A wannabe warrior destined to save the world, a newly appointed princess and the obligatory talking animals as comic relief.
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon, is a Peruvian-Dutch-German animated film released in 2021.
The plot of the movie revolves around a young tribal girl's quest to save her village from a greedy land developer seeking to illegally mine the gold in the region.
The film provides examples of:
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Bare midriffs seem to be standard among the Amazonian native women, whereas men are usually bare-chested. Ainbo wears a tight crop top and skirt that exposes her navel. Zumi, Lizeni and Chuni also wear similar outfits.
- Cannot Cross Running Water: The destructive energy the Yacuruna creates to seek out Ainbo and her animal companions is forced to turn back after they swim across a river. Subverted in that Ainbo correctly deduces it's not the water they fear, but the power inside this specific river.
- Caught in a Snare: In the opening, Ainbo gets her foot caught in her own snare trap! With extra insult, the knife Atok lent her is inches from her reach. Eventually, she makes a deal with Dillo and Vaca and demands them to cut her free (and to prove she's not hallucinating) and the two animal spirits oblige and undo the snare, and Ainbo lands flat on her head.
- Chekhov's Gun: The spectacles carried around by Dillo and used infrequently turn out to belong to Will and being specifically kept for the day they could be returned to him.
- Combining Mecha: When the Yacuruna is revealed to be disguising himself as DeWitt, he takes his true form and merges with the mining machines to create a robotic scorpion.
- Fog Feet: A variation. The Yacuruna's true form is a reptilian, snake-tailed humanoid with his lower body partially hidden by black smoke.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Lizeni mentally weaponises this against the Yakaruna by triggering the memories of his human host Will to come to the surface. Ainbo hesitates to shoot her enchanted arrow at the Yakuruna for the same reason, until she is told it won't harm the host.
- Jaw Drop: Vaca's reaction to seeing the full power of Lizeni.
- Like Brother and Sister: Ainbo and Zumi are like sisters, due to Zumi's mother raising Ainbo after her birth mother disappeared.
- Magical Barefooter: DeWitt, the sourcerous botanist, is barefoot despite otherwise wearing a western suit. Given that this form is actually glamour exerted by a jungle spirit, the trait might be a hint that he also belongs to the jungle, just like all the tribal characters are barefoot too.
- No Escape but Down: Used twice; once when Ainbo is fleeing from Atok and dives into the fissure that just opened beneath them, then again at the cliff edge above the river when she and her companions are fleeing from the Yakaruna's wrath.
- Oh, Crap!: The gold miners laugh at a single native woman ordering them to cease their advance and leave the jungle forever. Then she turns into an expanding ball of light and she's not so funny anymore.
- Take Care of the Kids: When Ainbo's parents leave the mortal realm, they ask that Atok adopt her as his daughter.
- Turtle Island: Motelo Mama the gigantic tortoise spirit Ainbo seeks wisdom from carries a whole forest on her shell.
