Boo, Zino & the Snurks (shortened to The Snurks in some countries) is a 2004 Hanway Film from the writers of A Bug's Life and Hercules. The main characters of the film, the adventurous (but slightly egotistic) Zino and the intelligent (but cowardly) Boo, live in a fantasy world known as Gaya. One day, Zino enters a race to prove his excellence, with the prize being a kiss from the mayor's daughter, Alanta. Competing in the race with him are the Snurks, a trio of cheaters that will try anything to get the spotlight off of Zino and onto them, and Alanta herself, who's in disguise in order to prove to her father that she can take care of herself. After a race full of hijinx that Zino and Boo win, a mysterious vortex opens up in the sky, sucking up a powerful stone that keeps the world in tact. The Snurks, Zino, Boo, and Alanta all jump into the vortex after the stone, hoping to save the world and possibly get respect for it.
The catch? The portal leads them to the 'Real World'; Boo and Zino's world is just a popular animated television show, and a Mad Scientist has discovered how to connect fiction to reality to accomplish an evil plot. Only an inch high in this unfamiliar terrain, the Gayans must overcome various obstacles to get back their stone and return home, getting help from the creator of their show (an old man named Albert Drollinger, voiced by Patrick Stewart) along the way.
This film contains the following tropes:
- All Love Is Unrequited: In the beginning, Zino acts in a vaguely seductive manner towards Alanta (mostly as a self-gratifying confirmation of his own seductive power), Alanta hates him. Zeck is genuinely in love with Alanta, who is unaware. Some of Alanta's handmaidens are attracted to Zino, who is indifferent beyond the little stroke that it gives to his ego.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played with. Alanta isn't especially attracted to Zeck, the Token Good Teammate among the Snurks, but she outright dislikes heroic Zino's condescending, smug unrequited affection. Once she gets to know Zeck, she really warms up to him.
- Ambiguously Human: The characters from the in-universe TV show look like cartoonish humans, with decidedly non-human elongated ears.
- Antagonist Title: In that The Snurks, while not the villains of the movie, are the villains of Boo and Zino's world.
- Bald of Evil: The main villain is completely bald. Bramph too.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Zeck is the only non-ugly member of the Snurks, and the Token Good Teammate or the Minion with an F in Evil. Justified in-universe, since this is a Show Within a Film, it has every reason to be as troperiffic as it can get.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Snurks. Bramph is the Big, Zeck is the Thin, and their boss Galger is the Short.
- Brains and Brawn: Boo is the brains and Zino is the brawn.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Galger and his acolytes are aware and proud to be the villains of Gaya. Galger exploits it himself in the climax : when he seemingly betrays the group to side with Dr. N. Icely, everyone believes it because it's such an obvious Galger move ; including the Dr., who lets his guard down and falls in Galger's trap.
- Chekhov's Gun: Boo's slingshot from the beginning of the film comes in handy twice: once to escape an alligator in the sewers, and once to bring the Charmed Stone through a portal back to Gaya.
- Crush Filter: Zeck has one on Alanta, instantly turning her insults into a romantic Imagine Spot.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Dr. N. Icely invented a machine that can make fiction real, and not only that, it can also turn any television screen into an unlimited source of whatever it is currently displaying. But instead of using it to solve every scarcity issue at once, and give humanity access to whatever they could imagine and bother to turn into a movie or cartoon, which would likely make him the greatest genius who ever lived and earn him far more respect than he ever had as a show host, he prefers to use it for lava-through-TV-screen-based murderous revenge. His science show must have really been his one and only passion, if having it canceled altered such a mind's ability to reason so much.
- Depraved Kids' Show Host: The main villain, also known as Dr. N. Icely.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Invoked by Galger himself : to him, no self-respecting Snurk would win that race without cheating.
- Driven by Envy: N. Icely's series was cancelled in favor of Boo & Zino, so he plots to get revenge by taking the characters out of Gaya to destroy them followed by pouring lava into Gaya on TV.
