History WesternAnimation / TheWildThornberrys

-->'''Eliza''': ''(as Tally tries to untie her)'' Go Tally, go! That's it!\\
'''Darwin''': [[SarcasmMode Yes. That's it. Get the cheetah involved again.]] If we hadn't gone out looking for [Sloan and Bree] that night, we wouldn't be in this mess.\\
'''Eliza''': Don't you blame Tally.\\
'''Darwin''': Oh, I'm ''not.'' Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust [[EvilPoacher those awful people who]] ''[[CruellaToAnimals clearly don't like animals]]!''\\
'''Eliza''': I thought they were like me.\\
'''Darwin''': When are you going to see that no one's like you? What more do you need? The shaman gave you a gift. Use it!\\
'''Eliza''': Darwin, please!\\
'''Darwin''': You know what I think? You don't know ''what'' to do with your powers.\\
'''Eliza''': Darwin! For once in your life, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Just! Be!]] '''[[BigShutUp QUIET!]]'''\\
(Darwin recoils back with a hurt expression)

-->'''Eliza:''' Um, maybe you shouldn't do that...I mean since you're so tired, you might not be able to get back up.\\

* BalefulPolymorph: The shaman who gave Eliza her powers was turned into a boar by the highest shaman in his tribe for devouring his prized sheep.

** When Debbie learns that failing [[spoiler:as SecretKeeper for Eliza's powers]] will result in her [[BalefulPolymorph being turned into a baboon herself]], she angrily rejects the idea on the grounds that she doesn't want to have "a big purple butt".

* FreeRangeChildren: The Thornberry children are usually allowed to wander around unsupervised in whatever environment they're in at the time.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: The Thornberry family, minus Debbie (though she has her moments).

* SecretKeeper: [[spoiler: Debbie]] after the first theatrical film, under the threat of being [[BalefulPolymorph turned into a baboon]].

* TheBeastmaster: Subverted. Just because Eliza ''can'' talk to animals doesn't mean they're always going to listen. Animals frequently ignore her when they're hungry, frightened, or just not willing to cooperate.

* EvilPoacher: A common enemy for the family, particularly the recurring duo Kip and Beiderman. Sloan and Bree Blackburn from the Movie are ''far worse''.

* RapunzelHair: Debbie.

!!This show provides examples of:

* AdultFear: Almost every episode, Eliza is surrounded by potentially dangerous animals and Eliza's parents know nothing about her adventures. In the movie, however, their fear of losing their daughter increases when they discover everything Eliza had been doing after she risked her life to save a cheetah cub from poachers.

** If the episode is set at sea, you can count on a [[SuperPersistentPredator Super Persistent]] ThreateningShark to try to eat at least one of the main characters. In reality, sharks spend much energy simply maintaining their body temperature, and will only hunt fatty prey that's sure to give the shark a return on calories.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Subverted with El Gordita (who is not a vampire), but if the region that the family is in has lore, it's true. Namina Enkiyo? Debatable. A dolphin that can transform into a beautiful human woman and leaves the sea looking for a platonic partnership with a human? Yep.

** InUniverse, The Foundation that Nigel and Marianne work for and which produces their show sometimes tries to do things to boost ratings (despite the show being very popular already). They will sometimes even make unreasonable and even downright dangerous requests, such as asking Marianne and Nigel to film tiger sharks, ''without a sharkcage''!
** The episode "A Shaky Foundation" played this to the max. The Thornberrys are unexpectedly joined by Tom Ravenhurst, a Foundation production official who turns out to be the son of the Foundation's head. He spends the entire episode trying to make some changes to the show. While his idea of giving Nigel a catchphrase wasn't bad, his other ideas greatly interfere with making a quality episode. He also treats the 12-year old Eliza like she's 5 (which naturally ticks her off). To make matters worse, he is incredibly stupid and even proves TooDumbToLive when he ignores warnings from Nigel about driving the [=ComVee=] up a very narrow mountain road, causing the [=ComVee=] to go out of control down the mountain and into a river. One really has to wonder if his father gave him his current job because he had similar results in previous employments.

* {{Pun}}: For some reason, season 2 was the season of punny IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming. Some particularly noteworthy examples: Koality and Kuantity, Chimp Off the Old Block, and the cringe-inducing gem Cheetahs Never Prosper.

