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Film / Ace Ventura
aka: Ace Ventura When Nature Calls

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A comedy movie series starring Jim Carrey. The first film was 1994's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and it's the movie that catapulted Carrey into A-list fame when it became a surprise hit. It was followed by a sequel, 1995's Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and an Animated Adaptation. An adventure video game adaptation was released in 1997.

The entire gimmick of Ace Ventura is that he's a modern-day Sherlock Holmes... mixed with Beavis and Doctor Dolittle. Using these "skills", Ace becomes a Pet Detective, finding and saving animals. In the first movie he appears as nothing more than a local nut helping people find their lost cats and whatnot, but being the only Pet Detective in the area,note  he gets roped into a high-profile investigation. Possibly due to this, he's become pretty well known in the second movie, where he is hired to recover a sacred bat stolen from two African tribes before war erupts between them.

Notably, while Carrey enjoyed himself in the original, he allegedly disliked the sequel so much that he vowed to never do a sequel again, a vow he kept for twenty years until he made Dumb and Dumber To in 2014.

The first film epitomizes the nineties: antiheroic lead, fourth-wall breakages, pop culture references, and raunchy humor (toned down slightly for the second movie and animated series), as well the hero talking out of his ass, as in he literally talks out of his ass; however, it also featured a fairly intelligent plot and featured Courteney Cox as Melissa Robinson and Sean Young as Lt. Lois Einhorn.

As of 2009 it now has its own Spin-Offspring, the direct-to-DVD Ace Ventura Jr., Pet Detective (with Josh Flitter in the title role).


These films provide examples of:

