History YMMV / TheWildThornberrys

* {{Squick}}: In "The Origin of Donnie: Part 2", Eliza chews some fruit for a baby orangutan. Lampshaded by Darwin.

* JerkassWoobie: The stoat from "Show Me The Bunny". Sure, it's out to kill the titular bunny (which isn't a villainous act given it's just a predator) but at some point, it gets captured and almost killed by poachers. After Eliza rescues it, [[UngratefulBastard it goes right back to chasing the bunny]].

* BrokenBase: Not just among Nickleodeon fans (most of which think this show is the reason why Nickelodeon's programming has gone downhill), but among ''professional zoologists''. Some believe it is overly anthropomorphic and encourages dangerous attitudes towards animals, whilst others think that the anthropomorphism and [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality breaks from reality]] are justified in order to get children interested about zoology.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Many people who have watched the show like to admit that they found the aforementioned Nigel Thornberry to be the best part of the show and wish that he had been the main character instead of the [[BaseBreakingCharacter base-breaking]] Eliza.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Eliza Thornberry herself. Some parts of the fanbase find her a likable, spunky girl while others think she's an [[SmallNameBigEgo egotistical]] and/or careless {{Jerkass}}.

* LostInMediasRes: Because there was no "origin" episode, viewers were expected to simply assume that, for some reason, Eliza can talk to animals because of a Shaman and that they had a feral child named Donnie for no apparent reason. While the shaman was at least shown in the introduction, how they found Donnie wasn't explained until a MadeForTVMovie. Although there was an origin episode in the second season "The Gift of Gab" which was a WholeEpisodeFlashback, and the opening sequence does show how Eliza gained the power to talk to animals.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Nigel Thornberry.
** MemeticBadass

* LostInMediasRes: Because there was no "origin" episode, viewers were expected to simply assume that, for some reason, Eliza can talk to animals because of a Shaman and that they had a feral child named Donnie for no apparent reason. While the shaman was at least shown in the introduction, how they found Donnie wasn't explained until a MadeForTVMovie.
** There was an origin episode in the second season "The Gift of Gab" which was a WholeEpisodeFlashback (and the opening sequence does show how Eliza gained the power to talk to animals).

*** This tendency has now extended to photoshopping his face onto gifs of scenes from [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney movies]]; later, this extended to any cartoon character and then even further, to anything that can be readily photoshopped (especially gifs where characters appear normally at first, turn away or hide their face temporarily, and return with Nigel's face). They often vary between UncannyValley to outright NightmareFuel. [[http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/14-smashing-nigel-thornberry-gifs Example.]] [[http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3d6wlj3Nn1qbh33po1_500.gif SMASHING!]]

* NeverLiveItDown: If there's one thing most people remember about this series from their childhood, it's the "Naimina Enkijio" episode, mostly for being NightmareFuel incarnate for many kids of the 90s. The fact that it's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loita_Forest based off an actual legend]] doesn't help. Such examples from that episode include; creepy wailing from a Ghost Girl constantly calling Eliza's name, Eliza ''seeing the Ghost Girl as her reflection in a swamp that supposedly grabs and drowns children'', and the general creepy atmosphere of said episode thanks to taking place in dense, dark forest.

* TheScrappy: Tyler, Eliza's annoying and haughty cousin, who becomes a main character for part of season 3.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: While the show didn't break any ground by pointing out that poaching and the exploitation of animals is terrible, it ''did'' occasionally argue that misguided attempts to "help" animals who are apparently suffering often makes things worse. Case in point: when the Thornberrys are on the Gallapagos islands, Eliza stumbles across a finch attempting to spear some hidden insect larvae with a thorn. She decides to make his life easier by giving him (and later on, additional finches) sewing needles. The finches quickly devour the insect population and soon the entire food chain has fallen apart.

** As mentioned above, the show exposing the atrocities of poaching being nothing new, they did an excellent job of showing just how far poachers will go to get what they want in several instances, poachers had no second thoughts about attempting to, or in the case of Donnie's parents, succeeding in killing humans to get what they want

* JerkassWoobie: The stoat from "Show Me The Bunny". Sure, its out to kill the titular bunny but at some point, it gets captured and almost killed by poachers. After Eliza rescues it, [[UngratefulBastard it goes right back to chasing the bunny]].

** Another episode had Eliza trying to free elephants from a nature preserve, believing that the place was a prison...until she succeeded and saw just what poachers can do to wild elephants.

* HollywoodHomely: Eliza is actually really cute for a pig tailed, glasses wearing nerd. Especially in the later seasons where she lets her hair down and starts wearing more feminine clothing.

* UncannyValley: Baby Donnie's proportions are... off.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: While the show didn't break any ground by pointing out that poaching and the exploitation of animals is terrible, it ''did'' occasionally argue that misguided attempts to "help" animals who are apparently suffering often makes things worse. Case in point: when the Thornberrys are on the African plains during a drought, Eliza wants to fill a pond with water from the Comvee to ease the local wildlife's thirst. Marianne tells her not to do so, as it would throw off the natural balance of things--the animals are ''used'' to this. Eliza doesn't listen, and nearly gets herself eaten for her good intentions.

** There was an origin episode in the second season "The Gift of Gab" which was a WholeFlashbackEpisode (and the opening sequence does show how Eliza gained the power to talk to animals).

* {{Wangst}}: Debbie.

* JerkassWoobie: The stoat from "Show Me The Bunny". Sure, its out to kill the titular bunny but at some point, it gets captured and almost killed by poachers. After Eliza rescues it, it goes right back to chasing the bunny.

* AngstWhatAngst: Throughout the series, but most apparent in TheMovie, when [[spoiler: Eliza disappears from boarding school on another continent,]] and no one expresses any emotion other than annoyance at the fact that [[spoiler: a child is missing]]. Her parents don't even stop filming their documentary.
** But then again (in the film), they didn't even KNOW [[spoiler: she had left the boarding school, since they were out filming. They didn't get word of Eliza's disappearance until after the grandparents showed up and contacted them after Debbie went out to find her.]]

** MemeticBadass

* BaseBreaker: Eliza Thornberry herself. Some parts of the fanbase find her a likable, spunky girl while others think she's an [[SmallNameBigEgo egotistical]] and/or careless {{Jerkass}}.

** But then again (in the film), they didn't even KNOW [[spoiler: she had left the Boarding School, since they were out filming. They didn't get word of Eliza's disappearance until after the grandparents showed up and contacted them after Debbie went out to find her.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: In TheMovie, Sloan and Bree's plan to kill a thousand elephants...simply so that they can get the ivory. Later, they threaten to murder Debbie to get information out of Eliza (Bree implies that she actually wants to kill Debbie instead of simply getting information.)

* MoralEventHorizon: In TheMovie, Sloan and Bree's plan to kill a thousand elephants...simply so that they can get the ivory. Later, they try to murder Debbie to get information out of Eliza (Bree implies that she just wants Debbie to die).