"You will have your own challenges, and I predict you'll meet them splendidly."
— Nigel Thornberry
The Wild Thornberrys Movie is a 2002 animated film that is The Movie of the Nicktoon The Wild Thornberrys.
Eliza, after performing a dangerous stunt to help save a cheetah from a group of poachers, is sent off to a boarding school in London for her own safety. Her chimp friend Darwin secretly tags along with her as well. As soon as she gets there, she has a dream where the shaman who granted her the power to talk to animals tells her to return to save the cheetah. She and Darwin then embark back to Africa to do just that. However, the journey to return home might prove to be more precarious than either of them would ever imagine.
The movie was released in theaters on December 20, 2002. There would be one more theatrical adaptation of the show released half a year later, this time in the form of a crossover titled Rugrats Go Wild!.
The Wild Thornberrys Movie contains examples of:
- Animation Bump: A massive step up from the show. The film looks stunning compared to the show.
- Arc Words: “You must not waste time. You must go to your destiny. Go.” By Shaman Mynambo in Eliza’s dream. This inspires her to keep with her mission to save Tally.
- Ascended Extra: Radcliffe and Cordelia’s roles are much larger than in the series.
- Artistic License – Space: After the solar eclipse, the moon is shown as full that very night. Solar eclipses can only happen with a new moon.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Debbie and Eliza have some of their most deep bonding moments in this film. Debbie gave Eliza a goodbye hug before Eliza was sent to London, and Eliza is willing to lose her power to save Debbie.
- Award-Bait Song: Paul Simon's "Father and Daughter"
, which was actually nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to "Lose Yourself". - Big Damn Heroes: Boko becomes this for Debbie when he saves her from two warthogs.
- Blatant Lies: When Bee and Sloan get arrested for their actions, Bree tries to claim they were helping the elephants.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The pocket watch Nigel gives Eliza she uses to shock the fence to alert the elephants of its presence.
- The moves that Eliza learns from one of her friend elephants in the beginning she later uses to convince the lead elephant to turn around. The rest of the herd then follow suit.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Nigel, along with his dad, even end up doing some guerrilla sabotage strikes against some poachers.
- Dance Party Ending: At the end, a startled baboon jumps on a boombox, causing "Dance With Us" to start playing, prompting everyone to dance.
- Disguised in Drag: Darwin, a male chimp, dresses as a schoolgirl for his Human Disguise when sneaking into the boarding school dining hall.
- Disney Death: Eliza gets thrown into a waterfall until she is saved by Shaman Mynambo scenes later.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Eliza gets her powers back after impressing Shaman Mnyambo by saving the elephants. He also declares a new condition that Debbie can be aware of her powers.
- Evil All Along: Sloan and Bree are made out to be good guys but they reveal their true nature at the near end of the film.
- Evil Poacher: Sloan and Bree Blackburn are notoriously evil ones and act as the main villains for the film.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sloan's minions are hesitant by the idea of setting off bombs to make the elephants run, knowing there is a kid nearby and she could easily get hurt. When they do it anyway, they show signs of severe regret.
- Faux Affably Evil: Bree and Sloan. They hide their poacher identities from the officials and public and have no mercy for any living beings. Not even humans.
- Food Fight: One of these breaks out in the boarding school dining hall after Darwin's disguise is blown and Sarah tries to wrestle her jacket off of him. This prompts him to throw a bread roll at her. She retaliates by throwing a plate of food at him, which he ducks, hitting another girl in the face. All hell breaks loose thereafter.
- Foreshadowing: A minor example: Sloan and Bree Blackburn allow Eliza and her friends to stay for the night, but forbid them from going inside their trailer. Thus hiding evidence of their true occupation as evil poachers.
- Goofy Print Underwear: During the Dance Party Ending, Donnie pulls down both Nigel's and Radcliffe's trousers before hiking them up, giving a brief glimpse of both men's underpants. The former has the Union Jack on his, while the latter has R.A.F. roundels.