  • The Ace: Ace Ventura is not only very good as a pet detective. He always has a snappy comeback to ridicule, he’s a skilled fighter, he’s great with the ladies and can last in bed for hours.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: The doorman referred to by Ace as Captain Stubing initially was unamused by Ace's antics. However, he can later be seen laughing while allowing Ace and Melissa to leave the party in reaction to seeing Ace covered in what he assumes is toilet water.
  • The Alleged Car: Ace's car fails to start, which lets the dirtbag man that Ace took the missing dog from catch up to smash in Ace's windshield and batter his car with a baseball bat. Ace, strapped for cash, can't pay to fix the busted windshield, which is so badly shattered he can't see out of it anymore and has to stick his head out while driving.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown what happened to the real Lois Einhorn. The article Ace found mentions that she went missing after going on a hike, and the article says that police couldn't find "the body" of Einhorn, but her fate is left ambiguous. The implication is that Ray Finkle had something to do with it, but deleted scenes and the original script say otherwise. In any case, whatever happened to the real Lois Einhorn is left up in the air.
  • Again with Feeling: When Ace manages to solve the mystery:
    Einhorn is Finkle! Finkle is Einhorn! Einhorn is a man! [Beat] OH MY GOD! EINHORN IS A MAN?!
  • Animated Adaptation: Interesting primarily because it once had a two-part Crossover with the animated version of The Mask ("The Aceman Cometh" and "Have Mask, Will Travel"). Triple the Carrey impersonations, double the ham!
  • Artistic License – Biology: Dolphins are documented as engaging in homosexual behavior in the wild; this was known even in the early 1990s when this film was made. So Snowflake participating in the Unsettling Gender-Reveal at the end is not necessarily Truth in Television. Or he could've just been mimicking everyone else.
    • Maybe the reason everyone is so grossed out by Einhorn's penis is because whatever prostetic they used makes it look like it's about 15 inches long.
  • Artistic License – Sports: A 1984 AFC Championship ring for the Miami Dolphins is a Macguffin, yet the resulting Super Bowl between the Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers is mentioned as XVII. Super Bowl XVII was the 1983 one, where the Dolphins lost to the Washington Redskins, not the 1985 one (XIX) with the San Francisco 49ers that is shown. Also, Dan Marino wasn't on the Miami Dolphins during Super Bowl XVII, and Miami never lost by a last-second missed field goal in either Super Bowl; that was based on the "Wide Right" kick missed by Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. (Granted, Norwood faced tons of disdain missing that kick, but thankfully, he didn't take things nearly as far as Ray Finkle does in this movie.) The writers of the film noted this, saying that it was set in a slightly alternate universe to our own where Dolphins/49ers was Super Bowl XVII.invoked
  • As Himself:
    • The Miami Dolphins, including quarterback Dan Marino and head coach Don Shula, all appear as themselves.
    • Death metal band Cannibal Corpse appears as themselves. Jim Carrey is a fan of the band, and he talked the director into putting them in the movie.
  • Ascended Extra: Spike the capuchin monkey. In the first movie, he’s just one of Ace’s many pets he keeps in his apartment. By the sequel however he has become his official sidekick, staying by his side the whole movie.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do NOT intend to harm any animal around Ace. You will incur his wrath.
    • Also, do NOT mess with his hair... Unless you're a better fighter than him.
  • Bestiality Is Depraved: Ace invokes this for a throwaway gag.
    Melissa: You really do love animals, don't you?
    Ace: If it gets cold enough. *beat* No, I have a kinship with them. I understand them.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Possibly. Lois Einhorn, with the Unsettling Gender-Reveal, has a last name that means "unicorn" and literally means "one horn" in German. One guess what "horn" that is supposed to be.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Ace is attacked by a shark in the first movie, complete with being dragged around in a circle like he was in the opening scene of Jaws. The worst he gets is some torn-up clothes.
  • Brain Bleach: Ace reacts to the realization that a woman who he was sexually attracted to used to be a man by vomiting his entire stomach's contents into the toilet (using a plunger on his face), burning his clothes and then scrubbing himself down in the shower while sobbing.
    • That scene was a spoof of The Crying Game. And even came with the song (as sung by Boy George) in the background.
    • The next scene, he's in his car, chewing a whole package of Big Red gum.
    • Oh, it gets better. When he reveals the fact to entire SWAT squad, the whole group, both male and female, starts spitting and puking, with emphasis on Tone Loc's character scratching his tongue with his fingers. So does the bottlenose dolphin.
      • There's more to that. When he strips her down to her underwear but she still appears to lack the evidence, a tied-up Dan Marino calls his attention to reveal one more detail. Ace strolls back to her and turns her around, revealing that she still has her equipment...tucked in between her legs, presumably with duct tape. Cue the SWATs doing the retching routine. And they even put in the same music as when he had his own revelation!
  • Brick Joke: Ace goes after a rare pigeon early on in the film. At the film's conclusion, Ace almost gets that pigeon, but it's chased off by the mascot of the Philadelphia Eagles.
  • Bring My Brown Pants:
    Ace: I'm looking for Ray Finkle. (Ray's father points a shotgun at Ace) And a clean pair of shorts.
    • Done again in the Ace/Mask crossover when Stanley whips out two guns- each sporting multiple barrels and a few rocket launchers- pointed right at him.
  • Bullet Catch: With his teeth, while driving a car. Accidentally. Immediately after taunting the shooter, "What's wrong, can't ya hit me!?" followed by him pulling out and looking at the bullet with a definite Oh, Crap! expression.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Ace is extremely eccentric, on top acting schizophrenic with acute manic episodes. However, he is also a knowledgeable and skilled animal handler, top-notch investigator, ace driver, excellent actor, and a capable fighter.
  • Bus Crash: Ace's absence from Ace Ventura Jr. was explained away by him dying in a plane crash years ago.
  • The Can Kicked Him: "Do not go in there!" It's not in the actual bathroom, but Ace has to pretend it is to justify his looking the way he does, since he'd just been attacked by a shark.
    "If I had been drinking from that toilet, I might have been killed!"
  • Cassandra Truth: The local cops don't listen to anything Ace says and dismiss and ridicule him as just a kooky animal lover. Justified with Lt. Einhorn, because she's really the Big Bad Ray Finkle.
  • Catchphrase: "Allllllllrighty then!"
    • To the point that "Allrighty then" is made into his meditation mantra in the second movie.
    • "Llllliiiike a glove!"
    • "Unfortunately, in every contest, there must be... a loser. Lu-hoo... zu-her."
    • "Ree-hee-hee-hee-HEEEEAAAAALLY..."
  • Caught on the Jumbotron: Ace gets into a fight with Swoop, the Philadelphia Eagles' mascot, on a Jumbotron at the end of the first movie. The reason? He shooed away a runaway pigeon that had a cool reward of $25,000 on its head. Good news is, it was the away team's mascot, and the Dolphins were yukking it up, along with Melissa. Gets coupled with Description Cut since the announcer introduced him as a lover of all life's creatures just before he got caught.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Early in the first film, Ace sees that Snowflake the dolphin was trained to fetch a ball and kick it when the trainer says "Blue 52!". A deleted scene subverts it: Ace uses the routine to have Snowflake disarm Einhorn of her gun, but when he tries to have Snowflake give him the gun, he hands it back to Einhorn.
    Ace: Stupid fish!
    • When Snowflake is kidnapped, a tiny gem is knocked off the kidnapper's ring and Ace finds it in the pool's filter, and he eventually discovers that it belongs to a Miami Dolphins championship ring, which eventually leads to him investigating Ray Finkle (who got the ring even if the team lost the Super Bowl). Einhorn (or rather Finkle) brings the ring with her to the final confrontation and Ace adds insult to injury after taking her down by removing it from her hand to confirm the clue.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The unexplained disappearance of Melissa Robinson between films.
    • Justified since Ace was in self-exile in Tibet for the second film and then went straight to Africa. One would simply assume none of the former cast decided to shell out the cash to leave the country just to join in on the antics.
    • Melissa does appear in Ace Ventura Jr. (played by a different actress), having married Ace at one point and had a son with him. Ace's disappearance is explained away as him having died in a plane crash.
  • Closer than They Appear: When Ace sees an angry, baseball bat-wielding maniac in his rear-view mirror. The maniac responds by hitting the mirror off.
    Ace: Warning! Assholes are closer than they appear!
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • Ray Finkle's mother. At least you see where her son got some of his dementia. Ray's father notes that it's because people have been coming to their house to mock them for so long, she's gone nuts.
    • Ace himself, given how he breaks into random impressions, literally talks out of his ass and puts on an Obfuscating Insanity act that's not too much of a stretch for him.
  • Complexity Addiction: Ray Finkle's scheme is to get back at the Miami Dolphins, and Dan Marino in particular, for (supposedly) making the laces on the ball face the wrong way when Finkle tried a game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XVII, causing Finkle to miss the kick. You would think that Finkle would just shoot Marino, or something equally simple. Instead, Finkle spends a long time building a fake identity, infiltrating the Miami police department, and escalating in the ranks until he becomes the Mole in Charge of the investigation that will ensue from his crimes. That done, Finkle has to get the resources for the kidnapping of both the Dolphins' mascot Snowflake — a real-life bottlenose dolphin — and Marino himself during the next Super Bowl that the Dolphins make it to. And all of this is so the Dolphins will lose the Super Bowl, while Marino is Forced to Watch them lose on TV before he dies. And on top of all of that, Finkle gets a sex change to assume the identity of a missing hiker named Lois Einhorn. Yet there's no step in this plan to capture/kill Marino and Snowflake made easier by being Einhorn. One might argue that it allows Finkle to mislead the investigation and cover his tracks, but the cops were nowhere near solving that crime without Ace, whom Finkle couldn't have known about when adopting the Einhorn identity.