- Dumb Muscle: Zino is clearly the muscle to Boo's brains, and one of the Snurks (Bramph) is massive, strong, and abysmally stupid.
- Extreme Omnivore: Bramph is "swallowed" by Dr. N. Icely's robot in the climax fight, but starts chewing on the internal circuitry until the mecha malfunctions.
- Face–Heel Turn: Subverted. Galger convincingly pretends he's betraying the group, offering the main villain the Dalamitt in exchange for power, but is just luring him into a trap.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Boo has invented a lot of remarkable gadgets (and others less remarkable), and was able to build a functioning projectile weapon from scrap parts found in a sewer within minutes.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol : Rather a Grappling Crossbow/Slingshot Thingy that uses a suction cup instead of an actual grappling hook, but the function is similar.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Zino defeats Dr. N. Icely by turning his own machine against him, trapping the villain in a documentary series about natural catastrophes.
- Humongous Mecha: Dr. N. Icely summons one from an apocalyptic movie in the climax.
- Idiot Hero: Zino isn't the dumbest character in the movie. That doesn't mean he's clever.
- Improbable Use of a Weapon: Boo whips up a projectile weapon for Zino to use against sewer rats. Pity that Zino is too dumb to bother learning how it works, and just uses it as a club.
- MacGuffin: The Dalamitt, a magical, protective stone of some sort that keeps natural catastrophies at bay, or something. It's not very clear.
- Magitek: The Dalamitt is of unknown origin, but it apparently protects the world of Gaya, and can power up advanced machines.
- Master Computer: Dr. N. Icely is assisted by a voice-controlled computer called E.N.I.A.C. that seems on par with Jarvis in terms of intelligence. Amusingly, the acronym
initially designates an old type of rudimentary computer, less powerful than a hand-held calculator. - Mayor Pain: Downplayed. The Mayor is benevolent, he's just quite short-sighted and usually helpless without Boo and Zino's intervention.
- Pinball Projectile: Boo builds what appears to be a spring-powered crossbow/gun that shoots pennies. It's strong enough to make the projectile ricochet many times in an unpredictable trajectory, and keep enough momentum to cut a rope.
- Refugee from TV Land: Boo, Zino, Alanta and the Snurks become trapped in the real world.
- Schizo Tech: Gaya features lots of Clock Punk gadgets, race cars made primarily out of wood, leather and cloth with some metal, and no apparent traces of electricity. See also Magitek above.
- Sewer Gator: At least one is encountered in the real world's sewers.
- Shoot the Rope: An involuntary example. Zino isn't aiming at anything, but a stray shot from a makeshift projectile weapon ricochets several times before cutting the rope (well, string) onto which Boo was hanging.
- Show Within a Show: The protagonists' world of origin.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Boo.
- Spell My Name With An S: It's Gaya, not Gaia !
- Status Quo Is God: Discussed and eventually defied. Albert remarks how leaving their script-driven, fictional world gave the characters actual free will and power to break free of their usually assigned roles. Boo himself, who pondered never coming back to Gaya where he'd just become an eternal, underappreciated sidekick again, notes in the end that their newfound heroism and group dynamics have stuck, and that their world is changing.
- Terrible Trio: The Snurks, where one is a typical cartoon villain, another is the dumb muscle, and the third is a Minion with an F in Evil.
- Villainous Crush: A non-negative example. Zeck has a huge crush on Alanta, but never acts in an unhealthy way towards her, instead being supportive and kind. She reciprocates in the end.
- Wacky Racing: The movie begins with a Wacky Race. Justified, since it's likely the episode of the week's plot.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Soon after being stranded in the human world, the group has an argument in order to decide who gets to be the leader. Zino and the Smurks' boss Galger both try to claim the position, Boo tries to appeal to a sense of unity, and Zeck proposes that Alanta be the leader. Amusingly, Galger is fine with that option where Zino isn't.
