Line #71 WesternAnimation/TheMagicVoyage


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8	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magic_voyage.jpg]]
9	[[caption-width-right:300:You remember that part in history class when these guys helped UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus out in his travels...''right''?]]
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11	-> ''A long time ago, people thought the world was flat, and if you sailed uncharted waters, you might just fall over the edge into space. Now this may seem strange to us now, but in those days, no one knew what lay over the far horizon. But with pirates and hurricanes and sea monsters to contend with, it was a very dangerous voyage. But in 1492, there appeared an Italian navigator, a man with a revolutionary idea: He thought the world was... square. And his name was... Christopher Columbus.''
12	-->-- '''The opening narration for the movie's English dub'''
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14	''The Magic Voyage'' (originally ''Die Abenteuer von Pico und Columbus'' or "The Adventures of Pico and Columbus") is a 1992 animated feature from Germany that is... ''[[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely]]'' based off the voyages of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus. You know, the sailor who wanted to prove the world was round -- not find an easier trade route from Europe to Asia, which is surely a far harder concept for children to grasp.
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16	Columbus also wished to help his best friend, a [[SidekickCreatureNuisance talking woodworm]][[labelnote:*]]yes, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodworm woodworms]] ''are'' bugs, not worms[[/labelnote]], rescue his girlfriend. His girlfriend is a Fairy Princess from a lushly-vegetated MagicalLand on the moon, and she was stolen away by an [[BigCreepyCrawlies evil swarm of bugs]]. The Swarm brought her to the new world, where Columbus and the woodworm, aided by a talking [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal beaver named Bob]] and two rats, finally find her held captive in an [[HollywoodHistory Aztec-looking pyramid]] full of gold and honey. [[GoldFever Fervently searching for gold]], Columbus [[AccidentalHero accidentally]] crushes the Swarm, and the native people celebrate his ridding their home of the terrible evil by giving him the pyramid's golden idol (which is, as a native reveals beyond Columbus' earshot, only plated). Columbus and his bug friend sail back home with visions of big cities and shopping malls dancing in their heads.
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18	Surely, you remember all of this from your grade-school history lessons?
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20	Basically, this is the movie that makes ''WesternAnimation/TitanicTheLegendGoesOn'' look perfectly reasonable in comparison.
21	----
22	!!''The Magic Voyage'' provides examples of:
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24	* AbhorrentAdmirer: {{Averted\|Trope}} with Queen Isabella. Characters in typical animation would be frightened to have that woman pursuing them. Christopher Columbus, however, even when he ISN'T drunk, seems to enjoy it quite a bit.
25	* AccordionToMostSailors: Columbus entertains his mutinous crew of sailors by playing the concertina while singing "The Life of the Sea".
26	* AmusingInjuries: Happens to the seagull that tries to eat Pico, as he nearly succeeds twice only for the woodworm to drill his way to freedom both times. Notably, the holes in the gull’s beak ''don’t'' just disappear off-screen, [[TooGruesomeForCartoonPhysics he’s stuck with them for the rest of the film]].
27	* AnachronismStew:
28	** Particularly when Columbus is in the jungle - "I need to start going to the gym!" Or (hearing a tribal beat) "That's going to hit over big someday."
29	** Another example is when Pico fights the rats he says "I learned this move from watching WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker cartoons."
30	** Columbus's dream sequence has him pulling out a telescope, which would not be invented for over a century.
31	** Columbus also uses a concertina to play a song, which would not take until 1829 to be invented.
32	* AnimationBump: In several spots, going from LimitedAnimation to rather fluid animation and visa versa during the same scene.
33	** The climax within the Swarm's pyramid is consistently animated in a noticeably more fluid and three-dimensional style than much of the film's remainder, with conspicuously sharper comic timing and more consistent facial structures on characters such as Columbus and Bob the Beaver (although the former's is more visible due to his corresponding [[DerangedAnimation descent]] into [[LargeHam gold-fuelled raving]]). Given the visual similarities of these scenes to [[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest several]] {{Creator/Amblimation}} [[WesternAnimation/WereBackADinosaursStory films]] of the period, they may be attributable to notable animator Creator/PhilNibbelink.
34	* AntiHero: All over the place, though it's strictly PlayedForLaughs. Colombus, while a very nice person, is motivated by lust and greed, the sea gull wants to eat Pico, and the rats are only interested in the cheese and only change their mind at the last second (the brown one at least).
35	* ArsonMurderAndLifesaving: "You stole our idol! Destroyed our sacred temple! And... made squishy with the Swarm Lord... How can we ever thank you?"
36	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
37	** A shark roars like a mountain lion at one point.
38	** The Swarm Lord looks to be made up of locusts but lives in a giant honeycomb inside of the Aztec temple.
39	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Possibly in many ways, but {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d in the case of Bob the Beaver: "What's a beaver like you doing on a tropical island?" In a [[DoubleSubversion strange double subversion]], beavers ''were'' native to where New York City is today, but the film thinks that New York City is a tropical island!
40	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: If the page description hasn't tipped you off, this film resembles Columbus' historic voyage as much as ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' resembles Hernan Cortez's campaign to the new world.
41	** Of course, there was no hive mind of insects terrorizing the Native Americans for Columbus et al. to save, and their real relationship was far more strained.
42	** In the film, Pico tells Columbus the world is round, and he sets out on his voyage to prove this. In reality, no one really thought the Earth was flat at this point. The Greeks figured it out ages ago. The journey to India was to establish a trade route. Columbus incorrectly thought the Earth was significantly smaller than it was, which was what he was going to prove with the voyage.
43	** Columbus is depicted as landing in what is now modern day New York, something that in real life wasn't discovered by Europeans for another 32 years, almost two decades after his death. The real Columbus never even made it to the North American mainland, let alone anywhere near New York. The first landing was in the Bahamas.
44	* AwardBaitSong: ''Heaven Is'' by Al Jarreau, which appears in the credits.
45	* BloodKnight: While it’s overshadowed by his usual [[SmugSnake overconfidence]], Columbus’ audacity in challenging The Swarm Lord causes the latter to admit this is the most he’s had in ages until he’s realizes he’s’ been tricked.
46	* BoldExplorer: The heavily fictionalized Columbus himself, of course.
47	* BreadEggsBreadedEggs:
48	-->'''Pico:''' This is stupid... this is fun... this is stupid... this is stupid fun...
49	* ClothingDamage: Columbus' clothes become increasingly more destroyed as the film goes on, to the point that he's reduced to just his boxer shorts. [[FanDisservice He even ends up having his naked bottom exposed twice]].
50	* {{Crunchtastic}}: During the FriendshipSong "A Fellow Like You", a woman selling pies says that life isn't always "applepieful".
51	* DamselInDistress: Marilyn is kidnapped by the Swarm Lord and held prisoner in his temple in America.
52	* DeathIsCheap: At least for moon fairies. Just a touch of sunlight on them counteracts the effect of drowning.
53	* DependingOnTheArtist: Animation errors are a relatively frequent occurrence throughout the film, presumably due to fluctuations in budget and animator ability. The majority of the scenes set within Ferdinand and Isabella's palace in particular suffer from inconsistent character construction unfortunately accentuated further by imprecise timing.
54	* DerangedAnimation: And how. The film constantly seems to flip between decent quality, Disney-esque animation, and at other times being much rougher; almost reminiscent of a cheap Saturday morning cartoon. The content of the film itself contains a BigBad that’s [[PerpetuallyProtean constantly form-altering swarm with a singular conscious that can’t stay in one form for more than a few seconds at time]], Columbus’ vivid Freudian dream of him summoning a telescope from a suggestive area while escaping the King in the form of a purple horned monster, and the “The Life of the Sea” that depicts the sailors as Vikings, Romans, and sailors that get eaten by a sea monsters illustrated by Columbus’ lyrics. And Columbus [[WingDingEyes gaining interchanging red and white spirals to showcase his avarice based madness]].
55	* DisneyAcidSequence: Pico and Columbus's dream sequences and Columbus’ [[FantasySequence very surreal and vivid descriptions of various sailors throughout history in distinct styles]] during his song “The Life of the Sea”.
56	* DisneyDeath: Marilyn apparently drowns in a river and Pico finds her lifeless body, but she's revived as soon as the sun rises... but isn't she a ''Moon'' Fairy?
57	* DoubleEntendre: It starts with the dinner scene when Queen Isabella and Columbus get drunk and start flirting with one another ("There's a lot of exploring to do right here!"), moves on to some sailors asking why Columbus is talking to "his little worm", and goes further and further downhill from there.
58	* EvilChancellor: Subverted, see WhatHappenedToTheMouse below.
59	* FairySexy: Marilyn wears a small, revealing green dress similar to [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Tinker Bell's.]]
60	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Only ''just'' [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] for Marilyn. After falling into the river, she drowns on-screen and in surprisingly graphic detail; and after her body is found by Pico, she is only revived thanks to ThePowerOfTheSun.
61	* FanDisservice: Columbus's naked rear is shown twice near the end of the movie.
62	* GoldFever: Columbus descends outright into this during the film's third act, metamorphosing from a relatively-subdued explorer motivated chiefly by both a desire to verify the globe's rotundity and to aid Pico's rescue of Marilyn into a comically-acquisitive LargeHam blundering through the American rainforest in his underwear in fervent search of the metal, rendering his contributions to the film's climax [[AccidentalHero mostly unintentional]].
63	* HiveMind: The entire Swarm acts like a single entity controlled by the Swarm Lord.
64	* HongKongDub: The English voice-actors don't even try to match the MouthFlaps, so most of the time the characters will say a bunch of lines without moving their mouths.
65	* IncorrectAnimalNoise: The shark who sounds just like a mountain lion is just icing on the cake.
66	* InformedAttribute: Despite Pico's climactic declaration of friendship for Columbus, the duo directly interact (or even appear onscreen together) comparatively infrequently after the film's first 15 minutes.
67	* InformedSpecies:
68	** Pico looks next-to nothing like a woodworm, and is more of a CartoonCreature that looks far closer to a brown snowman in a sleeveless jacket. Discussed:
69	-->'''Marilyn:''' I've never seen an insect like you before.
70	-->'''Pico:''' That's not surprising.
71	** The English VHS and DVD covers describe Marilyn as a firefly. But apart from her antennae and her butterfly wings, she doesn't look like any kind of insect, but like a [[FairySexy sexy humanoid fairy.]] She doesn't call herself a firefly either, but introduces herself as "Princess of the Kingdom of Moon Sprites," and unlike fireflies or any other earthly insect, she can be [[DeathIsCheap brought back from the dead by sunlight.]]
72	* JustAStupidAccent: Columbus speaks with a ridiculously exaggerated, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario-like]] Italian falsetto, just to remind the viewer that he's from Italy.
73	* LargeHam: Columbus, while an increasingly comical figure earlier in the film, descends into this outright during its final act, in which his narrative function is primarily reduced to [[TheLoad bumbling through]] whatever location the other protagonists happen to be wandering through while raving near-continuously about gold in his trademark exaggerated accent:
74	-->'''Columbus''': ''(after falling through the walls of a pyramid)'' This-a little piggy went to...THE GOOOLD.
75	* LastGraspAtLife: As Marilyn is drowning, her hand reaches up from the water and Pico tries to grab it and save her, but he just misses as it vanishes. Fortunately, in the end [[DisneyDeath she doesn't stay drowned.]]
76	* LiteralBookworm: Pico is a woodworm, but he also functions as this. As much as he eats wood, he also eats books, hence his surprising knowledgeability. He meets UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus when the latter wants to propose that the world is a cube rather than flat, at which point Pico jumps in to correct him that the world is an orb. It is the start of a beautiful friendship between the two, [[InformedAttribute at least allegedly]].
77	* LovesMeNot: Pico does this in a DreamSequence of his.
78	* {{Mayincatec}}: The Aztec temple with a gold idol on what turns out to be Manhattan Island.
79	* MindScrew: Barring the whole movie, Columbus running around the jungle in his underwear is a little bit mind-boggling.
80	** His dream sequence is both a MindScrew and deeply uncomfortable to watch.
81	* MisplacedWildlife: There is a beaver on a tropical island. You know, the famous tropical island of ''New York''. So... misplaced wildlife living in misplaced ''geography''.
82	* TheNapoleon: Ferdinand is drawn to be one of the shortest characters in the movie and he has a violent temper. For the first part of the movie, he’s conveyed as being unpleasant towards any man that comes to him with a revolutionary idea and either throws them out or forces them to demonstrate their invention even if he’s told it’s not ready yet. He also seems to be unusually resentful towards Columbus and his hatred of Columbus seems to cement when Isabella flirts with Columbus.
83	* NoAccountingForTaste: Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. The king will try to open his mouth, and his wife's response is "Shut up.".
84	* NonSequiturThud: Columbus, after a rough landing on the Americas: "I, whoever I am, claim this land in the name of... What's-her-name.".
85	* PerpetuallyProtean: The Swarm Lord. Due to being a swarm with a singular consciousness, he’s in a different form every few seconds, some comprehensible such as a snake, bee, bull, dragon, sword, demon, or winged wizard while some are best described as a spiky tower with eyes that spontaneously grows a large mouth when needed.
86	* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The story of Christopher Columbus is presented here with significantly less imperialism or disease than as it actually happened. {{Enforced\|Trope}}, in that the directors knew that the real Christopher Columbus would be a difficult character to root for.
87	* RandomEventsPlot: The Fairy is only the most obvious among the many plot points that come totally out of left field.
88	* SanitySlippage: Columbus starts losing his mind as the movie goes on.
89	* SmugSnake: The Swarm Lord. As big and imposing as he appears, he immediately assumes that Pico is dead after his attack on the ship, being flabbergasted at his survivor and the attack on his castle causes him to undergo a VillainousBreakdown.
90	** Also, the chancellor comes off as this, even though he only makes one appearance.
91	* ShoutOut:
92	** Pico mentions WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker in one scene, and in another says [[Film/TheWizardOfOz "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"]]
93	** One of the three rats is named [[Film/MidnightCowboy Rizzo.]] Just like [[Series/TheMuppetShow a certain other rat.]]
94	* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Columbus seems to be the only human who can hear the animals talk. This is only apparent when other humans think he's nuts.
95	* TerribleTrio: The three rats that hop aboard the Santa Maria act as secondary antagonists and bullies towards Pico. [[HeelFaceTurn Though they do get better]]. [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Two of them anyway]].
96	* ThroatSlittingGesture: The crew does this to idnicate their plan to kill Columbus. And Pico, who observed them discussing this ploy earlier, shows this to Columbus himself when admitting what the crew is planning for him.
97	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Ferdinand is portrayed to be half as tall as his wife.
98	* TooDumbToLive: Columbus can be this sometimes.
99	** Allowing a woodworm aboard a ship made of wood.
100	** Sticking his hand into fire.
101	** Or thinking that singing about sailors being eaten by a sea serpent would boost the morale of his crew.
102	* TrouserSpace: During his DreamSequence, Columbus pulls a spyglass out of his trousers.
103	* UncertainDoom: Ritso (the shortest rat) disappears during the third act, with his two friends only offhandedly mentioning that the Swarm Lord’s attack “knocked him out cold”. He’s never seen again, not even during the group shot at the very end when Columbus and Pico sail back to Europe, implying that he was in fact killed and his demise got [[{{Bowdlerize}} Bowdlerized]].
104	* UnexplainedRecovery: There's no foreshadowing or explanation for why the rising sun brings Marilyn back to life in the end.
105	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: And how! Any resemblance to the true story of Columbus is almost accidental.
106	* VillainousBreakdown: Over the course of the finale, the Swarm Lord gets more and more frustrated as the heroes destroy his castle and Marilyn being rescued. This is visually conveyed as the previously blank-eyed and reserved design gradually shows expressions of doubt and anger before gaining visible pupils and at one point, his yellow eyes turn red.
107	* VisualInnuendo: The telescope in Columbus' {{dream sequence}}.
108	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Swarm due to being a shifting swarm, alters his form between scenes, going from a winged wizard, a spiky tower with two eyes that generates a wide mouth, a snake, a spider, a bee, a demon, a sword, a bull, and finally, a dragon.
109	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
110	** Literal example. What happened to the third rat? Following the Swarm's assault on Columbus' ship at the end of the film's second act, he vanishes and his friends only HandWave it as him having been "knocked out". But he's never seen again, [[{{Bowdlerize}} implying that he died]].
111	** Columbus leaves Spain with three ships but arrives in the New World with just one.
112	** Halfway through the movie, a strange-looking fourth crew member suddenly appears, then disappears just as quickly. Then at the end of the movie, he appears again, [[DoubleSubversion and then disappears again]].
113	** The {{obviously evil}}-looking [[EvilChancellor advisor to the King]] looks like he will be a villain, but after Columbus sets sail we never see him again. [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic "He was a, how you say, total waste of the animation!"]]
114	* WingdingEyes: Columbus in the last act of the movie. What the animators were going for, there is no way of knowing, but suddenly his obsession with gold seems to be correlated with deranged swirling eyeballs.
115	* TheWormThatWalks: The Swarm Lord.
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Context WesternAnimation / TheMagicVoyage