Stonekeeper: Disobeying the stones is a grave offense. From this day forward, you will be banished from the village. Until you are ready to stand before us all and tell us the truth.
Migo: I am...telling the truth.
Migo: I am...telling the truth.
Smallfoot is a CGI 3D animated musical-comedy adventure film from Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Imageworks, based on the unpublished children’s book Yeti Tracks by Sergio Pablos. It was directed by Karey Kirkpatrick and Jason Reisig and features an All-Star Cast consisting of Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, Danny DeVito, Gina Rodriguez, Yara Shahidi, Ely Henry, and Jimmy Tatro.
Smallfoot's protagonist is Migo (Tatum), a young teenage male Himalayan Yeti who lives in a small village hidden behind an endless sea of clouds high up in the Himalayan mountains, on Mount Everest. He lives among his people, they tell each other stories about mythical small monsters from the lands down below, creatures they simply know only as "Smallfoot". Until one day that will possibly change his entire life for the better, when he encounters one and finally discovers that Smallfeet are real...
It was released in theatres worldwide on September 28, 2018.
Previews: Teaser
, Trailer 1, Trailer 2, Trailer 3.
Smallfoot provides examples of:
- Actor IS the Title Character: The movie was advertised this way. Zendaya is Meechee.
- Alliterative Title: In Brazil, the title was translated as "Pénote Pequenonote ".
- Animal Talk: The yetis' language sounds like low growling to humans, while human speech sounds like high-pitched gibberish to yetis. At one point, Migo is holding a conversation with a female Himalayan black bear, which to Percy sounds like the two roaring at each other. Oddly for this trope bears don't talk.
- Animated Musical: The movie features several songs sung by the beloved characters.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Migo defends Percy by saying that he isn't like the humans in the past who nearly wiped out the yetis’ ancestors. That's when the Stonekeeper asks if Percy treated Migo with open arms when they first met. A flashback of Percy treating Migo with fear and panic (he acted the same way the Smallfoot did to the Yetis’ ancestors in the past) wordlessly answers his question, in total shock.Stonekeeper: You think knowledge is power, Migo? Question is, what are you gonna do with that power?
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Percy gets arrested for disturbing the peace, destruction of public property, internet fraud, discharging fireworks within the city limits, loitering and then for "looking weird".
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Positive example;Stonekeeper: Migo, you will never be the gong-ringer.
Migo: Wait, what?
Stonekeeper: ...If you don't practice. - Bears Are Bad News: Played with. While trapped in a cave with Migo, Percy encounters a gigantic and aggressive bear. We later see from Migo's POV that the bear is just pissed about her family being woken.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Percy goes back for Migo when the latter is helplessly stuck in a Bear Trap because the yeti in question protected Percy from a bear. He even wraps up Migo's wounded big toe with duct tape.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The stars of the film are Himalayan Yetis, envisioned here as tall, shaggy, ape-like hominids/humans with bodies and faces completely covered in fur and small to medium sized horns on their heads. Himalayan Yetis are a “type of Bigfoot” found in Asia.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The yetis use large glowing snails as illumination. They even think the sun is one.
- Brick Joke:
- When Migo and Percy first meet, Percy eventually accidentally knocks himself out with the tranquilizer dart and Migo tries to revive him only to accidentally knock out his tooth. It isn't until The Stinger that Percy notices he's missing a tooth while filming his show.
- When Gwangi and Kolka drop down the mountain to help Migo find Meechee, Migo asks what happened to Fleem. Cut to Fleem weighing all the pros and cons of going. It's only when the other yetis are on their way back up the mountain that Fleem finally drops down asking what did he miss out on.
- Cerebus Callback: During their initial meeting, Percy tries to fend himself from Migo by throwing a ski pole at him like a spear (it's ineffective), unsuccessfully wrestles with Migo's face, and aims a tranquilizer gun at him (only to accidentally shoot himself). Through Migo's eyes, this is all just the Smallfoot playing around, and appropriately so, it's Played for Laughs. Later, during "Let it Lie", he has a flashback to all of Percy's shenanigans and is chilled to realize he was acting just like the Smallfoot humans who attacked the ancestor yetis in the past (spearing, strangling, shooting).
