Moles, the denizens of the underground, digging their tunnels. Often Beneath the Earth and in miner attire, no doubt Tunnel Kings. Also included are gophers and other burrowing rodents. See also Mole Men, who are very similar to this trope, but more humanoid.
Not to be confused with The Mole. See also Drill Mole.
Sub-Trope of Animal Occupation Stereotypes.
Examples:
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Eastern European Animation
- The Little Mole: Krteček (meaning "mole" and "little mole" respectively), invented by the Czech animator Zdeněk Miler, is a cute little mole and is often seen with a shovel in his hands.
Films — Animation
- The Lion King (1994): A gopher delivers "news from the underground".
- In The Rescuers one of the bayou dwellers is a mole with a miner's cap.
- In Strike, Mungo Morrison is a mole who is expected to work at his father's gold mine, but would rather be a footballer.
Literature
- The books based on CBBC's 1980s mascot Gordon T. Gopher made much of his burrowing skills, which generally didn't come up when he was squeaking at Philip Schofield between Bananaman and Grange Hill.
- The Chronicles of Narnia has several examples of talking moles especially given to digging.
- Redwall: All moles are experts at tunneling. Even Axtel Sturnclaw, who wanders around smashing vermin with a giant hammer.
- The Wind in the Willows: Moley, who likes nothing better than the cozy safety of his burrow.
Toys
- The Moles from Whack-A-Mole all wear miner's helmets.
Video Games
- Age of Wonders: Giant moles are just animals, but they are domesticated by Dwarves to serve as both mounts and tunnel-diggers.
- Age of Wonders 4: Races with the Mole-kin form are Mole Men and by default get the Underground Adaptation trait, meaning their starting city is underground and they can dig tunnels without needing to research.
- Animal Crossing: Mr. Resetti is a mole in a miner outfit who chews out the player every time they reset the game.
- Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard: The kingdom's mole population was the previous owners of the Mole Mines, though they abandoned it sometime prior to the game's events. One of the moles eventually provides Finn and Gwen with the means of crossing the ocean via an old boat the moles used to transport minerals from the mines.
- Dokapon Kingdom: Mitch Digger is a variation on this trope, being a mole with a jackhammer. He can use it to attempt to dig a hot spring near one of your towns, increasing its value if he succeeds.
- Donkey Kong Country Returns: Mole miners appear in the Mine World, and attack with pickaxes. Mole Miner Max is the boss of that world as well.
- Dragon Quest has Mischievous Moles and variations thereof as common enemies. They all attack with a wooden shovel they carry in their hand. At one point in Dragon Quest VIII, you have to travel through a system of their tunnels.
- EarthBound has friendly moles as well as evil ones.
- Fallout 76 has the mutated, enigmatic Mole Miners.
- Last Scenario: One dungeon, the Possessed Mine, contains these as random encounters.
- In McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, in the Circus Train level, these are present as enemies in the coal cars. They are dressed in mining helmets and goggles, and attack Ronald with their pickaxes.
- Monty Mole: The titular character works as a miner.
- Rolo to the Rescue: The mole's special ability is tunneling through ground with a spade. Miner's helmet? Check.
- Shovel Knight: An Ambiguously Human example (given the presence of Funny Animals in the setting), Mole Knight is a mole-themed knight that can fast-tunnel through the ground and has a personal goal to excavate the Lost City.
- Spyro the Dragon:
- Spyro: A Hero's Tail has Blink the Mole, the Professor's nephew, a hyperactive, "fresh-air-a-phobic" sidekick with great digging abilities. The Professor himself isn't a mole miner, though; just a scientist who happens to be an anthropomorphic mole.
- The Legend of Spyro: The Manweersmalls are a species of intelligent moles who detest being aboveground and much prefer living below the surface, and are talented miners and excavators.
- Suikoden II: He's supposed to be a groundhog, but Bonaparte, despite being some kind of horrible monster, is effectively a mole with a glandular problem.
- Super Mario World:
- Monty Moles are mole-like enemies who burrow underground before pooping up to attack Mario.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 featured Rocky Wrenches, which resemble reptilian moles that threw wrenches at either Mario or Luigi.
- In Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, Profitamoles can enter the mine to dig up items such as coins or even a Dragonache egg.
Western Animation
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Spelunk from "Subterranean Sonic'' is one of these, and he doesn't take kindly to outsiders stealing his treasure. While Sonic and Tails don't have any intention of doing so, Dr. Robotnik certainly does.
- In "Honey, I Shrunk the Hedgehog", Sonic and Tails work alongside an entire team of these in a coal mine. McMole is their leader.
- CatDog has a mole living under their house, who claims that everything that ends up underground belongs to him.
- Classic Disney Shorts: A gopher often pesters Pluto. In one cartoon he uses Pluto's buried bones as support beams for his tunnels. In another, he ends up trapped inside Minnie's house and tunnels under the shag carpeting.
- Danger Mouse: In "Planet of the Cats", when Danger Mouse and Penfold are going through the sewers, they meet up with a mole who wears a miner helmet and speaks with a Yorkshire accent.
- Mr. Bogus: Mole.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): One minor villains is a mutant mole named Dirtbag, who dresses like a miner and is armed with a pickaxe.
- Winnie the Pooh: Gopher is an anthropomorphic, well, gopher usually depicted as living in a system of mineshafts dug beneath the Hundred-Acre Wood and acting like a stereotypical, pickaxe-toting and helmet-wearing miner.