- Hate Sink: Bree and Sloan. They are merciless poachers who fake their occupation to the officials, have kidnapped a helpless cheetah cub, shot a rhinoceros for its horn, and have a terrible plan to mass slaughter a herd of elephants in order to sell their ivory tusks.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Eliza gives up her powers to save her sister.
- Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Debbie does this with Boko, a native of East Africa. During the movie, he repeats certain words that Debbie says and he shows some understanding of what's going on. He even attacked a poacher because he knew very well that Debbie was in danger.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Sloan demands where Eliza got her information from, she tries claiming that she just guessed everything, including the fence and the explosives; Sloan shouts that she's lying, because he had never mentioned anything about explosives.
- Just a Kid: Nigel says this to Eliza, thinking she is too young to be courageous on her own.
- Kids Are Cruel: Subverted; Eliza gets gossiped about and snickered at for interacting with animals, but the kids end up being interested in her.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Bree and Sloan get arrested by the rangers for poaching. They most likely will face extreme consequences for their actions.
- Obviously Evil: Averted with the poacher couple Sloan and Bree Blackburn. They're actually rather good at keeping their cover.
- Off to Boarding School: Grandmumsy believes that Eliza should be in a “structured environment” like a boarding school, not considering it safe for her to play with animals.
- Parting-Words Regret: Eliza feels this way when the the last thing she said to Darwin in his language before losing her powers, was screaming at him to shut up for once.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Darwin gives one to Eliza when her actions end up causing all their problems in the film and putting their lives in danger. But since it wasn't the right time or place for it, Eliza reaches her own Rage Breaking Point and tells Darwin to shut up.Eliza: (as Tally tries to untie her) Go Tally, go! That's it!
Darwin: Yes. That's it. Get the cheetah involved again. If we hadn't gone out looking for [Sloan and Bree] that night, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Eliza: Don't you blame Tally.
Darwin: Oh, I'm not. Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust those awful people who clearly don't like animals!
Eliza: I thought they were like me.
Darwin: When are you going to see that no one's like you? What more do you need? The Shaman gave you a gift. Use it!
Eliza: Darwin, please!
Darwin: You know what I think? You don't know what to do with your powers.
Eliza: Darwin! For once in your life, Just! Be! QUIET!
(Darwin recoils back with a hurt expression) - Speaks Fluent Animal: As you’d expect when it comes to Eliza. It's not a movie based around the series without the girl with the ability to interact with animals in English.
- Shown Their Work
- It is a very serious crime to poach elephant ivory. It is implied that Bree and Sloan will get a life sentence or a really big fine for their actions.
- The eclipse that happens is a real occurrence that happens in Tempo Valley.
- Shout-Out:
- Radcliffe Thornberry says “They didn’t call me Colonel for my chicken recipe!”
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Implied to be the case with Nigel's father Radcliffe, a former R.A.F. colonel and veteran of the Second World War. While sleeping he wakes up to the sound of a motor starting and thinks he is in the middle of "the Blitz", until his wife tells him he is dreaming. The sound is actually Debbie using the ComVee's jungle bike to go look for Eliza and Donnie.
- Too Hungry to Be Polite: Darwin eats like a pig, both while lounging on Sarah's bed, and while in disguise as a schoolgirl in the dining hall. It highlights how, despite his stuffy, fastidious nature, he's still a wild animal.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Almost every trailer for the movie showcased Sloan and Bree's true natures and Eliza losing her powers, both of which happen more than halfway through the movie.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Debbie consoles Eliza after she loses her powers, and encourages her to go save the elephants from the electric fence.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Eliza and Darwin escape from the boarding school, neither it or Eliza's new classmates are seen or mentioned again.
- Would Hurt a Child: Sloan first threatens to throw Debbie off a cliff if Eliza doesn’t reveal how she got her information about their electric fence. He then later throws Eliza into a tall waterfall after she chews him out for his actions.
- You Don't Look Like You: The shaman who gave Eliza her power to talk to animals looks completely different from how he appeared in the show's opening and the episode "Gift of Gab".