- Character Development: Percy goes from a selfish arrogant and fame-hungry person to a selfless person with reignited integrity over the course of the movie.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Stonekeeper says the stones are here to protect the village and to keep them safe. Later on in the movie near the ending, he ends up throwing the entire stone robe at the Smallfoot humans who are chasing his people.
- The Cargo Plane that nearly crashes into Migo at the beginning of the movie is used again later on. After Migo discovers land for the first time, the wrecked plane is accidentally used as a transportation device for Migo to travel faster to the Smallfoot village.
- The tranquilizer gun that Percy tries to shoot at Migo during their first encounter, instead of tranquilizing the Yeti it tranquilizes Percy, well it’s used again near the ending of the movie to tranquilize Migo the Yeti, and thankfully that time Percy didn’t get tranquilized by it again.
- The yeti costume that Percy bought from a store near the beginning of the movie is used by Percy near the ending of the movie to lure the cops away from Migo to save Migo’s life and to protect him from the violent Smallfoot humans.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Migo has had a huge crush on Meechee since they were young kids, but has always been too shy and scared to say anything to her. He finally gets the courage to tell her how he feels for her, and to his delight, she feels the same way.
- Clapper Gag: The Yetis use giant bioluminescent snails as lighting, which they activate by clapping their hands to wake them up.
- Close on Title: Just like the previous animated movies released from Warner Animation Group, this movie's title card appears right before the credits.
- Crush Blush: Migo blushes when Meechee congratulates him for getting his very first gong ringer helmet at the beginning of the movie. Later, when Migo is about to be lowered down the mountain below the clouds on a rope strapped to a harness, Meechee makes him feel better by saying, ‘You’re gonna to do great.” Then Migo blushes again and asks her, ‘Yeah? You really think so?’
- Implied with Percy towards Brenda, as shown during "Percy's Pressure", where Percy can be seen lightly blushing when he makes eye contact with Brenda during his performance.
- Cue the Sun: The Yetis believe that ringing a gong awakes the great glowing snail that crawls across the sky, which is what they believe the sun to be. Dorgle missing the gong one morning and seeing the sun rise regardless sends him into an existential crisis.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Migo is another word for the Abominable Snowman.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The majority of the film takes place in four days and three nights.
- Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either: These yetis don't believe that what they call a "smallfoot" actually exists — until one literally shows up.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Fleem. It's implied he's only with the S.E.S. because no-one else is willing to put up with him (and even they seem to just barely tolerate him).Gwangi: Yeah, Fleem sucks.Kolka: Fleem’s pathetic.
- Fun with Acronyms: The S.E.S., which stands for Smallfoot Evidentiary Society (or as Fleem prefers, Smallfoot Exists, Suckas!).
- Funny Background Event: The backup dancers during Percy's song.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Stonekeeper believes that all humans are selfish savages, as he shows Migo wall carvings of them attacking the yetis’ ancestors in the past during "Let it Lie". Subverted later when Meechee sees human paintings in a Yeti Museum in the Smallfoot city, depicting the Yeti as monsters and realizes the mutual misunderstanding that both species imply about each other.
- If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: Fleem says when Migo is being lowered down below the clouds.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: The Stonekeeper truly knows that smallfeet exist, but intentionally kept everyone in the dark about it because he wants to protect them so that they won’t die off and become extinct from the Smallfeet. It even gets lampshaded later on when Migo says everything was better when he didn't know about the existence of smallfeet.
- Impact Silhouette: Whenever the characters fall from a great height, they leave a perfect impression in the snow. Gwangi, however, hits the ground so hard he leaves a huge snow crater.