  • Conviction by Contradiction: As trans YouTuber Lily Simpson brought up in her analysis video, Ace stripping Einhorn down at the end doesn't really prove that she and Ray Finkle are one in the same. For all anyone knows, this could just be a trans woman acting as Finkle's accomplice.
  • Cranky Landlord: Mr. Shickadance from the movie, animated series and video game, is a cranky old man who hates animals. Despite his warnings for Ace not to bring any work home, Ace secretly keeps more than a dozen housepets in his room, having trained the animals to hide when the landlord appears.
    Mr. Shickadance: Ventura.
    Ace Ventura: [whispering] Yes, Satan? [turns around] Oh, I'm sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else.
    Mr. Shickadance: Never mind the wisecracks, Ventura. [coughs in Ace's face]...You owe me rent.
  • Cross-Cast Role: A single photo variation. The photo of Ray Finkle, back when he was a man, is actually Sean Young in a wig, fake mustache, and no makeup.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ace. Despite his constant goofy, idiotic behavior, he repeatedly demonstrates an astounding amount of knowledge regarding anything related to animals, is shown to work very diligently on his cases, and can put up a decent fight, even if he loses. In the second film alone, he at least briefly holds his own against a Wachootoo warrior, and even manages to beat up a crocodile while it's in a river.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Lois Einhorn in the first film. She was just a hiker, but Ray Finkle used the opportunity to assume her identity. Whatever happened to the real Lois Einhorn remains as The Unreveal.
  • Death Glare: Lois Einhorn communicates entirely in snark, put-downs, and death glares.
  • The Deep South: Ray Finkle's hometown Collier County, Florida. He used to be the local hometown hero before he missed the kick in the Super Bowl; now, the whole town hates his guts.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: According to Word of God, the infamous "Einhorn is a man" gag is built around how, despite being a shameless egotist, excellent detective, and badass enough to catch bullets in his teeth while driving, kissing another man will completely destroy Ace.
  • Delivery Guy Infiltration: Used in the very first scene of Pet Detective, specifically Ace dressing as an expy of a UPS man to infiltrate the apartment of the ex-boyfriend puppy-napper.
  • Denser and Wackier: The first film is almost a serious detective story with an incredibly strange detective at the helm. The sequel's tone is a lot sillier, with Ace joining a monastery of monks, piloting a mechanical rhino, and wrestling a crocodile. Ace's eccentric behaviour also lost all restraint.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Lieutenant Einhorn a.k.a. Finkle is apparently one of these, if the reaction of the one female cop during the Unsettling Gender-Reveal at the climax is any indication.
  • Description Cut:
    Melissa: Is Ace in trouble?
    Emilio: Don't worry. If there's one thing I know, it's that there's nothing Ace can't handle.
    Ace Ventura: (cut to him sobbing while being held at gunpoint) Please don't kill me!
    • Also:
    Roger: A what?
    Martha: A pet. Detective.
    Melissa: Well thanks, Martha, but we better leave this to professionals.
    Martha: Actually, he was quite good. Pet detection is a very involved, highly scientific process.
    (Cut to Ace attempting to tackle a prized dove on a rooftop, and then falling off and landing in a dumpster)
  • Destructo-Nookie: When Ace gets to bed Melissa in the first film, he is REALLY WILD in bed, banging the headboard against the wall. The animals watching and reacting adds to the comedy. As does "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" being used as nookie music.
    Melissa: [exhausted] Oh my God! Three times?
    Ace: I'm sorry, that's never happened before. I must be getting tired. [beat] Okay, I'm ready again!
    Melissa: [delighted] Oh!
  • Detective Mole: A murder and two kidnappings (one dolphin and one Dolphin) were investigated by police Lieutenant Lois Einhorn.
  • Disappeared Dad: Ace himself in Ace Ventura Jr., having disappeared while flying a plane full of animals over The Bermuda Triangle.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Miss a field goal? For Ray Finkle, that means working almost a decade on a plot to get revenge on the team that fired you by stealing (and maybe killing) their mascot and kidnap and kill the player that didn't put the ball with the laces facing the right way. For Finkle's family, it's being driven crazy by a whole town that, even many years afterwards, still "proudly" shows the graffiti that denigrated Finkle (among other methods of harassment).
  • Down to the Last Play: "The Kick Heard Round The World" from the first movie's back story. Too bad for Ray Finkle that he missed the field goal, and the Dolphins lost the Super Bowl by one point.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Ace in both films, more so in the second. In each film, he swerves into parking spots so he can fit "like a glove!" but in the second, he drives straight through a jungle to reach to consulate in Africa. His crazy driving is put to good use when he chases the bad guys in a monster truck.
    Ace: HEY LOSER, WHY DON'T YOU LEARN HOW TO DRIVE, PAL?
  • "Eureka!" Moment:
    • In the first movie, there's two. The first is Ace seeing Ray Finkle on a photo of the Miami Dolphins' team, realizing he's a player that Ace hadn't looked into yet. The second is Ace realizing that Lois Einhorn and Ray Finkle are the same person, thus solving the case... though this comes bundled with a more minor case of Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! when Ace realizes that he'd been sexually attracted to Einhorn.
    • The second movie has "They have GUANO!" for when Ace realizes what the white man could possibly want with the natives and why they would want to start a tribal war.
    • In Ace Ventura Jr. The titular character has just caught the criminal stealing rare animals, congratulating himself by saying “Like father, like son”. Then he sees the criminal’s kid making a run for it and thinks back to the missing pets case that kickstarted the plot, realising how true that adage applies.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: "SO! Animals... CAN sense Evil!" Fridge Brilliance in that the dog doesn't just sense evil, he may very well have witnessed the murder in question and is therefore quite naturally reacting to the sight of someone who harmed his master.
  • Exact Words: Melissa invokes this when she pretends to check Ace into a mental hospital.
    Shady Acres doctor: Has he had a long history of mental illness?
    Melissa: As long as I've known him.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: After realizing he can become a pet detective, Ace Ventura's Jr. has his hair modeled after his father. He also wears an outfit similar to his dad.
    • The song "Ace in the House" by Tone Loc plays during his slow walk.
  • Expy: Ace's egotism, as well as his Catchphrase "Alrighty then!" came from one of Jim Carrey's characters on In Living Color!, The Overly-Confident Gay Man.
  • Face Death with Despair: Downplayed in that Ace doesn't dies, but when Einhorn puts a gun to Ace's head at the climax, Ace gets on his knees and begs not to be killed. To make it even funnier, Ace's begging is done as a Description Cut after Emilio tells tells Melissa that Ace can handle any problems.
  • Fan Disservice: The outline of Lois Einhorn's penis tucked between her legs when Ace finally proves to everyone that she actually used to be the person that is the main suspect. Though until the big reveal, Lois Einhorn (played by the quite attractive Sean Young) is arguably Fanservice.
  • Fanservice Extra: The former Playmate Ace returns the dog to at the start of Pet Detective. She's even listed in the credits as "Sexy Woman."
  • Fast-Roping: After taking out two mooks, Ace ropes down to where Dan Marino is tied up.
    Ace: Hi, Dan!
    Dan: Who are you?
    Ace: Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. I've been sent in with a special play: quarterback sneak.
  • Flanderization: For all Ace's wackiness in the first film, the sequel dialled it up tenfold. While in Pet Detective he is shown having a few brief moments of at least acting like a normal person, When Nature Calls has him all-out at all times.
  • Flipping the Bird: In the first film Ace has a football player give him the finger so he can get a good look at his championship ring.
  • Foreshadowing: There are hints of Lois Einhorn's true identity as Ray Finkle. For example:
    • Her name means "one horn" in German, also used as the name of the unicorn.
    • She has an unnaturally deep voice in comparison to the other female characters in the film.
    • Another bonus is the apples and banana on her desk, which make a phallic shape as seen here.
    • When Einhorn first appears, Ace says, "Holy testicle Tuesday!"
    • At Podacter's apartment, his dog barks at Lois. Because it witnessed her committing the murder.
    • She also touches a bloodstain with her bare finger, and becomes momentarily paralyzed when Ace conducts a sound test on the balcony door.
    • While Einhorn is making out with Ace, he comments that her gun is poking him.
    • Einhorn's whole demeanor changes when Ace mentions Ray Finkle, implying her involvement. Plus, when Ace talks about Ray Finkle Einhorn looks frustrated and plays with her hands.
    • Emilio finding the love letter to Roger Podacter from Einhorn sent to him the same day he died.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the first movie, when Ace's dog lies on the Photo of Ray Finkle, the newspaper beneath it has a story on it about an alien abduction. The accompanying image is of The Cybermen.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Ace. Though, surprisingly enough, he's not a vegetarian, as he's seen eating a zebra in the second filmnote .
