Line #20 WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/actf250354.jpg]]
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3	An Australian animated series starring Little Elvis Jones, a child prodigy guitarist and singer, and his two best friends living in a small Outback town. Lil' Elvis was [[DoorstopBaby dropped in a guitar case on the doorstop]] of a HappilyMarried couple of Music/ElvisPresley fanatics running a truckstop, who looked out and saw a golden Cadillac vanishing into the night. Now he and his friends Lionel (a super-genius Aboriginal boy whose mother is the local teacher) and Janet (who lives with the Jones' because her single mother is a trucker) play in a truckstop band, and contend with the CorruptCorporateExecutive W.C. Moore, who practically controls the town and is in a ruthless search for more of the [[GreenRocks mysterious mineral]] known as [[{{Unobtainium}} Berkonium]].
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5	Despite the fairly typical cartoon presentation, the show had an ongoing plot concerning W.C. Moore's search for Berkonium and attempts to completely control the town and the Truckstoppers, while the kids deal with the trials of growing up in a small town in the Australian outback.
6	----
7	!!Tropes evident in this series include:
8	* AbandonedMine: Wannapoo was mined out years ago by the Moore family. This affects the town into the present; Lil' Elvis is the only thing keeping the town afloat, and [[spoiler:the network of mines underneath the town and its surroundings comes back to bite everyone ''hard'']].
9	* BirthdayEpisode: "I Hate My Own Birthday" is one for Elvis.
10	* BirthdayHater: The episode "I Hate My Own Birthday" reveals Elvis [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hates his birthday]] since it's on the day that The King [[NeverSayDie kicked the bucket]], which means his mom spends the entire day mourning and he only gets Elvis Presley related gifts. Plus, with Elvis being a DoorstopBaby, nobody even knows if this day truly is his birthday or not. His friends manage to finally give Elvis a good birthday by the end of the episode.
11	* BlackAndNerdy: Lionel, although given the outback Australian setting, he's of Australian Aboriginal descent, rather than African-American. It's justified in that he has an EducationMama who is ''also'' the school teacher, so she is insistent on making him study as often as possible.
12	* ComedicUnderwearExposure: In one episode W.C. Moore has the backside of his pants ripped by a dog, revealing polka-dot underwear.
13	* DetrimentalDetermination:
14	** The nameless driver of "The Skulltruck" from Janet's story was obsessed with being a trucker, and stayed in the business despite repeatedly crashing so severely that he lost ''all four limbs'', before one final crash killed him and turned him into a vengeful ghost with the shape of a monstrous living truck.
15	** [[spoiler:Once he finds signs that there may be Berkonium under Little Memphis, Moore becomes obsessed with mining it out. He pours so much money into this unsuccessful venture that he ultimately ''goes bankrupt'', and ends up destabilizing the ground to the point that the entire town collapses into a sink hole.]]
16	* DoorstopBaby: Lil' Elvis Jones. While his adoptive parents are convinced he's the King's son, Lil Elvis isn't so sure.
17	* DrunkOnMilk: In the episode where we are first introduced to Janet's absentee trucker mother, the miserable girl is shown guzzling down milkshakes, with her behavior clearly invoking DrowningMySorrows.
18	* EarlyBirdCameo: In Episode 1, the sequence that introduces us to the struggling outback town of Wannapoo begins with the town's run-down 'Welcome' sign, which depicts a bearded miner. At first, it seems like it's just because Wannapoo is a former mining town, but in Episode 2, we learn that the miner is none other the town's former biggest local legend from before Li'l Elvis came along: Old Man Izard, whose ghost is said to haunt the old mines. [[spoiler:Until he turns out to be alive.]]
19	* EducationMama: Lionel's mother, a teacher who wants to be certain that her baby boy will go on to bigger and better things, is ''very'' strict about him keeping his grade up. In the episode where Moore manipulates the kids into trying to divorce their parents, Lionel's justification is that his mother expects him to do a ridiculous amount of homework, [[EveryoneHasStandards shocking the other adults of Little Memphis]]:
20	-->'''Lionel:''' (in response to being asked how long his mother makes him spend on homework) Twelve hours, ma'am.
21	-->'''Lawyer:''' Twelve hours... a week?
22	-->'''Lionel:''' No ma'am, ''a night''.
23	-->'''Lionel's Mother:''' (as the other adults gasp in horror) It's for his own good!
24	* ElectricTorture: Moore's special little remote...that activates Duncan's shock watch. Usually because Moore is annoyed and wants to take it out on someone.
25	* EmancipatedChild: In one episode, all the children in the town take their parents to court. It's played slightly more realistically in that W.C encourages them and supports their case in order to get custody of Lil Elvis.
26	* EmpathicWeapon: Generally not used as a weapon, but W.C.'s [[{{Unobtainium}} Berkonium]] marble moves on its own and does whatever W.C. wills it to. Mainly, this is to [[KickTheDog cheat at other people's marbles games]].
