History WesternAnimation / TerkelInTrouble

* HorrorHippies: [[spoiler:Gunnar is an obvious parody of a common teacher stereotype in Danish fiction. The laid-back, socially conscious teacher, who was very much inspired by the counter-culture of the late 1960's. He also a complete psychopath who is the one who is actually stalking, psychologically terrorizing Terkel, and plotting to kill him for the sole reason he accidentally squashed a spider by sitting on it stalking, psychologically terrorizing Terkel, and eventually outright trying to kill him. During his MotiveRant Gunnar also tells a horrified Terkel [[ToThePain how he plans to make his murder environmentally-responisble" by cutting his body to pieces after killing him and then burying the pieces in different parts of the woods]], so Terkel can turn into compost and thereby "repay" his "debt to nature".]]

* NotNowKiddo: While fleeing through the woods from [[spoiler:the insane and murderous Gunnar]], Terkel happens upon a road, and who happens to drive down the road but his uncle Stewart on his scooter? Terkel panicky begs for a lift out of the forest. Stewart, however, explains that he a run to pick up booze and refuses to ditch his booze crate on the back of the scooter, and says he is therefore unable to give Terkel a lift. Terkel then ask if the two of them just could walk, but Stewart rejects this too, telling Terkel that the shop will just close before he can reach it. Terkel tries to explain that the situation is serious and his teacher is attempting to murder him right as they speak, but Stewart, clearly interpreting the statement as hyperbole, casually waves it off by telling Terkel that it shows the importance of paying more attention to your homework and drives off.

* LostAesop[=/=]SpoofAesop: At the end, Arne tries to come up with AnAesop, but fails (spouting a lot of mixed-up proverbs that really doesn't apply to the film) before he gives up, opens up a beer, and walks off the screen as he promises the audience that he will call them once he comes up with a good answer.

*** Doris is renamed Dorit.

* AnimalWrongsActivist: [[spoiler:Gunnar's sole reasoning for stalking, psychologically terrorizing Terkel, and eventually outright trying to kill him, is because he accidentally squashed a spider by sitting on it. During his MotiveRant Gunnar also tells a horrified Terkel [[ToThePain how he plans to cut his body to pieces after killing him and bury the pieces in the woods]], so Terkel can turn into compost and thereby "repay" his "debt to nature".]]

* HorrorHippies: [[spoiler:Gunnar is an obvious parody of a common teacher stereotype in Danish fiction. The laid-back, socially conscious teacher, who was very much inspired by the counter-culture of the late 1960's. He also a complete psychopath who is the one who is actually stalking Terkel and plotting to kill him.]]

* AnimalsWrongsActivist: [[spoiler:Gunnar's sole reasoning for stalking, psychologically terrorizing Terkel, and eventually outright trying to kill him, is because he accidentally squashed a spider by sitting on it. During his MotiveRant Gunnar also tells a horrified Terkel [[ToThePain how he plans to cut his body to pieces after killing him and bury the pieces in the woods]], so Terkel can turn into compost and thereby "repay" his "debt to nature".]]

*** Stewart notably averts this, being shown as just as crazy as his "character".

* CameraAbuse: For a brief moment Terkel involuntarily pisses over the camera "lens".

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:In many clues hint that Jason is the one out to get Terkel because he had a large part in his sister's being DrivenToSuicide. Actually Jason didn't blame Terkel for the suicide, and it's Gunnar who's out to get him.]]

->'''Terkel:''' ''[[DespairEventHorizon Is it completely impossible to get any help?]]''
->'''Einar:''' ''[[BluntYes Yes, that's right, little Terkel!]] [[AdultsAreUseless Remember that if the outhouse burns down! Take care,]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily and tell your father one of these days I will show up and beat him up!]]''


'''Terkel In Trouble''' (''Terkel i knibe'') is Denmark's very first [[AllCGICartoon all-CG animated feature]]. Terkel is a sixth-grader who lives with a dysfunctional family, and other townspeople are no better, from his foul-mouthed best friend, Jason, who always carries an iron pipe around, to resident school bullies Sten and Saki.

[[caption-width-right:350: You think life is hard? Be lucky you aren’t poor Terkel. [[note]]Clockwise from top left to bottom left: [[BigFun Fat Doris]], [[TheAlcoholic Uncle Stewart]], [[BetaBitch Sten]], [[TheBully Saki]], [[CoolLoser Jason]], [[LoserProtagonist Terkel]], and [[GenkiGirl Rita]]. Not pictured: [[CharacterNarrator Arne]], [[GranolaGuy Gunnar]], and [[AlphaBitch Joanna]].[[/note]]]]

One day Terkel starts receiving death threats. Could they be from Sten and Saki, who were mercilessly beaten by Terkel's abusive, alcoholic uncle, Stewart? Or from Jason, whose fat and ugly sister Dorit committed suicide after being rejected and mocked by Terkel, who didn't know she and Jason were siblings?

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Because Dorit was the most unpopular student on the school, her gory suicide is treated as a joke by everyone, even the school's staff, who only conduct a very token investigation of it. [[spoiler:Even her brother, Jason, is only slightly affected by her death for a brief moment before going back to business as usual, and even then, he really just seemed mildly annoyed at what happened.]]
* AnimatedActors[in-universe]: The scenes during the end credits show that the characters are just actors playing a part, even if it seems that someone takes this too seriously... Most of them are also PlayingAgainstType. This aspect is taken to ridiculous extremes with Terkel's father. His entire gag is that he can't say anything other than "No," but he keeps saying "Yes" instead during the outtake. Even when they put a sign with the word "No" inside his newspaper, he lets out a pained "Maybe"?

*** Dorit is renamed Doris.

** The American English dub utilizes most of the character names in the British dub, but some characters are given different names as well

* OnlySaneMan / OnlySaneByComparison: Terkel is the StraightMan and a way more reasonable than the other characters. He is a bit absent minded, lazy and annoyed by his younger sister. In other words, a normal 12 year old boy. He has one massive WhatTheHellHero moment, which is even lampshaded by Arne, which certainly sticks out. But unlike most of the cast he is actually horrified by Dorit's suicide [[spoiler: likely [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone because it was his fault]]]].

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jason. Despite how much of a jerk he's shown to be to Joanna and in some moments Terkel, he's one of the few characters in the film who shows any sort of concern for Terkel's well being. His reason for getting mad at him later on is also fairly understandable, due to how quickly Terkel was to trust Sten and Saki after how much they bullied him the past few days.