  • Generation Xerox: An episode of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective shows Ace Ventura's medieval ancestor as a pet detective, Guado's ancestor as a corrupt sheriff, and Woodstock's ancestor as the informer of Ace's ancestor (complete with a steampunk computer).
  • Good Is Not Nice: Ace Ventura is a send-up of this sort of character, according to Jim Carrey. He literally talks out of his backside, is inherently immature and even sociopathic, but losing someone he was trying to save drives him into seclusion in a monastery. Said someone was a raccoon... A notable subversion if you realize where his loyalties lie. He's a PET detective and thus, the ones he is nicest to are ALL animals.
  • Hard-Work Montage: Ace going after the 1984 Dolphins team one by one to see which has a missing stone on their ring, accompanied by Aerosmith's "Line Up".
  • He Knows Too Much: Einhorn killed Roger Podacter because he discovered her male genitalia on their date.
  • Heroism Won't Pay Shickadance: Ace doesn't always earn enough money to pay rent. Part of this is his reaction whenever a beautiful female customer offers to pay with sex instead of money.
  • If I Do Not Return: Parodied. When Ace starts to climb down into Snowflake's empty tank, he tells Melissa and Roger that "if I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer."
  • Improbable Parking Skills: Li~ike a glove! as he likes to say. Somehow, Ace is able to drive a car at full speed through either Miami traffic or an unpaved jungle, and manage to park perfectly every time.
  • Improv Fu: Ace Ventura invokes this when in a tight situation. In the first movie, he has such a fight with Ray Finkle, and has a fight with a tribal warrior in the second movie. It's subverted, because though Ace certainly tries, he gets the crap beaten out of him both times.
  • Incredibly Long Note: In the first movie, Ace has some fun with a soundproof glass door. He starts his pseudo-opera note, and opens and closes the door about six times, just to prove that the door was soundproof, and to annoy Einhorn.
  • Insanity Establishment Scene: The audience and other characters learn that Ray Finkle's lost it when we see his Room Full of Crazy with scrawls like "DIE DAN DIE."
  • Jerkass: Most of the police force sees Ace as a joke, but Aguado especially makes a bunch of insults at his expense. It gets to the point that none of the police will help Ace out with solving a murder case, unless Ace literally threatens them into helping.
  • Joke of the Butt: Ace literally talking out of his ass.
  • Large Ham: Every moment Ace is on screen, Jim Carrey doesn't just chew scenery, he swallows every scene whole and goes back for seconds.
    • "Do NOT... go in there! WHOOO!"
    • Also, when he punches out the Monopoly Guy and wears him like a stole.
    • "I CAME TO CONFESS! I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll!"
    • "That's what you stepped in, that's what was on your shoe, and THAT EXPLAINS THE ABRASION ON YOUR PALM! DAMN I'M GOOD!!"
  • Let's Get Dangerous!:
    • In the first movie, just before knocking out two mooks with an anchor, Ace says "lovely party, pity I wasn't invited".
    • Subverted in the second movie. Ace gets his hair styled as devil horns, makes a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner... and then gets the crap beaten out of him.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: The band at Ronald Camp's high-class party abruptly stops playing when Ace exits the bathroom soaking wet with his clothing torn up.
  • Madness Mantra: Ray Finkle wants the world to know that Dan Marino should have held the ball LACES OUT! It's even all over the walls in a Room Full of Crazy.
  • Meaningful Name: Lois Einhorn ("one-horn" = unicorn). It's a spoiler to her true identity.
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Dolphin kidnapping -> murder, kidnapping, and attempted murder of NFL star Dan Marino.
    Melissa: What are you thinking, Ace?
    Ace: I'm thinking that this whole thing is connected somehow.
    • Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls: Bat kidnapping -> plot to wipe out two indigenous African tribes and seize their land.
      Ace: (to himself) THINK! Someone wants these two tribes to destroy each other! There must be something valuable in this equation.
  • Mistaken for Fake Hair: Ace attempts to tear off Einhorn's wig when he's trying to prove that she's actually Finkle in disguise. He's correct about her identity, but the hair is real.
  • Mistaken for Gay
    Ace: I represent the Princess.
    Ouda: "I am a Princess."
    (The Wachootoo tribe murmur in confusion. One of the tribesmen rises up and smiles.)
    • Also happens in the first film when Ace is trying to sneak a peek at a former Miami Dolphin's championship ring while he uses the urinal. The football player, however, is far from offended and Ace makes a hasty retreat from his new "friend."
  • Mobile Shrubbery: Ace holds a palmetto frond in front of himself in order to sneak past his landlord's window. Then he throws away the frond, onto the pile of fronds from all the previous times he snuck past.
  • Mugged for Disguise: The two actors that were supposed to tackle Dan Marino came staggering out of their dressing room, while the two hired goons kidnapped him during the middle of a commercial shoot.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: In the first movie, Ace sneaking into the dolphin tank, to the tune of Mission: Impossible.
  • Never My Fault: Finkle blames Dan Marino for the missed field goal that cost the Dolphins the Super Bowl, saying that if Marino had held the ball "laces out" like he was supposed to, Finkle would never have missed that kick. Even his parents think so, and his mom believes everyone else knows it.
  • Never Suicide: And Conviction by Contradiction; halfway through the first movie, Dolphins administrator Roger Podacter supposedly commits suicide. The police are quick to assume it's suicide brought on by the stress of the upcoming Super Bowl, which the players are becoming increasingly paranoid about due to Snowflake's disappearance. Ace Sherlock Scans the room, finds a spot of blood under the railing, then says murder. Einhorn is quick to dismiss him, but Ace is quick to determine a witness heard Podacter scream, supposedly as he threw himself from his hotel balcony. He then determines that the police had to open the balcony door when they entered the hotel room. Finally, he goes to the balcony and starts screaming at the top of his lungs while sliding the door open and shut, perfectly silencing his scream.
    Ace: This is double-paned sound-proof glass. There is no way that neighbor could've heard Roger Podacter scream on the way down with that door shut. The scream she heard came from inside the apartment before he was thrown over the balcony and the murderer closed the door before he left.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: How does Ace discover Lt. Lois Einhorn’s connection to the case before discovering she actually is Ray Finkle under her assumed identity? A news article about the disappearance of the real Lois Einhorn as a missing hiker amongst Finkle’s stuff at the mental hospital which he obviously didn’t think to destroy before his escape.
  • Noodle Incident: Whatever happened to the real Lois Einhorn? The script and a deleted scene has Ace tell Emilio that the article he found was dated the day before Finkle escaped from the mental hospital, so clearly Finkle has nothing to do with her disappearence.
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Ace catches a bullet in his teeth while driving his car and leaning out the window.
    • One episode of the cartoon has Ace filling in for a James Bond-Expy. As he comes under fire while chasing the villain down in the requisite Cool Car, he notes his ability to catch bullets in his teeth, and prepares to do so. The villain launches a missile at Ace. He still catches it.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A news broadcast of the Super Bowl game notes that due to Marino’s disappearance, a young replacement quarterback has to start the game. When the game resumes after halftime with Marino returning, the score is revealed to be 14-17 in the opposing team’s favour. That’s actually a very good score all things considered, and the Dolphins are still within a competitive range. Not bad for a young replacement being the starter quarterback for a Super Bowl game.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • With an epic scream when Ace discovers that the tank that he thinks has Snowflake actually has a great white shark. And when he gets attacked by said shark.
      Ace: That's not Snowflake...that's not Snowflake...THAT'S NOT SNOWFLAKE!!!
    • Ace is quietly horrified when he sees Ray Finkle's Room Full of Crazy, and again when he realizes that Dan Marino is in danger.
    • From the second movie, Ace's reaction when he goes to Cadby to confront him over setting the two native tribes against each other over bat guano. Not only does Ace realize that the poachers have him pinned inside the room, Cadby explains to everyone in the room that he plans to keep Ace alive to use as a scapegoat for the inevitable inquiry as to why the Wachootoo and Wachati will have killed one another. Ace immediately begins scrambling around while shouting directions to Greenwald, who cannot react because he has no idea what Ace is supposed to be doing.
  • Only in Florida: The Miami Dolphins' star player, Dan Marino, and the live dolphin team mascot get kidnapped by a vengeful disgraced player who assumed the identity of a missing female hiker after escaping from a mental hospital, and became the (female) police captain in charge of investigating both cases, as part of a convoluted revenge plot. The whole thing is finally solved by an eccentric private investigator who only searches for missing animals.
  • Only in Miami: The first movie's plot revolves around the Miami Dolphins. And involves a story based on their real-life archrivals, the Buffalo Bills, losing Super Bowl 25 on a missed field goal.
  • Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: An interesting use in the first movie - First Ace feels what he thinks is a gun while Lois Einhorn tries to seduce him, and points it out ("Your gun is digging into my hip."). But later, when he learns who Einhorn really is, Ace gets promptly squicked and begins to cry "It wasn't a gun! It wasn't a gun!", with the Boy George song "The Crying Game" playing in the background. Made even more hilarious if you speak any German, as "Einhorn" means "Unicorn" or, literally, "one horn".
  • Outfit-Rip Sex Check: At the end of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace Ventura rips an outfit to reveal the bad guy.
  • Overly Long Gag: Ace opens and closes a soundproof door whilst screaming to make a point. He does it six times, for no discernible reason.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: "He's the best there is. (Actually, he's the only one there is.)"
  • Police Are Useless: The Miami police department don't get anywhere in finding Snowflake themselves, and miss an important clue in the investigaton of Roger Podacter's death. Though this may be justified, as Einhorn was behind both events, and deliberately kept the department off-course.
  • Railing Kill: Ace deduces that Roger Podacter was the victim of one of these, instead of being Driven to Suicide, by means of a Sherlock Scan of Podacter's apartment and subsequent Spotting the Thread — namely that a spot of blood was still present on the railing, and that his dying scream could not have come from the balcony with the soundproof sliding door closed as it was when people first entered the apartment thereafter. It turns out that Podacter had discovered that Lois Einhorn had a penis in a moment of close or intimate contact (possible realizing she was Ray Finkle), and the disguised Finkle decided to kill him to keep him quiet, and then shut the balcony door on the way out.
  • Really Gets Around:
    • Implied with Einhorn. When Ace outs Einhorn as a trans woman, every cop in attendance begins spitting in disgust. That includes at least one female cop.
    • Ace himself has this reputation, first with the rich lady that he rescued the dog for in the opening. Then there was Melissa and almost Einhorn. Lastly, it was implied that Ace took the Wachati princess' virginity.
  • Reveal Shot: Ace drives through what appears to be the African savannah. We pull back to see Ace is the only one hopping in his seat. Then we see they're driving on a flat road and pass a Subway billboard.
  • Revenge by Proxy:
    • Ray Finkle's plan, in a nutshell. While Finkle is going after the person he directly blames for his failings — Dan Marino — it's dubious as to whether or not Marino really held the ball "laces in" as Finkle so often claims he did. And even if Marino did mess up, Finkle is willing to kidnap innocent people, steal a live dolphin that couldn't have been responsible, screw the Miami Dolphins out of a Super Bowl win when the current players had nothing to do with Finkle's miss, and assume a missing woman's identity in order to throw the cops off of his trail.
    • The members of Ray Finkle's hometown have never forgiven him for missing the kick in the Super Bowl, causing them to deface Ray's old childhood home and harass his parents. This has driven Ray's mother into being a Cloud Cuckoolander, and made Ray's father so paranoid that he comes to the door with a shotgun.
  • Rewatch Bonus: When Ace is demonstrating how Podacter couldn't have committed suicide, there are some reaction shots from the officers on the scene. There's a lot of annoyance over how a pet detective that they hold in contempt found a massive hole in their preferred theory, but at one point, Einhorn looks the most apprehensive and, after being so forceful and cantankerous earlier, appears stunned speechless. Einhorn is really Ray Finkle and murdered Podacter, meaning this is a realization that closing the balcony door has put the decade-long revenge scheme in jeopardy.
  • Rewind Gag:
    • In the first movie, as Ace pretends to be a football player gone mad, he jumps on a doctor's shoulder, and does an "instant replay" performing the path backwards, culminating in him speaking like he's rewinding.
    • In the second, doing the summation, Ace rattles off his conclusion towards the accused. He then says "Let me run that back for you", reverses his actions, also speaking like a rewinding tape.
  • Room Full of Crazy: Ray Finkle's room in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, covered with scrawls of "Laces Out" and "Die Dan Die," left Ace (and the audience) in no doubt that Finkle lost his mind following the disastrous missed field goal that cost the Dolphins the Super Bowl and that he's got some rather ugly designs on Dan Marino, whom he blames for the whole thing. Ace would later say of the room, "Cozy, if you're Hannibal Lecter." It gets even creepier when you remember that his parents' house is covered in graffiti that degrades and vilifies him. It's hatred within hatred.
  • Sex for Services: Deconstructed. Ace is shown helping a former Playmate Ace by returning her dog from a jilted lover at the start of Pet Detective. She repays him with sex but Ace is still left struggling for cash afterwards because he keeps doing so for various clients instead of demanding payment. After all, attractive woman or not, sex alone doesn't pay the rent.
  • Shark Pool: Subverted in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, when Ace stumbles into a literal Shark Pool that turns out to actually vindicate the man he is investigating, who was shaping up before that to be a classic arch-villain. (Ace thought it contained the stolen Miami Dolphins mascot.)
  • Sherlock Scan:
    • In the first film: "Except of course for that spot of blood on the railing over there!"
    • When he searches the Bat's hut in the second film, he does an extensive version of this one.
  • Shoot the Television: Lois Einhorn from Pet Detective reveals herself as Ray Finkle when commentary during the Super Bowl halftime show on the "Kick Heard Round The World" that ruined Finkle's career pushes her over the edge:
    Lois Einhorn: THE LACES WERE IN! THEY WERE IN! [shoots the screen]
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shower of Angst: Ace, after realizing the woman he kissed Iis a trans woman. He also chews an enormous wad of gum. And burns all his clothes, uses a toilet plunger on his face, and vomits his entire stomach contents.
  • Single-Issue Landlord: Mr. Shickadance does not like animals in his building.
  • Skeleton Key Card: Done with a door sign.
  • So Much for Stealth: Ace sneaks into the mental hospital's storage room and accidentally steps on bubble wrap (but doesn't get caught).
  • Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying:
    • Melissa and Roger's boss keep calling Snowflake a fish, though Melissa corrects him that dolphins are mammals. He cares less about proper terminology and more about the Super Bowl and the bad publicity that would come from news of a missing mascot.
    Roger Podacter: It's those goddamn animal rights activists, always with their goddamn signs "Animals Were Born Free", "Stop Torturing Snowflake"! That damn fish lives better than they do!
    • Einhorn refers to Snowflake as a porpoise, which Ace enthusiastically takes the opportunity to correct her on.
    Ace: You see, nobody's missing a porpoise. It's a dolphin that's been taken. The common Harbor Porpoise has an abrupt snout, pointed teeth, and a triangular thoracic fin, while the Bottlenose Dolphin, or Tursiops Truncatus, has an elongated beak, round, cone-shaped teeth, and a distinctive serrated dorsal appendage. But I'm sure you already knew that.
  • Spin-Offspring: Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective.
  • Spit Take: A collective one occurs between Dan Marino, the entire Miami police department, and Snowflake, at the sight of Einhorn/Finkle's tucked-in penis.
  • Stalker Shrine: Ray Finkle's room is a stalker shrine to Dan Marino...or at least, to the famous Super Bowl play that made Finkle a goat.
  • The Summation: In the first one, Ace enjoys turning these into the most absurd spectacle imaginable. His first summation involves a drawn-out scream. His second involves stripping a fake woman (who is also a police lieutenant!) to her underwear. In both movies and the animated series, he also does very long summations in a single breath.
  • Talent Double: Sean Young herself isn't a very good kicker, so Pete Stoyanovich, placekicker for the Miami Dolphins at the time, filled in for the reverse shot of her kicking the football up and out of the hole in the warehouse. According to Tom Shadyac, Stoyanovich hit the hole on pretty much every take.
  • Theme Tune Rap: Tone Loc contributed a rap for the credits.
  • Threatening Shark: Ace goes to a tank expecting to find the stolen dolphin. He instead discovers a shark. Hilarity Ensues. Specially when he returns to the main hall entering via the toilet, his clothes all torn and wet.
    Ace: Do NOT go in there!
  • Tragic Villain: Ray Finkle a.k.a. Lois Einhorn. All he did was miss a field goal, and had his career ruined and became a pariah in his hometown because of it.
  • Trash Landing: Ace falls and land on his back on a pile of garbage from a roof of a two story building when trying to catch the rare albino pigeon.
  • Tuckerization:
    • Melissa Robinson was named after original writer Jack Bernstein's daughter Melissa.
    • Ace Ventura's landlord is named Mr. Shickadance. When Jim Carrey was growing up in Toronto, he lived in an apartment building that was managed by Schikedanz Brothers.
    • Sgt. Aguado was named after producer Ken Aguado.
    • "Shady Acres Mental Hospital" is named for director Tom Shadyac.
  • Unsettling Gender-Reveal:
    • Done as part of a parody of The Crying Game, with the villain actually being Lt. Lois Einhorn, who this whole time was really the missing football player Ray Finkle, having gone through complete transition (but remaining non-op), adopted the identity of a missing hiker, and became a Lieutenant, seemingly all in the sake of the perfect disguise.note 
    • This is what got Roger Podacter killed. He discovered Einhorn is Finkle after finding "Captain Winky" and let out a scream before he was pushed off the balcony.
  • Unusual Pets for Unusual People: When Ace's landlord notices unusual noises and questions Ace on them, Ace claims he knows nothing. As soon as the landlord leaves, an entire zoo comes out of hiding.
  • Wait Here:
    Ace: If I'm not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the real Lois Einhorn, the missing hiker that Ray Finkle apparently stole the identity of?
  • Who Shot JFK?: In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace loudly exclaims "I CAME TO CONFESS! I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll!" when his (unwanted) presence at the police station is questioned.
  • You, Get Me Coffee: After Dan Marino is kidnapped, Einhorn walks into the office and orders things like an autopsy report, for no one to talk to the press ... "And somebody get me some coffee!"
    Ace: "Tonight on Miami Vice, Crockett gets the boss some coffee."

From "When Nature Calls":

  • Actually Pretty Funny: As Ace is being severely beaten by his Wachootoo opponent, all the members of the tribe begin laughing hysterically at just how badly he is being humiliated. After awhile, Ouda begins joining in and is still laughing as he translates to Ace that the Wachootoo are sparing his life because they found his defeat so entertaining.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: When Ace decides to leave the Buddhist monastery, the monks are so overjoyed that he is finally leaving that they throw a huge celebration; complete with bottles of champagne, throwing rolls of toilet paper everywhere, and running around in their underwear.
  • Ass Shove: A variation. When Ace is trapped in an overheating mechanical rhinoceros, he has to escape by pushing out through the "back door"...only to be spotted by tourists on safari who think the rhino is giving birth.
  • Ax-Crazy: Played for Laughs with Ace and the Wachootoo tribe.
  • Bad Vibrations: Done subtly (at first). As the villain is indulging in a low-key Evil Gloating with a slight What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, everyone falls silent as they feel the house start to vibrate. At first, it's quiet, as if they could possibly be imagining the sound. But it gets louder, and louder, until a horde of animals bursts through the wall, followed by Ace on an ostrich in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Bat Out of Hell: Bats are the only animals that Ace hates.
    • "DIE, DEVIL BIRD!!!
    • "TAKE THAT, YOU WINGED SPAWN OF SATAAAN!!!"
  • Battle-Interrupting Shout: At the end, Ace prevents a war between the two neighboring African tribes by running between the armies with their sacred bat in his hands, shouting its name (which according to the tribes' traditions, requires all who hear it to kneel).
    "SHI-KA-KAAAAAA!"
  • Berserk Button:
  • Big "NO!": Ace lets one out in the beginning, which is a parody of the opening scene in Cliffhanger when the raccoon he tries to save falls to its death.
  • Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: As Ace is being pelted with poisoned darts:
    Ace: (arms going limp, speech slurred) Startin' to get numb...
  • Black Comedy Rape: The main bad guy, after his plans to bring the Wachati and Wachootoo tribes into war with each other are brought crashing down around his ears, tries to escape their wrath, but is cornered by a silverback gorilla with... amorous intentions. Cue "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
  • Blow Gun: Ace is shot with dozens of little darts (with hilarious effects) before he passes out.
  • Brick Joke:
    Fulton: I believe they're saying that she's not a virgin.
    Ace: ...*Hushed* They can tell that?
  • Buffy Speak: "I shall slip amongst them like a transparent...thing."
  • Bulungi: The fictional country of Nibia. Oddly enough, the British consulate oversees the local province where the action takes place.
  • Call-Back: When Ace first visits the Wachati village, he comes across a man standing one-legged on a tall pillar. He shakes the pillar but the man doesn't fall off ("He's good."). Later, when Ace meets the Wachati Princess, the two spit paper wads together, and it's revealed that they're spitting them at the man on the pillar.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: After seeing the Wachati Princess perform a seductive dance, Ace retreats to his tent. When Fulton goes after him, he finds Ace "practicing his mantra".
  • Celebrity Paradox: Ace references The Shawshank Redemption at one point, in which Bob Gunton played Warden Norton; in this film, Gunton plays Burton Quinn.
  • Chased by Angry Natives:
    • After Ace stops the battle just before it begins, Cadby tries to sneak away while everyone is kneeling. Unfortunately for him, Ouda spots him and alerts the others.
      Ouda: Equinsu Ocha! Equinsu Ocha!
      (Tiny Warrior shouts a Battle Cry and everyone gives chase)
    • At the end. Ace deflowered the bride-to-be of the Wachootoo Tiny Warrior that already mopped the floor with him earlier. Ace managed to skate out of being killed by the Wachootoo and was on friendly terms with both them and the Wachati. Then the Tiny Warrior notices... cue everyone chasing Ace in murderous anger.
  • Chased Off into the Sunset: The film ends with Ace being chased through the jungle by the native tribes, after they discover The Chief's Daughter is no longer a virgin.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Ace's initial Sherlock Scan of Cadby alerts him to an abrasion on his palm and a white stain on his shoe, which he uses to deduce that Cadby slipped on some shoddy masonry work. This later clues him in to the fact that the white substance Cadby slipped on was in fact guano, which along with its substantial monetary value made him the true culprit.
    • During the start of his investigation, Ace plays drums with several mushroom heads growing on a tree... the red, fungus-bearing acala.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Early on, Ace makes some obnoxious animal calls to Fulton on the plane. This could initially be seen as Ace being silly, but later in the film, Ace uses these animal calls to lure two poachers away from their hut so he can retrieve the white bat.
  • The Chief's Daughter: The leading lady, who Ace finds very attractive.
  • Clever Crows: When Ace first meets Quinn, he prefers to greet Quinn's pet raven Tinky, rather than Quinn himself, and Ace identifies Tinky as a Common raven with the scientific name Corvus Corax. The smartest of all birds:
    Ace: (When he meets Quinn's pet raven Tinky) Pleasure, Tinky. Corvus Corax. Common raven. Smartest of all birds... Rare in these parts.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Ace is looking for a ride to chase after Cadby, who's escaping into the jungle. The only car in the parking lot with keys oh-so-conveniently left in the ignition is a big honking monster truck with tires half the size of the other guy's jeep. Possibly it could be the Australian poachers' ride, though we never see them use the truck.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Ace's methods of interrogating suspects include rubbing a ceramic plate with a knife and a fork really fast, then poking at his own eye. The eye thing works on the guy he's trying it on. "(retches) Oh God, no! My brother used to do that to me!"
  • Crazy Cultural Comparison: Features spitting in another's face as a form of showing great respect. Ace, naturally, ramps it up to eleven.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Ace gets one from the hands of the Wachootoo's best warrior.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: "If curse of Shikaka not lifted by tomorrow sun at top of sky, Wachootoo kill all Wachati, and smash your head on a rock."
  • Detective Patsy: Ace is hired by Vincent Cadby to find a white bat which is sacred to the Wachiti tribe, as the theft of the animal could potentially lead to war between the Wachiti and the Wachootoo. Ace ultimately discovers that Cadby is the one who stole the bat to manipulate the two tribes into destroying each other, allowing him to claim the bat guano in their bat caves and sell it for valuable fertilizer. As there would have been an investigation after the war, Cadby hired Ace to make it look like he had done everything he could to prevent the war by trying to help find the bat.
  • Didn't Think This Through: The villain decides to turn his small jeep into the jungle to escape Ace - who is driving a monster truck.
    Ace: "He wants to go off-road!"
  • Duel to the Death: Ace vs the Wachootoo warrior is supposed to be this. Subverted, though, when Ace's defeat proves to be so hilarious that the Wachootoo choose to let him live (allowing them to troll him one more time).
  • Embarrassing Nickname: The Wachootoo call Ace "Equinsu Ocha", which means "White Devil". He does not take kindly to it.
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear:
    • The climax seems to imply the villain is not so much pursued by the gorilla as pursued by it.
    • Ace himself is pursued by both tribes in the end after it's learned that he was earlier pursued by the Wachati princess and gave in to her advances.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Subverted by Fulton Greenwald. The only reason he didn't hit the lights for Ace is because he was confused by Ace's Unnecessary Combat Rolling; he gets it together later and knocks out Cadby before the villain can shoot Ace. Although this probably had more to do with the giant windows and it being the middle of the day.
  • Fanservice Extra: The Wachati Princess in When Nature Calls. When she's intially shown at a Wachati feast for Ace's welcoming, her first act is to perform the Virgin's Dance of Seduction with Ace as her target of affection; once the feast dies down, she approaches him to fully seduce him.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Ace seems to have been this for the monks as, when he leaves the temple, they throw a huge raucous party to celebrate.
  • Getting Hot in Here: Things got a bit hot for Ace whilst spying on someone from within a tank disguised as a rhino. After stripping bare, he finds that the tank door is jammed, so he crawls out through the rhinobot's vagina, meaning that a safari-going family got to witness a rhino giving birth to a fully-grown, naked human.
  • Give Me a Sword: Ace gets a spear thrown into his leg while fighting a tribal native. He shouts for his sidekick to throw him a spear, which he does... stabbing him in the other leg.
  • GPS Evidence: Ace gets shot by multiple darts and suspects the darts are being shot by the Wachootoo tribe. After the scene with the tribe, he gets shot again and finds out the Wachootoo dart didn't match the original darts. Ace discovers the original dart was carved from a "red, fungus-bearing acala" which is grown only in one area in the jungle where the bat-nappers are hiding.
  • High-Class Glass: The "Monopoly Guy."
  • Hollywood Natives: The Wachoochoo and Wachatis tribes. While the Wachatis are healthy and clean, the Wachoochoo have chalk-white face and body paint, fur loincloths, and bad hygiene.
  • Incredibly Long Note: When Ace goes off the waterfall, he yells "Spiiiiiiiiiii-" (at his partner monkey Spike) Moments later, when he emerges from the water, he's still screaming: "...iiiiiiiiiiiiiike!"