27	** [[spoiler: Lil' Elvis himself gets one of these in the last episode, which he uses to beat W.C.]]
28	* GhostTown: Wannapoo was originally a gold mining town, but the gold dried up decades ago, and now it's just a small handful of families and utilities, largely surviving on what they can eke out from travelers. W.C. Moore's first step to gaining control over the town is by using his influence to market Elvis as a musician across the country and even beyond, vastly increasing the tourism flow and massively boosting the local economy. To cement this, he rebuilds the town as the less ramshackle "Little Memphis". [[spoiler:After it collapses into the mines in the GrandFinale, the citizens rebuild it as Wannapoo once more.]]
29	* GrandFinale: [[spoiler:The kids find out that Izard is alive and well, with his "ghost" actually being a ScoobyDooHoax by W.C. Moore. However, Moore has gone all but bankrupt in a desperate and failed attempt to find Berkonium beneath Little Memphis, and in fact his digbots weaken the ground so much that Little Memphis collapses into the former mine. With his villainy revealed, Moore is challenged to a game of marbles for his control of Lil' Elvis' contract.. a game that Elvis ''wins'', thanks to a Berkonium marble given to him by Izard. Duncan takes over Moore's holdings, making Moore into ''his'' servant, and the townsfolk rebuild Wannapoo, happily going back to their pre-Moore lifestyle.]]
30	* HappilyAdopted: Lil' Elvis. His parents are kind and caring; it's his supposed ''birth'' dad that's the problem.
31	* HumiliationConga: [[spoiler: W.C. Moore's ultimate fate - not only does he lose a marble game to Lil' Elvis, Duncan becomes his boss and makes him wear the shock watch.]]
32	* LandDownUnder: A good example of Australians themselves gleefully invoking their own stereotypes.
33	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Notice how the name Music/ElvisPresley is never spoken, and the man himself is only ever referred to as the King. It's easy to get away with this when the guy is so ludicrously famous.
34	* OnceAnEpisode:
35	** Little Elvis [[ImagineSpot wondering who really dropped him at the doorstep]].
36	** W.C. Moore using his Berkonium marble to [[KickTheDog beat little kids at marbles and take the winnings]].
37	** A song by the Truckstoppers, of course.
38	* ParentsAsPeople: The parents of Wannapoo love their kids, but they're not always the smartest or sanest of people, so they make plenty of mistakes.
39	** Lil' Elvis Jones loves the Jones, but he sometimes gets very annoyed with his mom's Elvis fixation.
40	** Janet is shown to be deeply distressed by the fact she sees her trucker mother so very rarely.
41	** Lionel can be overwhelmed by the amount of studying his mother insists he does.
42	** WC Moore actually exploits the rifts between parents and kids in one episode by coaxing the kids into filing divorce proceedings from their parents, hoping to gain tighter control over them.
43	* TheReveal:
44	** [[spoiler:The existence of Berkonium under Little Memphis.]]
45	** [[spoiler:Old Man Izard is alive and well, and has been living in the mines since he was trapped.]]
46	** [[spoiler:Old Man Izard actually found a ''treasure trove'' of Berkonium during his time in the mines, which he's keeping hidden in his underground home.]]
47	* SeriousBusiness: Elvis, to the townsfolk at least. Even Moore wants to control the band, since they're a major source of income. Also, marbles.
48	** As well as the snotty handkerchief from the real Elvis - the Sacred Hankie - that Little Elvis' mother owns. So much so that Little Elvis is ''interrogated'' when he is suspected of stealing it.
49	* ScoobyDooHoax: [[spoiler:Moore has holograms of a ghostly iteration of Old Man Izard hidden in the mines, which he can activate remotely when he detects intruders. These holograms shout angrily for the intruders to leave, scaring people away from his secret Berkonium-mining operations.]]
50	* SignificantBirthDate: Little Elvis celebrates his birthday on the day he was found: August 16th, the anniversary of the King's death.
51	* TheVillainSucksSong: "Sultan of Mean", about what an asshole WC is.
52	* TheUnReveal: We never ''do'' learn who left Elvis at the truckstop.
53	* TickleTorture: Janet and Lionel do this to Elvis to try and get him to tell Dusty that she's not in the band.
54	* TunnelNetwork: The old mines beneath Wannapoo provide the main characters with both a secret hideout and easy travel; there are numerous openings, from the fireplace in the Moore house and the random fissure that opens up beneath Janet in Episode 1 to the outhouse (a.k.a. dunny) that fell out of use after its bottom fell out. [[spoiler:The fact that the town is right on top of an abandoned mine becomes terribly, terribly relevant by the end.]]
55	* {{Unobtainium}}: Berkonium. W.C. theorises that it [[ThunderboltIron comes from outer space]], supported by a mysterious device that is attracted to the stuff...
56	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: WC is ''terrified'' of frogs, and will freak out at the sight of them.

Context WesternAnimation / LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers