History YMMV / TheWildThornberrys

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The Lion in "Have Yourself a Thornberry Little Christmas" is treated as a Woobie driven by hunger who once he's full is able to come to his senses and apologize for trying to eat Darwin--and also threatening to eat Eliza. It comes off though as a very flimsy excuse for him doing so because of how smug he is beforehand, that the audience is just supposed to take him not thinking clearly due to extreme hunger at face value--when other very hungry animals in the series have been shown to not get anywhere near as crazy as he does--and that he also comes off as an UngratefulBastard when he demands more after Eliza gives him the Christmas goose. Only after he then eats the rest of the food is he satiated and shows gratitude.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In TheMovie, when Eliza gets her powers back, did she really make it so Debbie would turn into a baboon if she revealed her secret, or was she just saying that to scare her?
* AwardSnub: Despite both the critical praise and financial success—as well as ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' being one of the first movies recognized as a nominee for Best Animated Feature the year before—the movie's only nomination was for Best Original Song. One theory as to why this happened was that ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' saw release a few months before it and bombed.
* BrokenBase: In two distinct ways.
** Among Nickelodeon fans it is one of the their most divisive shows. Many find it forgettable and think that the quality of Nickelodeon's programming started going downhill as this one became popular, others find it was one of the last truly amazing shows before Nickelodeon's dark age and that it balanced humor, drama, and educational content very well.
** It is also this among ''professional zoologists''. Some believe it is overly anthropomorphic and encourages dangerous attitudes towards animals, while others think that the anthropomorphism and [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality breaks from reality]] are justified in order to get children interested about zoology.

* 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.) And if that isn't enough, Sloan later [[spoiler: tosses poor Eliza into a raging river for interfering with his plan]].

* {{Squick}}:
** In "The Origin of Donnie: Part 2", Eliza chews some fruit for a baby orangutan. Lampshaded by Darwin.
** This exchange in TheMovie between Darwin and a horse. It doesn't help that the horse is ''smiling'' when delivering his line.
-->'''Darwin:''' Where's the bathroom?\\
'''Horse:''' You're standing on it!

* AwardSnub: Despite both the critical praise and financial success—as well as ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' being one of the first movies recognized for as a nominee for Best Animated Feature the year before—the movie's only nomination was for Best Original Song. One theory as to why this happened was that ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' saw release a few months before it and bombed.

* AwardSnub: Despite the critical praise and financial success—as well as ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' being one of the first movies recognized for Best Animated Feature the year before—the movie's only nomination was for Best Original Song. One theory as to why this happened was that ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' saw release a few months before it and bombed.

* AwardSnub: Despite the critic praise and financial success—as well as ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' being one of the first movies recognized for Best Animated Feature the year before—the movie's only nomination was for Best Original Song. One theory as to why this happened was that ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' saw release a few months before it and bombed.

* HilariousInHindsight: This show was Creator/KlaskyCsupo's big follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', which features a female lead named "Angelica". The female lead in ''this'' show is a girl named "Eliza". [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} They're one "Peggy" short of having all three Schuyler sisters!]] [[note]] Although [[WesternAnimation/RocketPower "Reggie"]] ''is'' just one letter off...[[/note]]

** 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!]]

* BrokenBase: Not just among Nickelodeon fans (most of whom think that the quality of Nickelodeon's programming started going downhill as this one became popular), but among ''professional zoologists''. Some believe it is overly anthropomorphic and encourages dangerous attitudes towards animals, while others think that the anthropomorphism and [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality breaks from reality]] are justified in order to get children interested about zoology.

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

* SeasonalRot: Seasons 3 onward are still enjoyable, but widely considered vastly inferior to the first two seasons. The show started focusing less on the animals and locales, and more on hijinks that just happen to involve talking to animals and had more IdiotBall plots. For comparison, season 2's "Chimp Off the Old Block" center on the social structure of chimpanzees, and the series finale centers on Eliza struggling to confess her love to a pop star.

* 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 Galapagos 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 nearly devour the insect population and soon the entire food chain starts falling apart.
** Another episode had Eliza trying to free an elephant calf from a nature preserve, both of them believing the place was a prison...until she succeeded, saw just what poachers can do to wild elephants, and found that the calf's mother was deeply relieved to discover her behind that gate.
** All in all, the moral of the show seems to be "The animal kingdom is beautiful and needs to be protected, but that doesn't mean we get to impose what we think is right on it." It's the rare GreenAesop that shows the need for intelligent, thoughtful conservation efforts rather than blind attempts to "fix" what's wrong without knowing the whole story.
** 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 anyone who stood in their way.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In TheMovie, when Eliza gets her powers back, did she really make it so Debbie would turn into a baboon if she revealed her secret, or was she just saying that to scare her.

* 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]].

* BrokenBase: Not just among Nickelodeon 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.

* 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 stops wearing the violent yellow skirt and T-shirt hybrid she usually favors

* AssPull: TheMovie reveals that Eliza will lose her ability to talk to animals if she tells anyone about it. Not only was this never the case in the early episodes of the TV show, one episode even has Debbie figure out Eliza can talk to animals (with Eliza eventually tricking her into thinking it was all a dream) and this issue is never brought up. In fact, Eliza is worried that she'll be experimented on, which would only be an issue if she still has her powers after being found out.

* SeasonalRot: Seasons 3 onward are still enjoyable, but widely considered vastly inferior to the first two seasons. The show started focusing less on the animals and locales, and more on high jinks that just happen to involve talking to animals and had more IdiotBall plots. For comparison, season 2's "Chimp Off the Old Block" centers on the social structure of chimpanzees, and the show's finale "Eliza Unplugged" in season 5 centers on Eliza struggling to confess her love to a pop star.

** All in all, the moral of the show seems to be "The animal kingdom is beautiful and worth protection, but that doesn't mean we get to impose what we think is right on it." It's the rare GreenAesop that shows the need for intelligent, thoughtful conservation efforts rather than blind attempts to "fix" what's wrong without knowing the whole story.
** 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.

* UncannyValley: Baby Donnie's proportions are... off. Likewise for a solid portion of the characters -- it ''is'' Klasky-Csupo after all.

** Case in point: when the Thornberrys are on the Galapagos 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.

* CrazyAwesome: Donnie

* AssPull" TheMovie reveals that Eliza will lose her ability to talk to animals if she tells anyone about it. Not only was this never the case in the early episodes of the TV show, one episode even has Debbie figure out Eliza can talk to animals (with Eliza eventually tricking her into thinking it was all a dream) and this issue is never brought up. In fact, Eliza is worried that she'll be experimented on, which would only be an issue if she still has her powers after being found out.

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

* SeasonalRot: From season 3 onward. The show starts focusing less on the animals and locales, and more about high jinks that just happen to involve talking to animals and may or may not feature IdiotBall play. For comparison, season 2's "Chimp Off the Old Block" centers on the social structure of chimpanzees, and the show's finale "Eliza Unplugged" in season 5 centers on Eliza struggling to confess her love to a pop star.

* WoobieOfTheWeek: Eliza usually deals with these in the forms of different animals.

* GreatBigGayMetaphor: Eliza can speak to animals, but telling anyone will cause her to lose her powers. She spends a great deal of time hanging out with animals and hiding it from her parents, who make nature documentaries. The emotional climax of the 2002 movie is [[spoiler:Eliza being forced to out herself in front of her sister, Debbie. After Eliza's powers are restored, she swears Debbie to secrecy despite the fact that it's not at all clear that Debbie telling their parents will cost her her powers again.]]