- The Internet Is for Cats: Percy's nature show is suffering because people prefer videos of hogs twerking, squirrels riding water skis or monkeys riding on the backs of dogs.
- Irony: Percy lampshades how ironic it is that the tranquilizer dart he intended for Migo ends up hitting himself instead.
- Meechee, the daughter of the Stonekeeper who so claims there are no smallfoot (or a world below the clouds), is head of S.E.S. who strive to prove the smallfoot exist.
- Literal Metaphor: The Yeti village's laws are set in stone. They're literally written on stone tablets.
- The Load: Fleem. He never really contributes to the S.E.S.'s efforts, more often than not complicating matters much more worse instead.
- Living Dinosaurs: In a sense - the Yeti village has a population of surviving woolly mammoths, which due to the Yetis' size compared to them, are ridden like horses.
- Mama Bear: A literal one shows up when Percy wanders into her cave and unintentionally wakes her up in the process, only for Migo to show up and calm the bear down.
- Meaningful Name: Migo's name sounds like a shortened version of the spanish word "Amigo", which means "Friend". And that’s what Migo is, he’s man’s best friend.
- It's also another word for the Abominable Snowman.
- Missing Mom: Implied. Dorgle mentions Migo's mom near the beginning of the film, but all we ever see of her is a picture.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: Percy wants his producer/co-worker Brenda to dress in a yeti costume so he could film her chasing and attacking him as a way to boost his show's ratings. When Brenda soon abandons him with the costume, Percy goes after her... only to accidentally run into Migo. Thinking Migo is Brenda in the yeti costume at first, he plays along until he sees the real Brenda driving away on a snow mobile and soon mistakenly realizes he's facing a real breathing yeti.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Stonekeeper has this reaction when Meechee decides to take Percy back to his home town on her own after having Migo lie to the whole village.
- Earlier, Migo has this reaction after lying to the whole village that Percy was, in fact, a rare type of yak, and calling Gwangi straight up crazy for thinking the stones are all wrong and that there’s a machine down in the mountains that Stonekeeper is hiding, therefore costing him his friendship with the S.E.S members.
- No Antagonist: The closest thing the film has to a villain is the Stonekeeper, a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is only looking to keep his people safe from the dangerous Smallfeet, and by the end of the film has a Heel Realization. The policemen going after the yetis in the climax are also just doing what they were trained to do, protect the Smallfoot civilians from what appears to them to be a threat.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Percy seems to be a parody of the late Steve Irwin.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Percy shoots Migo with a tranquilizer gun in order to save him. And then he puts on the yeti costume. This causes him to lose his fame and to get arrested.
- The Noseless: All the yetis are designed with no visible noses. Their noses are probably hidden under their fur below their eyes.
This makes sense, evolution-wise, given the dry, thin air, and it mitigates the risk the cold clime poses to a prominent proboscis--less chance of losing one's nose to severe frostbite. - Opening Narration
- Painting the Frost on Windows: Subverted. The yetis believe ringing the village gong is what causes the sun to rise every morning. Dorgle (who had that job for years) is stunned to realize when he fails to ring the gong one morning, yet sees the sun rise anyway.
- Precision F-Strike: Fleem says "a bunch of crap" near the beginning of the film. Downplayed, but this is the first time something mildly vulgar, is heard in a Warner Animation Group production.
- Screwed by the Network: Implied In-Universe. Percy's You Telly (a Bland-Name Product version of YouTube) show is on the brink of cancellation due to people preferring to watch twerking hogs over him. Later on in the movie, Brenda reveals that she uploaded his video of Migo when he was trapped with the yeti in the bear cave online and that his video went totally viral and he has gotten a lot of voicemails. One of them is Gayle at the Network telling him that if he can get that yeti alive, then he and his show is saved.
- Ship Tease: There's a bit of this between Percy and Brenda to an extent.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Fleem is absent for most of the third act.
- Shoo the Dog: To save Migo from the authorities, Percy shoots him with a tranquilizer dart, then puts on the yeti costume and gets himself captured. Even under the influence of the tranquilizer, Migo intuits that Percy shot him to save his life.