  • Inevitable Waterfall: Ace is also strapped to a wooden raft at the time.
  • Instant Sedation: Uses the humorous muscle paralysis angle, of course, but he's still blacking out after a rather short chase. Of course, three darts was too much. So were the half-dozen or so that nailed him in the back right after he "thought he lost them".
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Parodied, as the methods Ace uses are Poke the Poodle levels... though they still work.
  • Just Plane Wrong: The opening sequence features Ace climbing some Alpine-looking mountains, dressed in suspenders and shorts often stereotypically portrayed on Swiss alpinists, and there is a helicopter flying around him painted in crimson red with a white cross at each side — the symbol and flag of Switzerland. The aircraft's tail number (license plate)? Canadian registration. Location shooting indeed...
  • Karmic Rape: The fate of the main villain.
  • Lighter and Softer: Zigzagged. While this film has considerably less offensive swearing, sexual jokes, and vulgarity than the original film, there are also some dark or vulgar jokes that rival or even top it (such as two birth-related jokes, Toilet Humor related to bat poop and the aforementioned Black Comedy Rape of its main villain).
  • Martial Pacifist: The Wachati may be peaceful and respectful of life, but they're willing to fight the Wachootoo when their very existence is on the line.
  • Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: In When Nature Calls, when the Wachati princess performs a seductive dance, Ace tries to resist her advances, talking about his Vow of Celibacy. Later, his associate catches him masturbating in his tent. His excuse is he was just "practicing my mantra" and will finish his "meditation" in 10 minutes.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: The Indian elephant is excusable, as they're much more docile and easier to train than African elephants. But not a single animal in Quinn's warehouse was African. There were a Bengal tiger (Asian), a jaguar, macaws and a toucan (all South American). Quinn also wasn't surprised to see Spike, a South American black-capped capuchin, implying he has a few of those around as well. He most likely illegally smuggled the animals away from their natural habitat to put on his safari tour. Ace, when he first meets Quinn, points out that his pet raven Tinky isn't even from Africa. Then there is the skunk that Ace somehow gets his hands on for the final battle, how he found a American species in the jungle is anyone's guess.
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: Ace gets pretty angry when a fight between him and a Wachootoo tribesman sees Ace's hair getting changed into horns. Ace takes exception to that, with the music swelling and Ace getting fired up. Cue a Gilligan Cut, and Ace is getting his butt kicked even worse.
  • Nice Guy: Fulton Greenwall has a large amount of patience for Ace's antics. Even when he's the butt of them.
  • No Need for Names: Apparently, at the monastery, no one wears "labels". However, once you start inquiring about "the man who talks with his rear" they know who you're talking about right away.
  • Nobody Touches the Hair: "NOBODY. MESSES. WITH THE 'DO!!"
  • Not So Above It All: When Ace is screwing around with juvenile shadow puppetry during the Mission Briefing, Fulton is visibly laughing.
  • Not So Stoic: The monks. When introduced, they're all meditating and peaceful. When they learn that Ace is leaving, they start partying with loud music, wine, throwing toilet paper, and one guy dancing in his underwear.
    Ace: I never seen them act like that before. Denial can be an ugly thing.
  • Parrot Expo-WHAT?:
    Princess: That was the dart of the Wachootoo shaman!
    Ace: The what-nee what-en?
  • Product Placement: An obvious ad of Subway is placed on a highway billboard early in the film. Probably not so much product placement as irony, as literally right before that Ace mentions something about loving being out in the wild, i.e. without things like Subway. A Subway commercial at the time uses editing to make it look like Ace, after passing the Highway Billboard, takes a sharp turn and speeds up to get to the restaurant.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Ace has several of these:
  • Reflexive Remark of Reverence: The Wachati and the Wachootoo always kneel in respect whenever they hear the word "Shikaka". Ace first makes fun of it by saying a barrage of words in front of the Wachati chief and Ouda that start with an "Sh-" sound like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Chicago", but later it becomes a Chekhov's Gun that allows Ace to stop the tribal war before it begins, by running between the charging tribes with the bat held high and screaming its name at the top of his lungs.
  • Rich Bitch: The Statuesque Stunner that Ace has an argument with about fur. She's even listed in the credits as "Pompous Woman".
  • Sanity Slippage: In the first movie Ace was quite eccentric but had some "sane" moments. In this movie he's devolved more or less into a Psychopathic Manchild and all his antics are definitely crazier than before.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Ouda is oblivious to Ace's annoyance at his "help".
    • When Ace is afraid to go into the bat-infested cave.
    Ouda: Here, take my torch.
    Ace: Spank you, Helpy Helperton.
    • When Ace has been caught by the Wachootoo.
    Ace: I'm sure Ouda is going for help right now.
    Ouda: Hello, Ace. They've captured me. No sweat.
    Ace: Don't beat yourself up.
  • Scary Black Man: The very stoic Hitu.
  • Sequel Escalation: In the first film Ace is just an eccentric, Miami-based private detective who gets sucked into a murder plot. Here, the plot is an attempt to massacre two entire tribes to make billions, the culprit is a wealthy and powerful British official, and Ace is now a legendary international detective who has access to robot rhinos.
  • Sequel Goes Foreign: Takes place in Africa.
  • Sexual Karma: The protagonist enjoys a night with The Chief's Daughter, while the unfortunate Big Bad finds love in the bush. With the Extra Points.
  • Sherlock Scan: Ace does this when he meets Cadby for the first time.
  • Shout-Out: When being repeatedly pushed by a guard after being detained, Ace refers to him as "H.R. Shove-N-Stuf".
  • Smelly Skunk: Ace uses one to subdue some bad guys. "Say hello to my STEENKY LEETLE FRIEND!!!"
  • Smoking Barrel Blowout: Done with the skunk above.
  • Smug Snake: The Big Bad.
  • Solid Gold Poop: The motivation for the bad guys to want to get rid of the peaceful tribe is to get their hands on their guano-rich lands, thereby giving them a chance to make a killing on the fertilizer market.
  • Standing Between the Enemies: At the climax Ace stops two mounting armies by running between them holding the sacred bat they had been about to fight over.
  • Suddenly Shouting:
    Ace: I can feel it like it's right...(gets hit with tranq dart) in my NECK! RUUUUUNNNNN!
  • Tap on the Head:
    • Greenwall knocks out Cadby when the latter tries to shoot Ace with an elephant gun.
    • Ace punches a smaller man in the head and knocks him out so he can drap the man across his shoulders as though he were a fur stole. This was intended to teach the mans wife a lesson about wearing fur.
  • Taxidermy Is Creepy: When Ace is in Quinn's trophy room.
    Ace: This is a lovely room of death...
  • Tempting Fate: The two poachers offer to go after the escaped Ace, but the Big Bad dismisses this, saying he cannot do anything as their plan is near to fruition. Cue Ace invading the Lovely Room of Death with live animals.
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Ace encounters a couple at the consel's party where the husband is small, skinny man and his wife is a Statuesque Stunner who towers over him.
  • Tranquillizer Dart: Halfway into the movie, Ace gets hit by three tranquilizer darts but remains conscious... until he gets darted four more times.
  • Trolling Translator: Ace gets his Wachati guide Ouda to translate his words into the Wachootoo language...badly.
    Ace: War Is Hell. The last thing we want is a fight.
    Ouda: "I want a fight, so go to hell!"
    • It's left to the viewers' imagination whether Ouda is actually a bad translator, or if he's working to keep Ace alive with his mistranslations; the Wachootoo don't seem like peace-loving people, and might take fatal offense to Ace's cowardice. Though, given that at one point he has Ace calling himself a princess, Ouda is likely either genuinely bad or a giant Troll.
  • Unconventional Vehicle Chase: When Cadby is getting away in his car, Ace looks over several vehicles parked nearby. The only one with a key in the ignition happens to be a monster truck. Watch the ensuing chase here.
  • Virgin Vision:
    "She's not a virgin!"
    "They can tell that?"
  • War Is Hell: Played word for word when the pet detective says the following words to the native Wachoochoo tribe:
    "War...is hell! The last thing we want...is a fight!"
    • Which Ouda, one of the native Wachatis, translates as "I want to fight you...so go to hell!" Which the Wachoochoo reacts in anger, while Ace assumes they agree with him.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?/Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ace loves all animals... except bats. Note that he also apparently likes other various non-cute animals. It's just bats that are his personal Squick.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: When Ace confronts a woman wearing an animal skin across her shoulders, and she pompously says there's nothing wrong with it and that he should try it sometime, he replies by cold-clocking her slightly-less-obnoxious husband and wearing him over his shoulders like an animal skin, rather than her. This may have been the reason, but it's just as likely that Ace just wanted to demonstrate to her face how hypocritical she was being.
  • Wrestler of Beasts: Ace fights off a Nile crocodile that attacks him after he is thrown into the water by poachers trying to kill him.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: While a "Eureka!" Moment, just before Ace returns to his body, you can see this expression on his face as he realizes that the whole situation has arisen because of bat guano.

