Rumble is an American computer-animated sports comedy film directed by Hamish Grieve and based on the book, "Monster on the Hill" by Rob Harrell. The film stars the voices of Geraldine Viswanathan, Will Arnett, Terry Crews, Becky Lynch, and Roman Reigns. Produced by Paramount Animation, WWE Studios, Walden Media and Reel FX Animation Studios, it was released on December 15th, 2021 on Paramount+. Though branded as a Paramount+ original, the film also became available on Epix in 2022 and is expected to reach Prime Video as well.
In a world where giant monsters are super athletes and compete in popular professional wrestling global sport, monster wrestling, teenage Winnie (Viswanathan) seeks to follow in her father's footsteps as a manager by coaching a lovable underdog yet-inexperienced monster (Arnett) into a champion so that he can go up against the reigning champion Tentacular (Crews) in order to restore the city of Stoker to its glory.
The teaser trailer dropped on February 26th, 2020 and can be seen here
. The official trailer dropped on November 26th, 2021 and can be seen here.
This film provides examples of:
- Ass Kicks You: Steve's Finishing Move on Tentacular is jumping off the ropes and slamming into him butt first before crushing him under him.
- Behemoth Battle: The movie takes place In a World… where kaiju not only exist, but have undertaken epic fights since prehistory, witnessed all the while by awed humans. In modern times, this has evolved into a kind of pro wrestling circuit for giant monsters.
- Big Bad: What Tentacular ultimately becomes—he's initially displayed as a Heel (an antagonist in the ring) but an overall pleasant individual outside the ring. But then it's revealed that he's tired of being seen as second best to Rayburn (who's widely considered to be the greatest monster-wrestler of all time) and wants to destroy his legacy—he's willing to go so far as to completely bankrupt the town of Stoker to make it happen. It's at that point that he's an antagonist both inside and outside the ring.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: Tentacular has tatoo-like markings on his body that glow at will, reminiscent to certain animals in the deep parts of the ocean.
- Childhood Friends: Downplayed, but Steve and Winnie were shown to be this, and even after their long estrangement Steve recognizes Winnie immediately when she calls out to him during a match.
- Dance Battler: When Winnie discovers that Steve loves dancing and is actually quite good at it, she decides they can try using this to their advantage when it comes to wrestling matches, especially since (as she notes) "Wrestling is 80% footwork." He finally comes into the 'battler' part in the third round with Tentacular.
- Darkest Hour: Winnie and Steve rush to stop Stoker's mayor from signing away the stadium, as Steve's match with King Gorge will hopefull attract people and resolve Stoker's money problems. Only for Tentacular to reveal to the pair that King Gorge has been too broken to fight ever since his loss against the former. Tentacular then orders the stadium to be bulldozed even earlier, so Rayburn's legacy won't stand in the way of his own legend. Not only were Winnie's efforts All for Nothing, the stadium her father built will be destroyed despite her and Steve's hard work, robbing her of the only thing she had to remember her dad by. To add insult to injury, Ziggy then tells Winnie that Jimbo would be ashamed of her training methods since they go completely against conventional wrestling.
- Everyone Has Standards: For as much as Steve wants to distance himself from his father, Rayburn, even he thinks that Tentacular wanting to destroy the stadium that Winnie's dad, Jimbo Coyle, and Rayburn built together purely to get out of Rayburn's shadow is crazy.
- Hidden Depths: Steve's initially portrayed as kind of a Lazy Bum, being more into stuff like eating, sleeping and/or just sitting around—but then Winnie discovers his love of dancing (as well as the fact that he's genuinely good at it).
- I'm Going to Disney World!: After winning the Big Belt, Tentacular says he's going to an unnamed theme park.
- Innocently Insensitive: In the teaser trailer, when Winnie says Steve has a champion monster inside of him, a kid from the tour asks if Steve ate one, making everyone else on the tour laugh. This would come off as mean of the kid if he didn't ask the question with genuine sincerity.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lady Mayhem cares more for the money her fighters bring in than for the fighters themselves, but when she watches Steve beat Tentacular in the final showdown, she expresses pride for him.
- Jobber: Steve is pretty much a professional jobber when Winnie finds him.
- King Kong Copy: Ramarilla Jackson looks like a giant gorilla, but with ram horns on his head.
- Lost at Sea: Winnie's dad, Jimbo Coyle, and Rayburn (the monster he coached who also happens to be Steve's dad) were en route to a big wrestling tournament when they disappeared like this and were ultimately never seen or heard from ever again.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: A lot of the giant monsters combine traits from all across the animal kingdom. Just in the movie's opening match we have Tentacular (a bipedal shark monster with tentacles for arms and bioluminescent skin) and his opponent King Gorge (a bulldog monster with gorilla-like arms and bull horns).
- Only in It for the Money: The only reason Steve agrees to wrestle for Stoker is because he needs the prize money to pay off his debts to Lady Mayhen. However, once Winnie's training pays off and he actually starts to win matches he finds he sincerely enjoys giving it his all while fighting. And when Winnie is at her lowest point and ready to literally throw in the towel, it's Steve who convinces her not to give up so easily.
- Primal Chest-Pound: Being a gorilla-like monster, Ramarilla pounds his chest when entering the arena.
- Shark Man: Tentacular's a gigantic bipedal shark monster with tentacles.
- Shout-Out: To help Steve build up strength and endurance, Winnie has him practice lifting another monster (Axehammer, to be specific, who also may or may not have a crush on Steve) to the tune of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life."
- Vocal Dissonance: Denise has a insanely deep voice despite being shorter than most monsters.