- Shout-Out:
- According to yeti lore, the mountain they live on is an island held up by giant mountain mammoths. Sound familiar?
- As the yetis run through the human city, Gwangi keeps knocking out street lamps, which when viewed from above, makes it look like a game of Pac-Man.
- The game that Meechee learns how to play in her room while learning how to speak to the Smallfoot, resembles Candy Crush Saga.
- Percy sings a parody of Queen's "Under Pressure" in the Yak Shack during Karaoke Night right before meeting Migo the Yeti.
- Migo’s song at the beginning, “Perfection”, is very similar in beat and tone to the song that Emmett the construction worker sings “Everything is Awesome” on his way to work in The LEGO Movie. What’s also hilarious is that the two movies are made by the same company, Warner Animation Group. Migo is also supposed to literally be a hairy/furry extension of Emmett as well.
- The biggest shout out in Smallfoot is to Looney Tunes. “You're able to do some Road Runner-type of feel,” said Reisig. “There's a sequence where Migo's falling down the mountain and rolling in a snowball and landing on a bridge and falling into cliffs and creating character-shaped holes. There are so many homages to Looney Tunes, down to the shape of their eyes. It's very unusual to have characters with long oval eyes. That's very Bugs Bunny, and the whole Warner Brothers character library.”
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After spending some time in the yeti village in one day, Percy starts suffering from high altitude sickness due to lack of oxygen on such a high peak.
- Take That!: Against variable interest rate mortgages, Percy doesn't quite understand what that means either.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female yetis have thicker fur around their legs, suggesting that they may or may not be wearing skirts.
- Translation Convention: Neither humans nor yetis understand what the other is saying, only hearing low growling and high-pitched gibberish from each other respectively.
- The Unfavorite: Implied to be the case with Thorp.Thorp: (to Migo) Hey, Migo! My dad wants to see you, which must be nice for you ‘cause he never wants to see me. Why did I shout that out? That’s so embarrassing.
- The Unmasqued World: The film ends with the Yetis revealing themselves to the humans finally and the two species soon become best friends.
- Use Your Head: Migo's dad Dorgle has the job of sounding the gong that, according to yeti lore, makes the sun rise every morning. He does so by hurling himself with a sling shot and hitting it with his head. Years of doing it has flattened his head and shortened his stature, but he believes it's the only way to ring a gong (he dismisses a former family member gong ringer who suggested using a mallet).
- Villain Song: Or more like Anti-Villain Song: "Let it Lie"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Stonekeeper deceives the Yetis and maintains a huge machine to keep the cloud cover (really steam) around the mountains, and much of their daily routine is dedicated to unwittingly fueling it, but he only does it to protect them, due to believing Humans Are the Real Monsters.
- Wham Line: During "Let it Lie":Migo: Wait, we're below the clouds.
Stonekeeper: Or so it would seem. Look closer...
Migo: ...Those aren't clouds, that's steam! - What You Are in the Dark:
- In the climax, Percy tells Migo “I hope you understand why I have to do this.” and tranquilizes the yeti. At first, it appears he's going to capture Migo... and he very well could've, but that's not in his intention. Instead, he uses the opportunity to keep Migo out of harm while he distracts the chase party.
- Even before that, Percy had a chance to run away and leave Migo stuck in the bear trap, and no one would be the wiser. But after having a short battle with his own conscience, he decides the more honorable path would be to repay Migo for saving him from the bear.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The closest thing this movie has to a villain is the Stonekeeper, and even then, his actions are born from a (however misguided)desire to protect his village.
- You Have to Believe Me!:
- Migo is exiled for claiming to have seen a Smallfoot. He sets out to find proof of them to prove he's not lying.
- The pilot Migo scared goes around town yelling at people that he saw a yeti. Percy doesn't believe him, but it does give him the idea to fake an encounter with a yeti.
