History Main / HonorableElephant

An anthropomorphized elephant or mammoth will typically be honorable and stoic. Young elephants may be more playful, but is unlikely to be a willful troublemaker. Ironically, while in RealLife female elephants tend to be the most involved in the complex social behaviors which make them so easily identified-with, fictitious elephantine heroes tend to be males -- perhaps because something so massive and thick-skinned as an elephant seems masculine even when the beast is female.

Some aspects of RealLife elephants, such as their excellent memories, may be portrayed widely in fiction, while other aspects, such as the feeling of uncontrolled rage and lust males feel during musth, may be played down.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''SandsOfDestruction'', hospital administrator [[MeaningfulName Elephas Rex]] refuses to turn away patients.
** It turns out that he is [[spoiler:a former war criminal who [[TheAtoner hopes to die having saved more lives than he took]]]].

[[folder:CardGames]]

* The title character in ''Disney/{{Dumbo}}'' is playful but never malicious. The Matriarch plays the trope more straight: "We elephants have always walked with dignity."

* Manny from ''IceAge'' is an honorable mammoth. He feels morally obligated to return a human baby to his family even though he knows that the child could one day grow up to be a mammoth-killer.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* Inverted in the SyFy movie "Mammoth". Scientists reconstituted a mammoth from DNA. It CameBackWrong and went on a murderous rampage.

[[folder: Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Babar}}'', the elephants live in TheKingdom, while the rhinoceroses seem to be a military dictatorship ruled by an InsaneAdmiral.
* Polite Elephant in the works of RichardScarry.

* The ''{{Tarzan}}'' novels feature an elephant named Tantor.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
* Not a anthromorphized example, but ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Park Prehistoric Park]]'' features Martha the mammoth.
** She first appears unsuccessfully trying to aid her sister, who has died falling in a pit trap made by early humans.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Woolie from ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance''.
* Subverted with Stampy from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. As Bart's pet, he was surly and destructive, so the family sends him to a sanctuary, thinking that he would be more peaceful among his own kind. But once there, he started being the same way toward the other elephants, causing the caretaker to remark that some elephants are just jerks.

** [[MiscellaneousDisneyShorts ''Goliath II'']]

* The LooneyTunes short ''Hobo Bobo''.

* The {{Pokemon}} Donphan is known for clearing roads after disasters

* Strong Sad from ''HomestarRunner'', who apparantly has elephant feet which he calls "soolnds".

* The United States Republican Party has an elephant as the mascot. However, [[YourMileageMayVary Your Mileage]] '''[[YourMileageMayVary will]]''' [[YourMileageMayVary vary]] whether it's true or false. '''[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that is all we will be saying about that]]'''.

* Manny from ''IceAge'' is an honorable mammoth. He feels morally obligated to return a human baby to his family even though he knows that the child could one day grow up to be a mammoth-killer.
* ''KungFuPanda'' had another honorable elephant.

* In ''TomAndJerry'' cartoon "Jerry and Jumbo", an elephant loyally defends Jerry from Tom after [[AndroclesLion Jerry pulls a nail from the elephant's foot]].

Some aspects of RealLife elephants, such as their excellent memories, may be portrayed widely in ficton, while other aspects, such as the feeling of uncontrolled rage and lust males feel during musth, may be played down.

* The Elephants from the elephant village in ''[[{{ThunderCats2011}} ThunderCats 2011]]''. These elephants notably subvert the "elephant never forget" stereotype, since while they are wise, they have [[ForgetfulJones very poor memories]] which they are apparently infamous for. They're also pacifistic to the point that they prefer to solve their problems by meditating until the answer comes to them rather than act straight away. [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes But that doesn't mean they're complete pushovers]].]]

* The Pokemon Donphan is known for clearing roads after disasters

* Woolie from ''CatsDontDance''.
* Subverted with Stampy from ''TheSimpsons''. As Bart's pet, he was surly and destructive, so the family sends him to a sanctuary, thinking that he would be more peaceful among his own kind. But once there, he started being the same way toward the other elephants, causing the caretaker to remark that some elephants are just jerks.

* [[BeastWarsNeo Big Convoy]], [[BeastWarsII Santon]], and they toy only Ironhide.

* Phanpy and Donphan from ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}''.

* The Elephants from the elephant village in ''[[{{ThunderCats2011}} ThunderCats 2011]]''. These elephants notably subvert the "elephant never forget" stereotype, since while they are very wise, they have [[ForgetfulJones very poor memories]] which they are apparently infamous for. They're also very pacifistic to the point that they prefer to solve their problems by meditating until the answer comes to them rather than act straight away. [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes But that doesn't mean they're complete pushovers]].]]

* The Elephants from the elephant village in ''[[{{Thundercats2011}} Thundercats 2011]]''. These elephants notably subvert the "elephant never forget" stereotype, since while they are very wise, they have [[ForgetfulJones very poor memories]] which they are apparently infamous for. They're also very pacifistic to the point that they prefer to solve their problems by meditating until the answer comes to them rather than act straight away. [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes But that doesn't mean they're complete pushovers]].]]

* The Elephants from the elephant village in ''{{Thundercats2011}}''. These elephants notably subvert the "elephant never forget" stereotype, since while they are very wise, they have [[ForgetfulJones very poor memories]] which they are apparently infamous for. They're also very pacifistic to the point that they prefer to solve their problems by meditating until the answer comes to them rather than act straight away. [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes But that doesn't mean they're complete pushovers]].]]

* Strong Sad from ''HomestarRunner'', who apparantly has elephant feet.

* In ''TheJungleBook'', elephants are like honorable, respectable (if not too bright) British army officers.
** In the Disney film, that is. In the book Hahti is a wise (and honorable) Lord of the Jungle, who follows orders from nobody. [[spoiler: Except for Mowgli, sending him on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]

* In ''Disney/{{The Jungle Book}}'', the elephants (led by [[ArtisticLicenseBiology a patriarch]]) behave like they are members of the military.

* Phanpy and Donphan from ''{{Pokemon}}''.

[[quoteright:313:[[{{Babar}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babarandcompany_1040.jpg]]]]

* In ''{{Babar}}'', the elephants live in TheKingdom, while the rhinoceroses seem to be a military dictatorship ruled by an InsaneAdmiral.

* The title character in ''{{Dumbo}}'' is playful but never malicious. The Matriarch plays the trope more straight: "We elephants have always walked with dignity."

* In ''TheJungleBook'', elephants are like honorable, respectable (if not too bright) British army officers.

[[/folder

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* Inverted in the SyFy movie "Mammoth". Scientists reconstituted a mammoth from DNA. It CameBackWrong and went on a murderous rampage.

[[folder:Film]]

* The title character in ''{{Dumbo}}'' is playful but never malicious. The Matriarch plays the trope more straight: "We elephants have always walked with dignity."
** The Matriarch would be a subversion because she ostracizes Dumbo for his big ears.
* Manny from ''IceAge'' is an honorable mammoth. He feels morally obligated to return a human baby to his family even though he knows that the child could one day grow up to be a mammoth-killer.
* ''KungFuPanda'' had another honorable elephant.