** In "Cheetahs Never Prosper", one of Eliza's more moderate actions -- trying to spray a little water so a cheetah mother and cub can have a drink during the dry season -- is forbidden by her parents on the grounds that it would be interfering with nature. Fair enough, except that Eliza's habit of assisting any wild animal she comes across (or simply playing with them because they exist) is very well known by her parents. If adopting a full grown male chimp from the Congo was interfering with nature, they never said anything about it.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Technically, Darwin is a chimpanzee.

''The Wild Thornberrys'' was a [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nicktoon]] that ran from 1998 to 2004, produced by Creator/KlaskyCsupo of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fame, (deep breath) created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman and Stephen Sustarsic, and developed by Mark Palmer, Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The show centers around Eliza Thornberry, an adventurous young girl [[SpeaksFluentAnimal who can talk to animals]], an especially handy power when your parents travel the world to make Nature Documentaries. Naturally, there's a catch--she can't tell anyone she has this power, or else she loses it, and presumably, the shaman who gave it to her to begin with would be hard-pressed to give it back again. The cast is filled out by the aforementioned parents Nigel and Marianne Thornberry, the Nature Documentary's presenter and camerawoman respectively and Eliza's older sister, the [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]] and [[CityMouse deeply-unenthusiastic- about-her-parents'-career]] Debbie. Also along for the ride was the deeply neurotic chimpanzee Darwin, and crazy wild jungle boy Donnie, Eliza's adopted younger brother.

* AdventurerOutfit: Nigel wears the safari version.

'''Darwin''': Oh, I'm 'not.'' Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust [[EvilPoacher those awful people who]] ''[[CruellaToAnimals clearly don't like animals]]!''\\

'''Darwin''': Oh, I'm 'not.'' Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust those awful people who ''clearly don't like animals!''\\

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Darwin gives one to Eliza in the movie, when her actions end causing all their problems in the film and putting their lives in danger. But since it wasn't the right time or place for it, Eliza reaches her own RageBreakingPoint and tells Darwin to shut up.

'''Eliza''': Don't you blame Tally!\\
'''Darwin''': Oh, I am ''not!'' Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust those awful people who ''clearly don't like animals!''\\

'''Darwin''': You know what I think? You don't know ''what'' to do with your powers!\\

-->'''Eliza''': ''(as Tally tries to untie her)'' Go Tally, go! That's it!
'''Darwin''': [[SarcasmMode Yes. That's it. Get the cheetah involved again.]] If we hadn't gone out looking for [Sloan and Bree] that night, we wouldn't be in this mess!\\

-->'''Darwin''': Tally didn't sneak out without permission. Tally didn't run away from boarding school. Tally didn't trust those awful people who clearly don't like animals!\\

'''Darwin''': You know what I think? You don't know what to do with your powers!\\
'''Eliza''': Darwin! For once in your life, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Just! Be!]] [[BigShutUp QUIET!]]\\

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: In the movie, after the solar eclipse, the moon is shown as full that very night. Solar eclipses can only happen with a ''new'' moon.

** While in South America Donnie and Debbie meet a girl Donnie's age being raised by jaguars.

* RealityEnsues: Just because Eliza ''can'' talk to animals doesn't mean they're always going to listen. Animals frequently ignore her when they're hungry, frightened, or just not willing to cooperate.

The series has three films to its name, the MadeForTVMovie ''The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie'' (2001), and two [[TheMovie theatrical films]] ''The Wild Thornberrys Movie'' (2002) which has an Academy Award nomination to its name (albeit for best song, not for best animated feature), and {{Crossover}} movie ''WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild''. This show has examples of some of the only non-villainous roles in Creator/TimCurry's career - Nigel Thornberry and his father.

** One episode has Donnie and Debbie finding a girl in the jungle who is being raised by jaguars.

* SpeciesLostAndFound: Two in the Playstation game ''The Wild Thornberrys Animal Adventure''. In Egypt, the family discovers and films a Barbary lion (thought to be regionally extinct) which befriends Eliza and offers to take her and Donnie to the Great Sphinx of Giza. And in Tasmania, Eliza goes off to find a thylacine [[spoiler: and succeeds in meeting a family of them after evading some Tasmanian devils which are enemies of the thylacines]].

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost every trailer for the movie showcased [[spoiler: Sloan and Bree's true natures]] and [[spoiler: Eliza losing her powers]], both of which happen more than halfway through the movie.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Nigel appears at first as a BumblingDad whose wife is the real brains behind the show, but it turns out he really is a lot like [[Series/TheCrocodileHunter Steve Erwin]] in being a talented zoologist and outdoorsman. In the movie he, along with his dad, even end up doing some guerrilla sabotage strikes against some poachers.