on Genesis 6:9, telling the story of Noah’s ark from the perspective of the animals.
The first Noah's Animals (1976) follows a group of animals as they wander through the ruins of a human city looking for food until they arrive at a hill belonging to Lion who explains that Noah had to chop the trees down to build a boat before Noah's dog arrives to inform them that Noah is building an ark to save them all from a great flood.
The second King of The Beasts (1977) follows the animals shortly after the flood waters have gone and they debate among themselves about leaving the safety and comfort of the ark or not, meanwhile Noah sends for Crocodile who believes he is being appointed king of the beasts.
The third Last of The Red-Hot Dragons (1980) sees the animals of Noah's ark encountering an old dragon who is unable to breath fire after having to hold his breath during the great flood because he didn’t get to the ark on time. They then have to mount a rescue mission when Polar Bear and his friends become trapped in an ice cave.
The three specials can be watched here
Tropes:
- After the End: The first special begins with animals wandering through the ruins of a human city looking for food and seeing Lion's hill is the only green spot left.
- The Ark: With Noah and The Great Flood included.
- Delightful Dragon: An old dragon who is very friendly is encountered by the animals and helps to rescue the arctic animals when they are trapped in an ice cave.
- Depower: The old Dragon, he lost both his ability to breath fire and fly. Luckily, with the animals' help, he regains the ability to do both by the end.
- Dragons Are Dinosaurs: The dragon isn't explicitly stated to be a species of dinosaur, but has a whole song that explains his backstory of growing up in the prehistoric past during the age of the dinosaurs, how he alone survived the ice age and is now the last of the red-hot dragons.
- Friend to All Living Things: Noah is himself a friend to all the animals.
- Insistent Terminology: The baby crocodiles insist on calling Crocodile "Mama" despite him telling them not to.
- The Ghost: We never see any evidence of Noah's family or any other humans onboard the ark.
- In the group of arctic animals, we never see a female polar bear.
- King of Beasts: Lion himself is among the ragtag group of animals that the story focuses on, he actually becomes king of the beasts in the second special.
- Last of His Kind: The animals encounter an old dragon who is the last of his kind.
- Crocodile boarded the Ark by himself without a female crocodile, but Noah had two crocodile eggs on the ark which he entrusts Crocodile to raise.
- Noah's Story Arc: This is the plot of the first special Noah’s Animals as told from the perspective of the animals.
- No Antagonist: None of the specials have a villain or antagonistic per se, Crocodile is the closest thing to this in the first special, but he's at most just snarky, arrogant and sometimes behaves like a bully, in the second, the main threat is a fire that burns down the ark, in the third special, the threat is when the arctic animals become trapped in an ice cave.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The story primarily focuses on a group of animals that have come together looking for food after everything has been destroyed by mankind, the group consists of a male crocodile, the Lions, the elephants, the hyenas and the ravens. By the third special the main group has dispersed after leaving the ark and it now consists of just Crocodile, Lion and Elephant who are joined by Dragon.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Noah is this himself for the first two specials, Lion becomes this in the third after becoming king of the beasts.
- Struggling Single Father: Although the baby crocodiles insist on calling him "Mama", Crocodile is entrusted with raising two baby crocodiles by Noah after he boarded the ark without a female crocodile.
- Unspecified Apocalypse: The world appears to have been turned by humanity into a wasteland where no plants grow and the animals travel through the ruins of a city in search of food and water.