Tropes from Ace Ventura: The Animated Series.

  • Anachronism Stew: In "Dragon Guy", a Steampunk computer is used in Robin Hood times.
  • Art Evolution: The third season switched main production companies (from Nelvana to Odyssey Entertainment) and also switched overseas animation studios (from Wang to Hong Ying), so it looked a bit different.
  • Ascended Extra: Aguado, Mr. Shickadance and especially Emilio get more to do in the animated series.
  • Badass Santa: Santa Claus mentions having taken self-defense lessons to traverse rough neighborhoods after saving Ace.
  • Bond Gun Barrel: One episode opens with one, ending with Ace assuming his "ass talking" pose and farting.
  • Broken Pedestal: In the episode "Get Piggy", Ace is revealed to be a big fan of Gabe the Pig, a talking pig who's a movie star and who's been kidnapped; so much so that Ace is part of Gabe's fan club, knows the rules of the club by heart, and even offers to take Gabe's case for free. However, after investigating a bit about Gabe, Ace is shocked to learn that Gabe is actually an egotistical, spoiled, violent jerkass who no one can stand. And to top it all off, it turns out, Gabe himself staged his own kidnapping as a way to return to the spotlight, and even kidnaps and tries to kill Ace.
    • Ace even reacts with disgust when he learns that a villain in an episode after that has an autographed photo of Gabe.
  • Christmas Episode: "The Reindeer Hunter" (the first episode, no less). Someone steals Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve, so to finish his deliveries, he hires Ace to find them. The investigation leads Ace to a businesswoman that's seeking a Fountain of Youth by harnessing the reindeer's gravity-defying abilities.
  • Clone Degeneration: In "Ace Off", after a particularly intense dance competition, Ace's evil clone starts to melt and is...absorbed by him.
  • Cowboy Episode: "Go West" sees Ace follow a group of horse thieves out into the desert and come upon an 1800s-like town, so he plays cowboy while looking for the stolen horses. The twist is that all the residents are actually robots (not that they know it or even have any idea what a robot is), with the thieves having been reprogrammed by the true Villain of the Week.
  • Crossover: With The Mask in "Have Mask, Will Travel".
  • Denser and Wackier: Far more than the original films. While they still maintained a semi-realistic tone; the series, especially during the third season, had Ace deal with supervillains, all sorts of evil powers, and even aliens.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the crossover episode, Ace manages to actually best The Mask - a super-powered entity that can warp reality - at his own game. Said game was limbo dancing, but whatever works.
  • Evil Gloating: Odora from “The Reindeer Hunter” initially refrains from doing this, but Ace is Genre Savvy enough to know that she’ll turn her back three seconds later because she’s the kind of villain who can’t stand not giving a monologue before killing off her enemies. He then proceeds to troll her by covering his ears and refusing to listen when she inevitably does monologue about her evil plan.
  • Evil Knockoff: In "Ace Off", the villain of the episode use Ace's hair to create an evil clone of him to kidnap a dog and pin the blame on the real Ace.
  • Exotic Entree: "Pet Food" has a Villainous Glutton who is kidnapping endangered species as part of a planned seven-course meal.
  • Fountain of Youth: Odora’s ultimate goal is to formulate a cosmetic that halts the effects of aging, and she’ll do horrible things to animals to accomplish it in the most bizarre ways. For example, extracting glandular secretions from Santa Claus’s flying reindeer to unlock the secret of defying gravity for the sake of trying to prevent skin sagging, or draining an elephant’s perfect memory to give skin the ability to remember its previous state.
  • Friend on the Force: As in the first movie, Emilio is this, though he gets more time to point out how Ace's shenanigans can make it really hard to vouch for him.
  • Jurassic Farce: In "Dino-Mite", Ace visits a dinosaur zoo and theme park that's clearly a spoof of Jurassic Park, complete with a John Hammond Expy.
    Ace: Let me guess. Copyright trouble?
  • Justice by Other Legal Means: In the Christmas Episode, Ace couldn't prove Odora stole Santa Claus' reindeers (she intended to use the secret of their gravity-defying abilities on a cosmetic) but could get her arrested for illegally keeping an albino alligator from an endangered breed, which she also intended to use as ingredient.
  • Killer Gorilla: In "Night of the Gorilla", a female gorilla is accused of killing and eating the scientist that raised her. Ace seems to be the only one aware that gorillas aren't carnivorous, and does his best to prove the ape's innocence. He's right, the gorilla was set up by a rival scientist as part of a revenge scheme.
  • Last of His Kind: The one thing all missing pets in "Pet Food" have in common is that they are the last of their species... and this is exactly why they are being stolen.
  • Lighter and Softer: While the original film was far darker and had lots of sexual moments, the animated series was understandably toned down for younger audiences.
  • Merging Machine: An episode was based around a scientist whose teleporter combined him with a fly. Later in the episode Ace is combined with Spike.
  • Not Me This Time: Occasionally happens when a crime is so much like an specific member of Ace's Rogues Gallery.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: "Howl of the Weremoose" features just that, which is attributed to a curse placed on a hunter long ago. Ace is quite dubious such a thing even exists, only to run afoul of one in the woods at night and see it's a bipedal, super-strong berserker. Worse, it turns out there are substantially more than just one of these beasts to contend with.
  • Pretentious Pronunciation: When the barbarians in "Dragon Guy" suddenly converse in British accents, one of them consistently pronounces “chimera” as “shimmer-uh.”
  • Raised by Wolves: Parodied with the Griffin, who has been raised by several different groups of animals since infancy and has attributes from them, including wolves, gazelles, and kangaroos. He has some bats as aunts and uncles as well.
  • Rogues Gallery: Ace has a few recurring enemies who have been the villains of multiple episodes, such as Baron de Claw, Atrocia Odora, and the Griffin.
  • Saving Christmas: The plot of “The Reindeer Hunter” is Ace tracking down Santa Claus’s reindeer after they’re abducted so he can finish making his deliveries.
  • Scarily Competent Tracker: Subverted in one episode. Ace finds a footprint and gives a detailed description of the owner's age, size, health, and appearance. Turns out the guy dropped a drivers' license next to the footprint.
  • Spexico: "The Bull Market" depicts Pamplona, Spain as a South of the Border village of white houses in the desert where the locals wear sombreros, ponchos, and magnificent moustaches. Oh, and did we mention the bad guy is a bullfighter?
  • Shout-Out: In "The Night of the Gorilla", the Big Bad of the episode is Dr. Redrum, and the gorilla he framed (which is dyslexic) keeps signing and writing "murder" to say it was him (Ace finally figures it out when he sees the writing in a mirror).
  • Taught by Experience: Having observed the Mask's penchant for giving others wedgies, Ace made sure to put a mousetrap down his own pants for safety. It works.
  • This Bear Was Framed: In one episode, a Villain of the Week framed a gorilla.
  • Transformation Trinket: In "Howl Of The Weremoose", the original weremoose Drew Talbit has a moose talisman he uses to change into his weremoose form; he is able to transform at will but everyone he bites becomes as Ace puts it... his mindless weremoose slaves. It is also revealed that smashing the talisman will break the curse and turn everyone back to normal. Unfortunately Ace doesn't read the fine print which says he who destroys the tailsman gets the antlers of the grand high moose himself. Ace ends up with moose antlers; it is also said that the antlers can be removed by rubbing moosebane on them- to which Ace exclaims..."Where are we going to get moosebane in Miami!?"


Take care, now! Bye bye, then!

 
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Alternative Title(s): Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Ace Ventura When Nature Calls, Ace Ventura Jr, Ace Ventura The Animated Series

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Einhorn Is a Man

After much brain racking, Ace finally realizes that Ray Finkle and Lois Einhorn are one and the same... and is rather grossed out by it.

How well does it match the trope?

4.75 (20 votes)

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Main / UnsettlingGenderReveal

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